Get Your Students Hired
By teaching ive learned that i need teaching and studying the material so that i may become a better instructor
david,
that is really a great asset as it helps you to stay current & pull that into the classroom.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I am lucky and am able to continue to work in my field outside of the classroom
Tom,
and when we have out of date info, the students see this quickly & we lose our reputation & credibility with them.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
A teacher must stay up to date on the latest aspects of the subject being taught. Providing out of date information fails to prepair students for their hoped for job and entering their chosen field prepared to work.
Becki,
and I believe our students really appreciate it when we show that we want to learn from them & encourage that give & take.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
Aprilyn,
this is a great approach as it helps the students see the connection to the "real world" & also shows them that you are staying up to date.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I read journals and health related news topics to see if there are is current news or new developments relating my field which is Respiratory Therapy. I mention the news story or information to my class and it keeps them interested because they can relate the topic to real life events.
I enjoy reading new material, using the internet, and watching other instructor teaching the same class. I try to stay up on new material, and pass it on the the students, and I ask the students to bring in things that are new to our field also. We as instructors also sit down and discuss how we can better teach to our students, on material and technics.
I teach primarily IT (technology) courses. There are always software updates happening that require the instructor to update their knowledge. I try to stay as up to date as possible. As far as new ways of teaching, I always try to keep my students actively engaged (not too much lecture) to help them learn about the technology first hand.
I love learning as much as enjoying sharing the information which I have learned. I especially enjoy learning from the students...they are younger and have much more knowledge than I do in some areas - so it becomes a win-win situation for all of us
Technology seems to change on a daily basis, and keeping up with it is, in itself, a learning process. Just being able to relate newer information as it develops, in terms of software and hardware updates and upgrades, is a great tool in the classroom.
I am always reading and looking at new information research about the latest and greatest materials and techniques in my field. I share my excitement and passion about this new information with my students by sharing the websites, or videos, or articles that I have read in the classroom via the smartboard and internet. I play interactive games and create group activities for the students to keep them engaged. The smartboard is an awesome classroom tool that allows me to share the new information with the students in a creative enticing way.
Jay,
this is so true & I would say important when we're lecturing on a topic we've covered many times. This keeps it fresh & engaging.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I find that taking time to reasearch what your going to be talking about before talking about it helps to gain more insight on the topic.
This strikes right to the heart of a major problem in Information Technology education: the vast volume of new material to be learned about the topics, combined with the time needed to implement novel ways of teaching, and the fact that the classroom time is finite.
As to the volume, I teach in several areas of IT, some of which are less 'active' than others [e.g. databases as compared with security]. I can say that the less active areas will generate at least one major learning activity a week [and because of the ebb-and-flow of development, sometimes this can be more: right now Microsoft has introduced a new version of their database server, for example, while at the same time, the whole issue of 'big data' has become a major issue to be addressed in the database field]. On the other hand, highly active areas, like security, can generate one or more major learning activity every day [new vulnerabilities, new forms of attacks, new countermeasures, new theories, and on and on]. So just managing this in such a way as to filter it to the students effectively is a constant concern.
I am less convinced that new ways of teaching are needed [or, perhaps, that I am the person who can devise them], given that we have a highly structured environment for delivery, from TCOs on down -- though I also recognize as a ground instructor, I have a lot more freedom to create these. As for classroom time, the one virtue of IT is rapid obsolescence -- so by carefully reviewing the class content for each delivery, obsolete material can be pruned [e.g. token-ring LANs, which are now ancient history], though some care needs to be taken here in areas like security, where quite literally "what's old is new again".
I totally agree that understanding the tools in education certainly makes me more successful in getting the information in the subject matter across to the students. I enjoy learning and I want to improve at inspiring the students to get excited about my profession.
Clare,
you are so right that we need to keep up with our field but also with the teaching profession & stay innovative in that arena too.
Ryan Meers, Ph.D.
I don't find it difficulty to balance the topics I teach and the way I teach it. I love what I teach and I love teaching. It makes me happy, hence why I chose this profession. I love cars, I love working on cars, I love talking about cars. So the idea of teaching about cars is not very far fetched for me. I think as long as you have a general passion for what it is you are teaching you will be a successful instructor. The students feed off of your energy, and when you are excited about your subject, they will be excited as well.
I try to maintain a natural curiosity for learning. That means staying current, being attentive to cultural shifts, and asking questions. Those activities lead to data and that information is then integrated into my teaching method.