Barry Westling

Jane, Great!. Obtaining information of interest to students, then incorporating that intop the lessons or daily activities is a great way to keep students interest. When we ipersonalize our interaction, we are being student centered. Barry Westling

Irina, Sure, these are great and effective tools. For planning, the pretest offers a unique way for the instructor to assess where the needed emphasis is (or is not ) needed. Barry Westling

Irina, Right. We want to know how best we can get these students, in this class, at this time, to meet their learning objectives. A pretest is but one tool an instructor can use to achieve that. Barry Westling

Douglas, You make a good point. In every case, how the pre-test is presented is important. I tell my students "this is a non-graded assessment". Usually, when the students know they will not be penalized in any way, they will strive to try their best. Sometimes, at the end of a course, I will give the pretest again (as before, non-graded), to show how far they've come. In most cases the degree of improvement and mastery is high, and as a result, students will feel proud and motivated on their improvement, regardless how they perform. Barry Westling

Jon, Today's instructors realize that their younger students are tech savvy and accustomed to lots of multimedia presentation. Even older students can think many times faster than a talking instructor, so selecting media that keeps attention is important. That said, instructors also have to be very selective in what media they choose, as there is so much out there these days, it would be possible to select a lot of variety, but if these choices miss the goal of student learning, the time and effort would be wasted. Your choices sound interesting and appropriate. Barry Westling

Sheila, Students are motivated in classes where their teacher produces creative methods to the instructional process. They will view their teacher with respect when they see effort has gone into the planning for the lessons, and when delivered in an upbeat mode, with a seasoining of humor, that just make class more interesting. Barry Westling

Douglas, Sounds good. A sense of humor that students can appreciate often does lessen the impact of "let's get down to business". Leraning is serious, but there's no reason it can't be fun too. Barry Westling

Stephanie, Great. Journals can be used by instructors in many ways, and the benefits of doing so are just as numerous. What you've cited works for you. Keep it up. Barry Westling

Sherri , Right. Although I choose not to give or use extra credit, I do agree that knowledge of where students are in their class contributes to them making improvements. To this end, frequent and early on status updates creates opportunity for students to improve while there time to make a difference in the grade. Also, I believe whenever we can, chatting with students helps build stronger relationships, especially when the instructor shows support and encouragement. Barry Westling