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Ask a question from your peers to help you in your professional work. Seek different points of view on a topic that interests you. Start a thought-provoking conversation about a hot, current topic. Encourage your peers to join you in the discussion, and feel free to facilitate the discussion. As a community of educators, all members of the Career Ed Lounge are empowered to act as a discussion facilitator to help us all learn from each other.

Be firm, fair, and consistant.

All ways use the same rules for all students

Intertain with education

All ways keep your students learning and active in the class at all times

Holding students responsible for their actions

This will help students in their future

Designing the Syllabus

What are some important factors to keep in mind when you want you're students to take away at least certain key points of your syllabus? Additionally, what are some ways to allow the students to take careful notice of these factors?

What is your 'secret weapon' to alleviate stress?

Would love to know how others alleviate their stress. My top three stress relievers are: 1) Exercise 2) Hot shower 3) Enjoying my morning coffee or an evening glass of wine outside on my deck.

LATE AND MISSED ASSIGNMENTS

WHAT IS CONSIDERED A COMPELLING REASON FOR A STUDENT TO HAND IN LATE ASSIGNMENTS?

To do list vs daily planner

Would you say making a large compiled to do list is more effective than having a daily planner where you can break tasks down by day and due date? My preference is a daily planner because I feel one large list might be more overwhelming. I'd like to know other's opinion on that.

Walking around the room

What a valuable tool! It is amazing how such a subtle response to a difficult student can yield such drastic results. When words sometime fail, simple proximity can work great. Walking next to their desk, flashing a smile while lecturing has been very useful for me. But, what about the student who doesn't care? The rare student who continues to talk, text, etc? In the adult learning realm what do you do with extreme behavior? Send them to the principal? This is a dilemna that I have fortunately not run into yet, but have wondered about for awhile. Any thoughts on serious behavior issues?

Students working in their field of study

How would you suggest dealing with students who are already working in their field of study and have the attitude that they know more than the instructor or that school is a waste of their time because they aren't learning anything new?

Time out

When I am feeling stressed I put myself in a 15-30 min. time out.

administrators

I wish that they would sit in or teach a class for one day to see how ineffective some of these standards are.

Essay Questions

The best Idea I have gotten thus far was a was to do essay questions. I am not a fan of essay question but this is a good idea.

Students

does anyone else agree that even when you set timelines students seem to need more and more..

Late assignments for tudents that work full time

I am fairly new to teaching and have a tendency to let my students slide on late assignments because they work full time jobs. They work some weekends and all different kinds of shifts so I try to schedule assignments for when I think they would have the most time to do them. But they have other classes also, not just mine. Would anyone have any advice for how to be more strict as far as assignment deadlines without being the stern instructor nobody likes?

New Instructor Mistake -- The Idea for this came from MK

I completed one of the other MaxKnowledge courses which discussed technology in the classroom -- better get used to it, use it, embrace it, because it's no going away. So instead of saying "I don't know; I'll look it up at the break and get back to you," which is what I've done in the past, I said, "I don't know -- let's look it up." On my surveys, I got blasted, "Why are we paying all this money for a teacher who tells us to look things up for ourselves?" So clearly this was not the right implementation of the idea behind the course. What is the right implementation? I don't know. Maybe it depends on the type of career college. It clearly backfired on me due to the way I implemented the idea. I'm not sure how often the MK courses are updated, but it should be a continuous process based on feedback from those who have taken the course. The discussion forums are great, but what about course feedback?

Getting Students Excited despite their determination not to be.

I teach in a culinary school. The course I teach is typically seen as irrelevant to cooking and to their careers. The course is extremely relevant, but they don't yet have the real-world experience to know this. Sadly, most of them are convinced they'll never need this info. I have had really good results with inviting former students come in and speak to the class, but I can't always count on getting a guest speaker. Any ideas on how to have the effect of a guest speaker without a guest speaker?

Assigning mentors

I have found that those people that want to be the center of attention do well as mentors. They are eager to help and willing to take on additional tasks for the extra attention it gives them. First make sure they are doing well in the class themselves so that they are qualified to help their fellow classmates.

Allowing for Failure

It is just as important to allow students to fail in a safe environment as is it to help them succeed. They need to learn that it is okay to make mistakes. It isn't the error that counts, but the effort made to correct that error.

cheaters

I usually make an announcement to the whole class and then pull the individual out a few days later to talk to them.

Late Assignments

I have only one student in my course and for the most part he turns in all his assignment by the due dates. So, when I cancel class for a funeral and the assignment was submit late via internet. Should I still mark his grade?