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Ask a question from your peers to help you in your professional work. Seek different points of view on a topic that interests you. Start a thought-provoking conversation about a hot, current topic. Encourage your peers to join you in the discussion, and feel free to facilitate the discussion. As a community of educators, all members of the Career Ed Lounge are empowered to act as a discussion facilitator to help us all learn from each other.

Helping students with disabilates.

When helping students with disabilates I always give them more time to get their progects finished. I will usualy give them more help than the other students.

Contact Info

I am wondering how many teachers give their e-mail addresses out to students? I would like to be accessible, but are there any inherent risks or things to be concerned about? Also, I really like the idea of quizzing the students before the class to get an idea of what they know coming in.

Role playing

I teach veterinary technician courses - and one of them I teach is a office procedures course - since this class doesn't directly deal with animals - it can be a challenge to keep students interested. So what I like to do is a brief lecture about a topic and then involve the students by having them role play - I will have them act out a situation since we are talking about situations that deal with clients. Gets the students involved and they have fun with it.

Icebreakers for first class

Not only do I go over the syllabus, course outcomes, policies, etc. I also try to do some sort of an icebreak just to loosen up the students and have a little fun at the same time. Things I've done are - 2 truths and a lie - where the student tells everyone 2 truths and one lie about themselves and everyone needs to try to figure out which one is the lie - scavenger hunt - where they have to go around talking to their classmates to find certain things such as (1) Someone who has a brother - (2) Someone who has never traveled outside our state, etc. I've also done things like ask a question to students to answer as they introduce themselves - if they could travel anywhere - where would they go and why. This tends to spark some discussion and get discussion going.

Outline

I think it's important to have an outline of materials that I want to cover in each class - I encourage open discussion in my classes - and sometimes although we talk about topics related to what we are educating students in - it may be off from what we are talking about that day in class - therefore having that outline helps me be sure that I am presenting all necessary material and not missing things which are important for students to learn. Students seem to appreciate that as well - since they then feel well prepared.

Attendance and Professionalism

Although students are in a teaching environment - it is important for them to also treat their education as a "job". Employers want employees who are professional and reliable. I feel strongly about enocuraging and guiding students in this regard - so they will be viewed as a candidate for a position they may apply for and not overlooked.

Disabilities On line

Detecting learning disabilities in an on line is a challenge. I found, to detect a disability it takes an average of reading two assignments. From this, one could detect a problem. However, it is difficult to determine the type of disability. I am asking has any one found a better method to detect and assist online students with learning disabilities.

Communicating

With my students who are in some form of the arts and in an arts program, visuals must play an important part of the learning process. The "word" is linear, while the image opens different connections in their brain and relates more directly with their patterns of learning.

learning groups

i teach in a kitchen and most of the work is done in groups. each group will have menu to do and a time in which it must be done the does keep them focus

New Instructor

I have recently started at a career college as an instructor. I feel as though I am slowly getting the hang of things but I am starting to have some student issues. I have a student faling my class and have called him/her in to talk about what is going on and how I can help. The response I got was "I am just not motivated to come to class or do my homework." To me this says this person just doesn't care. I have tried numerous things to get them to attend class only to be disappointed when they don't come or don't do the homework. I know I can't "save them all" but in a way I feel as if this is a failure on my part. Is there anything else I can do?

Questioning as a Teaching Technique

This is definitely the best way to engage the students in discussion. Keeping the discussion moving in the right direction is key to helping students absorb everything.

Planning

I think this all goes back to how important planning is. If I am not prepared as the instrutor the whole class is thrown off and nothing runs smooth.

Introductions

I love meeting a class for the first time! I love coming up with new activities to get to know everyone. One game that I like is having students come up with two questions and then having students draw them and answer them.

Planning is Important

Planning for me is so important. I love to have something new and fresh for the students. I love having them find and discuss current events, I feel this gets everyone's brain working.

First Time Instructor

I am a first time instructor and I have been trying to come into my own style. Each class that I have taught has allowed me to learn different learning styles and then decide different approaches.

Selecting Test Format

The course content is going to be very important when putting together an exam as well as looking at the learning styles of my students. Working through the course, I will get a gauge of what my students can and cannot handle. However, I will look at my course content and lecture material and tailor an exam that will hit on all the main points I will cover in lecture and homework assessments.

Classroom Assessment Techniques

I teach a lot of beginning level accounting courses that have a lot of theory and rules the students need to memorize to be successful. The first time I taught the class, I asked my students questions about the delivery. I used the feedback given to tweak the way I present my material so that it works for that particular group. I use similar examples and handouts that seem to work with the students each time, but I always ask for feedback on what can be done better. I also like my students to be involved in the process of the class. I have different activities that break the course up and give real life examples. For instance, I use a video on Enron to discuss the cash flow concept with my students. Sharing the video (the story) to go along with handouts of the actual financial statements helps reinforce how the statements were put together and what was actually wrong with them. A second activity I have used in personal finance is an electronic game with budgets and monthly spending. Students get involved in this activity and it shows them how important the concept of an actual budget and building passive income truly is.

Student Participation

In a classroom, I like to ask open ended questions as well as ask specific questions about a certain concept we are covering at that time. When working in the classroom, I can take a check of the classroom and see if students understand the material by the look on their faces. If I see the “deer in the headlights” look, I know I need to go back and go over concepts and ask specific questions about why things are not making sense. In an online forum, I use specific questions and real life examples to get students to think about the concepts being taught in the classroom. I also have a broad post for students to post specific questions about homework concepts. However, I do not get the response I would like from this type of post. A lot of the times students ask questions as they are submitting the homework assignment for grading without utilizing this discussion thread. How could I get more response from this post in the online discussion and not have students ask questions when submitting homework (when it is too late)?

Learning Styles

Knowing about my students learning styles can be helpful when putting together my course content. I can use this information to tailor my lecture plans to meet the needs of my students so they can excel in the classroom through their learning style. I teach accounting and finance courses and bring a lot of different learning styles in my course delivery. I give handouts to students so they can work out the problems in class along with a visual aid of using a working example in Excel.

Learners with disabilities

Some learners tend to try to keep their disabilities secret which by the time their known it may be to late to help them.