Teachers here at JREF.......

[Boo]

I know that there are quite a few 'educators/teachers' here. I could use some input. In 2 weeks I will begin taking a course that will certify me to teach EMT Basic through Paramedic courses. I am already Instuctor certified in CPR and Emergency Pediatric courses.

I have been scheduled to guest lecture for 2 days in EMT course while the lead instuctor is out of town and I will be giving a 1 hour lecture at a conference in October.

The goal is to teach full time at the Community College for the EMS program and work on the ambulances part time by winter semester.

My potential students will range in age from 17 to ?. Reasons for taking courses will also vary from a new career to volunteer work to wanting to know what to do if something happens at home.

So, how do you prep for your classes? Are there any other considerations I should take into account? Do adults expect Power Point now, is the chalkboard a thing of the past? How much do you use illustrative examples from real life?

Any advice, thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated.



Boo

 

[Brown]

I don't teach now, but I worked as a university teaching assistant for five semesters, and had to give instructive presentations from time to time.

A good general rule is that preparation time should be at least three times longer than the lecture time. If you're preparing to teach a course that lasts an hour, you should prepare for at least three hours (and in some cases longer). Don't "wing it."

As for chalkboard or PowerPoint, use what is most convenient for you. I've used both. If your presentation is "canned," go with PowerPoint. (But DO NOT read your lecture from PowerPoint slides!! Use PowerPoint to supplement your lecture, not to replace it.) But if you need to write as you go (as I had to do, when I had to demonstrate problem-solving techniques), use a chalkboard or white board.

If you can, use pictures rather than text. People remember pictures more readily. In a life-saving course, I would expect you'd also have the students do drills. (Remember the student's adage: "I hear, and I forget; I see, and I remember; I do, and I understand.")

 

[bpesta22]

I don't teach now, but I worked as a university teaching assistant for five semesters, and had to give instructive presentations from time to time.

A good general rule is that preparation time should be at least three times longer than the lecture time. If you're preparing to teach a course that lasts an hour, you should prepare for at least three hours (and in some cases longer). Don't "wing it."

As for chalkboard or PowerPoint, use what is most convenient for you. I've used both. If your presentation is "canned," go with PowerPoint. (But DO NOT read your lecture from PowerPoint slides!! Use PowerPoint to supplement your lecture, not to replace it.) But if you need to write as you go (as I had to do, when I had to demonstrate problem-solving techniques), use a chalkboard or white board.

If you can, use pictures rather than text. People remember pictures more readily. In a life-saving course, I would expect you'd also have the students do drills. (Remember the student's adage: "I hear, and I forget; I see, and I remember; I do, and I understand.")

Some quick suggestions:

Use your personality to your advantage / don't try to hide it, or be someone you're not during lecture.

Power point is nice for presentations, but if you're teaching, teach! The focus should be on you and not some cheesey graphics on an overhead.

Plus, just reading the same info from power point slides as a "lecture" is a sure way to bore the hell out of your students.

I prefer just a piece of chalk, which is also an excelent way to control pace.

No matter how interesting the topic is / you are, from time to time, students will stare at you like you're the most boring person they ever met. Don't take this personal.

Stock up on funny, course relevant stories you can tell to break the monotony.

Be organized-- by that, I mean go from point a to point b. Teachers who go all over the place, or who take 10 minutes to make a point that could be expressed in one sentence, suck IMO.

There's a tendancy for new teachers to be too tough. Remember, they don't know what you do-- heck, probably half of them couldn't even name our vice president.

Students smell fear, so be confident.

Students also smell BS, so don't be afraid to say "I don't know"

Try not to stare too long at the hotties.; they probably think you're a creepy old man anyway


B

p.s. I think the most important suggestion is to present the matieral in some logical way-- a to b-- so that it makes sense to students. It's amazing how many teachers don't do that

 

[kittynh]

Well, you need to keep your class "awake".

You can just throw in things that will keep them on their toes. If you are explaining about say, an accident, throw in the name of someone in the class, or a famous person.

"Let's say there was a multi car accident. You run over and there is Gov Howard Dean! He's complaining that he can't feel his lower legs, what do you do besides asking him about his health care policy?"

Not a lot, but just every now and again.

Also, afterward, keep notes about what you would do differently. You may not remember later, and teaching is a learning experience. You only get better with practice!

