I provide journal articles that discuss issues that will directly affect nursing students in their careers...they do their writing, research on these articles/issues and therefore find them easier to write about, since they already have an opinion about them. Also, some students are adept at free journaling and on demand writing, and some need the extra time allowed in homework related writing assignments, so I try to provide opportunities for both.
Hi Peter,
Thank you for sharing this wonderful success story with us. Stories like this serve to illustrate that by having good planning and caring people lives can be changed. Two students are now on their way to success that before the exercise would have not thought they could be successful in a career college setting. Congratulations!
Gary
Hi John,
Welcome to the profession. You have a great attitude about how you can grow as a professional educator. You have all the years of actual experience to fall back on so you can concentrate on developing the expertise necessary to share that knowledge. Sounds like you are well on your way in doing it.
Gary
In my College Success Strategies Class we discuss how important it is to set goals. I had the students meet with an at risk group of teens which they repeated the same goal setting exercise I gave them. As a result, 2 of the at risk youths are now enrolled at our school since this was the goal they set for themselves thanks to my students!
I'm a new instructor so my class time is limited thus far, however, I draw on my years of experience and relate the course content to real world experiences that my students are likely to encounter upon graduation. I also like to ask questions of the students during lab situations that ends up with them drawing from or applying some knowledge previously presented in the courses content. That way they are already applying some information they learned earlier. It also gives me some feed back on retention.
Hi Stephen,
The key to instruction is making a connection between the student and the content of the course. You are doing that as a result of the course activities that you are having the students complete. Good job with all of these efforts.
Gary
Hi Herb,
Great use of a variety of resources that keep both you and your students current with the field. This way they know the content you are sharing is relevant and current.
Gary
By tapping my own experience and trying to keep up with what is current in my area.
I like to bring in everyday examples as much as possible....in nutrition classes there seems to always be something new or thought provoking in magazines and the USA Today. Also we have access to PT on the Net which is a site which allows our students to stay up to date. I try to assign at least weekly assignments which use that.
Also through conversations with people who are operating businesses in our field, I like to keep their input in mind when putting course materials together.
Some strategies I have implemented to make a course's content relevant and applicable to the learning needs of the students include making my cost control class project-based. Rather than teach theory and calculations in a vacuum, I have the students come up with an idea for a business, such as a cafe, and then create a menu for it. We then apply the core concepts to their menu, and see what we can learn from the numbers. The results are thus individualized, and the students buy in, because the concept & menu are things they have chosen, and thus have an investment in.
Hi Gabriel,
Thank you for sharing your composition of your class for teaching Modern American History. Great way of dividing up your students and their research areas. I am sure you had a great experience with them as they reported out on their topics. This model can be used in many other settings so I am sure that other participants in this course will benefit from your sharing.
Gary
I recently taught Modern American History, 1877-Present. Given current events, we started the course with identifying the causes of the credit market collapse. I divided the class into 4 groups of 4. Each one was responsible for reporting of comparable economic woes of the past.
So we had 4 groups: 1. Current difficulties; 2. The Great Depression; 3. The Depression of 1892; 4. Crash of 1877. Each group reported on: a. Roots; b. Immediate Impact; c. Consequences, eg, new government influence in the economy; d. Similarities and differences with each other.
The students were to use primary sources when possible (found on the CD accompanying the textbook), other full-text, journal databases, as well as more general Internet searches.
Findings were presented in a panel discussion that lasted for 3 hours of the class.
making sure dilivery of material is varied to reach different learning styles
by varying course delivery to reach different learning styles
reaching different learning styles by varying deliery of information
Hi Pamela,
Well done and well said. You ability to adjust your teaching to the learning needs of students is to be commended.
Gary
Hi Sara,
Great job with all of the components you are incorporating into your course. Each of these contribute in a unique way to the total learning picture of students so they can see relevancy to what they are studying.
Gary
Hi John,
That would be an interesting study. I think a lot of the results on students seeing relevance of content to course objectives would be based upon how well the instructor made the connection. We need to work very hard at making the content relevant and show how applications can be made if we are going to keep the students engaged.
Gary
Hi Samuel,
You are on the right track with your efforts to "read" your students. These efforts will pay off big as you engage your students in the learning process and they grow in their skills.
Gary
I assign student a project work which including research report on certain region and present their project by giving oral report and creat somthing could represent the region they have researched.
Most of the courses I instruct have a laboratory component. Before the students set to work on the designated assignment, I
1. give them a brief description of what they are about to perform and why
2. give a demonstration - and because we often deal with biohazard materials, work safety points into the demonstration
3. set the students to work
4. I move around from student to student, or group to group
5. discuss at the end any results, issues, problems
When I first began teaching, my instructions were too lengthy. I lost the students' interest. For labs, talk less and work more does the student more good, and they get more out of it.
