As an instructor student's motivation can be a tough one. I have found that honest and truthful feedback is always best. Even when it is a hard pill for the student to swallow. I will challenge the stronger students past their comfort zone, and challenge myself in finding ways to get through to the weaker students. Nothing beats the feeling you get when you see the lightbulb turn on from a student and have a new sense of motivation to push through.    

Comment on Harold Hegge's post: I 100% agree with you, I have faced this challenge many times. especially when having to teach a very structured course outline. It gets very redundant, can resight the entire lesson plan verbatim to the point I sound like a broken record.  What I have done in the past, is to bring relative world events to the class and get the class taking. From this I am able to pick up different ways to paraphrase my thoughts from something a student may have taught me. I am very big on class engagement, I can… >>>

In my prior career as an explosives Technician, I have taught thousands of hours and personnel from all backgrounds throughout my 26 years of service both federal and military. Can't pinpoint to any one point that I would consider new, it has been more of a refresher.  I would say that knowing your audience/students and allowing them to provide their input, in my eyes is the most crucial factor as an instructor. You can be the subject matter expert on everything. However, you must have the ability to present the information in many different ways so that all students can… >>>