Delevoping rapport with students is not optional, its an essential part of high-quality, effective learning.

Fun is an important and essential part of developing rapport with students and maximizing the learning potential of a classroom environment. 

I love the idea fo intentionally having students learn somthing about themselves and then talk about it. I think great learning happens this way because it attaches emotion to it, which makes it memorable. 

I like the idea of giving students ideas about how to study. I'm sure that I have assumed they know how to study, but I can see how career changers and maybe students who struggled in other school settings could use some tips. 

Preparation for classes make class time more valuable for students and more rewarding for teachers. 

Learning is the most important thing happening in the classroom, not teaching.

Also, if most of the learning happens outside the classroom, then how can I talk to my students about how they are using the information that we go over in class? I was thinking I could add a weekly application journal or discussion abou this topic.

What part did you think was the most useful?

Reply to Denise Nunez's post: I think it is unfair to categorize all the students fresh out of high school as not taking school seriously. I'm glad you wrote at the end end "that's not always the case." They do take it seriously, it is that culturally for that age group, apathy is cool, so they have a hard time expressing excitement in a classroom setting.  

I like what you said about mixing the age groups, the older studnts benefit from the enthusiasm and technology skills of the younger ones, and the younger ones benefit from the maturity… >>>