When giving exams, what do you feel are the best teaching and learning techniques for giving exams? I use a combination of short answer, true/false, multiple choice and matching. Most of my students cringe when they see short answer, but I truly feel in giving these questions, they have to remember and learn the material.

I use task lists all of the time. If I didn't, I would not know where my head is half of the time!! It helps when I can pull down a note knowing I completed a task or erase something on the calender. That is the best way I have found to stay somewhat organized!

I recently had a situation in which I was discussing the respiratory system with students and a student may a very racial-laced comment. I just stated that I had never heard that and moved on with my lecture rather than give the student more of the attention. Later, however, another student approached me and said she felt that since I did not make a bigger deal out of it, that it had offended her. How can I effectively deal with this situation without losing the entire day of material?

I'd be lost without my do-to -lists! Sticky notes work great for reminders & there is such a feeling of accomplishemnet incrossing the items off. Having a list allwos me to prioritze things and stay focused.

I will prioritize what are my main important topics that I want to discuss in the class room. When I have my topics, I organize a complex outline that will help me to get the class situation and prepped out. The better organization I have, the more comfortable I am with the material at hand.

I have a student that is late to class everyday due to dropping her child off at school. Her child cannot be dropped off at school any earlier, thus her arriving to school late everyday. My class is only offered in the morning, 1st period. Moving to another class time is not an option available. How might you handle this?

It is important for people to have some sort of outlet in their lives that they can turn to to help decrease stress in their life. For me, it is music, for others it might be running or working out, or for others it might be a craft or hobby. The point is, we all need something to take us away from the stress.

There can be many stressors in the life an instructor. One of the big ones for me is not having enough time to be as fully prepared as I would like. When I walk into a classroom and I don't feel prepared, then I become stressed, and I feel like the class doesn't flow the way I would like it to. We have also experienced some changes to our curriculum recently, and I think this had created some increased stress, for me anyway. This means that even subjects I have taught before now need to be redone to accommodate the new curriculum. What I find helps me de-stress is using guided imagery techniques I have learned, listening to music for a bit, playing the flute and piano, or going for a walk. Getting away from the class preparation for a while clears my head and makes me ready to take on what needs to be done again.

I teach courses in Medical Assisting, and I feel it is important to utilize a variety of testing styles, depending on the course and the topic. So, while many tests have T/F, Multiple Choice, Fill in the Blank, and Matching, I do also use Essay exams when I want to know they grasp the concept and can apply it to the real world. When I use an essay format, the questions are usually worded such that I can read the answers for content, even spot read them and know if the student understands the concept. On my final exams, however, I stay away from essay questions or short answer questions. This allows me to grade the final exams in a more timely manner.

MML is a wondeful tool provided by the Pearson company to help students and teachers understand mathematics better. It almost provides the student with an on site tutor helping them as they work through the problems and provides the teacher with clear results on what the student understands and on what topics they need additional help. It is a win-win. LOVE IT

Students are most concerned about the correct answers on a test immediately after the test. If you wait too long to return their papers, they are no longer concerned with what the correct answer was but are now concerned with how many they got wrong and why their answer is not correct. They no longer care about anything except the almighty grade. So when deciding what needs to be done immediately, returning the test to the student is right at the top of the list. If your class only meets once a week it becomes necessary to be clever and get those papers back before the next meeting. Otherwise be prepared for lenghty arguments over why their answer should be worth an additional point or two.

I was little surprised that we focused on the symptoms but didn't address the underlying condition - fear. All of the behaviors involved can be tied back to a basic fear of failure whether it be unpreparedness of even lack of paying attention (apart from legitimate medical issues). Conquer the fear and capture the students imagination and energy. As John Wayne said, "Courage isn't not being afraid, its saddlin' up anyway". Let's make sure that we create positive learning environments and deal with the issue in a straight-forward, understanding basis. This can also work on an individual one-on-one basis even though it takes additional time and effort.

I am a kennel manager and instructor at our Vet Tech Institute. I am in charge of scheduling student rotations, maintaining order, and over seeing our kennel facility for husbandry (taking care of the animals in house)as well as teaching coarses. I have 183 students at the moment. I only teach or have taught 60 of them and know these students The problem that I run into is that the students I do not teach, I do not know their names/faces. I know 'about them' or have come to know them by exceptional or bad performance. How can I get to get to know them or even their names if I do not have direct contact with them everyday?

I teach surgery and anesthesia at a Vet Tech Institute. The age of our students ranges from: right out of high school to ~40 (career change). These students are easy to "mold" and are receptive to learning. We also have students that have been working in the field as assistants for pieriods of time. I am all for on the job training, but some of these students are set in their ways and it not always the 'right' way. How would you approach them in a positive way to help guide them in the correct direction without making them? I have had students tell me that "thier doctor at work says we are wrong for showing them how to do 'x' this way"

If you make a mistake in class it is ok because the students need to see you make a mistake so they know it is ok for the to make a mistake

I think all there doing is Cheating them out of money

You need Class Management if not the kids will walk all over you

You need buy in from a student before you can teach them anything

When starting to teach a new module at the school I teach at I almost always approach other teachers in that class about projects and grading, however once I covered a new class on the first day of lab, assuming it would be simple considering my experience and the fact that it was an advanced class with a veteran instructor. What a mistake. Total disaster. First the training aids were at a certain level of disrepair that advanced students should be able to work on, unfortunately on the first day of lab they need significant guidance and I was severly outnumbered and unprepared and swore never to teach that class again. After class I ran into another veteran instructor and told him what had happened. He told me what he would have done and how he would have handled it and it reminded me of something I knew from when I was a dishwasher in highschool. You gotta have a system. In that class every training aid had to for example be turned "on". After being turned on they had to be "initialized". After that they needed to be checked for "operation". Then they could be operated and tested for repair. If I had had every member of the class working on the same step on every one of the training aids instead of having them working on random steps throughout the process, I would have been able to manage many training aids and students on the same step as opposed to having to many students with to many problems on to many different projects at the same time. Start everyone at the beginning, be sure for your class you know what the beginning is, and build your class from there step by step.

Strict execution of assigmrnt and home work deadlines and punishments keep students on track and esure nobody is left behind.