What you say is true. But, more importantly, people who do excellent work are the ones that get the bonuses, the promotions, and opportunities to take on additional and more important assignments. The ones who do not do excellent work are the ones who stagenate in their current roles and are the ones who are layed off or fired. Even more basically, pride in your work is a key success factor.
- dressing appropriately
- displaying technical competency
- maintaining technical currency
- showing enthusiasm for the subject area
- being prepared
- knowing how the material applies to the job market
- listening to and responding to sudent needs
- adjusting presentation styles, activities, and measurements based on feedback
- ensuring assignments help students achieve the course objectives and that they provide a meaningful learning experience
- providing constructive feedback to students frequently and rapidly
- motivating students to do well in the course, in their degree program, and in life in general
- creating a positive learning environment
- treating students respectfully and ensuring students treat other students respectfully
- knowing your students and responding to their needs
Dress for success in more than one way. Not only does one need to dress the role, but one must also act as they are already playing the role. Impress upon the students how inportant it is to deal with customers and clients, and begin practicing now. This way when they enter the field, the skills to reflect positive impressions of their profession have already started to form.
Being well organized, clean and neat in appearance, and on time.
Inform them of how their performance and skill set learned at this career college reflects upon them as well as the career college as a whole.
I strongly believe that if a teacher models a positive attitude in the classroom, they can truly help their students succeed. No matter what type of day I have had, I always enter and exit the classroom with a smile. I also try to "keep my cool" during stressful or tough situations so students see how to handle adversity. No matter what career field a student wants to pursue, a positive attitude and good interpersonal skills will help them reach their goals.
"Actions speak louder than words" certainly applies when modeling professional behaviors.
Dress apropriately, always be on time, always be professional. You are a role model to your students so don't say or act any way you would not want them to.
Leading by example is a great way to model behaviors for success. What I do is behave like I would in a studio setting. I show up on time, turn in projects on time, and work well with a team based environment.
As an instructor I can model professional behaviors. I am a massage therapy instructor and there are many professional behaviors that are imperative to be a successful massage therapist, communication(verbal and non-verbal),respect of modesty/bounderies, and being on time.
It is very important to model appropriate communication with clients. Always treating a person with respect with every interaction is a must. My students can observe possitive communication skills as I interact with other students and staff on the campus. Respectful communication is not only reserved for the paying massage client.
A client must be able to trust that the massage therapist will observe and maintain the client's modesty. The therapist shows the client that the client can be at ease during a session by consistently draping appropriately and keeping conversations limited to massage therapy. Draping is a learned skill, but helping a client feel at ease is more of an attitude and behavior.
Timeliness, both arriving on time to work as well as staying on schedule will help a student succeed. I model this by beginning class on time, taking breaks and returning to class on time and respecting my students' time. If a therapist asks that clients are on time, however, keeps a client waiting for 20 minutes before beginning the scheduled session, the client may not feel his/her time is as valuable as the therapist. This can hinder the success of the therapist if it is a habitual.
Hi Thomas,
Thank you for raising the issue of time management for students. Many students have a very hard time in this area as you know. By offering them information about how to manage time you are doing them a real service in helping them to develop in a holistic way as the move toward their career goal.
Gary
Time management is the best introductory tool we can pass to our students. They need to apportion their time carefully, and they need to know how to face and overcome procrastination. We can model this by following our chat schedule, by grading on time, by helping them in chat with tips about how to do the assignments in parts, not leaving the bulk of the work until the day before or the day of the due date.
In my institution we want to prepare students for careers. It is important for me to dress in business attire, and arrive at the classroom early. That way I can prepare for class as well as interact in a less formal manner with students as they arrive. I also relate true life incidents in my profession along with the course content and how I reacted to those experiences in order to show students how the classroom relates to real life.
You must dress professional to be treated as a professional.Look the part!
Hi Jeris,
You make a good point about the need for students to understand how important networking is to their future and how they need to keep positive relationships with all those in whom they come in contact.
Gary
Hi Brad,
What a great way to be a model plus set the standard for your students. This way your students will know what a professional should be like in culinary arts.
Gary
Hi Lachlan,
I know that I did not feel comfortable as a "role model" when I first started teaching. It was especially unsettling when I realized how closely students do scrutinize and judge instructors.
However, as time has gone on, I have found myself more at ease with this aspect of being an instructor. Having a professional "persona," which is basically a better-dressed, perhaps more mindful of what I say version of myself has helped with this.
One of the main behaviors I strive to model is to treat all instructors/staff/students with respect. It is important to maintain pleasant relationships among collegues in a career field, so I try to demonstrate that with my own behavior.
Sometimes students say they "didn't get along with" a former instructor or member of the staff, and I try to emphasize the importance of keeping a pleasant relationship with all you interact with in the workplace. You never know when you will need a letter of rec. or a reference!
As a Chef Instructor the way that I can model behavior is behaving like a chef in the industry as in the real world. Being on time, calling when sick, personal sanitation and hygine and working professional.
Showing them that going over material a day before it will be practiced in the Lab is the same preparation they will need in the real world
Hi Lachlan,
Well said. This is so important for students. I agree that setting your own personal bar high in the ways you conduct yourself is good. Your dress and behavior gives the students something they can measure against. For many of them you are the first person they have spent anytime with from that career field.
Gary
