Barry Westling

Tim, Yes, and review of these notations makes us better instructors. I think reflection on our observations about class activities gives a unique perspective about ourselves, our struggles, our successes, and improvement over time. The ability to see growth and muturity over time is a great feature of teaching journals. Barry Westling

Daniel, I think grading rubrics help diminish the subjectivity in grading most components (projects, homework, essays, exams, etc). Rubrics work because both instructor and student know in advance what the criteria is and how they will be evaluated. Balance and component weight is very important. Sometimes it takes some trial and error to arrive at a "sweet spot" for the best combination. What I've learned is tweaking is often needed in order to find how we can best accurately and fairly measure student learning. Barry Westling

Vincent, Great. There is a "preview of coming attractions" aspect to a pretest if it covers bits of all parts of the course. Textbook authors often use something similar in their layout, beginning objectives, then an outline, then an overview, then key words or terms, each component adding more fundmental material until the student reaches the body of the text. I always encourage my students to read the foreward and preface to all their texts. These provide a message from the author what is significant about the text and perhaps, how to use it. What a great resource! Barry Westling

Daniel, That's a nice way to go about it. I have repeated thae same test at the end of a course, as a motivation to show how far the students came in their journey through a rather rigorous course. Most are amazed at what seemed so daunting at first, but seemed very basic at the end of the course. Barry Westling

Daniel, Interesting. I once read a study where the authors asked students to "select the book you want to use - your choice". There were three, and each one had a basic title that was the same. One was 3-inch's thick, one was 1-inch thick, and one was 1/2-inch thick. Since the students got to choose, most selected the smallest one. Results of their findings was that people will gravitate to the least amount of work necessary to get the job done. Something to think about. Barry Westling

Lisa, Yes, indeed. Students expect their instructors to be on top of all aspects of the class, almost perfect. We know that's not a reality, but we certainly owe them our time and effort to be ready for class, to be available, to listen, to be patient, and to be knowledgeable in our area of expertise. Also, we are being paid to be ready and prepared! Barry Westling

Samuel, In general, the more senses we can involve, the better retention of information and ultimately improved student outcomes. It does take some thinking about appropriate ways to integrate senses into delivery and study practices for students. Creative methods will emerge when serious thought is put into waht might work in our individual classes. Barry Westling

Renee, This is great. Relating to how best to reach your students is a perfect way to plan and carry out your desire for maximum learning and outcomes. These days, we have to be selective with media becasue there is so much out there that is available, some good, some great, but always not so useful to our mission and goals for our students. Barry Westling

Vincent, Good goals. I think if we can deliver the knowledge needed, and provide critical thinking skills, we will have prepared them for both their work career, and their future life experiences as well. Barry Westling

Vincent, Teaching journals are very personal and individual in their format. Early on, I had a large notebook which, along with written notes on the lined pages, was filled with post-it notes on most every page. The post-it notes were on-the-fly thoughts written in real time. I think my original idea was to transfer the thoughts onto the page, but they remained. So, as just for example, the format can be quite varied. Barry Westling