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Ask a question from your peers to help you in your professional work. Seek different points of view on a topic that interests you. Start a thought-provoking conversation about a hot, current topic. Encourage your peers to join you in the discussion, and feel free to facilitate the discussion. As a community of educators, all members of the Career Ed Lounge are empowered to act as a discussion facilitator to help us all learn from each other.

New Instructors

There should be a good training period for new Instructors for at least two weeks. This will have a great impack on their success as a new employee.

Motivating your students

I like using real life examples when I educate my class. By creating interesting examples of current personalities or celebreties, students may find the topic more fun and interesting. Another way is to have the students practice using their own information or ideas. This includes them in the process of learning

Active Learning as a group

I learned that 75% of the population are visual learners during an instructor seminar. I'm in the dental field and teach lecture and lab. What has worked great for my classes is to bring a visual aide from lab and present it during lecture. This aide correlates with the daily objectives. It could be a series of dental x-rays-some correct and some with errors. I break the class into groups and have them chose which x-rays are correct and which are not; each group has a different series. when done each group presents their analysis. This approach is low risk because they are actively pursuing their analysis together and presenting as a group. At the end you will have one big group discussion for sure! :-D This works best if group members are switched each time you use this method. Ines

Audio support

I teach at an audio engineering college. using audio recordings, or to have a student with learning disabilities record lectures seems only natural.

Use your subject/equipment as the words…

when teaching a technical subject there are many different pieces of equipment. I feel that this helps the learner associate the terminology with the practice/procedure. ultimately making the learning of the language easier.

Diving your class into groups

it's a tightrope when first dividing your class into groups. it can have bad effects on certain members if they feel they have been put into a certain group for a reason. Maybe an idea would be taking a survey of the class, without the class knowing what this survey would mean ask them who their favorite composer is. Based on the outcome of the survey, you can use that to make your groups.

graceful and confident movements…

it's easier when you're already an animated character, but if you aren't that type of person, watch people that are. watch how Steve Jobs presents a keynote speech at the release of a new ipad… maybe even watch your favorite comedian. I feel pretty confident stood in-front of people, I like to think that I gesture well, have good vocal authority. But if you think you are lacking in these areas… take to the bathroom mirror. If it's good enough for Robert De-Niro…

Classroom sets the stage for learning

The preparation and time allocated for the classroom arrangement as this module suggest is so important to student learning. The dynamics are often driven by the classroom scheduled or given to you at the start of the year. Adjustments and creativity to use the space provided always come into play.

Planning lecture based on syllabus

I use the syllabus objective section to prepare topics for lecture. The syllabus meets the criteria of what they should learn and thats what I give them, exactly what they should learn. I don't short cut anything.

Redeveloping Instructor Style

I review my Instructor style daily to: (1) Make sure I gave students a clear understand of daily topic. (2) My lecture always begin with an overview, then notes on the white board. I explain word for word the notes. (3) I close out the lecture with interactive questions and a personal experience. (4) The first 15mins of class the next day I test the students on what we covered in class the day before. I rarely do multiple choice anything. There are no clues on the test because I am looking to see what the student retained. (5) I move forward with class and reiterate previous lectures as it pertain to topic at hand.

Everyone please welcome.....

I am not new to training other people how to do things, but I am new to the whole "Instructor" way of delivery. I have been through a small portion of the training I am required to take, and I already can look back and wonder," How ever did I actually impart knowledge without knowing any of this formalized training"? Maybe in my old environment, show and tell was enough to get by, a university style school is a whole new ball game for sure.I am excited to go further.

Burned out

This mandatory education is nice, but I'm feeling a lack of motivation myself. A heavy teaching load and scant time make it difficult to be the instructor mentioned in the video. Teaching four classes in a row with small breaks (10 minutes) between mean that if I want to get to the next class early I must ignore the needs/questions of my previous class. In addition, I am asigned two hours prep for each four hour class I teach. Of the five classes I am teaching this quarter, three are new to me. I feel overwhelmed. None of this is my students fault and I want to give them the best college experience I can. How do I get excited about what I'm teaching when I'm not?

Difficult students

I often find a little extra time before or after class will help, Become an ally with empathy

The Importance of Active Learning

One of the biggest benefits I see in active learning is the opportunity to enhance different learning styles. Studies have shown that people learn more by doing by about 85% if I remember my statistics correctly. Also, this gives the students a way to better understand and soldify their understanding of hte material. Also, on a more practical level, does anyone really want to listen to a 4 hour lecture?

Choosing the right activities

Creating objectives in class involves a lot of preparation. You have to make sure that you always have the ABCDs of learning in mind. The Audience: are they visual learners? Auditory learners? or Kinesthetic learners? You have to prepare for all these types of learners because in a class you will have all theses types of learners. The Behavior: students should be able to demonstrate if they learned a new knowledge, a new skill or apply the relevance of the new project. The Condition: students should be able to realize the conditions that is in the real-world work environment. The Degree: learning objectives should not be measured by the degree. I agree that if the learning objectives are wrong, so is the learning.

Pygmalion Effect

As an instructor, the Pygmalion effect will be great if you use it in a positive way. Telling the class today's lecture will be interesting, the exercises will be fun, achieving a higher wpm in typing gives them better opportunities when they start looking for a job, etc. When I group students, I make sure that there is always a student who would be positive enough to help the other students in the group. Giving positive comments encourages students to have a positive outlook regarding that module. They arrive to class excited with what that day will bring. What new ideas they will learn, what new skills they can apply that will get them ready to work. All these helps motivate for the students to come to class.

Color and Music in the Classroom

I love color and I love music. I try to wear a hint of red on Mondays because I believe I will start my week on a cheerful tone. I wear colorful scrubs to wake up my students and set a happy mood. Students notice the different colors that I wear. They say it brightens their days. I use different colors to correct homeworks and tests so they do not feel bad if they make a mistake. I would seldom use red pen to mark their work. I would even put a smiley face if they get a 100%. Anything just to brighten their day. I love music. I would like to have music in the classroom because I know students will do better if there is a background music that will reduce stress on a very busy day.

Expert does not always mean "knows everything"

A teacher who believes that she has to know all about the subject matter would have difficulty in class. There are a lot of things to learn from the students. The new technologies make it a lot easier for students to research on the subject matter. I enjoy the discussions and sharing if students want to add new information during discussions. I always tell my students that they are lucky to have all this new technologies because it helps expand their knowledge at the convenience of their home or classrooms. Also, students do not get bored because they navigate thru different topics and also prepare them to be resourceful people when they are out there in the real world. I encourage students to open the Medicare, Medicaid, and other websites so they can get the latest updates. Students can be creative. It makes the class more fun and interactive with the new ideas students bring to the class.

best teaching technique

from my experience in teaching in medical field , best method is to use more than one methods of teaching during your module and try to keep students exceited all the time to get a good result .

Teaching a Technology Course (Office 2010)

I struggle with "how" best to present the material...I show the students via an LCD projector and they follow along and then assign homework...any suggestions on how to better facilitate the learning?