Barry Westling

Edward, Great - and what's really cool is when students sense their teacher is interested in their success and pulling for them. It changes the "we vs them" to "us". Barry Westling

Brezita, Successfulnes by its definition is achievement at, above, or below a standard. Therfore, frequent sharing where a student is in comparison to that standard is essential. Barry Westling

Kirsten, The only redeeming aspect I see to extra credit is that it should be called "extra activity", in that it allows a student to showcase their talents in way that's unique to them. But most classes already have a category for that, called "projects". As you state, and I agree, EC usually monkeys with points and grades and less with learning. For me, I just choose not to offer it. Other opinions may vary, and that's OK too. Barry Westling

Kirsten, These are great and effective techniques. Sometimes it doesn't take much, and other times it takes more effort to regain focus and attention. Being senstive to the general level of class engagement, we should be ready to activate something quickly in order to avoid wasting too much time. Barry Westling

Kirsten, I think this is a great observation and is as good as any to follow. The only exception is sometimes there is material that must be covered, perhaps using a certain teaching method or resource, that just has to be used - no getting around it. In that case, we have to work with it. But that dosn't mean we can't have fun with it, make it interesting and enjoyable. In science, there are a lot of topics like that. Making easier to understand and interesting makes retention higher and understanding greater. Barry Westling

Kirsten, Yeah, its hard to break an unfavorable student perception that occurs early on in a class. Your post seems to suggest that if we are adamant about our "picture of preparedness and organization" regularly and especially at the beginning stages, we can limit the unfavorable student perceptions to some degree. To that I'd agree. Of course its easy to say "be that way all the time" which we can strive for but in reality will probably miss some days, but getting the expectations set from the get go will diminish the frequency of unfavorable perceptions. Barry Westling

Brezita, Good idea. Pretests primarily help teachers plan their coursework to match the degree of pre knowledge students begin their classes with. Modification based on student performance occurs from there. Barry Westling

Michelle, I think there's nothing wrong at all with memorization. Repetition, reheasal, practice - all these methods help reinforce pertinent data. Of course, some things are beyond memorization, such as analysis and application problems, as these require reasoning and critical thinking skills. But still, relying on information in the recall category is the foundation for higher levels of problem solving. Barry Westling

James, Yes, and when students see their teacher cares about their successfulness, they'rte likely going to try harder, regardless of the outcome. Barry Westling