Changing it up
As a former student, I remember my fellow students complaints about the course and its material, and adapted those to make the course more informative and more engaging to the ones I instruct now
Victor,
You were (are) in a great position to bring instructional improvement to your courses since you sat through them as a student. The result I am sure are more engaged students and enhanced learning opportunities.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
When i first got my instructing gig at the same school i went to. I realized it was the same exact content as i learned when i was in class. So i def. spiced it up a bit in the places that i remembered being kinda boring.
Kelly,
Well said. By not staying current with content related to the field you are cheating students of the best content available. We need to strive to be current and seek ways to make our instructional delivery even better throughout our teaching careers.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I think it's important to learn new things and change content or evolve content so that you aren't saying the same lecture for 20 years. Be current to the times, not decades old when teaching.
-Kelly
David,
This is a challenge to remember what you have told each course or at least it is for me. I teach in 6 hour blocks from 4 until 10 pm so I have to make sure I am well prepared to keep the students engaged for that length of time.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I can have up to 3 classes a day. they are not all the same, so I have to deal with each one different. I will tell of experiences that I had while working in the field. That helps students know things that can happen while working on the road.
Steve,
Stories like this are what enhance the value of the content to the students. They start to see the connection between the content and their future. In addition, as you have experienced their interest increases when one of these stories is shared.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I have found that as I progress through a lecture I get reminded about something that had occurred in the past that directly relates to the topic being covered. So I stop the lecture and say, "Funny story about that". As I have been in the industry over 40 years, I have a lot of "funny stories". They are not all funny, but it puts a real-life twist on some of the dryer subjects and it seems to get the class to retain better.
This is so true. Variety is important, and keeps students motivated. There is so much technology and online information available, so there is no reason to do the same thing over and over when it comes to delivery of a lesson.
