Experience
When planning to teach a new class there's no substitute for experience. I try to find another instructor with experience in the new course I'm going to teach. A few questions and a few minutes can fill lots of the empty spaces in your planning. How long did this take? What was your approach to this topic? This seems like a long lecture, do you have any suggestions to break things up? It may seem like cheating, but I call it using your head!
I try to approach each day with the thought that I am going to learn something new each day. I have even learned some from my students. I never close my mind to new items to be learned, some just take longer sometimes for me.
Having a lot of experience is self-motivation and gives you a lot of confidence in the classroom. It comes in handy when classroom problems arise.
Definitely true. I rely on my fellow instructors for guidance even though we may all have some of the same expeiences in the field we all have a different outlook on it.
There is a large resource of experience amount fellow instructors .This well of resource must always be appraoch first.
I too have found that experience not only helps you along the way with teaching but it also can help you by giving real world stories that you have either seen or done yourself out in the field that not only backs up what you are saying but also gives you creditability that you truely can show it relates to the topic you are teaching.
Experience is a valuable tool. I teach many classes and when I start teaching a course I have not been in, I really rely on the instructors that have been teaching that class before me for the experience they have in the classroom and in the field that they worked in. I try to approach each day with the thought that I am going to learn something new each day. I have even learned some from my students. I never close my mind to new items to be learned, some just take longer sometimes for me.
Keep an open mind!
I not only find this true for the new course that is going to be taught, but valuable information can be gotten from a course that you have been teaching for sometime from another instructor, even if he has LESS experience than you do. Sometimes we get set in our ways, and should always be open to a new idea.
Other instructors are your most valuable resource
