Barry Westling

Barry Westling

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Cynthia, Right. Planning curriculum based on students prior knowledge is what pretesting is all about. Barry Westling
Rachael, Great description of how instructor personality enhances students learning. Students like to hear stories and information related to work, and I find whenever I want to capture attention, relating a past (good or bad) situation or circumstance always receives attention, focus, and interest by the students. Barry Westling
Rachael, Sounds good. You bring up an important point, that of the importance of confidence by the student in their knowledge of course materials. I think most students display some degree of uncertainly about what they know when entering the job market. Instilling confidence does help the mind and perspective of the student seeking work and applying the knowledge they've been given. Barry Westling
Edwin, Great sentiment, and I like your analogy to service like a waiter. When students know their status they're bound to do better and be more willing to put in the extra effort to perform up to our expectatioons. Barry Westling
Edwin, Right on target. We've got to meet the students where there at, then take them to a higher level. So knowing where they're at via pretesting can be an integral step. Barry Westling
Edwin, We can be models of professionalism, practicing what we preach, everyday! Barry Westling
Cynthia, Students seem very free to ask guest speakers questions about all sorts ofthings, sometimes questions they may feel a little uncomfortable asking their instructor. And the field trip can be a dazzling experience that energizes an otherwise slugglish class that has reached a funk. Barry Westling
Barbara, Wow! What an interesting sounding trip! I've found students really like field trips as it is usually a break from the routine, and sometimes students may really get motivated to buckle down, based on the field trip experience. Barry Westling
Stephen, Your post reminds me of the importance of personal discussions, so as to provide insight via tone, voice inflection, along with the data facts. Also, an opportunity to convey care, concern, and interest in the students performance can occur with personalized visits. Barry Westling

Stephen, This situation is becoming ubiquitous in nearly all secondary education classrooms. Whenever I can, I stand at the rear of the room so laptop/PC screens are visible to me. I put a note in the syllabus that speaks to "authorized" and "unauthorized" viewing sites during class sessions. At other times, I will specically say, "turn off your computers for this next section". Most students will generally adhere to instructor requests and expectations. A few students will always do what they want, when they want, when they can, regardless of our efforts to control the environment. I agree that proactive… >>>

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