I enjoy creating a professional development plan for myself as it gives me a sort of "check list" to follow for the year on what I want to continue improving upon. One of the challenges I run into however is budget and time constraints. I often times need to get creative in how I am going to improve myself in certain areas to fit into the budget and time constraints that I have. For example, reading research from the library, engaging in conversations with other people about topics I am not as familiar with, etc. There are lots of low budget ways to improve ourselves and I don't think we should limit ourselves to the expensive options.

Your syllabus should reflect the tone of the classroom

Students can read so think of supporting material for your course besides the text!

Is essential!

WE USUALLY DO OUR POST CONFERENCE IN THE CLINICAL SETTING ABOUT AN HOUR BEFORE DISMISSAL. HOW CAN I ENCOURAGE MY STUDENTS TO BE AWAKE AND PARTICIPATE IN THE CLASS DISCUSSION?

I am in total agreement with early and careful planning. It's another good habit one must exercise in order to be a professional.In order to be successful we must create good habits and using a things to do list is a priority for me.

I have been having trouble motivating students to complete their homework on time. Many of the students I work with have full time jobs and children to compete with their time. I have noticed that the people who do not put the time in outside of class are not able to do well in the course. E Marshall

It doesn’t’ matter what we teach; if we don't portray a "Positive Attitude", the message the student is to receive becomes convoluted?

I try to always think about what is relevant to the student. A certain amount of theory is fine, but it has to have application at some level. The instructor needs to be able to demonstrate this to the student.

I like to take a few minutes at the beginning of a class, particularly the first day of a class, and get some personal informtaion out of each student. I'd especially like to know why they are in the class and what the expect to get out of it.

I like to bring variety into the classroom. All lecture can be deadly, so I like to vary the content with real world examples and problem based learning.

Students need to see that you have relevance as an instructor. I think this can be best accomplished by brining your own real world experiences in the class. Asking them for their own examples is good tool as well.

I'm curious how often many of you end up adapting your teaching style to the learning style of a particular class. Obviously, this kind of adaptation happens day-to-day on a small scale, but how often to you end up making major changes to or even completely overhauling your usual delivery style(s) because they don't seem to be working with a particular group of students? Also, how do you decide when such a change is necessary?

As a professional we should exhibit excellent soft skills on daily basis. Modeling behavior is part of this, however, behavior of student at times cause instructors to act out of charactor. Are their any safeguards which can be practiced to prevent an instructor from over reacting to a students poor behavior?

I am preparing to teach for the first time and would appreciate some examples of “ice breakers” for the first day of class. I am particularly interested in ways to get the students talking and comfortable with each other and the class environment.

I found several discussions in this area interesting, especially the discussions about grading to employer's expectations and simplifying course content. I have found it useful to talk to employers to reinforce techniques and projects and development of skill sets in the classroom. It has been my observation that students "buy into" the employment expectations almost all the time. Developing projects and activities and assessments that develop and sharpen those skills is the key to a successful classroom.

I am a new instructor and I am looking for advice and or comments on being a motivator and not becoming a “friend” or crossing the line and fraternizing with a student. Good or bad examples of past experiences would be appreciated.

My classroom consits of 40 students in a trade school. They come to the class with varying levels of experience and aptitude for the trade. My difficulty lies in teaching to the "middle" student and still give the appropriate attention to the lower and upper levels of the class. Any suggestions?

Sometimes students can be intimidated with projects and lessons that demand critical thinking skills and a more flexible range of responses. To ease this transition, it helps to pose open-ended questions that do not require a mandatory written response. The same questions can be re-introduced at different intervals so that students can add to their responses with new material that is learned. It's important to be mindful of students who are craving a more intellectual experience.

Once the lecture has been planned, there are many techniques that can be used to ensure that students gain the maximum benifit. Get students to think, write and share their thinking with other students. Use of Multimedia to bring varitet to using different teaching methods. Begin with a summary of last week's lecture and an oveview of this week's, establishing a clear link between the two.