New Instructors
You must find out your teaching strengths
As a new instructor I remember totally stressing out on developing my lesson plans. I have learned that classroom management is the most important part of teaching. Yet, after taking a couple of these online courses, I have learned that developing a lesson plan is extremely important to classroom management. No wonder I was stressing about my lesson plans. As instructors, we have a strong knowledge base and I often find myself wondering which direction to go and focus on. There are three basic steps to developing a lesson plan that I have found very helpful. 1st, pick a topic to teach and discuss and introduce the students to this topic through lecture and a quiz. 2nd, design an activity so students can interact and practice what you introduced. 3rd, design an assessment. Include review activities in-between each part.
Following these three steps will allow you as an instructor to focus on the students rather than on yourself.
Understanding your strengths and weaknesses when you start teaching will make you a better instructor in the long term.
Hi Linda,
You must teach at a level so that your students can understand. As educators, we know far more than the students, but we must be able to break down the information in very simple terms so that students can grasp the concepts.
Patricia
I rememeber when I first started teaching I felt like I was teaching everything they needed to know unfortunatly I was teaching on a higher level than what my students could understand. With that being said my students felt as if they couldnt talk to me regarding the issue, all 38 students marched into the deans office to discuss the issue. At that point I felt like I was the worst instructor in the world, but then I realized I was teaching as if I was talking and teaching to colleagues versus students. It was a lesson learned.
