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.

I think its easy to hit the different learning styles in the course I teach which is Sociology. I agree with the statement that learning styles affects how a person learns, acts in group settings,participates in classroom discussions, solves problems. Therefore, I utilize powerpoint, refer to case studies in the book, show a videos that relate to various topics within the chapter, and use group activities & exercises. Its how we perceive, gather and process information. Everyone has different ways of learning. Knowing what your students learning styles are will make learning easier therefore making it more enjoyable for them to learn, which makes the instructors job less stressful.

When meeting the class for the first time I find it very difficult sometimes to remember their names especially if I have a large class so I will keep saying their name when i am needing an answer or if the have a question I have them repeat their name and by day 2 I can remember who is who

I feel that the instructor should always be in the classroom at least 15 minutes prior to student arrival to make a positive impression to the student. It shows that you are eagerto teach and ready to take on the day

I arrive an hour before class so I can get some coffee, sit down and go over what I will be doing with my class. I try to think of a good (clean) joke to get them to wake up. I go over attendance and grades before class starts. I tell my students that "If your not 15 minutes early your late" Vince Lombardi

As mentioned about students leaving their personal belongings in a seperate area. Can this be affective with cell phones? Has it been proven that students can learn better without the interruptions of a cell phone or feeling that every minute they need to check a text message. How can we tkae this current generation of student and make them feel comfortable without their cell phones for a class session?

Using all these practices are wonderful suggestions of how things should be done in theory in a perfect world of student who want to learn. How do you direct your presentation when you have a classroom full of immature students who feel their disruptive behavior is acceptable. Is there an exercise available to make them understand the importance of qaining a quality education other than telling them that this behavior would not be acceptable in the working world.

I have found this information to all be accurate. In my experience the more active learning there is the better retention there is

In the creative phase of assessment the principal areas are demonstrations of acquired skills and verbalization on the related topic. Primarily in my estimation is to make the student feel comfortablle at the beginning of their course; students are sometimes unsure of their capabilities and potential thus in order for them to enjoy their course and learn the material it is imparativethat they feel comfortable with their learning experience. With this been said it makes for a creative assessment on my part.

In the daily routine of observation of student progress it becomes evident in student the knowledge that has been received by mere demonstration and outcome at the end of the day. Not difficult when each student is assessed without interruption in their course of study.

Addendum to forum 2; and vice eras, in the subject of questions in the subject matter, this form of rising to the occasion brings to memory any subject covered and thus displays acquired knowledge.

In this particular phase of ED 103 it brings to mind the various learning styles of our student population. It enlighten one as a reminder that diversity plays a major role in the learning capabilities of the human organism.

I like to use students that can speak spanish to assist students with little english skills.

It states 8-10 in a group but with smaller class sizes that is not possible. I for one like smaller groups 3-4. It creates more imput from all students.

As a teacher I feel like active learning is key in seeing students progress. It involves the students individually and allows room for the students to interact with fellow classmates as well as their instructor.

I TA an online physics course. The ideas presented in this course seem quite useful in a classroom setting, but for a course already geared towards problem solving, it is difficult to implement group discussions or presentations, especially in the online setting. It would be interesting to hear anyone else's experience with a similar situation.