Brent BK,
This is an important part of learning. The more you can replicate the career field in which they will be entering while they are students the easier their transition will be to the actual setting. Having such experiences helps them to know they have made the right career choice.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
As a Criminal Justice instructor, I stress Integrity. It is of the utmost importance to display integrity in this career field because most work is done with little to no supervision. Fortunately, the classroom presents nearly daily integrity issues that can be learned from, but I also look to display it in my treatment of students. All students are treated with equal fairness and respect. Occassionally, I will challenge them with integrity or ethical situations or scenarios that I have been involved in, and allow them to evaluate how I handled a situation. It seems to work well.
Beginning class on time and appropriate professional dress. Then, during a classroom presentation, create a mock career field for students to experience that includes the look, feel, and touch components. Bring the career field to light by having examples to illustrate the WIIFM (what's in it for me) for the student to experience the transition from knowledge to career.
Maureen,
Good point and well said. We need to remain current in our content and work on continued expansion of our delivery format.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Maureen,
It is great to hear that you had good models in your past and now you get to pass this modeling on to your own students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
An intellectual person needs an intellectual role model. In this increasingly technological world, intellectual strength is not valued. Only in the college classroom is mental strength admired and emulated.
The role model is extremely important to the classroom dynamic. I wanted to become an instructor as a result of observing my role model professors. they were and remain my heroes. Their knowledge base seemed endless.
Brent,
All of the elements go together to demonstrate a professional approach being an educator.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Katherine,
Good advice for all instructors to heed. We are always on stage and being observed by our students in many different settings. So we need to remember this as we move about in our lives.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Lisa,
Good information on both accounts. We need to stay current with our field if we are going to be fair to our students. The confidentiality issue has to be in the front of our minds at all times.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Start class on time, the way I dress, the language I use, my overall impression i give them.
I know that I have to be consistent in my behavior/personality both inside and outside of class. Conducting myself ethically in all areas of my life as a career professional
I have seen repeatedly that this is a very small world.... there is an extremely high likelihood that my students will one day be my peers. And/ or that they will turn out to be connected with my family and friends in some way.
They expect me to be every bit of who they think I am from class - :) or at least as much is humanly possible.
And I expect that they will follow suit and become sincere participants in this field.
Kathy
It is extremely important to keep up with the current practices in each profession in order to teach current and ever changing procedures. So important to maintain confidentiality when bringing actual case scenarios into the classroom.
Ana,
Good example of how to reflect being a professional and the standards that your students should aspire to copy if they are going to be successful in the field.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Mary,
Well said. We set the standard for the class and we cannot expect anything more of our students than we ourselves present. So you are right on with your comments about being on time, organized and prepared to teach.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Brian,
Good point about being a role model. We may be the first person they have ever spent time with that come from the field they are studying to enter. They use us as the measurement of what a professional in the field should be like.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
Hello. Some ways that I can model behaviors is by making sure that I am appropriately dressed for class and ensuring that I wear clean, ironed scrubs to clinicals. I also talk about the nursing field and how the content being taught relates to it.
First; always being on time and prepared for the day. It is so very important that as an instructor we set this example for the students. They are going out into the professional environment where being late is not an exceptable behavior. It must start in the classroom and we as the instructor must be the role model. Also being prepared for the day, with whatever is needed for the tasked at hand. If I look scattered and unprepared this certainly not the example I want to present to my students.
We need to be these students role models I believe we spend more time with them on a daily basis then they do with their own families. People who say we mold students at the age of five-8 is wrong, I see a lot of students who look at me for help to continue on and really become adults
Alessandra,
Well said in terms of how you describe a role model. We need to remember we are role models for our students in all that we do. As a result we need to be professional in everything we do both in and outside of the classroom.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
