Helping students understand career goals need to be based upon informed decisions, realistic aspirations, and meaningful outcomes.In addition, it helps when the students to work through these three career goal components as they progress through the course.

The best motivation I use in class is talking about the students future job opportunities in the field. This can be from talking about current job openings, different types of jobs, what's expected, tools used on certain jobs. When I get them all focused in one direction. The material is no longer a conveyed with lecture, but turned into a discussion.

Most of my material I know thoroughly and on occasions have accidentally quoted the book verbatim. It's only happenstance and when you catch yourself doing it takes the wind from your sails. Before I give the same lecture I try to tweak something about the subject to keep the material seem new and exciting. In my opinion the energy of the class comes from the educator.

Setting the tone when students first approach the classroom is very important to a successful class. If they feel respected, understand the course requirements, and understand the pace of the class everything typically goes smoothly. On the other hand if you have a bad day on the first day of class, then the outcome is fairly poor. For an example if a policy has recently changed from the student's last class it causes an opportunity for animosity. Some students revert back to a high school complaining mentality and it's nearly impossible redirect those students.

In my opinion there is a time and place for everything. Every student has a separate goal of what they want to get from their education. There should always remain a constant that the material is understood. My problem was trying to stretch myself out to cuddle age and cultural diversity. I may have a class with a student going to school in order to stay out of jail and an retired veteran using his GI benefits to pay his rent. Unfortunately both these students aren't looking to improve their career and waste class time. In my opinion there's a limit that if the student ventures to far out you might as well let them fall off the edge, or they'll just end up taking the rest of the class down with them.

I have a few older adult students who like to help out the younger students.

It seems to me that an important part of student retention is to help students become successful by providing examples of what they are learning based on the real world experience of myself and others in the related industry or field. Leaving things open for students perspectives as well. Personal attention and understanding that, as a teacher, I am there to encourage and help give the student the tools to reach their goals.

I think students need time to prepare themselves for school by taking a break. I find students with life experience have a better understanding of ht it takes to succeed in a classroom. "They no what they don't want!"

I think students have a tendency to do their work and participate. When it comes to meeting deadlines if all teachers don't hold students to their deadlines other teachers may bare the brunt of unprepared students. In the film and television industry not meeting deadlines gets you fired and that can be interpreted into a classroom setting. I think a lack of retention of knowledge can be related to not meeting deadlines. Thoughts?

I feel teaching is completely objective rather than subjective to ones experience. I try to use this in my teaching methods. Is this an accurate assumption?

Students in our program are here because they want to be a successful dental hygienist. It is so motivating for me to see them develop their skills as they go through the program. Their intrinsic desire grows along with their confidence levels. Receiving positive feedback from instructors who are passionate about teaching continues to increase their motivation.

Colleague Instructors, How do you maintain the interest of the student who has knowledge of a subset and 'checks out' until a point in the course that will present new information to him/her?

I welcome feedback from colleague Instructor on their approach to students who monitor / use their personal devices (smartphones, tablets, laptops) during class. Do you allow use? If so, at which point do you deem use excessive? At that point, what keywords or feedback is given to the offending student? Thanks.

How do we incorporate challenge and motivation?

It is help to connect with student to find their interest and apply a learning objective to their interest

Sometimes it can be hard to movitate a student who just doesn't care, but I always do my best to try anything that might spark an interest in why they enrolled in the first place. I had a student that just felt like quitting. I had a talk with the student and found out why. Once i made some minor adjustments, my student started getting better grades. Felt great!

I believe that really empowering your students help build their confidence in what they are trying to get out of school. Listing the new skills that they can provide to any employer is what motivates them the do better.

I really enjoying listening to all the different stories each of my students have experienced and then I try to relate what they told me to what we are learning for that day. I also try to relate information to everyday activities so they understand easier

How to do you deal with two students with a big age difference that are not getting along. Tried having them work together and didn't work.

I really like getting student suggestions of the sequence of asssignments/activities but I am not sure how to handle it when thing get out of hand when studens disagree on the sequence. There always seems to be one student that thinks their way is the is the best way.