Breaking up lecture with mini challenges or games can help keep their focus and engagement while also helping them learn the material.
Many good points I look forward to implementing into my instructions and look forward to seeing how my class response to it.
Its Important to listen to your students an know there values an goals
Refocus is the key to success. Keeping students motivated to succeed is the ultimate goal.
I really enjoy the acronym link/pair/share.
The mid-class fatigue is real. I appreciate learning about ways to bring back the vigor. I am a fan of mid-course evaluations. When I taught full-time it was in a 15-16 week semester. My mind cannot yet wrap around how this can work in 5 week segments. I am thankful for the acronym for REFOCUS:
RECOGNIZE/EMPOWER/FOCUS/OBJECTIVIZE/COMMIT/UNBURDEN/SURPRISE.
Interesting. I am going to translate it to virtual environments
During the second half of your course variety is often desperately needed to keep your students excited about coming to class.
I enjoyed learning about the REFOCUS strategy. I can use these techniques to re-ignite my spirit for teaching when it becomes tiring.
It is important to remember that the attention span of an adult is 10-15 minutes and they become bored very easily. Ask students to recommit to their success in learning for the second half of the course. Show students how much progress they have made since they have started the course.
I loved the course content that focused on reinvigorating a course midway through the term. Creating a crisis situation is a great idea to engage students and reinforce course content. Bravo!
I always like to tell stories to break up the lecture. Also-no death by PowerPoint. You must include different teaching modalities.
I love the idea of giving the students a crisis situation. This would be a fun challenge.
This section had a number of ideas to work with talkers and non-talkers that would be helpful in class discussions. The REFOCUS suggestions for dealing with mid-term slump were also helpful.
Interesting to consider that the attention span of adults is 10-15 minutes.
The instructors attitude influences the students learning, and it is common that halfway through the class the Instructor may feel as if they are in a slump. Demotivated, and not as excited as before. It is imperative that they REFOCUS.
Recognize
Empower
Focus
Objectivize
Commit
Unburden
and
Surprise.
Keeping the students engaged with various strategies to help solidify their understanding of the content. Using storytelling is great concept to incorporate during a long lecture to prevent boredom.
Its always rewarding keeping your students involved and interested in the topics at hand without getting to far off of subject. drawing them back in to the main topic is essential
Remaining engaging and encouraging student participation through variety was a key take away. I also had never seen the REFOCUS acronym. I think it is a very useful tool.
I appreciate the acknowledgement of the mid-term slump and varying ways to improve the situation.
