Erik Block

Discussion Comment

I'm curious whether many of you use icebreakers only on the first day of class, or whether they are a recurring part of your curriculum. I find that it depends upon a number of factors, including the size of the class, the personalities of the students, and at what time and how often the class meets. The subject matter can also be a factor. For instance, I taught a once-a-week speech class last quarter, and I included short icebreaker activities in nearly every class session (I felt this was especially appropriate for speech because knowing more about their classmates would… >>>

Erik Block

Discussion Comment

Practicing to Ensure Preparation

I am curious if any of you actually rehearse a class period from time to time. When we assign students to do speeches or presentations, we always emphasize how important it is to rehearse, but do we ever rehearse and evaluate our own performance as instructors? Obviously, this isn't something we would have time to do for every class period every day, but I do sometimes rehearse my lesson plan for the day to ensure preparedness and check on the accuracy of the times I've allotted for each activity/lecture.

Erik Block

Discussion Comment

Adapting Instructor Style to a Specific Class

I'm curious how often many of you end up adapting your teaching style to the learning style of a particular class. Obviously, this kind of adaptation happens day-to-day on a small scale, but how often to you end up making major changes to or even completely overhauling your usual delivery style(s) because they don't seem to be working with a particular group of students? Also, how do you decide when such a change is necessary?