Federal Laws limits to some extent what information can be shared between departments. Retention is a key factor that I use as a measuring stick as to student involvement. All of us at one point have set through a rather long and boring presentation from a professor in college with absolutely no interest at all. Student “fade out” as I call it, which can cause students to fade out of class within the first or second week time frame due to a disconnect with the course material and teacher. This is when other departments are notified about this student’s activity… >>>

My opinion is that the classroom should be fluid based upon the reactions or “lack of it”, from the students. My days in school were strictly books and nothing but the books, but this generation rely on visual input as their main stay learning vehicle. Changing the classroom layout from time to time during a course helps move students around and allows for those who like to hide find a place up front and meet new students. Any wall graphics should be moved around or replaced to bring a freshness to the classroom. Adding any new or updated video material… >>>

With thirty sets of eyeballs looking for the cracks in the educator’s armor, it is pretty easy not to see one’s own mistakes. A wise teacher would set down with themselves during stopping points within the course for a self evaluation of the performance given to their students. I always make it a point to let my students know early within the course that I flunked water walking in college and I’m going to make my mistake just like the rest of you. This tactic takes a great deal of pressure off of me and allows the class as a… >>>

Let’s face it; we teachers are on stage for about six hours a day. My view point has always been that any class is only as good as the “idiot standing in front of the classroom”! With a class load of about thirty students, it is a never ending story of different personalities driven by age groups, life backgrounds, and the occasional class clown. If I see that I’m losing the attention of the class overall, I have learned to change horses in mid stream and redirect that days instruction down a different pathway. I use a wide brush to… >>>

Having suffered myself with dyslexia from early childhood, I achieve a great deal of personal satisfaction working with these types of students. Sometimes the road is long, bumpy, with many u turns but the rewards are endless. More times than not this type of student is brighter than the norm, but has problems expressing themselves through their communication skills. Once identifying this student type, I will set time aside to talk to the student on a “one to one’ basis and drive home the fact that they are not alone in the process of learning. My opinion is that a… >>>

I tell a story about a young student going through school during the late fifties and sixties when ADD and other learning disabilities were yet unknown as we know them today. This young man flunked the fifth grade due to poor grades in English and math and was perplexed by his poor performance knowing he was better than this. A English teacher in the sixth grade took notice of his dilemma and intervened. He had the student spell out words and do simple math problems in which this young student managed not to get one right. The teacher looked at… >>>

Teaching Service Management and Service Writing for the Dealership level, my lab grading process is broken down 30/70% on their lab projects. Acquiring the correct answers on lab work is important, but I find myself looking more carefully at the other 30%. With the advent of cell phones and text messaging, the art of communication is a dying skill. Many of my students are either a single child or latch key children whos communication style is singular in nature and outside input is forign to them. Each participant in the lab group is graded not only on the correct answer,… >>>

This module was very interesting, but my belief is that it overlooks one key element of motivation, the "instructors failures". We as instructors/teachers oftentimes will focus our strenghts on our successes. but little on what went wrong. In life, both personal and professional, success and failure is a part of the equation. Sometimes our guesses are better than most men's facts. Case in point, I hate english and spelling! If it wasn't for a laptop with a spell checker, I doubt that I could spell my own name correctly. Stuff Japanese, German and Enlish on the same hard drive and… >>>