When teaching a course in learning a certain software, I find that redirection is commonly used when answering a question. For example, if I ask a student, "Give me four ways to zoom in and out of your page on the computer," most of the time I get two to three correct or semi-correct answers. When this happens, I address the issue at hand, then ask another student to add to or finish answering the question correct.y.

I loved the idea of ticking a checkmark by each student's name to track my interaction patterns with the class. I try to be mindful of connecting with everyone, but I am aware that I develop habits of wanting to zone in on a few select students. On another topic - While this is not specific to groups, it is a unique issue I've encountered with remembering student names (which tends to affect my interaction with students in class and groups)... I find that my brain will "rewire" two students' names in class at some point in the term. Although I know the proper name, I will use an incorrect one, sometimes repeatedly - my brain says "Sue," and my mouth says "Jane." Does anyone else find this happening? And if so, what do you do to ensure you remember the correct name or to course correct? I learn all students' names at the beginning of the semester and use nemonic devices to remember them. I use their names often in class. I don't know what triggers the incorrect naming, but once it happens, I seem to get stuck and have to work very hard to remember the correct one! It's certainly not a major catastrophe, and often the students laugh and tease me - however, it's disruptive for me! Any ideas are welcome :-)

I use a variety of types of assessments including written and online.

I like to variety content delivery and then have assessments at the end of class to ensure that my students are receiving info and processing it accurately. I adjust as necessary.

I currently teach at a technical school where most students are fresh out of high school. There are 6 hour lectures on some days which challenges their attention span. For review they take a multiple choice practice test and keep the answer sheet. They then break up into two teams. I draw a baseball diamond on the whiteboard with targets scattered throughout. They then take turns coming up to the plate and throw a suction ball at the white board. I then ask the player what is the answer for question number 15 for example. (or any random number) Only that person answers. If the answer was correct the team gets the score. We then review the question and answer regardless. After the first inning they all have an opportunity as team to look over the practice test and answer sheets. The game continues until all the questions are answered. This keeps the students engaged and working together.

While alot of this unit's content was familiar, it was supported by good research and was a great reminder of some important steps for getting students to remember content. The suggestion to reinforce content through review (what's been covered) and preview (anticipate what's to come) was familiar and, I thought, apt. In public speaking, we say "preview, view, review" for your audience - that look back and look forward allows students to download previous content, reboot their attention spans and prepare for new material. I particularly appreciated the concrete tidbits of research - eg, 2-4 topics in 30 minutes - that offer practical "on the ground" reminders for improving student success.

I find board games to be an excellent source of active learning in the classroom.

It gets hard when you have one or two students that are having trouble and are slowing the class down. I try to give them special assignments to help them learn the material.

Personally I enjoy using powerpoints, dry erase board, hand-outs, and any materials for the subject that the studen t could put their hands on. I also employ pics and videos to try and hit all learning styles. My classes have been very responsive.

I find that if I tell my students how much I have learned from teaching a course it will inspire them and also make them realize that they, too, will not know everything and that is okay. I also tell my students that I do not know everything and if you ask me a question I do not know we will figure out together or I will ask them to do some research on their own. They can then share with me only or also with the class!

I enjoy being able to make answering a question fun in my class. I call this technique phone a friend, pass the ball, or a life line. It seems to make the students more involved. For example, I may ask Sarah a question and she may know a portion of the answer and not the full complete answer. At that point I say, " Would you like to phone a friend?" , "pass the ball?" or get a life line?". This technique has been the most promising for my students and I to have harmony as a unit.I enjoyed this lesson because it also helped me to start restructuring the way I may ask certain questions. Excellent!

I recently instructed a student that cannot hear but requires sign langauge help in the classroom. Our school has given two instructors to assist during class with delivering sign langauage and the student is wonderful and succeeded in the class very well. This shows that students with disabilities can be successful.

I believe beginning this general education classroom requires advance preparation, objectives and topics written onto the white board, and possibly handouts for student note taking. I instruct by presenting the basics, then walking around the classroom as students work on computer assignments from myitlab.com. I encourage students to work with one another (on skill-based projects,, not exams) and raise their hand when they need to stop me for assistance. This information in this modular is a perfect reminder that I need to continue teaching as I have been, oh, with a smile, too! :)

It's overall easy to motivate students who want to learn and have a passion for the field they have chosen. What tools do you use to motivate those who are uncertain about the career path they've chosen? We have many students who feel culinary is an easy profession and cooking has to be fun so they enroll. Their passion and desire to work hard are not there. The food ntwork portrays cooking as fun, glamorous,easy and you can amke a lot of money. All these are far from the truth for most culinarians. What can we do for these students?

I have ready many of your posts and agree with most of the comments. I have found that some adult learners do not want to share their disability with me unless pressed. For example, I had a student who was easily upset and hated exams. I offered to tutor her, but she was very hard to reach and extremely defensive. Finally, during one of the exams she was in an absolute panic mode, and I asked to see her outside. I told her I knew she was very private about her personal life, and I wouldn't want to intrude, but was it possible she had a learning disability? She immediately told me she didn't do well on exams and was dislexic. I gave her extra time on her exam, and it changed her entire attitude about me and the class. We added her disability to CampusVue to aid other instructors. I think students tell us about their disabilities when they want us to know and on their own timetable.

One strategy that I have found positive is to visit the class that will be advancing into my classroom. This visit is usually made near the end of the course during a time where the class is between assignments and lab activities thus avoiding any impact to their progress, but allows time to become familiar with the class members. I hold the visit to five minutes or so, and keep it up beat to hopefully reduce any apprehension about the "next" instructor.

General education assessments should include the identification of students' ability to do critical thinking, problem solving, and effective communication. I teach Sociology, which is a gen ed class & the exams include the assessment of the basic academic skills of reading, writing, and computation.

I provide my students with a studyguide prior to the exam so that they can study efficiently. Some instructor may think that there is no reason to test students even you are giving them the information for the exam, prior to the exam. I am still assessing their knowledge of the material. I may tell them for example, how sociologists define gender socialization. However on the exam, the question is a case study that they must label as such. They also have essay questions that they must complete in written format. This also assesses their understanding of the course content by explaining it through written format and applying to their life with the use of a persoanl example. It works well, and I am confident that they have a good understanding of the material.

I teach Socioloy, which is very discussion based. Students enjoy sharing their opinions. However there are students who do not like to participate for fear that they will be judged or labeled when they express your thoughts or opinion. After some information, fact or statistic is presented, I use a polling question as a discussion spring board. Once those who are more comfortable participate, I ask for a show of hands on who would choose A B C or D as their answer. I then ask one of the quiet students to tell me why they chose that as their answer. Even if they only say a few words, they were engaged for a moment. It also showed them that I care to hear their thoughts or opinion. It may encourage further participation in future classes.

I teach in a culinary school, I supervise and discuss with my students as they are working and at the end of the day we discuss the successes and failures of the day. We discuss why it was a success and how to improve the failures.