Hi Althea,
I admire you for your willingness to assume this most difficult task. Ten years ago they closed my department and transferred me to another one. I had to develop and teach courses out of my field just as you have experienced. It was a challenge and I thought about it long and hard. In the end I decided I would take up the challenge and become the best teacher I could. I love to learn so I self educated myself in the area and developed a wide variety of instructional activities. The end result is that I did refocus myself and have had a great time teaching my courses. I now receive the highest teacher evaluations in the department and I know it is due to the fact that I approach the classroom prepared, organized, and enthusiastic about my content, or at least the students think so.
I wish you much teaching success. Enjoy your students and the fact that you are helping to shape their future.
Gary
With each topic I teach, I try to see what the learning level for most of the students is and then try to lower that slightly. This way I feel I can reach all students. I also use interactive lectures and patience for the lower learning level students while keeping the higher ones "at bay" until I can coax the answer. I am not sure if this is the correct way to do it, but I see the results on the face.
Practice, practice, practice. I'm relatively new to instructing. I am a natural motivator, mentor, and encourager to students.
I have enthusiasm for my profession/ field of expertise, but, I would like to further develop my organizational skills which in turn will boost my confidence and enhance my instructional style.
I always look to stay current in my field of expertise. As we all know, the health/science field is constantly evolving. So in order to remain relevant, once must continue to learn everyday.
I also enjoy employing real life issues as I've realized that students tend to remember material based on the association with a certain scenario that was presented to them. Sometimes, I use fictional stories and present them as realistic just to get my point across and to make sure they learn whatever it is I'm presenting at that point in time.
Hi Debra,
Good for you. By having a professional development plan you will be able to see how your instructional expertise is growing just as you did in the nursing field. Plus, you will find that you enjoy teaching even more as your skill sets expand.
Gary
As a 50 year "baby-boomer" teaching mostly 18-25 year old members of the millenium generation, I do find a definite contrast in our approaches to learning. My teaching style is definitely influenced by how I was taught, and how I best learn, but recognize that this does not always work with my students. I regularly attend educational conferences and network with teachers in a variety of fields, who share my sentiments, and offer their solutions, but have decided to go "back to school" to learn more about teaching and develop a more coherent and relevant instructional style. I recently completed coursework in educational psychology, and am halfway through a Master's of Education program in instructional technology, which has definitely provided me with tools to enhance my teaching arsenal. I am learning (in steps) how to be more "learner-centered" and use technology to make the learning environment more interactive for my students; as well as to engage them more cooperatively with each other, instead of just with me.
A challenge I have recently been presented with is being assigned to teach students in an subject area outside of my interests and expertise, due to programs cuts at my school. This has required me to rely more and more upon instructional skills and technique to deliver material I am not always personally connected to. There are days when I feel that it is only my pure joy for teaching and my desire for the success of my students that gets me through my presentation of the material, and I worry about being able to motivate students to learn content I am not enthused about myself. This has been a work in progress, and has prompted me to reflect deeply on what my intention is as a teacher, and what I want for my students. Thank you for this workshop - it has already helped me refocus!
after doing lecture,question and answer portion will be of great help,to know the level of understanding of the students.
I think that I would try to be more organized with what I am doing each class. I am new to be an instructor and trying to work out the kinks.
Being an adult learner myself I understand where may of my students are coming from. I do my best to encouage them. Sometimes I must admit I have to reel my self back in. I have to remember while they are adult learners this is new content to the students in my class. I can't assume everyone should know it because they chose thier field of study.
As a novice adjunct faculty I am taking a step back and evaluating my instructional style. I have taught several nursing courses and have solely relied on my nursing knowledge base to teach. I am now at a facility that is offering education to enhance my role and am just now seeing how I can grow into this role. That being said, I am going to begin at the base and do a self-evaluation.
Hi Vickie,
Good advice for us all. We can observe and study other instructional styles but in the end we have to be who we are and what we bring to the classroom.
Thanks for sharing this thought with us.
Gary
Hi Valencia,
Good point that all of us instructors need to remember. This is the first and only time they are going to experience this course so we need to bring our A game to the class. Among several things I do to keep my excitement level up is to introduce at least one new strategy, activity, assignment or format into my course each time I teach it. I get very excited about this new item since I'm not exactly sure how it will work out so I get to be creative when working through it. This is fun for me and a great learning opportunity for the students.
Gary
Since learning is more important than teaching, I feel anything I can show (hands on) is the best enhancement and more productive.
It's important to make sure the methods I'm using are well rounded and address multiple learning styles. Enhancing my teaching styles will benefit the students and refine my instructional style.
This is good advice (of course it should be coming from the facilitator (smilely face).
I once tried to teach a class bases on another instructors lesson plans. It was a disaster!
After that class, I realized more than ever that I need to teach students in ways that work for me, and for the individuals in the classroom.
One big thing that I think I need to do to develop my instructional style is to be more excited about the subjects that I am teaching. Once I teach a class a few times, the material becomes kind of routine for me, so I forget that this is the first time that they are hearing it.
Hi Ray,
Welcome to teaching. I wish you much teaching success as you gain experience. Thank you for sharing your first teaching experience with us. I think "time compression" has happened to us all when we started teaching. What looked so good and took so much time in practice somehow disappears when in front of students. I promise it will get better as you learn about other activities you can use and delivery options that engage students.
Gary
Hi Jorge,
Good for you. Passion for your field and the desire to share your knowledge with others helps to increase your teaching effectiveness. As you gain teaching experience you can expand your abilities to offer different ways of getting your content across to your students.
Gary
Hi Ian,
You have a very comprehensive approach to your instructional planning and this is good. This way you can pick a number of different options for use as you develop an understanding of the different learning preferences with your students.
Gary
Hi Gloria,
This is a good plan for part of your professional development. The more you can learn about instructional delivery the more options you will have from which to select the activities you want to use in your own classes.
Gary
