Planning and preparation
Knowing your material comes form age, wisdom and experience. After 30 years, I still need to update my skills and prepare as if the class is brand new and I am teaching it for the first time.
This process keeps you sharp and prevents the rote and boring lecturing. Positive preparation, as I call it, is necessary to make each and every class exciting and interesting.
Remember, it is the the student's class.
I am constantly tweaking my quizes and re-going over delivered content as to improve for the next time I teach the course, and also as a service to my current students so that I may be able to explain things better or present it in a way that they understand.
Very true I alwas have to read my books for prep work so I knwo what I am talking about.
Hi Melissa,
Good way to grow as an educator. Each time you teach the class you will gain additional insight on how the improve the course as well as expand the activities you have the students complete.
Keeping it student centered will make sure that you are reaching your students and keeping them engaged in the learning process. Great job, keep up the good work.
Gary
Even with well established curriculum it is so important to continue to do some changes each time it is taught. I am just beginning teaching my second class for the second time. It truly does get easier, but I am always on the lookout for more materials and resources to add to my class or a different teaching method to try. Most of my classes are pretty lecture heavy, so I am trying to take each section and do some group work or class discussion to break up the monotony of the lecture.
You are so correct that "it is the student's class." I always remind myself that they are paying me to teach them effectively. I don't take my job lightly.
Hi Patricai,
This approach of reviewing the texts before the class really helps to establish you as the class leader because you are showing the students you know what is in their texts. Often they feel instructors just assign reading in texts without really knowing what is in them. When you can support or refute something in a text they realize that you know of which you speak.
Gary
I would agree completely. While I know the topic well that I am teaching we use two different text book as references. One explains concepts easily and the other more in depth. I find that I really need to reread the chapters again prior to class because it never fails that a student will take a small portion of what the text says and point out that the text says something different. When actually I was right, the student just didn't read the whole thing or completely understand that part that they extracted out of context.
knowing your material and what is in the textbook is essential
I agree that you should always make your lessons fresh because things are always changing and evloving in all subject matters.
