I made that mistake on my first class - letting the students know it was my first class. It just seemed natural during the introduction - as everyone was telling about their history and goals etc., to say I've done this for so many years - and now I am an instructor. This was with a group of first-time college students as well - and thought that the line, "It's all of our first class, we'll be learning together." might work... it did not. I've since learned to leave that part out of the introductions (though I suppose after that first class it no longer applied anyway). I never thought of it the way it was presented in this course - about creating a confidence gap. It seems that omitting this fact gives you an instant confidence boost in your student's minds much more so than if they know it is your first class as well. How many others have made this mistake?

Some classes you will always have a couple students who do not want to participate - this is a given. I teach in generally small groups due to the nature of the courses and recent addition of the major. It's not unusual for me to have only five, seven, or ten students. While you would think this would be ideal for small group discussion - getting these students to talk is very difficult. So (this is a lecture and theory class which has a new essay due each week) I started including a presentation portion to the essays. Instead of just a write-up and group discussion - now there was an individual PowerPoint presentation due with the essay - highlighting the main focus of their own essay. This actually seemed to help one particular group - who came to know each other better - and if they were nervous - we'd always start with a quick - light-hearted intro about the slide design on their PowerPoint - before getting into the heart of the discussion. So, I've become a firm believer in the small group (since the class itself is a small group) discussions. Great way to encourage silent students.

I have an interesting problem where about four students are consistently both center-stage students and exceedingly disruptive. The size of my class (only about seven students) means that even separated - they are never too far apart. It seems to be a problem of them not understanding the work - getting frustrated - giving up - and commencing the off-topic conversations, cell-games, heckling, what have you. Now, the other three students in the class are very well behaved - hard workers - and generally good students. Who have expressed their discontent with having to always slow the class down to accommodate the other students. In this unique situation - that is NOT hypothetical - you have about half of the class in remediation - and the other half struggling to slow themselves down. How would you deal with this situation? I've thought about letting the other students work ahead - or maybe splitting assignments into an EASY-MODE and HARD-MODE style - where there are two objective choices based on skills. But this doesn't seem fair to the students who choose the more challenging bit and get the same grade as the less difficult one. Plus I'm worried it might cause some psychological shift knowing that there is a delineated A-Team and B-Team in the class. Until then I just try to work at a medium pace - slow for the fast half - and fast for the slow half - not sure if that is the best choice, however. Any suggestions?

I recently taught - and indeed am still teaching as they advance through the course - a group of students who almost uniformly turn in work late. Mind you - it's not OVERLY late - they just might not have it turned in on time. Since it's a small class I find it difficult to continue (or even begin) a lecture or demonstration when about 4 of the 7 students are still rushing to finish their last little bit of the last assignment. I already generally drop their grades from the late work - as I understand that it mirrors real world deadlines - but it doesn't seem to matter. Should I just start *failing* or *not accepting* late work - even if it's just thirty minutes or so late? Just to get the point across? How can I stress the importance of due dates *without* dropping the class average to D's and Fs?

I look around our school and all of us manage our classrooms differently. The students all seem happy and appreciate the difference in all of us.

I really liked the portion about rapport, because I struggle with needing to feel liked. This really helped me with the balance of being respected and liked

The best way I found to manage stress is to try to be as prepared as possible for the days tasks. When I feel like I can't reduce stress I try to determined how important it really is and can I eleminate or reduce it and do when ever possible.

This was the best course I have taken so far! It hit on so many great things for me. That corse was my day to day life at school. My desk is always a mess my students tell me all the the time and my co-workers some hoe I do everything I need to for my students.But talk about stress in my back and next.Monday is a new day for me

I have quite a few of these students, and yes, while they are quite smart, they think that they can just yell out the answer without allowing others to answer. I'm tempted th try the old "dinner table" trick. Whoever has the pot-holder, can speak. I'm in a nursing program, so I could use a piece of nursing equipment. What does everyone think?

I have students who like to text each other in class, Facebook, etc.

As an instructor if you do not open the door in the begining with your students, when you are going over expectations alot of times we loose them. Thats why as an instructor we have to create a positive enviroment.

Being on a campus so diverse and multicultural, has its challenges- everyone getting along, in a kitchen setting sometimes can be explosive!!

With a larger class (more than 25 students), do you find it's better to encourage free-flowing discussions or have students raise their hands to contribute individually? I don't want quieter students to be overrun by the more vocal ones, but sometimes smaller discussion groups are not always appropriate for the situation.

BY USING STRESS COPING TECHNEQUES THIS WILL HELP YOU LIVE A HEALTHY LIFE .

ONE WAY TO DEAL WITH STRESS IS TO RECONIZE WHERE THE STRESS IS COMING FROM.THIS WILL HELP YOU TO COPEWITH IT.TRY TO TALK TO PEOPLE.

MAKE SURE YOU CAN GET ORGINIZE THIS WILL HELP YOU MAKE MOR TIME FOR YOURSELF.

BY CONTROLING YOUR TIME YOU WILL HAVE LESS STRESS AND BE RUSHING TO GET THINGS DONE.

Hello Everyone, Asking your peers for advice should never been seen as a bad thing. Sometimes pride takes over in people, and they continue to do things improperly, just because they are afraid to ask a question. The book made a great point when stating, "Instructors by their very nature like to help", which I find is true every time.

Hello Everyone, Working with the silent students, can sometimes be the toughest. As the book suggested, working in smaller groups is always a great way to get people to work together. Taking it a step further, I like to hand out colored cards to the class, and each class I have them get into different groups, depending on the cards. For instance the first time all the cards with the same color will be in the same group, but the next time, everyone in the group has to have a different colored card. This way it helps to ensure that all students gets to hear all of their peers, and not just their small group of friends or class neighbors.

Hello Everyone, This post follows my last post for chapter one. The one area I constantly work on is treating each student the same, and as this chapter points out, the best tool to use can be your class syllabus. One effective way to get the students to understand that you have been around the block, is to have them email a soft copy of the syllabus they were given (or got online), and state in so many words that they have read and understand the syllabus, and agree to other items such as the grading scale. I have found this method to work very well, as you can always use their original email as a signed contract that they stated they have read and understood the syllabus.