Students draw energy and motivation from an instructor's enthusiasm for the class materials. Engaging all students and compelling participation in class activities helps prepare students to use what they've learned to create actionable interventions that are applicable to their future careers. Including excitement and fun helps learners easily retain important information for this synthesis.
This section was a great reminder to me that my attitude dictates my class environment. And that when I get in that slump because I don't feel the test and assignment scores are where i feel they should be that I need to reevaluate and make sure that I'm creating that sense of excitement for my students and helping them and myself measure their successes greater than what I see as potential failure due to attendance issues or low test scores.
I like to add personal experience to my lectures to keep students engaged.
REFOCUS! self examination of yourself as an instructor to provide the best learning experience and the tools to do so. Improvements for oneself and promoting a positive learning environment. I will remind myself that to much storytelling can negatively impact learning. I love telling stories so I’m making a note to manage this.
After going through this module, I want to be more intentional about creating a mid-term evaluation for students to take; I believe it will be useful for facilitating the remainder of the course.
Setting realistic expectations for yourself as a teacher and your students helps to provide the best learning enviroment.
If you enjoy the curriculum they will enjoy it, for the most part. "Like what you do and you'll never work a day in your life".
Refocus:
Recognize, Empower, Focus, Objectivize, Commit, Unburden, and Surprise.
All of this helps not only the students but instructors as well.
In this module, I learned that the best use methods to encourage students to be active in class and increase students retention. Also, I will apply these method during contents of class, homeworks, quizzes and group activities.
The REFOCUS teaching tool was a revelation for me! Even though some I know I had done before, it was nice to have it organized in a way to help keep the class and myself excited and focused on the material through the entire course.
REFOCUS is totally new concept to me but of great potential use.
Love learning about the refocus tool is very helpful in this module.
Enjoyed this module where I learned about Learnativity where a Novice becomes an Expert with confidence and what REFOCUS is.
I learned that to engage the students I must keep myself motivated and excited about the material. It is normal for a slump in motivation and energy around mid term. I learned some methods to recognize this and try to combat it with REFOCUS methods to help me realize all the progress that has been made and help keep the students spirits up by using surprising stories, and games to liven up the classroom.
The instructor should be enthusiastic and passionate about their job/trade, and it will show to the student, the reverse is also true.
We received amazing ideas on how to keep our students engaged in the learning throughout the course, and ideas on how to shakeup our own instruction so we don't become rote information-spewing robots...
Because the discipline I teach involves crisis management, based upon knowledge of basic anatomy and physiology, conducting a crisis scenario seems like a very good teaching method.
I have used a method to teach how to manage high risk births, prepare the infant for transport, and for how to stabilize and treat the newly-born upon arrival at the tertiary institution. We utilized the surgery laboratory for pretend emergency C-section, then moved to the nursing laboratory to stabilize the infant, then transported the infant to the Respiratory Care laboratory, placing it on the optimal ventilatory settings, administering surfactant, etc. .
Looking back, I would assess having seen 100% (enthusiastic) participation among my students.
Engaging the class with personal stories is a method that I have seen used, and brings a practical, real world approach to the topic being discussed.
Faculty also experience a certain degree of frustration, students pickup on this. Refocusing yourself, looking back on what you have already accomplished and redirecting yourself to the task at hand will demonstrate to your students your commitment to their success.
I learned about the importance to keep ourselves motivated as instructors. Tools like REFOCUS can help us to keep ourselves and the students motivated, especially in the middle of the courses, when it is hard to keep the motivation sometimes.
