Maria Dosado

Blog

ED209: Students are Customers...Not Consumers.

When students demand that they be allowed to behave the way they do and recite their favorite line, "I am paying for this. I am a customer, therefore, I'm always right," arguing with them will not help. Instead, we can agree that they indeed are customers who should get what we promise to deliver and not consumers who will get what they think they paid for and do whatever they want with it.

Maria Dosado

Blog

No barrier

Dealing with learning and cultural diversity in the classroom is not an easy job for us, educators. There is no cut-and-dry solution to the challenges diverse groups bring into the classroom. We just have to do what we think works best for ours students. We can start with knowing and understanding their culture and background. Responding to their needs with empathy and sensitivity also helps a lot. We must tell ourselves that our students' having difficulty speaking the English language, their inability to read and comprehend, or even the age gap between them and their classmates, should not indimidate them… >>>

Maria Dosado

Discussion Comment

Test anxiety

"I swear I studied hard for this test, but when I received the test paper, my mind went blank!" Sound familiar? To most students, announcing an upcoming test is more likely to cause them to panic than when one yells, "Fire!" Test anxiety is common; even we instructors still experience it. I tell my students that the first thing that they should do is to acknowledge that they have it, and that it is a natural response. What's important is for them to control it; otherwise, it will control them. To some students, this advice is helpful; but others just… >>>

Maria Dosado

Discussion Comment

Inconsistent instructors no better than disobedient students

One of the challenges some instructors face when it comes to imposing general school rules and regulations is inconsistency among themselves. Though they don't mean to critique their fellow educators, they somehow feel concerned because students tend to rebel against them because "they are not like their other instructors." How would you deal with this without creating a conflict with your fellow instructor?