I have to admit that attention=retension really works, this with the 3M's is a very important part of us, as instructors have to help our students suceed in not only school but in their future professional life. I have change my styles of teaching to try to find ways to get through to the students, and help with them learning the material for more than a matter of a few weeks. I have gone from being extreamly bounded by the rules, to a more light hearted way of helping using more understanding of how things are from their point of view. We all at one time were students and of course we all still are students because learning never really stops, but to see things as we did when it was new and we didn't know the answers or how to find the answers. This puts you as the teacher in differant place of awareness, and too remember it takes a while for some to crasp the new ideas that we are teaching them.I use jokes to lighten things up but still stay to the heart of the matter, I always ask where they were and how are things today. This has made things in my class room change greatly as to the attention=retention idea. I believe that everyone can find a quality in them selves and use that to help with their growth as a teacher, try new ideas, throw out the rule book, but keep common sense rules of life that most can agre on, and your classes will grow to numbers of scale, but most of all they will all retain the material and stay in school.