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

Setting Expectations

Hi Tina, You must be clear on expectations and outcomes. Covering these both verbally and in print will help to reduce confusion. On assignments where I have found that students may get confused I include examples. I have found this to be very helpful. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Learning Environment

Hi Tina, Well stated on all accounts. Humans are in need of comfort and support, both physically and programatically. If we instructors will attend to these two areas both our lives and the lives of our students will go better. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Motivation techniques...

Hi Josefer, Good idea. Exposing new instructors to a variety of teaching styles helps them with developing their own. Most instructors teach as they have been taught simply because they don't know any other way. This is not to say their previous experiences are bad it just means that more exposure provides more choices. Keep up the good work. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

REFOCUS...

Hi Josefer, Education is realy a sales job no matter what level one is teaching on. We have to keep our motivation up to keep our students motivated. We also have to make sure that the content we are offering is sound and valid. If we do this we will be able to keep the majority of our students throughout the training sequence. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

REFOCUS...

Hi Josefer, It is exciting to hear about your REFOCUS workshop for tomorrow. Hope it goes well. Would appreciate hearing about it if you have an opportunity. Yes it seems that most of what we do in the education field and in particular in the career college area is a sprint. We see to be running a marathon at a sprint pace. Whew! Something I use to recapture some of the energy that has drained away is to take one simple idea or concept of teacher improvement and share it with the faculty. For example, I might share with them… >>>

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Becoming aware of retention strategies...

HI Josefer, The reason for a student withdrawal is many times a tough one to really determine. So I don't have a real clear answer to why many of the leave, except to say that they feel overwhelmed with life. Their outside of school demands drift into the classroom and the problems start to occur with their school work. Experience has shown me that through developing rapport with the students I can get a feel of where they are at and if they are struggling. I also poll my students on a regular basis so I can get a feel… >>>

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Instructional Style

Hi Tina, You did a very good job of outlining what you see your strengths are as well as the challenges of working with your students. As long as you have developed rapport with your students and you have developed a professionalism about yourself you will do fine. Being asked out to a social function by your students indicates that you have created a bond with them and they see you as a person they respect. Your refusal to go in no way hurts this relationship. I have the same policy and found that it has served me well. I… >>>

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Instructional Style

Hi Raghda, You have listed four very good points for success as an educator. As you prepare to enter the classroom what do you see as your biggest assests and biggest challenges in your new career choice. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

Motivation techniques...

Hi Karen, You are right on with making yourself human while developing within your students a professional respect for your expertise. I know this approach will work well for you. Gary

Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Discussion Comment

REFOCUS...

Hi Karen, It is interesting to me how easy it is to have negativity spread and how hard it is to spread positive information. After teaching in several schools early in my career that dealt with only the negative I determined that I would not be sucked into that type of setting. Since that time I have worked very hard to make sure my classroom/lab is not a negative energy source. I have changed jobs when I felt that I could not endure the negative setting any longer. The result has been that I enjoy teaching because I am determined… >>>

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