Barry Westling

William, We are all important, have valuable experience, and have individual expressions of it. Imparting that to students is also a highly individual trait. Regards, Barry

Juan, Great! Motivation is a cool feeling we can provide to students. Motivated students are wanting to try harder and with encouagement, often will perform better from just our simple offer of supportive comments. Regards, Barry

Miriam, You've made a good point about EC. I don't have issue with students doing something above and beyond what's required, it's the subjective grading and/or awarding of points for that effort that causes difficulty. Unfair, favoritism, and grade inflation are the reasons/complaints students can cite when EC is given. Policcies vary, for me, I just avoid the whole process altogether, as over the years, I've found strong students won't need it and waeker students ultimately are not helped by it (EC may raise their grade but does little to assist in their learning). Regards, Barry

Miriam, I like to think of my role as a tool capable of doing many jobs. Pace and retention in a class is a common occurence so even my best plans for presenting material may need to be adjusted (and I'm able to adjust to the situation). Regards, Barry

Kelly, This is a good way to use the textbook resource for teaching material beyond simply reading the material. You've got your students putting it into action as they proceed. That's great! Regards, Barry

Bruce, What you say is valid. I've read 20 minutes is the maximum time people stay interested in learning-related information (not entertainment-related). I don't how true, but frequent change-ups from one activity to another, to another will help keep an upbeat, flowing stream of new inforation that keeps the students interest and focus. Or, as you imply, a short story related to the course or career area will often reengage distracted students back on topic. Regards, Barry

Therese, The nice thing about back up plans is we can plan more lesson than time would be normally available. Then, in case class runs short, and there's extra time, we can pull out that good old back-up plan, and students will think that was planned all along. Another use is if, for whatever reason things can't go as planned, we have something ready to use so that time is not wasted. Regards, Barry

Therese, I think all students have a little of each of these learning styles, with maybe one style a bit more dominate. Regardless, if we plan well, we will be choosing activities that stimulate or require all of these senses in a great variety so that we are bound to reach all students in every class. Regards, Barry

Makila, Goo - especially the moving back and forth between PPT and... whatever: discussion, illustrations, case study, written activity or exercise, demonstration. I think PPT slides work best for me when I can create my own, then have each slide more of a shorter, bullet-style outline of main points that allow me to elaborate or ampflify. I feel that's what I'm there for - to expand on the basic information (vs. putting it all into the PPT). Regards, Barry

Crissia, Your creative talents are put into full steam for this kind of class. Even so, any time a student can participate, handle, practice, or demonstrate something their learning and retention will be improved. Using discussion and the flipboard seem like good choices for interaction in your particular class. Regards, Barry