Barry Westling

Abdul, Tracking past successes and learning moments is extremely valuable, especially if one moves from one work setting to another. Past experience is great to transfer when circumstances move us along to another workplace. Barry Westling

Andrew, Yes, most of us have so little wiggle room in our sequence of topics and schedule that wasting essentially a whole day due to being unprepared is really just not acceptable. It's our job, we're paid to be ready, and we should do all we can to give students a full measure of our instructional knowldge and expertise. Barry Westling

Jorge, Great! When we can be really honest with ourselves and be aware of how we perceive ourselves, how others see us, and perceptive to the "reality" usually somewhere in the middle, we begin to enter the realm of positive self improvement. It's surprising that not all instructors are willing to want to make improvements. It's unfortunate as most have so much to offer, and making minor adjustments often can make all the difference. Barry Westling

Deborah, I think the main thing is students need to know how close (or far) from meeting the course learning objectives they are. However that can be accomplished, students will benefit. Barry Westling

Deborah, This sounds great. You are fortunate to have the same students advancing along. This makes the use of pretesting especially valuable for you. Barry Westling

Deborah, Yes, students tend to have one or two more dominant styles, so learning which strengths a student already possess and then teaching to that strength can help students, especially the ones that tend to struggle a bit. Barry Westling

Rebecca, You bet. More senses involved means students relate to the teaching concepts being presented. Also, usually there is more variety in the activities when more senses are used. Barry Westling

Deborah, The most amazing thing about journals is the ability to back over time to see changes, improvements, and how I viewed things at the time. Quite an invaluable resource. Barry Westling

Rebecca, Also students are more relaxed and confident in their instructor. Barry Westling

Gordon, You are very generous to invite students to have participation in the decision making of grades and weights of graded material. Although I do believe students are often a bit more analytic and critical when they are asked to "vote" on institutional or class policies, I think care has to be taken to be sure that true learning is being measured. If I feel good about answering that question, then it really doesn't matter how I arrive at the answer. Barry Westling