I recently took over a class for an instructor on medical leave. My first few class meetings were unproductive to say the least. Many of the students had an attitude. Attitude and disrespectful behavior had me at wondering what to do. After great thought, I chose to start a recent class off with a discussion of respect went hand and hand with professional behavior and success. I continued with demonstrating, comically, what not to do during an interview. I then worked the discussion into their field's professional expectations and certifications they should strive to acquire. It seemed help me connect with them and by the end of the class the ones who were late, did not want to leave. What suggestions does anyone have?

In my field, students are required to demonstrate their knowledge in a practical application. This is done by working with "clients" in a public, realistic environment. It can be difficult to point out mistakes in front of others. Most students welcome feedback and direction, but occasionally I find students who get defensive and feel attacked or humiliated in front of their peers. I believe that instructors should work on the methods of delivery for offering constructive criticism. Some students appreciate a candid remark or a joking comment, but others may feel ridiculed. Is it better to address issues and offer criticism in a group setting or wait to speak to each student one-on-one? Cliff

Answering the questions A- Audience, B- Behavior, C-Condition, and D- Degree have been a big help in re-writing old daily lesson plans. Having these question answered for each daily topic pretty much spells out the where and how to get to where we need to go.

For lecture notes, I have always worked from an outline. Unfortunately, I am also a stickler for form and have always tried to make the lecture content fit into an outline form. By this I mean that there should be at least two points for every heading or subheading to be considered good form for an outline. I have found Information just doesn't always fall in an outline form to be easily presented. I am anxious to rewrite some notes in the tree diagram form. I think it will provide the flexibility I was never able to find in my rigid outlines. Actually, I'm just disappointed I didn't think of this idea earlier myself but rather read about this idea in this course!

I really hate to admit that I have trouble with names, but I found that honesty is the best policy…. The first few days of class I bring self-sticking nametags and a sharpie pen so the students can write their names on them. I tell them upfront that I really have to work at learning everyone's name and that is why we wear the nametags the first two or three days. At first I thought they would absolutely hate it, but they didn't. They actually seem to welcome that an effort was genuinely being made to learn their names and I think it helps the students learn every ones name too.

Does anyone have any specific suggestions on this topic as to what has worked in this area. I like this idea from Module 3 but do need some specific examples? Thanks, Jodell Raymond

Does anyone have any specific suggestions on this topic as to what has worked in this area. I like this idea from Module 3 but do need some specific examples? Thanks, Jodell Raymond

Even though I'm new at the teaching experience and still trying to find the best way to relate the information to them, nothing takes the place of having real world experience in your field. It's only my second semester as a teacher but I bring in over 25 years of experience and knowledge in my chosen field. A lot of times students can relate more with real life scenarios than just examples in the text books. This also tends to motivate their curiousity about learning more about the subjest.

I've just start my second semester teaching the same course. This time around I got there in plenty of time to get everything setup and ready to greet the class. this included arranging the desk so that I could see everyone, hooking up projector for powerpoint presentation and getting all of the other supplies organized for my class. I even had all of my students wear name tags for the first day and was amazed that I remembered all of there names after day one. The start of this semester was definitely alot easier than the first one.

One of the things that I have found is that you have to keep bouncing around with your delivery. The first time that I taught I used pretty much just a powerpoint presentation. It was hard to keep the students interested or motivated. Now I've just started another semester and I've still use the powerpoint but now I also add in alot more demos, drawing things out and getting the students more involved with projects instead of just trying to keep them awake. This is definitely getting better feedback from the students overall.

One thing I find challenging is where to draw the line between being friendly/entertaining, while of course being informative, and being a bit more hard-nosed. Some of my students seem to be on the verge of un-interested in being there, and I fear that any forceful presentation may scare them off. Some of them need this forceful presentation, because they're "slacking off".... Any ideas on how to strike this balance?

My class involves music theory and production techniques. I am 41 years old, yet my students are around 20-25 years old. Part of the course involves listening to music examples to ear train. I am pretty "out-of-touch" with much of today's music, and am heavily biased towards classical/jazz, and pop from the '70s through the mid '90s. I believe much of the current music scene is garbage, and offers little in content valuable to my class. How do I capture the imagination and interest of my students using music they may not know and appreciate?

My desire is to grow personally/professionally as an instructor, but I find it difficult when teaching new, neophyte students. I would like to introduce advanced concepts/techniques, but I spend most of my time delivering a simplified course content. Any ideas on how to push the students, and myself at the same time?

I find it challenging to determine the best split between demonstrating/discussing subjects, versus letting students jump into "uncharted waters" in their lab time. My class deals with music theory/production, and most of my students are are "square one", with little or no prior experience. Any ideas?

I find it very powerful to ask the students to solve potential problems as opposed to give a boring lecture...comments?

Is it better to start with the students introducing themselves to the class , or yourself first?

how long are your students REALLY paying attention during a lecture? also , would somebody consider using instructional DVDs?

some students seems to be taking classes without any motivation at all.they are there just so they have something to do. how to deal with those students?

One thing that I was surprised with my first attempt as an instructor was how unmotivated most of my young students (18-24 years old) were. Assuming that they would be very motivated after having paid a lot of money for the course was the wrong assumption. The field that they are trying to get into involves a lot of physical labor along with generally alot of long days. Everytime we would try to get into any physicl labor it was a chore just getting people to join in on the project. I'm also a parent of two boys and have already went through the teenage years with one and ready to start those years with the second so I have experienced from the home front. Does anybody have suggestions in getting and keeping the students motivated?

Greetings, Perhaps I can get some help here. I have no problems establishing myself as "leader" in the classes but I always end up struggling with this later in the semester. This has been true _every_ semester I've taught for six years. It seems I must do something drastic to re-establish the "leader" role. Any ideas? Thanks!