keeping students interested
I have been teaching for fourteen years and I have worked on this area a lot the past few years. I am finding out the more one student knows about the other and their instructor to real life situations the more eager they are to learn and challenge one another. They also tend to want to come to class.
The course material I teach is for a very competitive field. There isn't a lot of "bells and whistles" in the material covered, so as a joke, I sometimes threaten to sing and dance just to provide some relief and entertainment! This usually gets a laugh, but it still remains....keeping the students interested. I encourage them to have a "buddy" system to keep the checks-n-balance scenario. However, finding a happy medium among different personalities, can be a challenge, especially if the "getting to know you" should happen to backfire, if that makes sense.
Doing a variety of activities during the first several days of class allows Me to learn more about my students so I can challenge them more in the coming weeks.
I like this idea, because instructors have access to so much information, it shows the students that they took the extra time to find out personal things about them and shows that they really care about getting to know the students. This makes a big differents and shows the students that the instructors care.
Hi Paula,
This is a good point. By knowing more about each other the base for respect has been established and then relationships can build from there. This is good experience for the students as social/personal interaction is going to be a big part of their careers.
Gary
