Reviewing the syllabus is a crucial step in teaching. It is vital that the instructor go over every aspect of the syllabus with the students. The faculty member nees to make sure by the end of the first class that all students fully understand all criteria as outlined in their syllabus. Any concerns the students may have can only create more anxiety for the students, which can effective the way the student may learn the material.

One technique that I found effective in encouraging students to ask questions in class was to have students write up a question at the start of class on a sheet of paper with thier name on it. I would read the question aloud in class without disclosing their name and get other students to respond or comment on the question. This encouraged participation from the entire class, showed that there was no such thing as a 'stupid question' and moreover as the weeks progressed, students who were shy in the first week of class gradually started to raise their hands and ask questions rather than penning them down on paper.

The first day of class is the most critical time for faculty. It is important that the instructor makes sure that all courses objectives are discussed and the syllabus is reviewed thoroughly and professionally. By the end of the first day of class, the students should have all their anxieties removed and have a true understanding of what will they will learn and what will be required of them.

As a librarian/instructor, it always makes me feel the most valued when a student departs with skills that they can use in their daily life after leaving college. What techniques are all of you using to instill a life-long learning momentum or enthusiasm? Fran

As a Instructor in a Technical School I believe Performance (hands-on) testing is a very important part of the testing procedures, this gives the students a balanced out course, they have so many written test, the opportunity to perform a hands-on test gives them the extra knowledge they know the course material.

I work with people who are around horses. Amazing enough I find that most of my students are very passoniate about their animals. So teaching them how to care for their dental needs has been less of a stuggle for me. Most of my students have been raised with horses so it is second nature to them. Teaching in this enviroment has its advantages when it comes to students retaining the lessons taught. Shawnie

I am a instructor for Equine dentistry. I try and keep my student attention in class by using a horse skull and diagrams to make our day a little more exciting and a little less dual. Passing the skull around and placing the name of the area. The student earns points towards a prize at the end of the week. This seems to be quite rewarding. Shawnie

I'm finding it difficult to keep student interest and engagement at a high level with longer classes. I break up the class into mini lectures, demonstration, class participation in small groups, and short quizzes. During the last hour it seems like I'm losing some of them. Is this just human nature where some students turn off toward the end? Any thoughts on this?

As an instructor who primarily delivers course content through lecture, I find it necessary to almost put on a show to make students pay attention. But if the show goes well, all are happy.

I have found that on day one, the tone for the entire course can be set by following a well planned and organized introduction including all of the examples in the module.

The importance of learning something new each day should be accompanied by an enthusiasm for the topic being taught.

How do you adjust your teaching methods for students who are considered to have disabilites when there are 1 or 2 in a class of 12? I am having trouble with this since I know in the end they all need to know the same material and have the same skill set to get a job after college.

This is my first time teaching, and although I know the material, I have found it takes countless hours, far more than what it takes to actually teach the material! I know when I teach the class again it will be a breeze, but man is it draining on the mind.

When preparing a lesson plan, I often have difficulties with under- or overestimating the amount of material that I can cover in a class period. Is there any kind of "rule of thumb" for deciding how much time to assign for a particular activity or type of activity?

In a class discussion of "How are we doing so far?" students made suggestions for altering my creative project assignments, so the projects were more inline w/ their career goals. I considered their arguments over the weekend and gave students more options for projects. The students were very happy to have a collaberative effect on the course and did far better work as a result. This might not work for other programs, but it worked for my creative students.

Becasue the majority of IT certifications are in umltiple choice questions it is one I use to get them into a condition for sitting for the certs exams However, newly developed cert exams are using simulation models for quesitons and answers a simulation problem is thrown at the student with the requiremnt of fixing the problem and a number of points are awarded to the answer so exams require an 801of1000 to pass at 798 of 1000 a failure is announced with a retake at another time

I have just began using different colors for assignments and it has been a success

I agree that finding out which learning style works well in engaging all students. The challenge comes in figuring out the best teaching style for each student. I have found picking out certain idiosychrasies such as students in my class who take copious notes I figure are the "written word" learners and the ones who sit in front of the class so they can watch the demo are the visual learners. You can always hear the tactile learners because they are the ones who are usually saying "When can I do that,Chef". The question I have is, as a chef instructor, how do you go about totally engaging every student? Is this even possible?

One thing I hoped to see more of in the previous modules was a specific header for leadership. As instructors, I think we need to be true leaders for our students. If we lead, then managing, motivating and such come much easier. One of the modules talked about not being a "pal" to our students. I think it is okay to be a student's pal from time to time. If we get to truly know our students, then they will truly know us. That too will help motivate and manage our students. What do you think?

Since I'm involved with a relatively new program I've had to design most of my classes from scratch. I am familiar with the text and materials and overall goals from a Master Syllabus- but have to adjust the course content based upon time. Is is ok to communicate up-front that the Syllabus is "flexible" as part of a schedule (grading and other things are not) and the schedule may be adjusted based upon the learning progress of the class? Or, is this confusing to the student?