I am a new instructor and the courses I am teaching have pre-existing syllabi already in place. There are a few areas where my personal teaching style and the sylabus disagree, and I'm curious as to what I should do to make them sync up. Should I propose to change the syllabi to accord better with how I would like to teach the courses, or should I change my attitude toward the perscribed syllabi and simply follow them?

Even though I enjoy the classroom the skiils that I teach are based on actualy being able to perform to certain standards. I enjoy the hands on as do most of the students. It is up to them to figure out the best way for them to learn and apply the process. That is what makes it such a challenge. You have to identify what works for each student.

I have done the last 3 mods (5 week courses) a survey at the first day of class, asking what it the best way they learn, is there anything I need to know about them and their learning style or taking test? i.e. learning disability, needing to be put somewhere else where they can read the tests out loud or have someone read it too them

When i am putting together students groups, i find that by keeping a good balance mixed of students realy helps. Byassingning numbers to students this helps to eliminate them grouping with their friends. This now allows the students to learn to interact with someone they might not know or be familiar with , allowing them to share thier experiancess from different backgrounds or cultures.

In my experience i find that good body gestures realy help me in communicating with my students. If my students see me come in to class exicted and in a good mood it trully reflects on them causing them to also feed off my possitive energy. I believe that we speak louder with our bodie language than what we actually say.

I am impressed with the idea of mini lectures. I'm with my students for 6 hours a day Mon. through Fri. Mini lectures would prove most useful in this situation. This is a new concept to me and I will have to carefully plan them out on a schedule but I believe it will improve my classroom learning environment. One of the biggest problems I run into is keeping the students attention, especially since they are in class for 6 hours a day.

planning is something I have very little time to do. I am going to put forth considerable effort to plan ahead and provide my students with more information about my courses and what I expect from them. I think I would run into less problems if I can provide clearer expectations.

I have a new student who at time will refuse to participate. This student will even go so far as to say "I don't think this is helpful," or "I'm not going to do this." I am a new instructor to this student and have sensed this student is "testing" me. They way I have responded has been to take a deep breath and restate with understanding what student states, i.e., "I understand you don't feel this exercise is helpful but..." and I'll give the reason why it is helpful. When the student has flat out refused to participate I've said, "I understand you don't want to participate because, X, Y, Z, and I can't force you to participate but this is the reason why I believe you should participate" and then give my reasoning. #1 Is this typical of some students? #2 Is there a different way to handle this situation?

Repetition of the subject matter also contributes to memory retention.

While it is the responsability of the student to read the bok and complete the assignment it is also important for the instructor to complete tsks with the students and if there is any confusion to walk tem through the questions

The students are proud of their work, espeacially what they may have put hard work into. While you are not able to display grades maby it is ok to display work.

It is important for the instructor to test in methods that do not overwhelm the instrutor with regards to testing. However is important for the instructor to understand that students excel at different test so sometimes you may have to look at the best interest of the instructors.

Positive energy is always important or a student. If the Instructor is feeling excited about the new content than so will the students.

I am teaching at a college that has four hour lecture blocks, and I am struggling to keep attention for all four hours and make the content last. I have introduced games and handouts, but I am afraid that I am wasting too much of the student's valuable time this way, any ideas on this?

Using reliable,tested learning assessment tools, instructor tailors instructional delivery that will benefit each olassroom student for optimal learning.

I like to keep things interesting , so i try different thing when i teach a new objective. I do feel nervous about it but i have to try new things in order to improve my ways of teaching. After all , if i dont make mistakes i will never learn from them . Some of the ideas that are mentioned in this course are some that i allready implement in my lesson plans and they trully work . For example:start with a quote or start by reading something factual relevante to the objective. This help me start and engage the students attention and hook them to the lecture.

Sometimes with more difficult topics ill have the class get into random groups and I have found it really helps with the understanding the information when their peers are helping them.

I teach college mathematics. I learned at an early age a lot of people struggle with math, have a fear for it. It came so easily to me which is one of the reasons I wanted to teach math. I was determined to communicate the concepts in a way that everyone could understand. I knew it could be done. I have done a pretty good job and I'm proud to say that when I'm done with a term most of my students feel more confident with math and that makes me happy. However, I always have one or two students that have the capability but have horrible study skills and are quick to give up. I can clearly see its not that they don't understand but are not applying themselves enough. I'm a younger instructor whose background is with children but I'm at a lost of how to get through to this adult who may be old enough to be my parent. What advice can you give me?

I am quiet impressed with this course it has given me a clear picture how to get student involve in activities, Active learning is a best tool which can help intrutor to get invole every student in class activity. Helps instructors to deal with bad students and to change their attitudes

It is very important to plan ahead. I always read my material prior to teaching it , it trully helps me understand what i will be teacjing about and refresh any topic i might have difficulty with . This also helps me prepare for any questions that students migh have about the objecyives being presented.