I'm finding MaxKnowledge to be very helpful so far! I've taken away several good ideas and a lot of motivation from my first learning session - thank you!
Having been a teacher for several decades, I believe there is no greater sin than to be boring in a classroom.
Regardless of your subject material, you have to find a way to make the information exciting, relevant and fun to learn.
Mix it up, keep it lively, move around the room, ask students questions by name, throw out questions not in the book and ask questions that are not easily answered. Compliment students in front of the class for good work. Make it a point to ask every student a question during every class.
Put a question on the board, or a riddle or puzzle and let them figure it out as a group.
If possible, never sit down and keep moving.
If Kathy has a question, ask Bill to answer. If Bill's answer isn't correct, ask Mary to tell you why. Keep everyone involved.
I just started a thread in these forums, but will re-post it here in case it gets lost in the shuffle later:
When I started teaching in a small school in Berlin, the other teachers and I would always get up from our chairs in the break room right before classes started and yell, "It's showtime!"
The idea was, our students were mostly adults who had just finished a long day at work, barely had time to eat dinner (if that), drove through traffic and were pretty tired, hungry and grumpy.
Our job was to make them glad they made the effort to show up. We had enthusiasm, smiles, quick fun activities right off the bat and then jumped right into the lessons. Our students suddenly caught a second wind and there would be laughter, smiles and eager questions.
To this day, I always hear a voice in the back of my head yell, "It's showtime!" whenever I bound into a classroom.
We sometimes take it for granted that students show up in our classrooms - I think it is very important that you make them WANT to show up and make every start of every class be dynamic.
Oh, and don't even think about sitting down at your desk for at least the first 15 minutes...walk around, go to the students, stand in the back of the room, keep moving, don't stop.
I sometimes teach an entire class and never once sit at my desk!
Trust me - try this approach and watch what happens
BTW, my student retention rate has always surpassed every expectation, no matter where I have taught.
Combination Method I will call my style.
There are times that lecture is a most,
But most of my students ( I ask them) are visual people. I try to intruduce some visuals.
Kitchen work is a hands on technique.
Small groups, working as closer as possible to them correcting as they progress in their tasks.
And now that I can understand better the retention of our students I will try to reduce my little lectures to no more than 15 minutes.
I agree with you that we must keep a hig standard.
Each quarter I try to add something new to each class I am teaching. This could include, but not limited to using new technology; locating new outside sources of learning such as guest speakers and or field trips. I also try and explain why someone has to learn what is being covered each day in class.
The use of new technology is often well received by students, especially the younger students. I've found that educational youtube.com clips, current event links, and podcasts are effective. Variety is essential in retaining interest and increasing retention.
The only problem with that scenario is when you have an expensive curriculum like at a culinary school. Sometines you have complaints that they are not spending "x" amount of dollars for us to teach themselves.
I have to agree. Your own personal pride in what you do drives one to better themselves in what ever the task. It can also reflect in how the students view an instructor. They would have more respect for the individual and the material they present.
I endeavor to stimulate as many senses as possible: Power Points as well as reading for the visual learner, lectures for the auditory learner, hands on for the kinesthetic learner. I utilize on-line forums for residential classes to discuss open-ended questions.
One technique that I learned from a colleague (who came from class un-prepared) has also worked extremely well – Each student takes a part of the assignment, learn it, and teach it to their peers. The students have a limited amount of time to do so, when a timer rings and the “student” becomes the “teacher.” This goes on until all students have interacted with each other . I have found that the quantity and quality of information retained is impressive.
I like to keep the communication open between myself and my students. I ask them about particular presentations and assignments (how clear and effective they were, how much they learned, etc.) I try to build a good enough rapport in class so that students are not afraid to give me feedback, and in turn I also communicate to them the reasoning behind my approach.
By utilizing different delivelry models in the classroom after first identifying the learning types/styles that students exhibit. While I'm not a fan of PowerPoint to deliver content, I could utilize it as a starting point for discussion or to demonstrate a point.
This is a very true axiom about any worthwhile endavor. If you are naturally good at something it is with a bit more pride and attention that you work at it. With teaching, as you become better and more experienced, it is something you take a lot of pride in and that forces the internal mechanism that really drives improvement.
Greg,
I have been teaching in the culinary field for the last thirteen years and with the popularity of the food channel and food competitions on tv, I find a lot of the questions I am asked during the delivery of my course are actually questions that have been raised while the student is watching the food channel, and then when my content touches on the questioned materials the students will ask the questions relevent to my lecture. I was not a fan of the food channel; but by watching it I can often times predict what questions will be asked and even more important why.
JRM
I believe that people retain information most easily when they are able to link new information to something that they already know. Finding a common experience upon which we can link new information is sometimes humorous, which leads to a more relaxed atmosphere, which in itself makes learning easier.
It is important to keep up with professional development. Consulting with colleagues and other professionals is so important as it prevents one from "re inventing the wheel." Also, being aware of the student's opinions is necessary, preferably through anonymous reviews. Being open to experimentation is key as well, if it doesn't feel natural the information may not get across.
I have been teaching in an online format for several years, and in that type of educational setting, I believe that modeling your behavior is especially important when it comes to meeting deadlines, being clear and substantive in my posting, and being responsive and fair with students. This, and course management are two areas in which I feel confident.
What I feel would be a beneficial area to work on would be in motivating students. I think that there is a difference between letting a student know what work he/she is missing, and motivating that same student to turn in the missing work (and to keep up to date for future assignments). After all of the grading and course participation is done, it is easy to let potential motivating interactions with students, who are both struggling and doing fine, to fall to the wayside. So this is a skill that I would like to work on. I would like to come up with ways to build motivators into my daily/weekly instruction.
Leslie
We can always learn from each other. Both good points as well as seeing bad points. Evaluate and select the best.
Stay focused on the students needs. These are always changing. From class to class, student to student, day to day ect.. Being able to perceive
how to get thru to each student on each given day
opens the door instructional success.
being a Chef for over 40 yrs i found out that i need to keep up with the new techniques because student keep on changing and all of the new technology available to them
Instructors need to be proficient in a wide variety of areas such as learning theory, curriculum development, and human resource management. To continue to get better at any and all of these, instructors need to have a plan for how they are going to learn new information and techniques that will make them better instructors.
