I would have appriciated learning from a more senior teacher. However I was sent to teach my first class as a replacement. I have learned quite a bit class by class but am looking for advise on how to grow more.
I am relatively new teacher and it was very helpful to me to attend other teachers’ classes. I taught as a secondary teacher with more experienced teacher. It gave me a chance to find out what is the best way to explain certain topic. Also I was able to watch students in the class room and to see how they retain information. Now I use these skills to teach my class.
How do we cram 6 hours of material in a 3 hour block? I want the students to learn to think and use the information, but in the end the goal is to pass a national certification test and all they want is what they need to know to pass the test.
I NEED Suggestions for incorporating more facilitation of learning and eliminating so much lecture.
Anatomy and Physiology basics need to be approached in multiple ways just to get the concept of the material across. We have four days (1-2 hours a day) to go over 2-3 systems - the fifth day is test day. I am looking forward to using the games as a learning tool for both myself and my students.
Ruth, what a wonderful instructor you must be to recognize how important it is to stay connected to students. As we become more mature in tenure, we sometimes forget to change with the times - but you clearly have not done that.
Keep up the good work!
Jane Davis
ED107 Facilitator
Greetings Ferdinand!
Life long learning is equally as important for instructors as it is for students. And clearly, a very good way to accomplish this is through mutual learning.
Keep up the good work and keep learning!
Jane Davis
ED107 Facilitator
Needing to answer in a sentance, vs a word is a skill worth learning.
Supporting your answer with facts and backround information gives you an opportunity to demonstrate your knowledge. This is not an easy task if your not familular with the information, and even more nerveracking if your shy or uncomfortable in the spotlight.
Allowing the students to practice answering an open ended question is a good method to opening their minds. It's also good to start the conversation.
I continune to read new information in my field, form professional journals, internet,newspaper. I am interested in improving my teaching skills.
I need to know the information but I need more how to get it across to my students in a manner they find interesting and worthy of their effort. In the 40 years I have been a teacher I have seen, worked with and tried many new ways of working in the classroom. It invigorates me and my zest and love of teaching.
I grab every available oppotunity to attend in-services. However, sometimes, I find it interesting that I can learn from my students as well. Questions they throw at me make me more diligent in searching for the answers and I always acknowledged and thanked them for their questions. The next time around, I have more information to share.
Ferdinand
Hi Mark!
I really think you answered your own question by saying "it opens the channels to one's thinking".
As instructors it is very easy to do the same things over because it is comfortable and students are - after all - learning. But it's about expanding our own horizons, therefore, enabling us to give even more learning opportunities to students. We should never stop learning!
Good job and good comments!
Jane Davis
ED107 Facilitator
As a student, I struggle with staying focus with a professor who is boring. So as an instructor, I balance developing my teaching skills and learning the materials at the same time. 1. Break the material down to the simplest form for me to understand the materials. 2. Once I grasp the information, then I discover a unique way to present the materials to my students. For example, teaching the nervous system, I use yawn. I have the student represent the nerves and the yawn shows how they are all connected together.
Hi Jane:
well becoming a facilitator of online classrooms has been on my mind for the past 4 weeks; I hope that explains the long pause in my work on this course. I have been entrenched in discusion forums, much like this, and the experience has been extremely useful. Posting 3 times (minimally) on 5 of 7 days during a class week, can help to kenisthetically show yourself what you are reading and discussing as course topics. The whole process of facilitation becomes creating the opportunity to learn as opposed to the traditional "intstructing" students in lecture settings. I have been totally impressed by my facilitator's use of the Socratic question and educing the information from the class, which we all witnessed in the forums. So, I hope to show some of my stuff as I continue in this course, now that I understand how this can be more of an opportunity to grow and learn more about myself.
An openning to learn more really appeals to my student side; and my open-ended question for my class peers is, "how does being asked a question that demands more than a yes or no answer help you to learn by openning the channels to one's thinking?"
Mark
Being a relatively new instructor, this has been very difficult for me. I don't know if it is the best method, but I try to learn more about my topics first. I find that as I teach, the students help me develop new ways of teaching, or show me the areas where they struggle. I find that each time I teach a subject, I learn things I would like to do differently "the next time." Unfortunately, sometimes I feel like I don't do my best the first time around because of this....
Hi Ronald!
It sounds like you have a lot of self-awareness about personal growth. I really like the idea of learning from peers and students because there is such an immediate feedback mechanism.
Keep up the good work!
Jane Davis
Ed107 Facilitator
Although I have been teaching the same class for the past five years, I have continued to explore other books and articles on my materials. I continue to learn new facts that always makes the material I teach that much more enjoyable. Then I look for the different ways to present the information to my students.
First, I always try to approach my facilitating by making sure I explain or present materials in a variety of different ways (verbally, visually, etc). I encourage my students to make comments and ask questions; I discuss some topics with my colleagues - this allows me to update and tweak my discussions with new materials. Since I teach a new group of students every six weeks, I can assess which methods/ways have worked well and which ways need to be changed for future classes.
I continuously ask the students for feedback in using some of the tools I've provided for them to accomplish their assignments. I've discovered some unique challenges not thought of before. I then try to incorporate changes into the environment that will address those specific challenges. It's amazing to see what some struggling students can teach you through simple feedback.
Well, given my fairly light teaching load I have plenty of time to read everything I can find on my field, plus I'm in the middle of writing an article, which is a good learning experience. But regarding new ways of teaching, I take clases like this, read occasional articles, and both watch and talk to fellow teachers. There is probably more I could do with that side of my work. One thing though: I never assume I know everything about a field and always ask the students to write a paper that teaches me something new. Which they often do.
Balancing new information & delivery methods can be chalenging. I seek as much new technical information as possible through seminars and training classes. To get new ideas about subject delivery Ilook to other instructors & student ideas about how the information is best received.
