Gary Meers, Ed.D.

About me

I am an Education Advisor/Consultant for MaxKnowledge. I write courses that assist in the professional development of career college instructors. These courses range in content from the introductory level to advanced instructional development. I started my teaching career as an instructional technology teacher on the high school level, completed graduate school and then moved into higher education. I spent many years in the area of teacher training at the University of Nebraska. While at the University of Nebraska I stared working with career college instructors to improve their instructional delivery skills. As a result of these experiences I have been a consultant to career colleges throughout the United States and a number of foreign countries.

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Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Your Instructional Style

Hi Elaine, Congratulations on your professional development plan. By looking at the ways others present course content and then looking at literature that is helpful to you with your classes are both great ways to grow. The "show and tell" session I know gave you additional tools that you can use in your classes. Keep up the good work. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Matching Content to Need

Hi Mary, What I would suggest is that you set down and list a number of different situations that have occurred with you or others in your field. Take these suggestions and turn them into case studies. Break the students into groups and see how they propose to resolve the situation with a customer, client, or patient. Have each group report out on what they come up with. You will be surprised because the students will come up with great solutions because they want their group to be the best. A little competition will help this along. Plus, they will… >>>

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Your Instructional Style

Hi William, I think you will find a number of helpful items contained within this course. In addition, I will try to help you with any specific questions you might have as you proceed through the course. A strong part of being a good instructor is the use of "common sense". In the career college arena there is a lot of it but sometimes it is forgotten in the teaching area. Think how you handled different situations when you were in your career field and then think how you can transfer that approach into a teaching technique. You will find… >>>

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

REFOCUS...

Hi Ivette, Your approach is what makes teaching interesting. Variety is needed for both students and teachers. I teach the same course over and over again throughout the year and I have to take your approach or the course would become too routine for me and boring for the students. How and where do you come up with different teaching methodologies so you can offer a different delivery style for your students? Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Teaching to Multiple Intelligences

Hi Yolanda, Not only is it a great teaching strategy but it helps to keep you interested as well. Meaning that you will be looking for new and different ways of presenting the course content to meet the different learning needs and this helps to keep you focused and excited about teaching. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Clarifying Your Expectations To Students

Hi Mark, Good approach. Clear expectations are a must for starting a new class. The students have many concerns about how they are going to do in the class and so they need to have a very clear picture of expectations laid out for them from the first day on. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Your Instructional Style

Hi Mark, The great thing about you going into the classroom is that you have great experience in the field. This gives you self confidence when you approach the classroom. You are an expert in the subject matter. As an educator it is a matter of getting your delivery and organization developed so efficient and effective learning can occur. Keep this in mind as you work with your students and your abilities and skills will grow as well. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Your Instructional Style

Hi John, I am sure these examples are very helpful to your students as they start to see the concrete examples of how their newly acquired knowledge can be of help to them. What are some samples of the examples you share with your students? Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Your Instructional Style

Hi Dr. Peerzade, You hit on a very key point for instructors. Patience. If an instructor doesn't have that teaching is going to be a challenge since almost everything that is involved in teaching requires patience. We all have to work at making sure we have plenty of patience or work at increasing our ability to have patience. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Understanding learner characteristics...

Hi Rebecca, You do have a challenge in trying to find that critical balance point between the experienced and novice students. By pairing up the students you can have them work on projects together where there can be sharing. This way the experienced students can help the inexperienced students and both can develop respect for the contributions they are making to learning. Gary

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