Hi Larry,
By all means keep the humor. You are right math does need some laughs. This is coming from a person that sees no humor in math only terror.
Gary
Thank you Gary. I find that if you make learning memorable, students tend to remember what they learn. Humor is my way of doing that.
I use a great deal of humor, perhaps I should be more serious minded. Naw! Math needs laughs.
Hi Nicole,
I like your soft humorous way to bringing the opportunity to learn into your classroom. This really helps your students to feel comfortable and willing to participate in discussions and answer questions.
Gary
I agree with Maria in varying the instructional style in order to meet the needs of the students. It is important to take into consideration the backgrounds and learning levels of the students.
As a new instructor, I now teach what I spent my career loving to do. I try to ignite the spark in my students that made me love nursing. I look for non-verbal cues and hints that the student is not "getting it". I often say to my students "your eyebrows are touching, (the student has a confused look) where did I lose you? This brings humor in and also lets the student know that I am invested in their individual learning.
Hi Lori,
There is much to be learned by listening to others. You then can take this information and personalize it to your own style and that will greatly expand your expertise.
Gary
Hi Michelle,
Good techniques. They will enable you go growth in your expertise as an educator while also growing in your knowledge of your field.
Gary
Hi Craig,
Good points about how to "read" your students and then make adjustments as needed. This will keep you and your students focused on course outcomes.
Gary
Hi Khalid,
How do you assess student motivation and use it as an instructional style? Thanks for your input on this.
Gary
Hi Stephanie,
Congratulations on the growth you have had already in your teaching career. You are doing a host of things that are really going to help both your students and yourself grow. As for finding a balance for different levels of students you can talk with the students and then use your observational skills to determine how you can create learning groups for the different levels in your classes.
Gary
Speaking with other instructors has been very beneficial in the past and I will continue to do this. I have also since created a more specific survey for the students in regard to the course I am instructing. This has proven very beneficial when designing the course lesson plans.
For me, the techniques I can employ would be to constantly keep up with the current trends, technology and employment opportunities in my field so that the material that I teach is always fresh and up-to-date. Taking courses, attending training seminars and doing research on topics being taught are also techniques taht can assist to further develop, refine and enhance instructional style.
gather information and input from other instructors.
Being aware of your feed back, are students slumped in thier chairs, are the doing poorly on test, are they responding to my questions... all these thing, like vital signs give me feed back, on what I may need to change, enthusiasm from me, not teaching/explaining information, not engaging the student? What changes do I need to make?
combination of outside class room and laboratory, field trip
Learn advancement in the subject to teach
students motivaton is more important for me
I agree with the powerpoint. I enjoy using them and adding an example of my personal experience about the subject. I will then ask the students if they have personally or someone they know has had experience with the subject matter. This usually opens up an array of conversations which then allows me to mediate the conversation and stepping into the role as class manager by deciding at what point it's time to move on.
Since I am only in my second quarter of teaching at the college level I am learning a lot about my instructional style and how it can be inproved. My personality is very understanding and supportive. This benefits students and helps build their confidence however I feel like next quarter I need to make sure to be more strick on my policies and evalutations. I would also like to learn better ways to challege students who pick up information quickly while not overwhelming students who are struggling to keep up. I had a very wide range of students in my first class varying in age from 20 years old to 57 years old. I have learned about different learning styles and teaching to different age groups, but would like to increas my skill in this area as well.
