Knowing your style helps you prepare better for your class.
Hope,
Self assessment is one of the best tools. I use a DVD recorder to do role playing with my students and let them watch themselves. I record myself teaching also for self assessment. The interesting thing about teaching is we can always see things we can do better.
Hi Herve:
Great insight. Time is always the enemy of learning. Thanks for sharing.
Regards, Barry
Hi Hope:
There are a lot of styles - actually blended mixtures of many. Being willing to adapt and improve is a terrific trait. Good luck!
Regards, Barry
Hi Kenji:
Externship based on hands on learning will sharpen the critical skills will need for their success in their chosen profession.
Regards, Barry
Hi James:
Good thoughts and deeper inner analysis. Thanks for sharing.
Regards, Barry
Hi Kenji:
Each time you can talk to your students, you personalize your relationship which makes teaching them a more staisfying experience.
Regards, Barry
Wow, I am a hybrid between a few styles. This opened my eyes to the different types of instructors we all are.
I am going to take this information to look at my strong points....and examine my weak points, too. Self examination is a task at hand before I start my next semester.
i think it is really important to know one's personnality so one can improve on area of weaknesses.
i think of myself as a socratic type instructor / learn by doing instructor. but i must recognize that sometimes this type of learning by discovery of by intelectualization has a caveat of lacking speed which can be a problem when we have a set curriculum to teach in a set amount of time. for that i use specific discovery tasks and/or probing questions.
Reduce the amount of paper work and create something more simple for the Externship class is a great help for the student been focus in their work
One of the greatest assets an instructor can have is strong meta-cognitive skills. Thinking about what you are thinking will help to be more passionate in presentation and reflect yourself in your lessons you teach. This passses on to our students and further engages them in thought and critical thinking. I try to be a combination of Socratic and "The Dead Poets Society" to further processing and engagement.
Hi Betsy:
Good self analysis and awareness of yourself.
It is a challenge to deal with less than eager students but it comes with the territory. Thank goodness we have the satisfaction gained from the talented, interested students as a reward to balance out more difficult job of giving out without the return gesture from the disinterested or "knuckleheads" we all have to deal with from time to time.
Regards, Barry
Hi Betsy:
Great! As we are introduced to new ideas and put them into practive we become a little better educators. Thanks for sharing!
Regards, Barry
For Externship is more about to contact the student when they come into the program and guide them along the program , preparing for the Externship
When you better understand your strengths as an instructional leader, you can utilize them in the classroom; be a more effective instructor and class manager. For example, I am passionate about my subject matter, I like people, and I truly enjoy finding ways to communicate using various teaching methods so that students (with different learning styles) will be able to understand and use the course information.
But more importantly, I am aware of some of my weaknesses. I feel impatient with students who do not take the course seriously, or who don't consistently do the work; I have had to work hard not to be the Drill Sargeant at times like this. Just the first module alone of this course alone was a great reminder to me that balance as an intructor is so important. It takes a entire bag of skills to effectively lead and manage your class - and knowing how and when to use these skills is the key.
I am always learning and improving!
It was interesting for me to read about the different types of instructors as outlined in this module. While I generally seem to fit somewhere between the Socratic and Dead Poets category, I see how I can slide towards the Drill Sergeant or Zen master depending on the mix of students and their maturity level. (My class age can range from 18 to 60)
I often speak to my peers and ask for their best practices. Improvement is always the best option, and I get great ideas from them.
To augment my textbook, I give my students handouts. The simple, yet very effective suggestion of using colored paper is a great idea I am going to look to assimilate in my classes!
Hi Russ:
Well hopefully instructors will connect with all of their students in one way or another. As a leader, teachers have the power to persude or influence how their students will perform.
Regards, Barry
Hi Jennifer:
Self perception really is an important trait to develop. It can contribute to outstanding student learning outcomes when channeled properly.
Regards, Barry
Finding out what type of leader you are can help you understand what type of students will relate to you best and conversly which ones you not be connecting with.
Generally speaking, becoming an instructor has taught me a lot about myself. You have to have a good understanding of how people perceive you in order to react appropriately to students.
I have also come to realize that at the end of the day, your personality is going to come out-- so you have to make your personality work well with the changing dynamics of the classroom and the students.
