Christopher CaffallCHEP

The success of your instructional style is dependent on your audience and the subject matter. What do you think?

The most important aspect of assessments is on day one “ensure the student clearly understands how their performance is going to be evaluated”. Once the student understands the standards – it is up to the student to earn the grade. This allows each student the opportunity to develop their time management skills and demonstrate their professional responsibilities.

I believe you should not waste the students’ time. This is why I try to ensure everything is set up and ready to go 30 minutes prior to the class start time. This gives me the time to review the lesson plan, power point slides, handouts, and ensure the all the materials are in place for practical exercises. The students stay motivated when they see you are organized and prepared to teach.

To get the respect from the students I first show them respect. I start with day one by listening to what they have to say. Then, I try to relate their interests to the subject. This starts the day to day process of building a positive relationship with each student. What good examples do you have on earning a student’s respect?

Normally, I try to talk to these students one-on-one and find out - what is the real problem. Some people will do almost anything for you once he or she knows you really do care about them as a person. If required, I try to get them help. What success stories do you have with helping angry students?

When possible I try to use a role playing exercise based on yesterday’s assignment. This motivates the “unprepared students” to be prepared, the “inattentive students” to participate and the “center stage student” to be the evaluator / observer. I find the role playing exercises allow each student to participate, learn and have a good time. What are some of the role playing exercises or class discussions you have used to keep everyone involved in the class?

On day one of class - I like to ask each student to introduce themselves, explain their background on the subject matter and explain what they plan to get out the course. This is a good icebreaker and builds teamwork within the class. What types of icebreaker(s) do you use to build teamwork?