Keeping things interesting....
I am wondering how other instructors keep themselves "fresh" after teaching the same course numerous times? How do you ensure the material is still exciting for you, so your class can "feel" that?
Karen "kam" Maiorano
Dara,
We should also be reflective practitioners as instructors and review what we do each semester, what works, what doesn't and revise our teaching each semester. This helps us be the most effective instructors we can be and allows us to connect with our students in deeper and more meaningful ways.
Herbert Brown III
These are excellent points, Don. No matter how many times an instructor has taught the course, it is usually brand new to the student. For me, as an instructor, I enjoy seeing how each class receives the material differently.
One of the things I always try to remember is that while this might be my 100th time to teach the course it is usually the first time for my students. Keeping that thought in the back of my head I will try to keep my forums and discussion threads focused on their experience, thoughts and reactions to the information being discussed. This helps to keep me focused on looking for the new and insightful comments they are contributing and not my own rhetoric.
Karen,
I teach many technology courses so I don't have a choice but to change and tweak courses every semester based on software changes. The most important thing is to be a reflective practitioner. Each semester we should analyze what worked and what didn't work. Make subtle changes, or make large changes. Keep yourself current. Bring in current events, change your case studies or reflective assignments. It doesn't always have to be a big change to be "fresh" the subtle changes will freshen up a course as well.
Herbert Brown III
