All instructors face this at some point. We encourage our instructors to work with all levels of students and we realize this can be very difficult and challenging.
What this instructor did was repeat the instructions and take extra breaks to catch the student up.
A couple of alternative strategies that might be used:
1) Involve those students who know a lot and like to share what they know by pairing them up with a slower student. This is a good way to keep both involved.
2) Explain to the student that the class is going to proceed at a faster rate and that the student is welcome to stay, but class will not be able to wait for him/her.
What are your strategies for dealing with a range of levels? Please share your thoughts by commenting.
Friday, March 28, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Case Study in Classroom Management Issues Part 1 of 2
An Instructor wrote:
It’s always a challenge to balance the different levels of computer skills of my students, but yesterday was in a class by itself (no pun intended). There were three students (out of 16!) who really didn’t have the basic computer skills necessary to be in this level class, but one student was truly having difficulty.
At the first break she told me “I’m a really slow typist” but I knew that wasn’t the whole story. At the second break she admitted that she’d been in a car accident and that now she reported she had trouble learning. When I suggested that she re-take the class at a later date once she’d had a little more experience with the software she said that she is using the software at her current job and that her boss insisted she take this class, that she had paid for the class and she wasn’t about to leave.
Check back next week to learn what the instructor did. Every instructor faces this. Share your thoughts by commenting.
It’s always a challenge to balance the different levels of computer skills of my students, but yesterday was in a class by itself (no pun intended). There were three students (out of 16!) who really didn’t have the basic computer skills necessary to be in this level class, but one student was truly having difficulty.
At the first break she told me “I’m a really slow typist” but I knew that wasn’t the whole story. At the second break she admitted that she’d been in a car accident and that now she reported she had trouble learning. When I suggested that she re-take the class at a later date once she’d had a little more experience with the software she said that she is using the software at her current job and that her boss insisted she take this class, that she had paid for the class and she wasn’t about to leave.
Check back next week to learn what the instructor did. Every instructor faces this. Share your thoughts by commenting.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
So You Want More Students? This is what others have done.
Mike Mansker is teaching Kokanee Caught and he belongs to an online discussion board for like-minded Oregon fisher-folk. He posted a description of his class before the schedule came out and asked who might be interested. When the schedule came out, he posted our website and phone number and contacted the people who had responded favorably from his initial query about the class. The class is now full and he is contacting all his students with an email thanking them for registering and getting feedback about what will be the most valuable thing they could learn from the class so he can be sure to cover (within his outline) what people want to know.
Davon Cabraloff will be teaching our Zumba class and Davon has done a number of things to get word out about her class. Since Zumba is new to Bend, she started a class back in the winter and has been advertizing all over town on bulletin boards with very professional looking signs for that class. The students she has in that class were a great base for her COCC class. She also wears a huge “Ask Me About Zumba” button wherever she goes as well as other Zumba related clothing to generate interest with strangers.
Mollie Hogan who will be teaching our Hooping class added her classes to her Hoop Dazzle website and emailed a newsletter listing the classes and the COCC contact information out to her current students and others who are on her mailing list.
What ideas do you have and what has worked for you? Please comment and let us know.
Davon Cabraloff will be teaching our Zumba class and Davon has done a number of things to get word out about her class. Since Zumba is new to Bend, she started a class back in the winter and has been advertizing all over town on bulletin boards with very professional looking signs for that class. The students she has in that class were a great base for her COCC class. She also wears a huge “Ask Me About Zumba” button wherever she goes as well as other Zumba related clothing to generate interest with strangers.
Mollie Hogan who will be teaching our Hooping class added her classes to her Hoop Dazzle website and emailed a newsletter listing the classes and the COCC contact information out to her current students and others who are on her mailing list.
What ideas do you have and what has worked for you? Please comment and let us know.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Latest 5 Best Teaching Tips
Here’s the latest 5 best teaching tips. They are from the May-June issue of the LERN Magazine, a special issue on learning and teaching.
1. Try one new thing
Every time I teach, I try to add or try one new thing.
Sometimes it doesn't work, sometimes it does. But the "one new thing" seems to keep me interested, on edge, and keeps the material fresher.
– Tom Trumpy
2. Students monitor timer
Notice how it is better to have another student monitor the timer rather than you as instructor.
– Joyce Brinkmeyer
3. One minute intermission
There is the one minute intermission. Interrupt participants at various times in the class and ask them to write down any questions or thoughts they have about the material being covered on 3X5 cards. Collect and respond to the cards without identifying the contributor. This allows individuals who don't want to speak up the opportunity to participate in the discussion. This process could provide a viewpoint which hadn't been considered by you or the students. You are almost guaranteed to have someone provide a bit of comic relief, too.
– Susan Grimes
4. Sing to radio
To the thoughts of preparation for class I add one that a very wise teacher once told me...prepare your voice. He taught speech and said one of the biggest mistakes we make is not getting our voice ready each day and it tires us out. So I learned to sing along with the radio, make faces and get my vocal chords ready each day on the way to school. I'm sure the cars that I passed wondered who I was talking to.
-Joyce Brinkmeyer
5. Web site for icebreakers
There is a website called About.com that is in essence a giant advertisement sprinkled with handy tips to know and tell! One of the pages is on Ice Breakers for Adults, which lists a number of activities. Check it out: http://adulted.about.com/od/icebreakers/
-Julia Dozier
This is shared courtesy of LERN.
1. Try one new thing
Every time I teach, I try to add or try one new thing.
Sometimes it doesn't work, sometimes it does. But the "one new thing" seems to keep me interested, on edge, and keeps the material fresher.
– Tom Trumpy
2. Students monitor timer
Notice how it is better to have another student monitor the timer rather than you as instructor.
– Joyce Brinkmeyer
3. One minute intermission
There is the one minute intermission. Interrupt participants at various times in the class and ask them to write down any questions or thoughts they have about the material being covered on 3X5 cards. Collect and respond to the cards without identifying the contributor. This allows individuals who don't want to speak up the opportunity to participate in the discussion. This process could provide a viewpoint which hadn't been considered by you or the students. You are almost guaranteed to have someone provide a bit of comic relief, too.
– Susan Grimes
4. Sing to radio
To the thoughts of preparation for class I add one that a very wise teacher once told me...prepare your voice. He taught speech and said one of the biggest mistakes we make is not getting our voice ready each day and it tires us out. So I learned to sing along with the radio, make faces and get my vocal chords ready each day on the way to school. I'm sure the cars that I passed wondered who I was talking to.
-Joyce Brinkmeyer
5. Web site for icebreakers
There is a website called About.com that is in essence a giant advertisement sprinkled with handy tips to know and tell! One of the pages is on Ice Breakers for Adults, which lists a number of activities. Check it out: http://adulted.about.com/od/icebreakers/
-Julia Dozier
This is shared courtesy of LERN.
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