My classes are five hours long, five days a week.
I usualy have extra material in case I have a class that does not have any trouble understanding the material.
First i will ask alot more questions than normal, if we still have extra time, I will go deeper into the material than the course description requires.
I have noticed the majority of my American students regardless the race they accoplish all their tasks by due dates; but honestly the majority of my hispanic students do not use effective time managment techniques. What other tools should I usewith them without discouraging them?
I teach clinical nursing in hospitals. Time management is important topic for students to understand. By assigning them care of required number of clients and at the begning of 12 hour shift-asking students to verbalize or write down the schedule for activity some what helps them to grasp the concept of time management. Would like to know any newer or better ways of teaching time management.
I teach a lab class that has short lecture, demonstration, then hands-on work. I can allow students more or less time to work on their projects, depending on how the class is going. If I have an especially fast class, I have "bonus" demonstrations/discussions I can use to fill time. If the class is slow, I give them a time limit after the demonstration for them to practice, and I try to discourage non-class-related chatter.
Ricardo,
I agree with your methods for class structure. Allowing your student to do a hands on, practical activity after your demonstration can provide an instant "transfer of training" assesment for the instructor. If the students are not able to complete the activity, then the instructor will know that they may have to review the lesson.
Tremayne Simpson
Ricardo,
I agree with your methods for class structure. Allowing your student to do a hands on, practical activity after your demonstration can provide an instant "transfer of training" assesment for the instructor. If the students are not able to complete the activity, then the instructor will know that they may have to review the lesson.
Tremayne Simpson
Great tool. Time management is the key to success in lesson planning.
Thanks
I know how important it is to have a good and flexible lesson plan.Since I teach a hands on practical subject, I like to vary my approach by giving condensed demonstrations,that do not last too long. Once I have shown the students one part of the process, I allow them to go and practise what I have shown. This way the entire demonstration is broken up so that the students do not lose focus or interest.
It works well. If the students do well and really understand the whole conceptand we have time, I always have extra material to show the students and that they can practise, which is not necessarily on the course but the students really appreciate as a bonus and a great way to fill the extra time.
If on the other hand the students are slower and falling behind I always make sure that they are shown all relevant material and given the tools so they can practise at home.
The main element to have is flexibility when planning any class.
LE,
I agree with your format for time management. The key is to have "flexability" in regards to conducting the class session. "Overpreparing" is the best route to go when planning the lesson and any "excess" material can be used during another class session or provided to the students for additional, "outside of class" review.
Tremayne Simpson
I build my lesson plan to include additional information. I monitor the time during my presentations and if I am on time I keep going; if behind schedule then I omit some of the extra slides or side discussions by skipping slides. This is similar to what was recommended in the module except that I plan to run long and just skip slides as I am going to stay on pace. This allows me to fill the time.
If I am running really long on something, I create a short homework assignment for students on anything that gets light treatment to ensure we get enough emphasis on critical points.
Jeremy,
What types of "back pocket" material do you have available for your students?
Tremayne Simpson
I follow the content inclusion that the students need to be successful and still allow time for discussion and questions.
Having some thing ready to go "in your back pocket" is such a daily thing for me since I have no control over the content of what I teach. I have to do every thing the same all the time. If I have a class that responds well and gets the information for the day in a short time period, we are done way to earlier than the companies time line.
I have four hour classes with a small number of students, often only one or two. It remains hard to fill the time with the content given to me and 4 hours is a long time for a student to remain focused on a lecture or information being given. I try to always plan a formal lesson and have some sort of on going project or activity (primarily completed at home) that they can work on if we finish early and get my feedback on how the "project" is coming.
Time management is important. I have lecture days that happen for 3 hours with 2 breaks given and production days are 4 hours long. It is important during lecture days to understand how long each tasks take before the day begin and have a game plan before class starts. Production days can be given curveballs depending on the production smoothness for each student. It is important to have time management all the way to the end including clean up as the next classes need to come in. Thanks
Chanel,
What is your approach to working with students that feel that they will not be able to meet the deadlines, based on the estimates in the project guidelines?
Tremayne Simpson
The great thing about a lesson plan is if it is written well it breaks down how long each project should take. It is important that you share the deadlines with your students so they are aware of what is expected. I use my whiteboard as a tool to disclose all goals and timelines. I remind students where they should be when milestones hit.
Sameena,
This is great. Collaborative activities really give an instructor an opportunity to see "practice-in-action", also it is great to hear the discussions within the student groups.
Tremayne Simpson
That is exactly I am doing for last couple of weeks and I feel it to be very productive.
ELIZABETH,
I agree. The "flex time" should be considered whenever discussions are scheduled. It is impossible to predict how much the students will participate or if additional information will be requested during the discussion. Whenever participation is limited, I always add in a few questions to induce more student comments.
Tremayne Simpson
