jay swarthout

I recently gave my students a totally extra credit assignment to design and to build a "fox-hole radio". It was more of a fun assignment. There was no punishment for not completing the extra credit. What happend was really interesting to me. I have a small class; but, two of my students made this a family project. They got their sons and daughters involved in the research and the building of the radio. Both people brought their radios in and the rest of the class participated in trying to make them work. It turned into a fun team building exercise;… >>>

I've found that using material that the student should have learned in their previous subject provides some great insight. First, it shows the relavency of what they have learned and how it applies directly to the new material. It also provides the "pre-test" recommendation by seeing how well they understood the pevious material or see if they have learned how to use the material. One recent example was the use of a simple resistor/capacitor network to make a delay timer. We needed a delay timer for an access delay however, we had no delay timers available for the class. We… >>>

Hi, all. I've discovered that being retrospective in both the classroom environment and the work environment are extremely beneficial. I must admit that some times it is difficult to realize problem areas that you have. This is the toughest area in my opinion. Being open minded enough to understand issues is a challenge. Primarily, because it is difficult to realize that the problem area is yours as a teacher and not that of the students (or boss). I have been assesing feedback from my students daily. I do have a small class; but, they are all eager. They also have… >>>

I have a student that is truly a pleasure to have in the class. He always participates and is eager to answer questions during class. He is not always right in his answers; however, he shows that he has a basic understanding. I usually try to reinforce their previous course work into my training in an effort to show how the course all work together towards a commone goal and how they all work together to grow knowledge. I have found through my daily labs that he hasn't retained any of his training from his previous class - in this… >>>

I find that each student has their own challenges. One difficultly that I have been having is while training the student that "acts up" for the sake of arguement, the other students are not aware that you are addressing the problem. Certainly, it is not my place to discuss any disaplinary, or specialized training, with the rest of the class. I'd be interested to know how others handle this situation. Although they do see the difference over time, it doesn't stop the rumor mill, or the scuttlebutt. How do you recommend letting the other students know that the behavior is… >>>