Barry Westling

Hi Penelope: As teachers, we all have a self perception of how we appear and perform in the classroom with our students. But we don't have eyes in the back of our heads, so getting frequent and consistent feedback about our performance can assist us in our pursuit of continous improvement. We probably have a sense of our strengths, and maybe a hint at our weaker areas, but getting feedback helps create the best in us. The key is being willing to identify where improvement is needed, then having a willingness to change or adapt. This sometimes requires great inner… >>>

Hi Dale: Great. I'm glad you've fopund some practical applications from the course. Pretesting does allow an instructor to get a view of where their students are generally. A pre-test doesn't have to assess everything in the course. If it's done at the beginning of a course, my suggestion is to choose the top 20-30 objectives for a course, and from those objectives, make up about 20-25 questions. It's not perfect but it'll give the instructor an idea where students are going to need more work, emphasis, attention, or focus. This same approach can be done for monthly or weekly… >>>

Hi Susan: You've put some thought into your media selections, and that's great. Classes do vary from session to session. So, what worked last time may not be the best media choices this time. So we have to put in the time, planning, and effort too consider "how can I best convey the needed course material to my students". Our focus is on our students learning rather than our teaching. It's not just a job that we perform mindlessly session after session. It's about student learning, and better teachers really have to work at that to make it happen. Regards,… >>>

Hi Susan: Your personal reflections are invaluable, because they are yours, and that makes them them unique. They provide both a record and a method of expressing your thoughts. Journalizing does take time. But it doesn't have to take a lot of time. I've heard "5-minutes immediately after class" more times than any other. But some will spend 20-30 minutes a day. I think a good way to guage how much time to spend is how much one refers back to their journal. If you find that there's more internalized reflection than the concrete "this worked and this didn't", kind… >>>

Hi Shane: I certainly agree that being sensitive to the student's attention and comprehension is an aspect of student centered instruction. We want to be able to "reach and teach" to all our students. We may need to vary the way we deliver the course, alter the media we've chosen, consider using different or additional resources, modify our testing and assessment, or tweak our lesson plans to keep aligned with where the students are tracking. These are just a few examples where student performance can be improved through focusing on their learning rather than focusing on our teaching. Ultimately these… >>>