I have found guiding students and making myself emotionally available by explaining what it was like for me to be a student helps them feel more comfortable and open up the classroom for discussion that is genuine and engaging. The days of instructors pointing to a student for whatever reason to make them a focus in the general classroom are as antiquated as "stand and deliver" methodologies for instruction. It is true that students "don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care."

How do you support your fellow faculty and new instructors at your institution? I am finding institutions vary in the development of support for new faculty. I think once I get more experience, I will make an effort to extend my hand to new istructors and attempt to offer advice to ensure their success. This career is already challenging enough without the added stress of learning a new culture.

I found the fact that adults have an attention span of 15-18 minutes to be very interesting. I think I would enjoy breaking my lectures up into 20 minute sections. Maybe doing a question/answer section every 20 minutes or throwing an activity in there every 20 min. I think this will greatly help especially when you are teaching a class that is 4 hours long.

I find it very difficult to fit in introductions on day one especially with the amount lecture and chapters that need to be covered. I tend to cover the syllabus, go over rules, etc. then jump right into lecture. I will try to set aside more time on day one to implement some "get to know you" time.

I really liked the suggestion to keep a notebook handy to write down any questions and/or tasks I need to answer/do so that I am sure to remain on task. I will have to start doing this. With teaching well over 100 students it is hard to remember who needs what.

I find it VERY important to continue to work in the field as well as teach. I am better able to share experiences with the students, keep myself up to date on techniques and changes in the medical field and am able to better explain the importance of education to my students. I am more comfortable with subject material and have more confidence as an instructor. I don't just talk the talk, I walk the walk.

How do you deal with students who have no real ability to "want" to learn - they simply wish it to be handed to them on a silver platter? How do you deal with students of lower socioeconomic lifestyle such as the ones I deal with on a daily basis? I have students that really apply themselves & do great but then I have students who are "hit & miss" - sometimes they do good & other times they don't? And when they don't - then Im made to look like the bad person in all of this....

In delivering technology based courses where most tech subject matter answers are yes or no. Is opened ended questions technique better than closed ended questions or both methods are still valid for technology based courses?

Is there a prepackaged questions to gather what student's preferred learning choice would be? I would like to gather all information before delivering course contents to all senses so that you know each individual students learning styles.

I would like to just make a small note. I love questions and answer sessions in class. I use many of the tech. talked about in this lesson. I just wanted to mention that I never stop with questions and answers. All my studets know anytime my office door is open they can have a question and answer session with me. I am willing to put aside what ever I'm working on to help the student. If I can not offer my time then I just shut my door. My door is open about 99.9% of my day to students. The point I'm trying to make is that I think teachers should be accessible to students as much as they can be.

In my opnion it is so important to find out from the start what type of learning styles make up your new class. I ask them to write down what style they think is best suited to their learning style. This helps me make sure I hit the different areas harder if need be.

Always believe that anyone can be great

Creating Games are fun and will help students learn!

Always use CAN WILL

Organizing students into groups helps students who would not ordinarily participate in class discussions to participate. Group participation would possibly help the shy student or the one that does not have the self-confidence he or she should have.

Being a design instructor has many challenges when trying to assess a student's progress the class. Traditional tests are not applicable to this type of learning experience as it is all projects based that have be assessed on both quantitative and qualitative values. Quantitative values are easier to assess such as completion of requirements, clarity of presentation, neatness of graphics, etc.. Qualitative values are harder to assess as this can be seen as subjective judgement of a student's creative expression in their project. I have have found that producing a graphic matrix of all theses criteria and using a scale of 1 to 5 (low to high) in grading each category can help a student visually relate to the values to how the project was evaluated.

Next month I will begin teaching the first course for a new class and I have been brainstorming all the things I want to say and do before beginning the first lecture with my first beginning group. In no particular order: Distribute the syllabus Discuss the learning objectives and my expectations Emphasize and describe professional conduct Explore the textbook Relate the story of my career Reinforce their career choice Discuss professional organizations Encourage open discussion I have them twice a week for five hours each day. Any other suggestions would be helpful

I have read about the two kinds of questions, though as a student I would think outside the box and asked sometimes how this would an application would apply to the end user or to top management. Getting answers from the material incorporated into more than just the application to which taught helped me understand the material better.

fast up beat musci can also help

Allowing students activities is helpful