Mark Cahill

I have a student at the moment that is battling cancer. This gentleman is bright and enthusiastic. I find him to be a great example for other students that just can't stay focused. Of course I cannot share his situation with his fellow students. He is in treatment at the moment. He refuses to let it interupt his education. I work with him on a daily basis to make it easier for him to keep up with what he misses due to his treatment schedule.

I pride myself on being firm but fair. That is how a live my life. I have young children and manage people as well as a classroom. When you are constantly trying to accommodate people it creates more problems than you ever dreamed of. Establish an understanding early on and remain true to your commitment to the student and they will respect you more for it.

I find this job especially challenging when it comes to the varied Skill/Knowledge level of my students. At any given time I could be teaching to an audience which includes students with a Masters Degree sitting next to a student that has a GED. To find that pace or flow that keeps the advanced student interested without losing the struggling students can be a challenge indeed.

I really enjoy creating Power Point slide presentations for the students. I try to make them as informative, interesting and entertaining as possible. I will often add some tasteful humor which catches the students off-guard and is always very well received, and breaks up the monotony of lecture. When I have the students do their presentations for class, they always add a little humor in their P P presentations as well. Must be working!

I find on the rare occasion that I am not fully prepared for class, that it is so much harder and stressful to manage the session. Looking back, almost always, whatever kept me from being "on my game" was not close to being worth the extra work involved in "winging-it". Be on your game. The students deserve it! They are who we are here for!

I find that some students want to be your friend. Then later on I find those same students wanting special treatment when they show up late or don't hand in an assignment on time. I try to be firm, but fair with my students. I always try to maintain that barrier between student and teacher. It just makes things easier in the long run.

I had a student that was one of those "apple Givers". He was combative with other students and disrespectful of all. Eventually I caught him stealing. I privately confronted him, and explained the severity of his actions. I told him I was not going to pursue it, but if I caught him again all bets would be off. The very next day I caught him stealing again. It is now in the hands of the director.

I just taught a class that I found myself constantly having to repeat everything I lectured about. Upon further investigation, I found that half the class had a language barrier, and a few others had learning disabilities. Even though the students are instructed to bring these challenges to the instructors attention, they often don't. It took several classes to get to the bottom of this, and in an excelerated program that is valuable time lost.

When I address a new class, and go over the expectations of the students, I make it perfectly clear that with effort and discipline my class is designed to give the student "every opportunity to succeed". This includes making myself readily available to students outside of the scheduled class, extra credit assignments and other grade boosting alternatives.

I teach one class that is excelerated and covers a massive amount of material in 3 short weeks. Each chapter in this book has up to 50 definitions as well as a history of regions. I short answer type questions regarding the history portion of the information, followed by filling in the definition pulling from a bank of answers. The test is not as easy as it appears, but is quite effective in covering so much material in so little time.