I would benefit from observing, live or on tape, accomplished peers in the classroom. I might not have a person's flair, but maybe I would see some techniques that I could use.
Read professional journals, attending conferences, taking on-line training courses
Hi Sean,
I agree with you about the amount of work an online course is. I also am like you I really like the "live interaction" with my students and miss it when I teach an online course.
Gary
Hi Sean,
Congratulations on your graduate studies while working on your PhD. I always enjoy hearing about professional educators that are expanding their knowledge and expertise in order to better communicate with and support their students.
Gary
Hi Lorri,
Good plan for professional development. This is what instructional improvement is all about, being a life long learners.
Gary
I have been attending several educator seminars on competency assessment, developing inservices that are meaningful to the nurses that I educate (and my students), and plan on attending a national conference on education next Spring. I also discuss challenges with other instructors and professors with other colleges and universities to exchange ideas or develop and nurture new ideas which, in turn, evolve into a classroom activity or inservice activity on the units at the medical center.
Liz,
I agree with you. Talking with new and experienced faculty is a great way to learn and grow. I also like to obtain feedback from my students in terms of what they liked or didn't about my instruction and facilitation. I think it is also important to keep an open mind.
I feel it is extremely important to expand one's instructional abilities, especially through researching current theories and practices in your field. Today this is easy for me because I am pursuing my PhD which affords me numerous opportunities to stay current in the subject matter that I teach. However, even when I wasn't in school I found it was extremely important to attend conferences, seminars, and training to learn new infromation I could bring to the classroom.
Expanding one's instructional abilities includes continually exploring one's teaching field, staying current in recent pedagogical methods, attending conferences in one subject matter field, listening to one's students so that instructional methods are adapted to one's student boday, and dialoging with colleagues about best practices.
I taught an online course for the first time Summer Qtr 2009. I didn't have all of the typical administrative duties and on-ground teaching load that I normally do, and I was extremely relieved because it was one of the most challenging teaching endeavors I have experienced in a long time. First, I did not realize the workload an online class requires versus and on ground class. I had approximately 40 students in the course that turned in 1 major paper a week, plus their requisite Discussion board posts. That meant I was grading 80 papers a week, and that was just grading. The next major responsibility was to conduct two Live Chats per week. Essentially these were the lecture portion of the class where I went through the required chapters and recorded it in the archives. You may be surprised if you have never lectured virtually the time, preparation and energy required to fill an hour of lecture online. I eventually adapted to this new format but it was challenging at first. The only feedback you receive from students is in the form of posts. I discovered how much I really missed the interaction of a on ground classroom.
While I am a very experienced instructor in front of the classroom, I have a lot to learn about how to do it well in an online environment. There are many tools, portals, and techniques in the field and at the school. It is important to dive in and learn them so that it is no longer heroic to run a course in that format.
I feel that one way I can expand my instructional abilities besides practice, practice, practice will be to research and find additional resources for each lesson plan that I create. I have discovered that the textbook used as the primary resource for most of the classes I teach is insufficient many times. It may take additional time and effort but to get the latest resources that are available, either on the Internet or in Georgia's virtual library will pay dividends in the classroom. Another important aspect of delivering the content that I have to work on is obtaining guest speakers on a more regular basis. Bringing in someone from industry that already works in the student's future career field is an invaluable way to motivate students and improve retention. It can show them that there is light at the end of the tunnel.
Some ways of expanding my instructional abilities would be:
* Thinking of my experience as a student and remembering which teachers and methods were the most satisfying for my learning.
* Understanding the teaching materials throughly and organize them and present them in a coherent fashion (from easy to challenging, and in a way that advanced topics will clearly stem off from some of the more basic concepts)
* Not relying on the mere fact that I know the topics that are to be taught. I should keep in mind that my students are being faced with the material for the very first time and what may seems obvious to me it's new for them. In some cases, this requires to relearn things in a more academic way, in order to present the material more clearly to avoid gaps or understatements in the student's learning process.
organization is the key..it is necessary to know what you are doing and where you are going...you have to have a plan. Also you need to be involved in professional activities and the community
I always try to mention something relevant from the daily news into my class. Often times the students have not heard anything about it, but it typically helps to engage the students in dialog and interaction with one another. The class is a a computer class and does not lend itself to discusion so this helps to create some interaction amongst the students. It is interesting to note the different takes on issues based on the students' ages!
First you must know yourself and what you are capable of and then you can work on some of your weaknesses. If communication is a weakness, an instructor can take some public speaking courses. If it is dealing with learning new software, an instructor can take some additional course to improve that skill, and ete.
expanding instructional abilities requires working at many areas at the same time, this includes increasing the professional knowledge by continuous education and sharing the educational experiences with other professionals as well.
Absolutely. I completely agree that the goal isn't for us to know the most but rather to facilitate the learning experience in an area that I know a lot about.
I can’t agree more with you. We are not masters’ of all knowledge. Being a good facilitator is to be able to admit if we don’t know the answer and also be able to turn the question back to the class. I have done it many times and discovered that students in my class can be a good resource.
This is my first teaching opportunity so I know that I have many different resources to expand on my instructional abilities. I am prepared to take online courses, attend in-services and learn from my colleagues to be able to teach effectively. I will be working on my professional development plan to help expand my knowledge & skills to be a competent instructor.
I am looking forward to completing this online course.
