having a positive upbeat attitude can never fail in any enviroment

I believe that above all things, if you want to develop as an instructor you have to identify what you can and cannot do. We all have strengths and weaknesses and by knowing what they are and working within our boundaries and working to increase our comfort levels we become better instructors. Admitting our weaknesses seems to be the hardest of all the personal development needs we have. Once we swollow our pride and own up to our weaknesses I beleive we will ultimately find that we were not alone and enable others to better themselves as well.

we generaly have 3 test through the three week course and I feel that this gives both the student and me a way to gauge whether the students are understanding what is being instructed or if I need to change how i am giving them the information because they are or are not understanding!

Now comes the time where it is up to the instructor to develop a correct grading criteria to actually see progress in the students.

As class goes on, it is always important to quiz students about the subject matter as class goes on.

By asking any questions as per topic, you as an instructor get to see how well you had gotten thruogh to the students.

As I have seen in the past, there are some individuals that need visual. Along with some that need hands on. Very important to examine the class prior to projects to be comp-leteed.

I find that when a lecture is to last all day, If you break it up into 20 minutes sections then I usually have like a quiz off and compare each groups information retention to another groups, it tends to work most of the time because it institutes competion between fellow students.

Students love stories of our lifes experiences.I (I'm sure most do)incorporate at least a few different examples of my personal doings during any given topic/lecture.I have this "thing" I call stories with pictures.During lecture with my stories I'll show them the picture of what I'm talking about.I have a collage of several vehicles on a board with numbers on each picture.For extra credit or fun time burning,they match the picture with a question from a certain subject.I.E. A 67 Shelby stang the one that had a vibration because I didn't match the flexplate with a new one.(keep parts till the job is done.)

At our establishment, sometimes groups are not the best thing I found. I agree that some students learn better with their peers but sometimes the groups could actually cause a distraction. They have been a group for a number of classes and sometimes they are more intrested in their own social clique than the actual material you are teaching. These groups I feel should be monitored and possibly seperated so the students can think for themselves and not as a group.

Opening a new class with the goals and rules for the class to me is very detrimental to how the class will unfold. Discussing the topics and goals for the class are easier, I find for the students to understand than to just give them a piece of paper with the course outline and rules and expect all of the students to adhere to them. Remember different students learn in different fashions. Group discussions will cause the students to start to relate to one another which will help them to work together in the future.

I believe that there is no one set style of modeling professionalism in the class/lab in fact there many different key styles of molding professionalism in and out of the classroom but no matter what style we choose we must lead by example stay focus and make sure that the student under stand that learning is of the outmost importance in the class/lab.

"This learning style is the basis of many learning requirements for career college students. It involves eye, hand, and body coordination. This learning style is often integrated into the other three major learning style categories".

"By working with cohort groups instructors can develop instructional strategies that are tailored to the specific needs of the group members".

What is the real definition of Profesionalism?

I am working on delivering SOP's as a class discussion without the powerpoint. When finished, I use the powerpoint in a rapid review method to make sure we covered everything. I have been mixing in some technical previews of the course material to get students interested in what the next three weeks will concentrate on. I am open to ideas from others who are delivering SOP's this way.

I think it is important to remember that I am teaching the adult learner, and they seem to respond better when they receive the appropriate respect.

I have noticed that students do appeal to different teaching styles. I have students interact with theory, some will interact and learn in workstations and some interact only through participation. Some students will even comment " I really understand now that I have put my hands on what we discussed". I see that exploring different learning styles greatly reduces sleepers and poor testing scores.

Is it better to have the group of friends sit next to each other and work in groups together or to break them up and introduce them to and work with other members of their class?

this is one area where I excel I have Jeopardy Risk and Wheel of Chance all made up for the different courses I teach the students love it I divide the room in half and the learning experience is unbelievable they help each other out they celebrate success it's just a good all round pleasure when they know and they know they know