Joe Weidenaar

I've learned that no matter how busy my schedule may be that setting aside the time for my professional development is not only important for my career but for my current and future students. Enriching my skills as an instructor will improve my courses for my students as well as myself.

Motivating students is a key to their success. Everyone wants to see a reward for their efforts, whether that is thru verbal/written means such as grades, physical rewards such as trophies, awards, etc., or purely psychological rewards (these students tend to be the self motivated overachievers that want to have perfect attendance/perfect grades in my experience). If you aren't leading their motivation thru these means they will swiftly lose interest. Our enthusiasm is contagious.

This section was a great reminder to me that my attitude dictates my class environment. And that when I get in that slump because I don't feel the test and assignment scores are where i feel they should be that I need to reevaluate and make sure that I'm creating that sense of excitement for my students and helping them and myself measure their successes greater than what I see as potential failure due to attendance issues or low test scores. 

As an instructor that teaches multiple classes each term I routinely can have up to 60 students total, I realize I have put learning their names further down my list of important tasks and by making this a priority and finding tools to facilitate this will go a long way in my classes. I also plan to work on adding more creative projects to my courses.

This section of the course reminded me of the importance of learning about why my students enrolled in the program as well as what their individual backgrounds and experience include. By beginning with this information I can better anticipate the students needs and understand their frustrations when they arise, allowing me an opportunity to help the student before they are in a position of leaving the course. I also learned how important structure is to my classroom and how a "coddling" or "babysitting" mentality harms the class environment.