Yes, the learners in the higher levels of speaking and writing have issues in the classroom as well. I know that we are discussing some of the ELL and English deficient learners, but a chasm also exists between the so-called gifted learners and others. One of the most important lessons that I have ever learned was the simple KISS method. "Keep It Simple, Stupid" is very important to writing and speaking in order to communicate effectively with all levels of learning. Some of my students who have larger vocabularies and higher verbal levels get bored and feel left out because they are being held back in a basic classroom. I have made accomodations for the ELL and learning challenged students. I read tests to them, assist them with tutoring, help them learn concepts through repetition. What do I do to the higher level learners? I mean, they are finished with the assignments early, have less need for the basics, etc. Do I give them more work simply because they understand? As a former "gifted" student, I used to resent this. I was bored, but why should I have more work when others were just being assigned work that I could finish simply? Also, why should I attend class if I could teach myself faster? I think that the high level learner should be considered as well as the more challenged learner. What are your suggestions?

Every class has diversity. Every student is different from other students. My major issue with group work (other than my personal abhorrence regarding it) is the student who does not contribute because s/he is learning impaired. Other students may not understand and be angry if they see this student contributing less. However, they may not be asking the right questions for the student to adequately, positively contribute. As I learn more about teaching, I have been able to sit down with groups who have a mismatch in communication abilities, but what about when the teacher is NOT present? What do you suggest to the other group members who believe that the person is slacking?

Repetition is an extremely effective tool that we have at our disposal. Repetition will help anchor concepts in student brains.

Tutoring provides a dedicted time frame where concepts can be clarifed.It can be an abundantly fruitful time.

My latest communication issue involves teaching in a computer lab. I have too many students in the classroom with to few computers, so I initially started out on a bad foot with my class. I explained that I am trying to get them what they need, although it is difficult. Now that the class size is decreased, I am having a problem with some of the students logging in to FaceBook and various webpages. I continually walk and lecture around the room, and when I see the students off task, I call their name and focus some attention on them. Sometimes, I will do a quick "stand behind them until they realize I am watching them ignore me" or "stare until they realize I am focusing on them and so is the rest of the class because I stopped talking." What other suggestions do you have regarding the management in a classroom where you cannot be over the shoulder of your students all the time? I don't want to smile too much or they think I'm a pushover. I don't want them to stay on the computers while I'm lecturing. Any suggestions?

Many software courses use guided lectures to walk students through the introduction to software. The problem is that when students become accustomed to one type of activity it loses effectiveness. In these cases you have to change things up. It is often difficult to incorporate group learning into these courses and still reinforce learning objectives but it can be done. The trick is to constantly adapt course delivery to the audience.

At my school I struggle with the short 10 week term. I feel as if there is so much content that needs to be covered that lecture often wins out over activities. I would love to be able to do more activities with my students since I agree that they are a great way to integrate what the students have learned in lecture. However, given my subject matter I don't feel confident that students will learn the material through activities alone. I have a hard time deciding what will be skipped in order to bring more activities into my class and that bums me out.

Have you ever teamed up with another instructor? My recent experience has been better than I expected. Although my co-instructor has a very different style than my own, we seem to bolster one another. Where I am weak, she seems quite talented. I have learned a lot about bringing story telling and humor into the class from her and I hope that she has benefitted from our association also.

I try to use as many real-world examples as possible to illustrate the topic being discussed. Each student has different experiences and using a variety of examples helps every student to find one to which they can relate

I have found that there is an art to delivering. Having confidence in what you say, having control of your classroom, and being honest are all part of being able to deliver effectively. Don't be too starchy but at the same time never take yourself out of your professional environment. I am not saying you can’t have fun in the classroom. I believe the students are watching and in many cases, there is one or two that are waiting for you to make that mistake or contradiction or just a little inconsistence so they can call you out.

The texts for several of the courses I teach provide test banks and I see them as both good and bad. I often find errors, not only in the answer keys, but in the grammar and spelling as well. Frequently I find typographical mistakes too. I usually rewrite some of the choices on the multiple choice test banks because there are too many "all of the above"s or "both A & B" type answers. On the other hand, the test banks save me time and also give me ideas for questions to ask the students during lecture. I have also adapted some of the multiple choice test bank questions into completion tests or short answer tests.

I've been taught that, as a teacher, I should switch activities about every 20 minutes. My subject (anatomy & physiology) requires learning new, and sometimes words, some complicated processes and a rather large amount of plain old memorization. I use powerpoints for lecture, but need some suggestions on some different activities. Also, if anyone has any ideas on how to limit the time loss that occurs with activity changes, I would appreciate that too.

I do not give standardize quizzes due to the fact that I find many of them are flawed. I had a student this week upset because he answered a question incorrectly on a quiz I wrote. He answered the question incorrectly because he had taken the pratical, standardize test on the online student guide and the test gave the wrong answer.

There appears to be an epidemic of students with little to none soft skills. I spend five to ten minutes in each class period going over the soft skills involved in each lesson. The hardest soft skill to get students to use is proper grammar when speaking or writing. How do you break the habit of slang and colloquialism?

Does the Socratic method work better for all levels of course work? It is difficult to use the Socratic method in an intro level science class when the students have no knowledge foundation.

I teach a science course that requires a student to memorize. I have found that by cutting up my daily lesson plan into various games, students from all learning styles do better on quizzes.

Monitoring students is a critical part of basic instruction. You must be making constant "spot checks" to make sure everyone is comprehending the information as you go along. Also a very critical point,is being able to make sure your faster learners are not becoming bored.

There are generally two types of learning groups that instructors use. These are known as informal and formal groups: This is a key point that I will employ,hopefully with very successful results for the benefit of my students

Before going into the topic for the day I like to start of with something interesting that happened in my career that pertains to the topic. This gets the students interested and keeps them wondering how the situation was resolved. When I complete the story I like to move back to the topic on the white board and elaborate on how understanding this material that we are discussing today is relivant and extremely important to understand.

I use my whole class room space all four walls have training aids hanging for display an examples.For direction on what to expect out in lab where myself an students are to perform the physical task as a class.