The enthusiasm of the instructor comes for loving what you do and also being great at it. Your emotions for your career is shown to your students thru the teaching and energy while teaching

sometimes refocus and do more to keep the students excited about the course

In my experience as a instructor, adult students do well in classes that they can relate to and can incorporate into they everyday life

Occasionally I will have students who resent other students in the class. They feel very strongly that all students should get treated the same regardless of the circumstances. So they quit participating and gain an attitude towards the school and the instructors.

Due to the vast difference between adult and younger students, does anyone have any concrete tactics for very age diverse classrooms? I often find myself teaching a class with an age grouping of 18 to 60, and tactics appropriate for one side of the spectrum are not for the other. For example, I generally give older students a lot more tasks that require outside learning and initiative. Younger students often find themselves confused by the lack of directions, but the freedom to learn and explore is exactly what the older learners thrive on. One possibility is to provide assignments with clear outlines that have optional content, but I feel that for the younger students I would just be better off assigning all the content. If anyone else has tactics that they employ, I would love to hear them. ~John

In keeping with the career college relevance,I find that one of the single biggest motivators is the not hold back your passion of the subject and letting the students know it's safe to do so too. Most students are attending school with goals&desires, but over time--and with life's anxieties never stopping--students and instructors can get in a rut. Fanning the flames of why they first wanted to attend the school has helped the students, but also comes full circle to keep me motivated. Even when I feel tired, I'll try to let my passion for what I am teaching--and what they are learning--show.My students fire me up and that makes me want to do better. Everybody benefits.

As an instructor for an online college, there are great challenges in keeping students constantly motivated and eager to learn and grow. My portfolio class allows me the versatility in my teaching style to include live critiques of the student work, allowing the students to interact with one another and provide an interactive platform for learning from each other. Here, they feel comfortable making mistakes and learning from one another and see great growth in their work as there is a bit of 'peer pressure' to continue evolving as the other classmates do.

Motivation is one of the powerful words an instructor will embrace. If an instructor is not motivated it will affect student(s) desire to learn and their ability to succeed.

Its' important that when presenting new information and in a new format that teachers acknowledge stuents and their various methods for learing. This can motivate student to learn.

Instructors should alwasy involve all students in the learning process. Each student should be made to feel their opinion has value to the discussion and that being right or wrong is value added to the discussion.

To maximize student retention instructos should be aware of the class dynamics and keep students involved in the learning process. Tie learning task to daily events and make students believe they have input in to the process.

it's i porta tnat when teaching in the multicultural environment that the instructor remain aware of each students needs, and learning styles. Sometimes language can be a barrier to learning and should be taken into consideration when using slang vs. academic language in explaining concepts.

You are looked to as the expert, so your body language and teaching techniques motivate your students.

This is a very good acronym for me to utilize. Sometimes dealing with adults with a mixture of teenagers can get me out of my element.

Adults tend to value their decision on coming back to school when they have pay for it on their own.

Adults process information different from younger generations. They are sometimes more focused.

I have found that when the student is motivated ,it is more like he or she is on a mission,they know what they want to accomplish and they are much more enthusiastic about seeing the end result. this makes the teaching of the subject much more rewarding also because the motivation is very apparent and present!

The portion of this section about students and age issues really hit home. In the past I have had students question my ability to teach them because of my age. I became a college professor at the age of 28. Now, at the age of 32, I am younger than a lot of my students. In addition, I'm still younger that the parents of my younger students. I kind of sit between a rock and a hard place. While I am completely competent in my ability to teach them, I shy away from posting my picture to our course portal so students won't have an idea of my age range. Since I teach online not posting my picture completely prevents students from knowing my age. Has anyone else had this issue? If so, how did you handle it?

Instructors need to be able to get their students pumped and excited about what they are getting ready to learn. This makes for a much better learning environment in that the students are paying attention, listening, taking good notes, and just all around happy and excited to be there.

I think it is very important to figure out learning styles and personalities early. This will ensure time to adjust as necessary.