Eric Leach

I've taught dozens of courses to thousands of students at three different law schools. I still make mistakes in every single class. There was a good piece of advice in this module: use humor. I try to show my students that mistakes aren't the end of the world, and if you can laugh at yourself for a silly mistake, it allows you to move forward and make progress.

Because I foster an interactive learning environment, sometimes the class will break down with many people talking at once. There is a fine line between active, enthusiastic exchange of opinions and chaos. When I observe that communication has broken down into chaos, I call for complete silence and try to direct the discussion in a more orderly fashion.

This is another ill-conceived suggestion. Don't we want our students to participate, and indeed, have all of their questions answered? For every student who asks a question, there are several more that want to know the answer but are afraid to speak up.

One of the videos advocated shaming employees (in our case, students) to manipulate their behavior. This suggestion is reprehensible. I don't care if it brings about results; shaming another human being is never a good thing, period. The persons who should be ashamed are the lecturer in the video and the people at this institution who allowed this nonsense to be included in the curriculum.

Interetsting discussion on various types of learning methods. Sorry to again disagree with the content/quiz answers, but the four learning methods are traditionally described under the acronym VARK (Visual, Auditory, Reading, Knietic). Also, one of the quiz anwers was impossible to get correct. The material specifically states that the attention span of adults is 10-12 minutes, but that answer option was not given.

Fail to prepare, and prepare to fail. I create detailed outlines of my speaking points for every class, including when to access additional materials, such as PowerPoints. Mind you, these are just outlines. If you read verbosely from a sheet of paper, you will lose the attention of the class. My outlines are essentially guidleines with a few words to remind me where I am in my lecture.

I also find this to be a very important point. I make a deal with my students early on: show up on time, and I'll let you out on time. It has proven to be very effective, but of course loses its teeth if I'm not starting on time.

I find this distinction to be very important. While I am very friendly with my students, and discuss all manner of subjects (both school-related and non-school-related) with them outside of class, I always politely decline any social inviations (the exception being social events that are auctioned off for charity or school organizations). I also maintain certain formalities; e.g., only using "Mr. X" or "Ms. X" to address my students, and requiring they address me as "Professor Leach."