Jeffery BurkhardtCHEP

I believe people too often overlook stress in their lives, they chock it up to "nature of the beast". I'm guilty of it too. This is when we need to be honest with ourselves, to acknowledge the stress, and then to identify the root causes. Sometimes it's easier to tolerate the stress, to just deal with it, but that is short-sighted. It would be to our greater good, and to the betterment of our students, if we make legitimate efforts to reduce the stress in our lives.

An effective teacher should be open to learning more about the subject they are teaching. That being said, a teacher should not be closed to learning from their students just because they are students. Learning is learning, regardless of the source. It will make you a better teacher in the end.

We've all taken courses where our first impressions of the instructor were later proved to be inaccurate. This works both ways. I've had bad first impressions turn out wrong: day one was a disorganized mess that ended up being a very good class. This seems to be more common than a great first impression turning out to be a bad class/instructor. We're all human and have challenging situations, but pulling it all together on those bad days is essential when it's day one.

A valuable lesson I learned long ago is that people learn in different ways. Effective instructors not only quickly acknowledge this fact, but are also adept in altering their teaching styles when necessary. Obviously some course content does not allow much variation. Despite these constraints an effective instructor can still hit the right chord that will ultimately connect best with that student. This does not mean the instruction becomes wildly fragmented due to an instructor trying too hard to accommodate individual students, but on a smaller scale the instructor has more latitude in their teaching style.

Ethical behavior, actions, decision-making, etc, is full of gray. Certainly, guiding principles, policies, and of course, the law, provide clear guidance to be followed in order to do what is proper. For those circumstances where an individual is uncertain, they have a responsibility to themselves, the institution, and the student to seek out counsel from applicable others so that a proper course of action is taken. If it doesn't feel right, consult the proper person(s) for assistance.

Many of the designated career fields being offered require potential employees submit to background checks and/or drugscreens. I believe a disclosure of some sort should be made available to prospective students. However, the schools should not require these checks as a prerequisite to enrollment. The student has been made fully aware beforehand and therefore this area should not be regulated by any government agency.