I have worked with other teachers that would never admit they made a mistake. It was very frustrating. In my own experience I was doing a problem at the end of the period and it did not work so I said I will check on it and give you the correct procedure next period. I really got zapped on my evaluation for just that one time. I am not sure about how willing I am to admit a doubt.

I have an online student who dominates the chat box and announces regularly that she is an overachiever. She accesses her skills way beyond where her ability is. She seems to ignore her weaknesses and though I don't want to dampen her spirit, I do want her to see she is creating too many errors and has not progressed as much as she thinks she has. What can I do to keep her motivated but still have her grounded in reality?

The point about giving students recognition every class meeting is ver important. Students who miss class do not get that and often return to class and feel isolated and out of touch with the class. They have missed instruction and need to get back in the flow. I believe that in my classes this is the reason I lose students.

Enthusiasm is contagious. We all have things we love about our profession and remembering to share our positive experiences about our career with our students excites them about the profession and makes them feel they have made the right decision in being there.

Does anyone have some reading material that I could suggest be read by my older adult students to help combat their anxiety and fear of returning to school after being away from the learning environment for such a long time?

Having fun and keeping the students engaged will uaually keep them motivated

the students refocus each time they change courses. the instructor will also need to refocus to refrain from becoming stagnet in their teaching

I tell my students to think of their grade as their pay check The more your here the more you can make

We work with a wide age range of students we have to be able to adapt to all ages and learner styles

We find that motivating online students is a bit more challenging than in face-to-face teaching. Motivation can be achieved through clear course objectives, assessment criteria, and demonstrating how assigned activities can be applied to a student's own experiences. Weblogs, interactive exercises, and discussion forums amongst the students creates open communication and an opportunity to be heard. Providing quick responses, constructive feedback, and ensuring responses are personalized will make the student feel the instructor has listened to them, thereby making the online course experience less impersonal.

I have found that setting up a friendly yet competitive environment amongst students in my classes has worked to create a great atmosphere where students come self motivated and ready to do better than the next. The easiest way I have achieved this is by telling students to take a look around and that the people sitting next to them will be their greatest competition!

I have found that the easiest way to help a student get motivated is to constantly remind them about how their education and what they do in class will translate into a better career and more opportunities in the real world and provide them with examples from my personal experience and others success stories

I always tell students to write on a sheet of paper their life goals at the moment. Starting from for the class... to the degree... to just having graduated... to being steady... and all the way to the point at which they feel they have completed everything they ever wanted to achieve...

I definitely found that being open to students suggestions has helped make me a better instructor. It has allowed me to understand the subject matter from the point of view of the student.

I find that having built relationships with students from my classes. Even when they are not doing well in another instuctors class they tend to come to me for advice and I have been able to talk them out of quitting or dropping the class.

I show students that I am paying attention by giving extra credit to students who have been excellent in front of the class and this has encouraged other students to work harder. On the flip side... there have been times when a student has approached me and said it was unfair because they were going to personal issues. But I managed to build a relationship with those students who opened up.

I always try to point out the little things that students do well because most of the time they don't take them into consideration. Eventhough the student may be in college, they still enjoy getting stickers, or a smiley face on a test/quiz to know that they are doing well. Again something as small as that can really make the student feel better about themselves.

Hello, What do you do in a situation when a student has missed 25% of the class and has completed only one assignment... now it is close to finals day (two class periods away) and this student is trying to work his/her tail off to complete the assignments, understand the material and pass the course. I feel that if I allow this student to just squeak by in the end, it is not teaching them "real" lessons of life. What do you think?

I have had times when a student has been sleeping in mu class. I always talk to the student and remind them of their choice to attend this school and their individual responsibilities before advising them of the negative consequences. What do you do when a student has a horrible work schedule but has good benefits, a family to support with those benefits but stills sleeps in class? I think he knows that I care but he also knows that I support the school standards of not sleeping in class. He may fail the class because of this behavior. Ideas?

Often students that English is their second language will state that they do not want to participate in class because “…my English is not good”, which frequently is not true. I tell the students that they are lucky to be able to speak more than one language and encourage them to participate. I have foreign born students sharing information about their native country, including government structure and customs. This has always worked well for me. Any other ideas that have been sucessful?