Hi James,
I agree with you as well. Real world experiences shared in the classroom help the students to "connect the dots" between what they are studying and their futures.
Gary
Hi Tammy,
Way to go in adapting your instructional style to meet the needs of your respective classes. Thank you for sharing this example of how to handle such situations when they come up in our classes.
Gary
I have many years of coaching experience, and just finished my first quarter of teaching at a career college. As a coach I liked to view dvd's on coaching techniques and skills. Can you recommend any good dvd's on teaching and lecturing?
Thanks,
Dave
Cooperative Learning and Small Group Discussion is a technique i like to implement. This technique will enhance my instructional style in several ways: by placing students in small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, will allow the use of different learning activities that will help the studentsi mprove on their understanding of a subject. Students can work through the assignment until all group members successfully understand the assignments and complete it. This technique can also develop cooperative efforts resulting in participation. Student may also gain from each other's views and efforts. Studnets may aslo recognize that the group members share a common point of view and may recognized their achievement. Braining Storming will allow students to use creative thinking and come up with new ideas and then list their advantages and disadvantages. This will encourage and assure full participation because all ideas are equally recorded.
read more about the subject.
I assess myself at the end of the class. I look at what worked and what didn't and put into place a plan for the next time that I will teach that class.
I like to ask students at the end of the quarter to give constructive criticism. What did they like or dislike about the class and suggest ways that might help them learn better next time.
I plan to use crucial conversations process that I have learned and using student feedback to better deliver my lessons
Hi Nicole,
Welcome to the profession of teaching. I know you are going to enjoy having the opportunity to impact the lives of your students while sharing your excitement about your field. To me this is as good as it gets in terms of being in the field as well as sharing the field.
Your professional development plan is a good one and you are going to be surprised at how quickly you develop expertise as a presenter. As you say practice is the key.
Gary
I have always been a believer, and have met with positive results, when I incorporate real world experience into my lectures.
I agree with the review of previous student comments, while also exploring the importance of my experience with professional practices within the discipline itself.
I absolutely agree, Donald. Just this past session, in fact, I had three sections of English Composition I. Two of the sections contained students who were relatively quiet; they only interjected during my lecture if they needed me to clarify a point or to answer a question. The third section, though, was VERY interactive...making jokes, talking to each other while I was lecturing, etc. One might think that it's near-impossible to have a "rowdy" online class, but it happened! I had to temper my instructional style a bit; I found that a less formal approach really worked with this group, and they seemed to appreciate my teaching style. Instructors must adapt to the students they're teaching (within reason, of course).
Again, a good suggestion, thank you. I think it is sometimes common for many of us to suffer from the "fear of not being liked." Despite my years teaching that still troubles me, loosing sleep if I am worried a student is mad at me or some such. Your idea will help!
Kerstin
As a first time teacher, I am establishing my instructional style. I feel that this course is a good start. I am very passionate about the subject being taught and have worked in the field for sometime. I hope my enthusiasm will motivate the students for learning. I plan on speaking to past instructors of this course to get their advice. It has been sometime since I have been in school, I know that some of the material I have studied may be out of date. I am expanding my knowledge of the subject by studying more recent material. I am not fully comfortable speaking in front of the class, but I know the only way to overcome this is to practice.
Hi Kerstin,
I like your assignments. They sound like fun and that the students really enjoy doing them.
As for developing more assertiveness in the classroom and with your students I would suggest list exactly where you feel you need to enhance your assertive abilities. This way as you read about or attend classes on assertiveness you will have specific areas that you want to work on. It will keep you targeted in your development.
Gary
I use power point a lot but would also like to write on a board for emphasis. Unfortunately, the way some of my classrooms are set up, you can only do either or. I need to do both and it has become a problem. One student suggested I have the school bring in an easel with a paper pad to write on. However, the light of the power point gets in the way. I'm surprised schools don't recognize we need room for the power point and more board space to use simultaneously.
There are a plethora of techniques that can be used to further develop, refine, and enhance my instructional style. First, I will look at the work that my students produce based upon my teachings. I think this is an obvious way of showcasing if I am connecting with the student and teaching appropriately to their learning style. In other words if they test poorly or are not applying information correctly then I have not taught the concept well enough for them to achieve acquisition of the material.
Another technique would be to review the feedback from the students to see where I would need to refine my instructional style. Other techniques would include joining professional organizations, reading higher education teaching material, and learning from other instructors methodologies that they have used that were successful.
I have actually found that a background I had in improvisational acting was a huge boon when I first began teaching. It allows me to "roll with the punches" when there is a technical glitch, a lesson plan change or an issue with a student. I have also personally found humor to be a very useful tool when lecturing. Making things entertaining, and throwing some humor into the mix keeps students more attentive I have found, and less likely to surf the web during lectures. I am also big on pushing interaction. I ask them questions, and encourage them to bring in their own samples to share and discuss.
An example of this is a class in which I teach environmental graphics. I have given my students a regular weekly assignment to find at least one example of signage that they find either funny, witty, well designed or to be a bad example. I then request they take a picture of it with their cell phones, and bring it in to share. We collect them and view them on the projector in class. We laugh at the funny ones and discussing what is good or bad with the samples based on what they've learned about good environmental graphics. The students have even gotten a little competitive about finding cool samples.
I would say however, if I have one issue I would develop and work on further it is to be more assertive. Often I feel students do not always take me as seriously as I would like. I have considered assertiveness training courses and seminars as a method for enhancing my skills in this area. However, I would certainly appreciate any other suggestions!
Reading as much as I can. Joining associations and receiving email updates from them offers me the opportunity to assess what is relevant to my classroom needs and what new and innovative component is currently available to enhance the students learning environment.
As an online instructor, I find that the university student services group is empowered with resources that can assist the instructor and student alike.
I find that as I read and learn, I am able to offer this additional knowledge to my students and hopefully that helps them as well.
Bob
At our campus, the students in their last semester must mentor a student in the first semester. This is very helpful and the semester one students really appreciate it. It also prepares the students in the last semester for their future mentoring opportunities. The semester one students can connect with the fourth semester students and get motivated that they too will one day be in that position and mentor another student entering the program.
Listening, following advices and using some instructional styles from other intructors have helped me in developing my own style of teaching.