Dr. Melissa Read

Discussion Comment

Interesting points Faith. On one hand, you want to make sure your tests are not biased toward English speakers. It's important to disambiguate assessments of skill from assessments of language comprehension â€“ particularly in skill-based training programs. You can accomplish this by asking students to respond to pictures instead of words, as you do. On the other hand, you want make sure that you don't enable students who might need to master English comprehension to successfully perform their jobs. It's often quite a balancing act in career school settings.

Dr. Melissa Read

Discussion Comment

Streamlining the Grading Process

Wow, it sounds like you have an excellent grading system Ronald. I like the way that you continue to refine the system to streamline it and keep it up to date for future use.

Dr. Melissa Read

Discussion Comment

Causes of Stress

Good points Ronald! It can be very stressful when policies and procedures are not followed â€“ particularly when you are the one who established them! Training can be time consuming but important, particularly when your staff and administration churns regularly. One approach that has helped me is to develop self-study training materials that staff and administrators can learn from independently. In doing so, I only have to explain my policies and procedures once.

Dr. Melissa Read

Discussion Comment

Task Prioritization

Interesting comments Faith! I like the way that you classify the items on your to-do list into two main categories: Students-prepwork-grading and Administrative. In doing so, you can prioritize one category over another, as you did, and then focus on completing a smaller set of items.

Dr. Melissa Read

Discussion Comment

Streamlining the Grading Process

Good points Anne-Patricia! Four hours a week can really add up over the course of a semester. Who knows what you could accomplish with all those extra hours. Often times, little things can make a big difference.

Dr. Melissa Read

Discussion Comment

Causes of Stress

I really like your point of view Anne-Patricia! Most people see events like commuting as a burden â€“ something that can eat up your free time and take you away from accomplishing your goals. But these types of situations can be turned into opportunities with a little planning. Use them to get ahead in other areas of your life or to just have some time for you!

Dr. Melissa Read

Discussion Comment

Task Prioritization

Interesting points Lorna! And yes, task prioritization can be tricky. Your example of the student making the phone gesture while you were teaching is perfect. Clearly you needed to keep teaching. But there are other situations in which priority is not as clear. In situations like these, I like to think about the consequences or outcomes of not completing each task. For example, what would be the consequence of not completing your lecture? How does that compare with the consequence of not calling a student back right away? When we think in terms of outcomes and consequences, we can often… >>>

Dr. Melissa Read

Discussion Comment

Task Prioritization

Great points Jean! And actually, the process of getting things out of your head and on paper is called Cognitive externalization. Many people have enjoyed the benefits. Also, I really like the way you create categories for different tasks. I actually do the same thing on my list. Mine are high, medium, low and later.

Dr. Melissa Read

Discussion Comment

Coping with Stress

Good points Dagger. I particularly like your method of assessing the magnitude of the problem. Sometimes, it's easy to get stressed about something that's not really a big deal in the grand scheme of things. You can manage stress by putting some problems into perspective.

Dr. Melissa Read

Discussion Comment

Task Prioritization

Those are great questions Scott! Over the years, I've learned that the best method is the one that you'll use. If you feel more productive with paper, then I say stick with it. Your â€œpodâ€ method is an interesting approach. I like the idea of mini learning communities. These social circles will not only improve learning but will also likely improve student retention.