As a math teacher, students often cringe when they come into class. They feel like they will not do well. The most important thing to do is to make them comfortable in the class with the human factor and make sure they know they can always ask for help. It is important for math retention to explain to students how they will use the math in their career field. I find the more you make the math relatable to their career the better they will have an understanding of the material.

I went from teaching middle school students to adult learner. It has been one of the hardest transitions I have made. I find that adult learners have more excuses of why they can't do something or why they can't be in class. When I started I used to allow them to make stuff up but I was quickly exhausted from chasing ADULTS down to complete assignments for my class. I now have a policy that while I know they have a lot going on, if they miss class, the only way to make assignments up is to bring in a valid excuse (dr note, etc..). I feel like I'm back doing middle school attendance. How else can I handle this situation so I don't have to chase after them to get the work made up?

I find that student 40 and older can be self motivated, but younger students expectations are that the instructor tells me, shows me, and then does it for me, and i get the grade. They think that there is a short cut in everything that needs to be done. Unlike a video game, where if the die they have a reset button,we have to express the importance of there actions injuring someone at the end of the job.

I will put students in groups of 4 and put one student as a team leader. Ever other lab I will rotate the team leader within the same group. Each week I will mix up the students into different groups and start all over. This will encourage the students to get to know one another and be able to adjust to different types of personalities. When doing this I have seen the students gain confidence they need to do when working in the automotive filed and in life.

Many of our students may come to us with English language deficiencies. There are many excellent resources and agencies that will provide us with materials and assistance in our effort to offer quality instruction to this learning group.

I have been an instructor for 12 years..motivated students are what makes me enjoy my job. I also am a supervisor at a hospital and the motivated students in my classroom have also proven to be the better employees. The students who are completely opposite..requiring a ton of supervision, never volunteer, need prompting to start a task, no attention span, poor attendance are the students that I would never hire as a supervisor in my field.

listening to the students an what they have to say shows the student that you care about what they are saying

There are some students with personal problems and they use it as an excuse not to come to class or show up to class 1hr late for a class that last 1hr 50mins. what can i do to help them to catch up or to make the effort to get to class earlier or something? help

I was very interestyed in participating in this module. I think that the activites referenced will be useful in many of my classes. I am looking forwrd to incorpotating your suggestions.

I've struggled at times, remembering students names, this is something I plan to work on.

Some very helpful information about communicating with students, as well as adult learners, applying communication techniques.

I teach the beginning course at my school for most of our programs. It is basically a student success course, coupled with a professional development aspect as we are a career college. One of the topics we discuss at length is the idea of the comfort zone. We typically define the comfort zone as the familiar, the situation where you feel calm with no anxiety. While listening about security, this idea kept popping in my head. I tell my students that in order for them to become better and achieve their goals, they must get out of their comfort zones and stretch themselves into something new. While saying this, and doing many things in class to get them out of their comfort zones, I also work hard to make sure that they feel secure enough to branch out and venture outside of themselves. So, my question is, in what ways do you, as instructors, toe this line of getting them to do something new and different, while still helping them to feel secure in what they are doing?

I really liked this idea. I have taken it and formed a crisis based on my tech school problems that could arise. This will be a great addition to the class.

I have found that rewards given for any, and all, extra credit goes a long way. It seems to motivate my students to excel. I will pair them up into groups and hold competitions. I find that it creates a bonding experience for the students and motivates the ones that need a little extra push. Nicol

I found some validation in my practices within this portion of the security topic. In my class students have quizzes every time class meets with the lowest two quizzes dropped. I review the material beforehand by going over the previous lesson's homework with the class, I allow time for additional questions, and then we take the quiz. I originally began this practice to "force" to work with the concepts taught in small doses as opposed to "cramming" before the exam, but I do believe it increases their security with their grasp of the material as well. I let my students know that the material on these quizzes is the same that will be on either their midterm or final exams and that this is in some ways their practice run at it. When I return quizzes the following class we go over the questions as a class which allows them to evaluate what they understood and what they did not and in my belief gives them a better idea of what they need help with or to focus on when preparing for exams.

While I think that many of the suggestions in this lesson would be improvements, including offering to drop the lowest quiz score or giving more options on the assignments, some of these things aren't possible when you operate within a strict curriculum and a syllabus you don't have control over. Does anyone have suggestions? For example, during one specific course, there are 5 homework pages, 7 quizzes, a midterm, an exam, and that isn't negotiable. I'm curious if others have ideas to achieve the same results without needing to change these things. My guess is that the teaching style and in-class activities would make the difference but I'd like to know others' take on it.

SMALL TEAMS SEEM WORK VERY WELL IN MY SITUATION, BY WORKING TOGETHER THEY CAN HELP EACH OTHER OUT WHEN IT COMES TO UNDERSTANDING A CONCEPT OR FIGURING OUT HOW SOMETHING OPERATES.

I am an automotive instructor, I find that sharing my mistakes and showing me students how I learned from them, helps them be more secure in performing task in a lab setting. They learn by my examples that everyone will make mistakes but it’s what we learn from them is what’s important, I find that they do not feel judged and are very willing to share their mistakes with each other which helps everyone learn.

I try to determine if any students are prone to non-participation because they feel bullied or because other students might make fun of them. I actually had an adult student who was very social with classmates and seemed to be an extrovert, but when asked to provide a verbal report to the class he practically fainted! This was a wake up call for me - I never would have believed that this student would become so stressed to present in front of other students! I thought he was joking! Many students aren't fond of speaking in front of others - I try to encourage this type of participation because you never know when a job interview will be in a group setting.

I use the progress reports to stay ontop of the students learning and where they are at in the class. This gives you the opportunity to give them advice on where to improve.