I always start my classes off by telling a personal anecdote about how I've applied something that we've been learning about regarding the law in my own civil litigation practice. The stories I tell are anecdotal in nature, but there is always a hidden moral that ties together what they have been learning. I think that this sets the tone for the class that what we are learning is important and will be applied readily when they enter the "real world" and start working in the law office. An alternative to my personal anecdote is using a story in the news to highlight what we've been learning...I've found that either of these methods opens up great questions and discussions from the students and I see the interest in their faces b/c they know that someday the stories I am telling could happen to them.

I will often try to relate a course topic or concept with a students job or life experience. This seems to personalize the course, and it helps students retain the information.

I like the idea of REFOCUS. It is a very good exercise to reevaluate where you have been with the class, what has been accomplished, and what needs yet to be done. It can re-energize you.

I have 150 students each quarter, in 6 classes, 4 different course topics and at 3 different campuses. Each day I encounter students with many of the frustrations described in this session. I start out all my classes with a time for "class news". This is where I give my students an opportunity to talk about anything going on with them since the last time we met. We set a time limit for this "venting". Usually students find something positive to talk about, but many do find it a great opportunity to unburden themselves with no fear of repercussions.

The first day of class I not only ask names and goals, but also ask them one specific question about themselves like: 1. What are your hobbies? 2. How did you get your name? 3. Who is your favorite uncle and why? These things help me remember that person, and it helps me remember their names.

Another role I see that instructors have is identifying those students that are comprehending the material and matching them with students that need help. This helps both students by encouraging one to help another with his/her knowledge, and by giving the other student a mentor or study buddy.

Something I noted about my adult students in class they like to mentor the younger students, the experience that they bring helps the younger student to understand some complex concepts, and I found the younger students will respond to the older students Vs me. At the same time you have to monitor that the older students do not try to take your place, from time to time.

How far should we go to assist those with special needs. I have had many students that have difficulty reading, writing and expressing their questions. I work with those that really show the desire but I have had a few that do not want to go the extra mile, and is quite satisfied with their substandard work. we have programs that assist the students with tests but i feel that has become a crutch for most. they rely having things done for them.

While it is important to recognize the diversity of students and respond accordingly, I believe it is equally important to maintain the same basic persona for every student while offering the correct help/mentoring/coaching for their unique situation. Being a chameleon, drastically changing into something different for every student, may help the student in front of you, but it is possible for others to observe this behavior and deem you a phony-baloney.

Students enrolled in a school for different reasons and come from different background, different age groups, different cultures. Some come with the ambition to learning a career they have a passion for and others come because their family members want them to learn a career, so they can have a better future. They haven't decided yet what they want to do with their lives. This is where as instructors we have to put great effort, when we see the student struggling, we need to be patient, we need to listen and focus on the student's situation. Is this the right career for this student? Can we make it attractive and interesting enough for this type of student? So that he will end up enjoying, working and participating in his new career learning at school.

I am a 25 year old instructor and I have a number of adult learners who are double my age. Many of them tell me they have kids that are older than me. Although I am confident in my ability and knowledge, they do not always feel the same way. Sometimes I get disrespected because I am supposed to be respecting my elders, so they expect me to give extra to them. How do you overcome age difference between instructor and student, let alone amoung students?

One of my biggest frustrations as an instructor deals mainly with the difference in what I think of as "generational rules". In the syllabus addendum for every class I teach, I specifically state that cell phones are not to be used during class time, including texting. I don't think that this is an unreasonable rule, yet every quarter I've had to reprimand at least one student, typically of the 18-25 age group, for violating this rule. While my non-traditional students tend to be shocked by this blatant disregard for the rules, the other, younger students don't see an issue at all. I had one student tell me that in high school, the teachers didn't care if they "texted" during class. I find that hard to believe, but.... I realize that there are generational social rules that change over time, but I'm not ready to allow students to sit in my classroom and "chat" with their friends via their phones. Has anyone else dealt with this issue and how was it handled?

I have the fortunate (or unfortunate) job of teaching a "core" class that is mandatory for all of our graduates--young and old. For most of the students, I see a good level of motivation even if it is in a class that is not directly relevant to their chosen field of study. However, there always seems to be one or more students in each class that, no matter what I try, just do not care to be there and do the minimal amount of work. There is a lot of sighing and rolling of the eyes. It is a composition course. I am running out of reasons for them to understand why being able to write well and relate to an audience is important in any profession. They seem to want a formula that will tell them that this writing skill will equate to this much more money earned at their job. I am usually able to give them the opposite scenarios--situations where poor grammar and writing may hinder the acquisition of more money--but they seem to not care or believe me. Any thoughts or ideas?

Many of our students are "car crazy" for high perfomance, and high line cars. I share experiences like going to "on track" outings with MB and BMW, being paid for the day to race and compare other cars. Coaching them with the idea of doing little things in a great way, will lead to doing great and exciting things!

Know who your students are is extremely important. The students need to know that we know who they are by name and by other features. "How your daughter?" is a connecting comment when the student was worried about a sick child on the previous class period. Understanding where each student is within the objectives of the course is even more important.

Recently, a student expresses his frustration with his memory/retention. This student is in his forties and is returning to school to pursue new endeavors. He stated that it is frustrating for him to observe the apparent ease with which his younger classmates and his own teenage daughters are able to retain new information. While I experiment with different teaching styles, engage each student with a variety of learning activities, I still wonder if there might be any other way for me assist this student, either with his perceived retention deficiency or esteem, generally.

In my program, I have students that range from 18 to 61 in age. It is amazing to watch their social interaction. I pick lab partners for the class. I make sure that everyone gets a chance to have everyone as a partner. This ensures a familarity amongst the students and lively class discussion.

I work and teach primarily in an online course environment, which means interacting with students face to face is rare. Does anyone have any suggestions or "best practices" you've found to be most successful in getting to know and understand online learners when there is the absence of physical interaction? As a group, the online faculty at our school do a great job supporting online students...I'm just looking for any ideas that other online schools might be doing to reach out to their online students.

I like to use the competitive nature of my students to my advantage. I instruct a mostly youger male dominated class, and have oppurtunities to make challenging review games and lab learning in to contests. As stated in the ED102 discussion, not all students will want to compete. I find the majority do, and make sure there is always an activity for the students that do not want to compete. This helps keep them engaged in the contest. For instance I run a tire dismounting and mounting competition. The students compete side by side to see who can take a tire off of a wheel fastest and then mount it back on the wheel while following pre-set rules. The students that do not compete are asked to be officials to watch that the rules are followed, some are asked to operate stop watches and be time keepers, and other are recruited to record all of the competitors times and points. This style of relaxed learning puts together another one of the topics from ED102, FUN!

Would you care to make a comment about dyscalculia (math anxiety), especially with our older students who haven't used any algebra for centuries and see nothing but a rapidly approaching precipice over which they will surely fall- straight into the pit of math hell. Email is quick and a great way to help students. However, how do we help our algebra students with this very efficient communication system? I am referring to exchanging problem solving techniques within a mathematical framework. We just don't have the resource to write clear algebraic equations and to do that quickly through email. Try to demo with email and its very limited math symbols the solving of a simple quadratic equation using the step by step procedures embedded within the quadratic formula and you have some idea of the bottleneck to which I refer.