I have been at this (teaching) since 1988. It is difficult to say that one can or will become the perfect teacher. All one can do is progress at their pace and do what is necessary to introduce the concepts, ideas and material. With reflection, a teacher can see what they are doing wrong or right and build on that, then move forward with your insights on teaching. In time a teacher will find out what they are doing is productive and will help the students. Even after all this time, I haven't perfected my style of teaching, and even I learn from my students every term what I can and can't do in the classroom. To all new teachers- and even old vets like me- take time to develop your craft and carpe diem.

What's been your biggest challenge as an instructor and how did you meet it?

I find when demoing a technique for massage, that most students are so caught up in the hands moving and most seem to miss out on body mechanics. So, afterwards I have another student perform the demo as I did and I have the students only watch the body mechanics...This way the student is able to practice the motion of the hands without judgement and learns both good and bad body mechanics.

I think one of the hardest thing for instructors is trying to figure out whether to be an unattached authoritarian or a pal to students. It's hard to not care about students when you are trying to motivate them to do their best. It's easy for students to want to tell you everthing that is going on in their life some times to explain the reason why they are late with assignments. How can you come up with a balance?

When you are going through a bunch of material on the first day; the students are sometimes a bit overwhelmed. In order to ensure that they each understand the most important parts of the course syllabi or policies; I have them take a quiz on the material. This quiz is not graded. However, this will let each student what they need to pay attention to.

I have proven it effctive to use games for content review with the students. It tests their knowledge while having fun.

It is important for the instructor to be on top of his/her game everyday. It is the educator's responsibility to provide the learning contracted with the student all the time.

Since we only remember 25% of what we hear and 40% of what we read actually doing homework is very important. The more they do, correctly of course, the more they retain. Education is a participant sport not a spectator sport.

I have found it to be more beneficial to collect homework at the beginning of class. If I wait to collect until the end of the period some students will finish up on the assignment instead of listening to the new material being presented. They appear to be on task and appear to be taking notes but in reality they are doing neither.

I teach math and many students enter the classroom already hating the subject. They think they are really bad at it and are terrified that they will fail. I need to make them feel successful and then make them enjoy the subject. It becomes a delicate balance because they can't enjoy it until they are successful but they fear it so much that they fail to realize at first that they can be successful. Once they start seeing true success, they start enjoying the class and they start being successful. The trick to show them true success not fake or candy-coated success. I love it when they say "Wow, I am good at this" because that's when they become good math students.

One thing I have started doing in class is posting motivational quotes and a brief message every few weeks. In classes I have taught several times, I make sure I post a quote and personalized message to the class after particularly tough assignments in order to keep morale high. The reaction has been incredible! Students not only respond by telling me that the message was right on time, but I have also noticed that they have started posting positive and encouraging words to each other in student forums. What other methods have you used to really boost morale and create a learning environment where students can thrive?

Reflection is parallel to continuous improvement cited in quality initiatives. What are some specific metrics one could design as tools to guide the reflective process?

How important is it to give your students a tour of their classroom or lab on the first day. What factors would lead you to take the time to accomplish this on day one.

What do you think of sending the syllabus electronically to students?

What do you think about constantly moving while lecturing?

I like to do pre testing. Some of the questions I ask help me to get to know the students better and it gives me an opportunity to see where I might help them grow. I always ask if they work, what type of skill level they have now and what areas they feel they want to learn more.

One thing that has helped me learn students name better in the past is to arrange the students in a circle and have them say their name clearly one by one. Next, I repeat their name before the next student says their own. When everyone in the circle is done stating their name, I repeat everyone's name (in order of the circle). Finally, I have each student in the circle try to repeat and name off everyone that follows them. Typically, it makes the environment lighter and everyone gets a chance to repeat (or guess everyone else's name. This works best for classes under 25, and takes about 15 minutes to get through.

I am a firm believer that delivery of info is directed by the level of learning and how advanced it is. entry level learning - for foundation - is best as discussion. synthesis - is best delivered as a kinestetic process with little directive. One of our biggest issues is with students not at the level of the class. More advanced classes are usually taught hands on, however the students sometimes do not have the foundation to be successful. It is unfortunate that we are delivered with students with false understandings of their capablilities.

I had 16 years previous experience before teaching and continue working in the field while teaching. On 70 % of final course evaluation students refer positively to how I relate course work to real life experiences. I relate situations to what they experience on the jobs while in the class.

I have found the 15 minute mini-lecture concept to be very useful in adult courses. The challenge I've had with several of those brief lectures though is that many of them run over. By focusing on a 15 minute lecture, the material seems to be more interesting to the students and I actually have a hard time staying on schedule. But, the interactivity that comes with the briefer lecture achieves the ultimate goals of helping people learn the materials.