Barry Westling

Hi Linda, Super. I think it would be rare that a students repsonse would so off and out of sync that some redeeming nugget of information couldn't occur from their statement. Blending this to tie into the objectives is a great skill that can be learned by teachers, if they're will to be patient and understanding that students learn at different levels. Even the stronger students benefit when they hear seeming off tract comments from their peers, and the corrected information from the teacher or a response from a stronger student. Barry Westling

Hi Dona, Great idea. If students sense they may be randomly asked a question at any time, they may more likely to focus and pay attention. In fact, this is great techniques in general, even when students are actively participating in class. Teach, ask a question, clarify, then move on and repeat that process. Barry Westling

Hi Maksuda, Nice suggestions. Also, I would add for math the use of the overhead (old doesn't mean bad), practice written worksheets, and case study examples that involve the practice calculations. I teach a lot of various math equations and subsequent applications and beside the suggestions you gave (good ones), I use these others because they either reinforce the correct process, or give me an opportunity to give correction. Barry Westling

Hi Linda, Teachers with a natural outgoing personality are fortunate since you don't have to work as hard for students to relate to you. So as facilitator, the give and take you mention would be a smoother activity than it would for someone who has to work at being open, honest, approachable. Barry Westling

Hi Lauren, I think students seeing their teachers preparation may be swayed and adopt or emulate some of the practices they observe. I would say your statement about commitment is most important, and whether students are positively impacted by it or not, our commitment to do our best still has to be there. But you're right, the better students will pick up on things theuy see that assist them being succesful. Barry Westling

Hi Jenni, When we are unprepared, we can't expect much else from the students either. Barry Westling

Hi Linda, That's great. Being from the medical world myself I can relate to the fact there are many different kinds of jobs that hospitals need people to perform, and many times they are non-traditional in the sense that by name, they might be unfamiliar. So, guest speakers sharing this kind of information undoubtedly should be quite enlightening and insightful for your students. Barry Westling

Hi George, Good! Instruction and the resulotant learning is a process. We need to measure the progress along the way. And the participants have to be included in that assessment in order to know where more attention ios needed if that's case. Also, knowledge of grades helps motivate and inspire students to do better. So timely notification is a must! Barry Westling

Hi Danielle, Yes, and when we begin seeking ways to indiviulaize instruction to insure student retention, learning outcomes will improve and students will benefit by our attention and focus to their needs. Barry Westling

Hi Michael, Great activity. Seems interesting. I've embedded video's in PPT slides and I've learned they are most successful when there are few (1-2 per session) and very brief (2-3 minutes, no more). It's almost like technolgy encourages us to do things that may not be actually helpful to the student learning. So we have to be careful. Facilitating is just that - coordinating the various potential activities and delievry methods to insure the greatest learning outcomes. Barry Westling