When a student feels more involved with his/her education it will motivate them to take ownership of the process....

How do you engage with students who allow their negative attitudes towards you affect their class participation?

I find that when i write things down on the white board, it helps the class accomplish their activities.

I find that I have different levelsof stress. 1. Being that I am not familar with the course. 2. Not having taught the course. 3. Feeling that I will not be very successful with student. Did ii get the information across. Then there is my outside personal stress. Relationships of family,friends,health,money etc.

I find that when I am organized and have all my ducks in a row, my class runs much smoother. I feel less stressed and the students seem to follow suit. They grasp the lesson more efficently.

One of the challenges that I face is how to engage the class. I try very hard to get down to their level and pull them into whatever activity that I’m doing. There are some common rules that I follow that I would like to share. Bring the activity into the real world. One of my pet peeves as a student was busy work. If I’m doing an assignment that I know (or think) it was only given to fill time, I’m not a happy camper. Bring the assignment into the real world by playing the role of the boss and giving the new “worker” an assignment related to the job. Example: “Today we are going to learn how to do pivot tables. Just to give you an idea of why this will help you down the road; it will take a massive amount of data and analysis it 100 different ways in seconds. If you work for a car dealership and your boss asks you to dig up a large amount of marketing data for a new sales approach, you can! Take all the buying data in the database pop it in a pivot table and it can start to tell you some interesting things.” This goes a long way to an adult student when you introduce the idea of a real world application to the project at hand.

How can you make a new class at ease when you where just told about a class that you have to teach the night before. How can you handle this as you are trying to prepare for the class? The department head gives us a syllabus but, we do not have the proper time to get materials together.

I teach math. I was perplexed that students couldn't compute the percentage that they scored (after all, it is a math class). So, I made everything a round number. Every homework assignment is worth 10 points. When I had 19 sections of homework (this matched the number of sections in the textbook), I threw in one "freebie" so I would have 20*10 = 200 points. It makes it easier for the students to track (and me too).

Being a younger instructor, I was struggling in the beginning to capture the attention of my adult students so they can take me seriously. I have taken on the roll of being the GUIDE and it has been wonderful. They respect me a thank me evryday for understanding them and being their cheerleader of sorts in the field.

One stressor is having to response to questions on materials that were just covered in lecture. I have come to accept the situation that no matter how well and clearly I think I have covered the material, there will be students who did not 'get it' and therefore I must re-address the topic. This acceptance keeps me calm and not uptight

I am a former public school teacher who recently made the transition to higher education. In the public school system, the fact that I had some visible tattoos was a non-issue. I am certain that some administrators frowned upon my tattoos being visible, but it was never something that came up. Here in the college setting, however, I've run up against the opposite. It is expressly forbidden to have visible tattoos. I understaood that when I accepted the position and I keep my tattoos covered because I know that this is what is expected of me, but I wonder how others feel about the issue. None of my tattoos are visible. I have several pink ribbons on my upper back that are sometimes visible when I wear my hair up (I am a breast cancer survivor); I have a favorite line from a favorite novel on my left forearm; I have a Hebrew symbol on my right forearm; I have several dog paw prints on top of my right foot. Thoughts, anyone? Should tattoos be more easily accepted in the workplace provided they are not offensive? Or, is there a gray area in what one person might deem offensive and another deem acceptable?

It alwys better to have the students actively engaged in the learnng process. When I learned calculus back in the day, we were at the blackboard most of the time working problems. It worked great!

to help me with student names, I print out name plates for each student to give out, and have the student put them in front of their station – I also up date the name if the student goes by a nick name -- I use the name plates for the first few class periods

I talk to the student outside the class room and turn the situation around making the student the target of the disruption that he or she was doing, to show how this effectives the student and in turn how that action effects the rest of the class

I am a rather new instructor. No matter how much I review my material, I don't feel like I am prepared for class. The buggest fear I have is getting up in front of the class, and they think that "this guy doesn't know what he's talking about." Any advice??

I usually get this out first day of class. I tell students that I like to run a mostly informal class and I encourage a free spirited learning enviroment. BUT, I tell them if I catch them cheating, they will fail. I tell them that if they cheat in here (the classroom) the will cheat out there (in the world),and the last thing we need in the world are more cheaters. This usually works and I have no problems.

I have a couple students who I just can not read. They look at me with that blank stare. They insist that they undertand what was just lectured but I have a feeling that they dont. Any ideas on how to address this?

Every person wants to be included/accepted and part of the group. There appears to be a fine line relative to a students expectations of a teacher and teachers expectations of the student. In a learning environment, the task at hand of educating is first and foremost. Kindness and respect is very important, however; trying to be one's friend towards a student does not work. Objectivity is key.

I agree that it is best to integrate the silent student into various groups that allow their input to be heard.

Upon reading this passage, I have certainly run into many of these student traits and have found myself not only reflecting, but, attending other teachers classes to gain insights and their teaching techniques. I realized that one size does not fit all when you are teaching. Excellent examples and ones to incorporate.