I learned that you should inform the students of emerging technologies in the field that may not be available in lab. It is still important to inform them of what’s out on the job site. 

I learned of the importance to have clear objectives for our lessons. This allows the students to know when they have achieved what they were meant to from the lesson. 

I learned of the importance of saving old lesson plans for future use when you teach the course. This alone allows you to be one step up from where you were the first time teaching the material. 

I learned of the importance of finding out what your students know and don’t know. I intend to do this to make sure I’m not teaching them something they already know and that I’m not assuming they know something that they don’t. 

Storytelling comes with time and experience.  I've been teaching for well over 20 years.  I think you have to find where you can weave stories into your curriculum rather than forcing them in.  Creating stories is challenging at best, try to let them come naturally (organically some might say) or based on experiences.  

I do use quite a bit of humor in my storytelling, and perhaps need to be more careful and thoughtful with how I use it, especially with the diverse background of students that I have.  

I really like that storytelling can be done at any time and for such a variety of concepts.  I think it surprises students that so many different ideas can be simplified to things that they already know through stories and other ideas. 

Storytelling allows me to use a wide variety of experiences and examples to relate to my students from experiences that I have had.  Even if many of them have not had these same experiences, most can relate to them.  I am able to talk about more complex concepts in real-world ways, having had far more years to experience things than almost all of my students.  Humorous stories are particularly fun to tell and are intriguing to them, mostly because I think they want to know more about us as teachers and who we really are.  

I will try more independent learning to allow the students to be active in their learning and active! 

I plan on trying more interactive ideas in the classroom and researching all the different modalities available and dial in on even more creativity!!