Gary Meers, Ed.D.

Hi Joanna, You are not headed for disaster but for success. Using games and competitions are great ways to encourage student learning. I have a Jeopardy game on Power Point that I use all the time. It is set up so I can have the game going on different levels depending on the expertise of my students. I have used it as a way of giving my finals. Talk about involving the students; plus it lets them identify areas of knowledge that they have. By picking categories they get to show their stuff in way that might not have been… >>>

Hi Joseph, The key to keeping the students engaged in the learning process is just what you mentioned in your last point. Keeping the students buying what we are selling. We can do this in many different ways but we must be sold on what we are doing first. By trying new ways of delivering the content we can keep ourselves excited. We don't need to change the whole course, just some little part of it to see if the instructional process goes easier. Everyone likes variety and after you have taught a course 5 or 6 times, you really… >>>

Hi Loree, Right on! You have laid out the steps to follow to keep student misunderstandings to a minimum. As you mention, not only though explanation of expectations but through examples as well you reduce student confusion. Reinforce, reinforce, reinforce. Students have a tendency to do three things with information. Delete it, distort it, or generalize to it. As an instructor you want the students to generalize to it, so you have to have effective ways of moving through the deletion and distortion phases. By having it written, explaining it, and then giving examples of expectations you will go far… >>>

Hi Anie, You are right about the importance the environment plays in learning. Career college students are focused and have many background experiences, they want to uses these experiences and their focus to progress and succeed. By having an environment that is supportive the instructor can help make this happen. It is surprising how we let things go in our classrooms and labs and the next thing you know they become barriers to learning for the students. We need to keep seeing our instructional settings through the eyes of the students. Everything from peeling paint to outdated equipment can impact… >>>

Hi Anie, I have found the most effective method of getting instructors ready to go as teachers is practice. I have developed a number of situations and activities that allows the instructors to problem solve and practice their teaching skills. I have them teach min-units of 3 to 5 minutes each using the new techniques on nonsense topics where they focus on the techniques and don't have to worry about the content. To assist in the understanding of Career College students I have developed profiles and then ask the instructors to create teaching strategies for the unique learning needs of… >>>

Hi Andrew, That could be a long list if we looked at reasons students leave because of poor instructors. I did a survey of students' perspectives of poor instructors and you would be amazed with what the students had experienced with instructors. Reasons gave included sleeping in class, not coming to class, not have materials for class, not being prepared for class, poor attitude about the class, etc. Sounds more like students that instructors doesn't it? The sum of all of this is that poor instructors need to be removed or trained so they can improve. School administrators need to… >>>

Hi Loree, Great job of outlining your strategies for developing your learning style. I would like to offer you one idea about how you can listen even more effectively. You might want to hand out 3x5 cards every so often and have the students give you feedback on how they perceive the class is going. The method is most often used after a project has been completed. The feedback will help you to determine whether the assignment(project) was worthwhile, if you explained it clearly, and if the student saw the value of it. Since the comments are anonymous there is… >>>