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Ask a question from your peers to help you in your professional work. Seek different points of view on a topic that interests you. Start a thought-provoking conversation about a hot, current topic. Encourage your peers to join you in the discussion, and feel free to facilitate the discussion. As a community of educators, all members of the Career Ed Lounge are empowered to act as a discussion facilitator to help us all learn from each other.

I engage the students by using different methods, showing props to hand out, raising and lowering my voice, calling on them to answer a question, walking around the room during discussion.

evaluations of students

I more or less agree with the content detailed in this lesson. However, I am not confident that it needs to be as complicated as detailed with so many versions of evaluation. I like the point system, IE: 100 points per test and the test results in my mind detail what the students were able to learn from the lessons presented in the class. I do agree that extra points can be earned for student participation in the class, homework etc. I also feel that points should be deducted for poor attendance, tardiness and non participation, as this puts forth the idea that students need to be accountable and take their studies seriousely.

keeping students interested

It is often necessary to speak of actual field experiences, hypothetic or actual. particularly problamatic situations, cause and effect insidents that may have taken place. and what is or could be a solution to these situations. make it a game and work it out with the class in groups. see who has the best solutions and why?.

Preparing for class ahead of time keeps everything rolling smoothly.

Some claification on grading please

This is copied directly from this course; "Make sure you know the evaluation policy of your college. You have to be consistent with it. Often college grading policies reflect only the end result, meaning a point score, letter grade, or percentage listing that will be posted as a part of a student's permanent transcript. If this is the case you then have the freedom to develop a system that will enable you to come up with this end result for each student while using a number of different evaluation methods within your class." The last sentence to me seems to suggest that you should adjust your grading as you move through the class; making adjustments on the fly as it were or using different standards to grade different tasks. Yet, as I look through this message board we are all talking about consistency. I am just looking for some clarification on this point. I will be the first to admit my mistake if I am missing the point.

field trips

Field trips are most productive, if/when they are related to the subject that is being taught prior to the field trip exposure. after the fact field trips are often scheduled out of sync with the classroom training. what are your thoughts on this?.

experience versus capability

many instructors are very capable academically but have limited field or work experience in their particular field. Student's seem to recognize these traits and pick up on them. how do we handle questions like? IE: how long have you been working in this field?. What is your background, are you a qualified journeyman etc, etc. in this field?

make up tests

i give make up tests at the end of the course (3 weeks). all makes up are given at one time and than graded. i use a different test for make ups but it covers the material equally. the make up tset can be a test that is also use for regular testing but not the test i used this course.

backup plans for all courses

you should always have a back up plan for any course or lesson that you are instructing. there can be many outside interruptions that will lead to a change in your lesson for the day. EX. a fire alarm, an unscheduled meeting for instructors and or students. you will need a plan to cover these ocassions.

Senses in Learning

Anyone know of ways we can help our students move their senses to “high alert” so that they will, more easily, absorb what is required?

Make up tests

For a few people, taking a test can be a traumatic experiance. Some people don't take tests well but are very good with tactile tests.At our institute, we have tests that are already made up. We as instructors don't change them. I will however, proctor make-up tests at the convience of the student. Now there has to be some specific time frame agreed on and adhered to. If left go long enough, the student will loose the info and usually will do poorly on the test.

powerpoint

powerpoint is a very nice form of instuction because it can be easily updated with out redoing the complete lesson.

Choosing Test Questions which are relevant to the subject covered

A student approached me upset, the other day and asked me why there were 2 questioned on an exam, that she had just taken. The subject was American Cuisine and the two questions were about 3 types of mushrooms found in a region and the other about a famous fish market in the Northwest. Her point was that she had studied all of what she thought was relevant and did not find those particular questions relevant.She said, of all the questions that could of been asked, why those?. I researched the test and discovered that the 2 questions were covered in class and are nessasary questions for students to know. The toal exam covered definition, skill competencies and "point of interest" which these 2 questions fall into, they both relate the regions covered. After another discussion, this student admits that she always were remember these 2 answers and will always remember this exam.

Ready,set go!

One must enjoy what they do. You must be passionate about the material, confident with the material, enjoy the work surroundings and the people they work with.Prepare for the class, be early, be ready with the material you will be needing on a daily basis. Don't continually leave the room for things you forgot. The students see you aren't ready for them and that can reflect how they percieve and react if you aren't ready and you really don't care about what you do or who you have infront of you. The student's can sence weaknesses in you and your methods and can turn on you in a hurry!

visitors

visitors to your class are a benifit to your class if you pick a good interesting person. He/she should have an interest in the field you are instucting. they can motivate students to do better, if they give the students an idea of what is expected of them in their future careers.

Anticipating Problems

For the most part, our students are wonderful young people and our experience with them is/ if we do a good job - positive and rewarding. Everyone, however, has occasional problems, and a few issues can eat up enomrous amounts of time and energy. *Maintain good documentation of things such as attendance, work submitted, copies of communications with students. *Make your expectations clear and follow your own policies.

My opinion one type of evaluation is Authentic Assessment. Is that it values the thinking behind work, the process, as much as the finished product. I use authentic assessment on lab time. The courses that I teach are four weeks and time management is really at the top of my priorities but, when it comes to the point of lab performance assessment is the key. I will like to use more the authentic assessment it in the future, may be on a different course with more time.

Training and Instruction?

How do you differentiated instruction in your classroom?

Instructors come in all shapes and sizes?

In your opinion, what students benefit the most from differentiated instruction? In my opinion I truly believe that all students will benefit from differentiated instruction. I also understand that not only the student but, also the instructor (teacher) will benefit from it. “It’s a win win situation”.

evaluation methods

I believe that evaluation methods can be the most difficult part of the teaching process simply because numbers on a single line deduce a student's educational profile. That's why I also do invididual conferencing throughout the semester/quarter. In fact, I do at LEAST three of the course of the semester/quarter and I find that to be a very effective method both for me as the instructor and my students.