At my school (technical/trade) we have to do a mixture of lecture and demonstration. I also add problem solving, power point, transparencies. My question to you all is this... when the students begin practicing their lab work with each other, I often loose control of them and they are talking, chit chatting and laughing. I know there is a balance there, because i want it to be an enjoyable experience for them, but I worrry it gets too casual of an environment? Any suggestions on how to control this without constantly saying "SShhh, you should all be working without much… >>>

Hi - I work for a small trade school - we lecture and do hands on skills in my class. It is an accelerated program, so things move fast! I often have students comlaining becasue they aren't "given" all the information on the tests... although it is in their assigned chapters. I make study guides for my classes, that are quite thorough! Sometimes I get so frustrated becasue I feel they don't study the material... any suggestions on how to motivate them, help and not enable them to study the material? I find that those who aren't studying often don't… >>>

Maybe many or most of you do this too, I will actually take the test that I'm to admister before I give it to the students. (they are premade tests that never change). Usually we have 5-7 tests in period of 5 weeks. I try very hard to do it well ahead of time as I'm preparing lectures. This really helps me to 1) find errors! 2) know what points really need to be highlighted for the students and 3) determine the level of difficulty. Then I check my answer ket with another instructors answer key. I have found when… >>>