Knowledge
If a student see's his instructor is constantly ill prepared or not ontime for class,that will not re-enroll in that institution....
I also run into this quite often. instructors do not always communicate to the rest of us that some equipment is down or a training aid is not functioning. If one of the training aids is not functioning I will let a group of students diagnose the problem and repair it. This is excellent "real world" experience for them.
Charles/Eric--
Excellent point about equipment. That just adds to the frustration (at least mine)...sometimes it's hard enough mastering the material let alone fighting with equipment! Excellent that you think to check prior to class.
Susan
Good point Eric. I teach many MS Office classes and if there is equipment failure it does look like you are not prepared. I try to get to the classroom 15 to 30 minutes before the students so I can check the equipment to find a PC does not work. I can tell the student that and have them move to a different PC that is open. The student may not like it since the PC is "theirs", but it does help show that I know what is going on in the classroom.
One of the bad issues we have to deal with from time to time is the sharing of equipment and training aids between multiple classes. Even if we arrive early and get the classroom, copies, and lesson plan ready to go, we sometimes encounter physical aids that do not work. Most of the time the previous classes failed to report the issues, so it is discovered during lab time for the next class. This creates issues with students thinking that we are not prepared. We do the best we can to correct the situation and move on, but due to the volume of equipment there is just not enough time to test everything daily. To combat this problem, we try to have extra equipment on standby and institute the ability to move lab tasks to similar training aids. But when there is no alternative, I just apologize to the students for the inconvenience and promise to get it resolved ASAP.
Scott-
Wow! It certainly sounds like you are prepared for your classes. Good for you!
Susan
Iagree but actually I come in two hours before class. This gives me time to take care of any paperwork I need to do and well over an hour to get ready for class. I make sure I have a time frame set up for the entire class. My class is usually lecture and then lab. This gives me plenty of time to have a gameplan to be ready to go at the begging bell and keep them busy in lab to the ending bell.
Alcide--
That is so true! It is very important that the faculty be prepared and present. We expect that from the students, we need to set an example.
Susan
every instructor should be prepare for class at least 15 minutes before class start
