Heather Marti

I do not have the freedom of choice in the matter of extra credit as it has been outlined that we do not offer the option of extra credit per our school policy.

I find that my students are more inclined to remain engaged if i break up the lessons in blocks of 1 hour. Each hour we do something different such as a lecture, then we might play a trivia game or break up into groups and give each group a timed challenge to see what they have learned. I also really helps to keep the students motivated.

When lecturing, I find that if I incorporate real life examples as well as props for example, if I am lecturing on the "Special Senses", I will bring in something sweet, salty, sour, etc and blindfold the students and actually have them use their senses so that they may experience it 1st hand which I find helps to not only engage the new learner but to have them retain the information as well.

I have certain expectations of my students, such as arriving on time, remaining until the end of the class period, being organized, preparred and ready to learn something new every day. How can I expect this of them if I do not set the standard which is why I make it a rule within our department to always be 3-5 days ahead of schedule, organized and preparred for the future start of a class.

I am a firm believer that by spending as much time as necessary on the first day of the course and having a "course introduction" with the class is allowing everyone to get off to a great start and be on the same page. It eliminates excuses in the future because we go over the syllabus line by line as well as classroom rules, requirement, attendance policies, etc; We also discuss and answer any questions that are asked so that all students are well aware of what the course expectations are.

I find that when I have a student who is experiencing "many" obstacles which are not allowing them to be in class, on time and preparred to learn, simply asking them to stay after class and having a 1 on 1 discussion with them helps but you must be preparred to have given alot of prior thought to the particular issues at hand and be able to offer solutions to each of the reasons behind what is causing the issues leaving no room for excuses on the students part.

I find that by knowing all of the students by name on the first day of the class helps make students aware that you took the time to prepare as well as being able to call on them by name creating student engagement when a particularly quiet student may have trouble coming out of their shell.

It is so important to never cross that fine white line with your students between instructor and friend because once you have broken that boundary, you have lost the upper hand and it is hard to regain control of the situation.