Get Your Students Hired
What are some good ways of keeping evening students motivated? I have noticed it to be a bit difficult, especially comming in from a full days work, then to sit in a 4-hour class.
Hi James,
Good point about food. I use it as well with my night students since they have worked hard all day and like to chew on something as they make the shift from their jobs to being students.
Gary
Food is the best motivator. I usually end my classes for the week with food for all of the students. I have noticed that attendance has also improved on Fridays since istarted doing this.
Hi Juan,
Good plan and one that I follow with my night classes. Variety has to be a part of the lesson plan for each class if we are going to keep our students engaged and focused after a day's work.
Gary
Hi Scott,
Trust me on this it works. Food is the foundation of everything good and great!
Gary
I agree, the start of any eveneing class should be with an activity versus starting out with a lecture. Why?
This starts the blood to the brain re-flowing after a long day's work or schedule and adds vitality to the class interaction.
Once the interest is there I follow-up with a mini-lecture, another group activity and vice-versa.
The students and myself have greater concentration and greater electrical activity in the brain.
FOOD!
I find that food always works for me! I have not yet tried this, but after seeing your topic I am going to try it out!
Scott
Hi Richard,
This is a great strategy. I am sure your students really get into this effort. I can only imagine some of the articles that are brought in and the discussions that follow.
Thanks for sharing this idea with us.
Gary
I have everyone bring a newspaper article from the prior week that pertains to the subject matter we're discussing. They have to be prepared to explain it in front of the class. They usually hate public speaking. After about week 2 I level with them: I can't give them points for attendence but I can give them points for the "assignment", bringing an article. After about week 4, I tell them that they can't bring the same article; I'll only give points for the first person (at random) who presents the article. Brings them out of their shells and they search for the most entertaining and outrageous articles to talk about from the most off-beat sources because everyone wants the points. Gets them motivated and thinking about the material and gets them up and talking in front of the group.
I find that a small ice breaker in the beginning of class works well. Being an evening class, there is almost 1 or 2 late comers. Lecturing for only 15 minutes at a time is best since the attention span can't hold much longer than that. Moving on to an activity using the lectured information helps the students to absorb the new information or skill obtained.
Hi Shawn,
Thanks for sharing your strategy for creating flow and delivery for long evening classes. Mine run from 4 until 10 and it is a lot of work to keep the flow going and the interest high. You have a number of activities that offer variety to your students which keeps them engaged throughout the night.
Gary
Get them up an moving. Sometimes that works. Or get to the point. Give them the information and let them work with it.
I also teach a 5pm-10pm class once a week. I always have some sort of class discussion about a current legal topic at the beginning, a short lecture, followed by a dinner break. After the break, I have a project for them to work on for the next 1-2 hours, then we come back and discuss trouble-shooting for the last 30-60 minutes of class so they can see how to improve their project. Students have responded that giving them control over their time for the group project makes the time fly by and they love the reflection session at the end of class.
Hi Aimee,
What do you do for activities when you have your students up and moving about?
Gary
I try not to drone on and on lecturing material. I get the students up and mocing about so they stay active in the class and entertained some by the material. Some topics rquire more strict lecturing, but I try and break it up with breaks so I can keep their attention when it is needed most.
Variety and activites dispersed throughout the class period; videos, small group discussions, role play exercises, etc.
I have used the "jeopardy" type presentations with success. In addition, many publishers have video vignettes that further illustrate or exemplify a concept along with a real world application. When publishers offer additional resources, I take them seriously and examine the content before I share it with students. The best teaching situation is to have more examples and applications then you could ever have time to present!
You're right! Keeping the students AND myself motivated during a 4-hour evening class is sometimes very difficult. I have found that lecturing during the beginning of class with frequent breaks help. Toward the end of the evening we have more student participation and near the end we, also, play games or do activities. For a medical terminology class that I teach, we have a DVD that came with the text. It has games and quizes that we utilize quite a bit. In my interpersonal relations class we'll do stand-up activities such as role-play or scenarios.
Thank you Dr. Meeks for the ideas. I will be applying these concepts to my evening class!