I feel as an Instructor that I owe it to my students to help them grasp the material covered in class. One thing that we do to help students with learning disabilities is to read tests to them.

I have a various group of students. They can range from having just completed High School to having been out of school for 30+ years. Using concepts and stories that both groups can relate to allows the entire class to grasp the material covered.

Since I have larger classes 20-40 students, I always break them up into teams when working on their recipes or lab projects. I have found that this does wonders for their individual contribution to the project. They master the concept a lot faster.

I can sometimes have up to 40 students and I have found that by walking around my classroom it keeps my students engaged. They are more likely to speak up and ask or answer a question when I am closer to them instead of having to shout it out to the other end of the room.

The conscious awareness of the preferred learning style is paramount for learner success. This fact is well known with educators. What is not so well known is the various modes of learning as they relate to Bloom's Revised Taxonomy. Higher order learning skills run from the lowest "knowing" to the highest "creating." (Creating was formerly systhesis and #2.) All of this basically reflects the complexity of brain function in a given cognitive situation. This taxonomy is also relevant to the other realms such as psychomotor. The emotive area is intertwined into the other two but is often ignored by educators. How can this relate to learning styles? "Learning styles" is only one side of the coin so to speak; the other side is taking the student to higher order thinking with will help retention also. +David Leon Cooper, MS (Ed Adm)

Hello, We use testing to evaluate skill apllication and content uderstanding.

Hello, Evaluating the student at the begining and end, help to establish base knowledge and progress.The student gets a better picture of where they are and what is to be learned

Hello, Checking for understanding is one way to evaluate teaching methods against the students understanding and retention.

Hello, I have used this knowledge to help reach students that have difficulty understanding material that was delivered in one style.

I know the importance of this topic, but I have always stuggled with it. We teach adults, yet have to have them sign-in each hour to prove they were in class. We have to follow the course discription and requirements of the college, but we as instructors are pentalized for students not completing our courses. I don't mind being pentalized for things I can control, but when a student gets put in jail or just quits coming to class; I can only do so much to get that student back in the classroom. Prep classes are the worse or if students are placed in courses that they are not ready for. How do you improve retention when you are faced with so many variables?

Walking around while lecturing is a form comfort.

First impression is everything.

The best for ssuccess is preparation.

I enjoy my new course; I sit on top of my desk and tell my new guy and gals a little bit about my background in education. I then move into my expectations of the students, which includes the course outline and the course objectives. I make my students feel comfortable by letting them know that whatever their learning style is, I will aid them with the method they need.

Instructors should be given support and training by administration to be able screen for possible learning disabilities. Physical barriers to learning may need to be assessed, such as vision and hearing. Also if a student self advocates, the instructor should a have a means of confirming the student’s claim of a learning disability.

Cross Cultural Communication skill apply not only to ELL learners but to English speakers also. In teaching adults from different cultures, the instructor must be able to adapt to deal with those differences. Pre-testing can help alleviate language barrier and some knowledge based issues, but it would be well worth the time to invest in cross cultural communications training for the instructor. It also applies to teaching adults from different professional background... i.e. each profession has its own culture and specific language. (police, nurses, military, engineers, teachers....)

As an educator, I believe that teaching style is very important to overall student progress, material retention, and success. I teach for a career college which has students from several different types of socio-economic backgrounds; therefore, I have developed many different styles of teaching. I, actually, have to incorporate many of these styles into each class, and that certainly was a major challenge for me. In addition to lecturing, I have incorporated PowerPoint presentations in some classes, various handouts, charts, etc. Using multiple styles in my classrooms has paid off in regards to my students' learning process.

Before any lecture I give in a classroom I am unfamiliar with, I try to walk throughout the entire classroom and pace (count steps) where I plan to float or roam. I also check for positions I want to stop at to make points and to check if I am obstructing the view to the board or other media I may be using

I like the ABCD mnemonic. I tend to make the same mistake over and over again for not addressing what condition the skill is to be tested under. I could use it to make sure that my objectives contain all 4 components (ABCD-audience, behavior, condition, degree of proficiency).

When we have in the same class students with ELL and english spoken students why not make them sit beside each other that way we are not just focosing on one side and not the other.