I am definitely in agreement with your statement that students need to see us as humans too. I find it is when I am fallible and open that it establishes a better relationship with the students and they warm up to me much better.
Hi Marko,
Excitement begins at the top with the instructor. If the instructor is excited, the sudent usually becomes excited.
Patricia
I love to see my students excited about their future. To help ignite and maintain that excitement I share with my students how a particular course helped me be successful in my career. I also leave plenty of time for questions and group discussions.
Hi Mike,
It is good for students to know that yes we are humans too. Once they see that we are humans as well, the students tend to open up more.
Patricia
Hi Lawrence,
I concur! Most of our students need continuous encouragement. We have to be some of our students biggest cheerleader.
Patricia
The first question you should ask is "How Bad Do You Want This". Secondly is; Do You Know What It Takes To Accomplish This?
Identify the ostacles, and the hurtles that they are going to encounter, next tell they can overcome these obstacles and accomplish any goal they choose. Support, belief, and a little push in the right direction sometimes is all that is needed.
As instructors I think that humor, vocal and non-verbal communication and just playing around with students helps them put us in the human catigory and just a blow hard up in front of people talking away while the students get bored out of their minds.
Well I think that the way the instructor delivers the course info. by either voice inflection or showing their own enthusiasm about the course or career is very instrumental in getting the students involved and fired up about, not just the course their in but the whole program.
I most certainly have a passion for teaching at the college level. I have spent years in education and have evolved as it has evolved. Psychology and sociology still do play a major role in how we teach.
Understanding the premise of the science of education and the art of teaching says much about the expectation of todays student body.
Understanding and utilizing technology, terminology and applications of day to day interaction provide us with a pretty good indicator of just where education going and how fast we will arrive there.
Excitement, anticipation, and participation are all only parts of the whole.
Hi Joel,
When there is a long for something, especially your career, you do it extremely well! I absolutely LOVE teaching!
Patricia
I can appreciate that, passion is paramount in teaching. Either you have passion or your doing this for beer money. My heart and soul are committed to my students, however I am by no means a push over. I have high expectations and will not accept less.
what I do take into consideration is the mentation and competencies of each individual. I assess not judge each one on an individual basis. Providing them with information about all the possible extension of this course and various direction they may choose to go in and help them to realize their goal.
Note: their goal not yours.
Marko...
I am a practitioner with many years at many types of management levels, including C00; and, my online experiences is eight years/400 courses. The key word you used is "passion". An understanding of the importance of Passion along with Ethics, in my opinion, are The two most important learning objectives that any of our programs can offer.
I let them know what "hands on" assignments we will be doing in the class. My tone of voice and passion about the projects shows through and it gets them motivated and looking forward to the course / days at class.
Show them the possibilites that can be if only they take a chance and experience life. Let go of the anchor that secures them to secure surroundings and allow themselves to drift in the sea of knowlege. Experience it with other students like themselves and share their ideas, fears, anxieties so that they know it's ok not to know everything.
Motivation is a three part element:
1. factual
2. relevant
3. functional
adaptation and incorporation of the tenets of each these principles can be host empirically.
jIt's not just work skills,it's work ethics. A lot of these individuals could care less about their responsibility to the employer as much as their loyalty to their friends.
This single mindedness is what causes conflict in the classroom. The inability to comprehend that not only job knowledge and skill are required by a committment to the job is required.
I use many techniques, but I always see excitement in their eyes when I say this.
"By learning the skills of this course, you will become a valuable employee, one who is promotable, worthy of raises and is an important part of the company." Students really want to know that they will be a part of something better when their education is completed. I also use this to reinforce learning a specific skill. I will say, "pursue this skill with excellence and enthusiam and you will become valuable to your boss or if you are your own boss, you will be more knowledgable then alot of other business owners in the world." Students want to know that they are learning something that will make them stand out.
I incorporate relevancy into the first day. If a student can say "Wow! I'm actually going to use this information in "real-life"" I feel I have done a great job in motivating.
I use real world CSI skills in the classroom. As a military medical personnel I use CSI skills to identify, verfiy, and to validate the cause and effect issue being investigated.
I start with very vague information and have them assess the information given and to analyze and use critical thinking to prove or disprove the information being presented by fellow students.
The use of CSI skills enhances the students sense of accomplishement and gives them a much needed break from the other class requirements for lecture and writing and writing so many notes.
Challenge them by having to prove a point and present the supporting info-documentation to substantiate the presentation. The more chances they have to part of the concluding solution the more active they become. I tell all of them they possess the critical information already; all they have to do is assess the facts a derive a solution to the question. Remind them don't look at what you do know look at what you don't know.
I teach anatomy and physiology for a vet tech program. This class is the first science class the students receive and can be a very difficult and frustrating course. To mix things up and encourage students in the program, I bring a live animal to class for certain areas of study. One example is the cardiovascular system, I bring a dog into the classroom and we practice listening to the heart and locating veins that would be common areas used for drawing blood in veterinary medicine. Students always enjoy seeing a live animal at this point in the course work.
