Noise ( anything which interupt the communication)

I have a student that backtalks to me and other students in front of the class. I have addressed the situation with her yet she is non compliant. I noticed that students are moving away from her. She has only been here 2 months and frankly I dread it. I have had students come to me stating they follow my lead on how to handle her. I ignore what she says usually, because she will continue if I address it in front of the class. Yet, I do speak with her privatly and she seems like she wants to improve. Any ideas?

Hello Everyone, I thought I introduce this topic onto the forum since nobody has done so yet. Even if it is a cliche. First impressions count. For this reason before my first day of class, I go over my classroom and insure all equipment is working order, all tables and chairs are clean, whiteboard is clean, and all materials that student will require will be on hand for the students when they arrive. On that first day, sharply dressed, I great each student, and either hand them the printed syllabus, or direct them to the online version. The look of the classroom, and the instructor, as well as the perception of professionalism is very important. It sets the tone for the rest of the course. Andrés

I have worked with various schools. Some have all the curriculum, and materials, schedules, lab material all prepared for a the courses and centers that deliver them. In others, nothing is done, and complete lattitude is given to the instructor to prepare his/her class/course the way the see fit. Personally, having been various postions between both extremes, I prefer to have it all laid out. This way I can focus on delivery, and elaboration if required. Having said this, if the logistics and/or materials are not what I consider quality, it's good to be able to make ajustments, in order to have the right balance of quality, logistics, and still have time to teach. Andrés

Your student like you, and are ocassionalyy inviting you out to drink with them. As a proffesional you don't accept in order to maintaine the student/trainer relationship. You group graduates and you are no longer there trainer. They invite you again, arguing, there is no longer a conflict. What would you do know? Andrés

What do you think of PowerPoint presentations? I found that they have been over used.

This is my fifth year teaching and every new semester I am nervous. To help calm myself I concentrate on one of my strength as I enter the room and greet the student. Take a deep breath, stand tall and walk like you are a queen or a king. The students are nervous too and your confidence will put them at ease.

I have mixed feeling about giving Extra Credits to my students. I like extra credit because it reward the students who are willing to go a step further in their study. On the other hand are college students too old for extra credit? I was educated in Europe and we did not have extra credit. I would appreciate your feedback.

I have been teaching for 5 years. I have the reputation of being tough, demanding and fair, and my students love me. Once in a while I have students that I absolutly cannot reach. They arrive late (which of course disrupt the class), have no personal discipline, and constantly disrupt the class with their talking. I tried talking to them outside of class but it does not work. The only recourse I have is to ask them to leave the class and go talk to the director so that the rest of the class can learn. The other students appreciate their leaving, the director supports me as it seems that my class is not the only class these students disrupt but I feel guilty. I would appreciate any ideas on how to reach these discipline challenged students. Thank you

I recently took over a class for an instructor on medical leave. My first few class meetings were unproductive to say the least. Many of the students had an attitude. Attitude and disrespectful behavior had me at wondering what to do. After great thought, I chose to start a recent class off with a discussion of respect went hand and hand with professional behavior and success. I continued with demonstrating, comically, what not to do during an interview. I then worked the discussion into their field's professional expectations and certifications they should strive to acquire. It seemed help me connect with them and by the end of the class the ones who were late, did not want to leave. What suggestions does anyone have?

In my field, students are required to demonstrate their knowledge in a practical application. This is done by working with "clients" in a public, realistic environment. It can be difficult to point out mistakes in front of others. Most students welcome feedback and direction, but occasionally I find students who get defensive and feel attacked or humiliated in front of their peers. I believe that instructors should work on the methods of delivery for offering constructive criticism. Some students appreciate a candid remark or a joking comment, but others may feel ridiculed. Is it better to address issues and offer criticism in a group setting or wait to speak to each student one-on-one? Cliff

Answering the questions A- Audience, B- Behavior, C-Condition, and D- Degree have been a big help in re-writing old daily lesson plans. Having these question answered for each daily topic pretty much spells out the where and how to get to where we need to go.

For lecture notes, I have always worked from an outline. Unfortunately, I am also a stickler for form and have always tried to make the lecture content fit into an outline form. By this I mean that there should be at least two points for every heading or subheading to be considered good form for an outline. I have found Information just doesn't always fall in an outline form to be easily presented. I am anxious to rewrite some notes in the tree diagram form. I think it will provide the flexibility I was never able to find in my rigid outlines. Actually, I'm just disappointed I didn't think of this idea earlier myself but rather read about this idea in this course!

I really hate to admit that I have trouble with names, but I found that honesty is the best policy…. The first few days of class I bring self-sticking nametags and a sharpie pen so the students can write their names on them. I tell them upfront that I really have to work at learning everyone's name and that is why we wear the nametags the first two or three days. At first I thought they would absolutely hate it, but they didn't. They actually seem to welcome that an effort was genuinely being made to learn their names and I think it helps the students learn every ones name too.

Does anyone have any specific suggestions on this topic as to what has worked in this area. I like this idea from Module 3 but do need some specific examples? Thanks, Jodell Raymond

Does anyone have any specific suggestions on this topic as to what has worked in this area. I like this idea from Module 3 but do need some specific examples? Thanks, Jodell Raymond

Even though I'm new at the teaching experience and still trying to find the best way to relate the information to them, nothing takes the place of having real world experience in your field. It's only my second semester as a teacher but I bring in over 25 years of experience and knowledge in my chosen field. A lot of times students can relate more with real life scenarios than just examples in the text books. This also tends to motivate their curiousity about learning more about the subjest.

I've just start my second semester teaching the same course. This time around I got there in plenty of time to get everything setup and ready to greet the class. this included arranging the desk so that I could see everyone, hooking up projector for powerpoint presentation and getting all of the other supplies organized for my class. I even had all of my students wear name tags for the first day and was amazed that I remembered all of there names after day one. The start of this semester was definitely alot easier than the first one.

One of the things that I have found is that you have to keep bouncing around with your delivery. The first time that I taught I used pretty much just a powerpoint presentation. It was hard to keep the students interested or motivated. Now I've just started another semester and I've still use the powerpoint but now I also add in alot more demos, drawing things out and getting the students more involved with projects instead of just trying to keep them awake. This is definitely getting better feedback from the students overall.