 

[Yahweh]

In my class, my students have to learn quite a few definitions. It doesnt sound hard, but sometimes the kids never "just get it" (or take notes...). I've made up for this by combining my love of kitties with my already unorthodox style of teaching. I have several lamenated pictures of kitties with speech bubbles (to properly simulate actual oratory language). I can use a dry erase marker to write the word in the speech bubble, then a defintion under it. I'm not sure how much help that would be in a Paramedic class, I just thought it was an interesting tidbit of information. (Philosopher Cat™ is a Registered Trademark of Yahweh, you may not use this method for any purposes.)

I also have a nice big box of Kooshies that I pass out during tests. My empirical observation (to make it sound scientifical) and neato charts that I've compiled in Excel showed that the Kooshies improve student performance on tests. (Kooshies&#169 is a legal copyright, 1997 - 2003, of Yahweh)

Powerpoint is nice. Like Brown said, it only supplements my lectures when I talk at the class (Note: I am fully aware of my use of "talk at the class" as opposed to "talk to the class").

And how cool is this, the school finally installed a brand new whiteboard in my room. I hated hated hated chalk boards. Of course, with any whiteboard, I have at least a few students who like to draw and write all over the board for the final minutes before class ends... I dont care, I dont pay for the markers. At the same time, for whatever reason, students race up to my class so they can be the first one to erase the boards. Why? Again, I dont care, it makes my job just that much easier (and entertaining to see a pair of teenagers fighting like children over an eraser... good fun).

I try to keep my lectures worded so anyone can understand it (its no use for the kids if I talk over their heads), there is a lot of student interaction and exchange of ideas, I have my fair share of jokes and funny stories to tell.

Final Note: ATTENTION ALL CLASS CLOWNS -- Being the last one to tell a joke does not make you the funniest person in class. Raising your hand to add your "funny comment" does not make you the funniest person in class. Putting together a random string of words (such as "Golly, my pants on fire, I better beat my weasels now") is not funny. If you tell your joke, and nobody laughs, assume it was a stupid joke, dont waste everybody's time by repeating yourself. Shouting obscene things loudly (example: No, I will not make out with you) is obnoxious and not funny. Finally, Hitler does not make a funny punchline anymore, Hitler has been supersaturated in the world of humor, I'm sorry kids, you've used and abused your rights to use the word "Hitler", you no longer have that right.

ATTENTION ALL REBELS AND ANARCHISTS WHO DONT WANT TO BE IN SCHOOL IN THE FIRST PLACE -- Stay the ◊◊◊◊ out of my classroom!

 

[Jeff Corey]

Some suggestions gleaned from 36 years of teaching undergrads.
Forget Powerpoint presentations. Print out the material and hand it out.
Give frequent quizzes on small chunks of material. Give feedback as soon as possible. The frequent feedback can help you to adjust your presentation to the students' level. In addition, the frequent quizzes encourage distributed practice, which is much more efficient than massed practice (cramming).
Don't use multiple choice tests. Fill-in or short answer questions help the students remember the important terms, rather than a,b,c,or d.

 

[T'ai Chi]

In the classes I taught (mathematics and statistics) the blackboard was definitely the medium of choice. But don't be afraid to use computer programs and technology in general, but only when it illustrates something better than what you can do on the blackboard. For example, drawing something in 3D, or rotating an object, or quickly and accurately graphing a function or data.

As far as communication... this next tip works in marketing too: always offer them something for free if they participate. A partcipation point, use of a notecard on an upcoming test, an extra office hour for them to use, etc. They'll find these helpful, and you'll know that offering them didn't matter to their success anyway.

 

[Jeff Corey]

As far as communication... this next tip works in marketing too: always offer them something for free if they participate. A partcipation point, use of a notecard on an upcoming test, an extra office hour for them to use, etc. They'll find these helpful, and you'll know that offering them didn't matter to their success anyway.

Use of a notecard?
What's the point of that?
This is condoning cheating. If students use cheat sheets in my exams they get an F on the exam.

 

[kittynh]

well, if Boo is teaching something like advanced CPR, then there is a lot of hands on stuff too. What I remember from my 2 CPR and first aid courses is the stuff I did hands on with the dummy. You can read all about CPR, but you really have to blow hard to make the chest move on the dummy. And I learned things like I can't see the chest moving when I blow, as my long hair falls in my line of vision. I took to having a hair elastic on my wrist at school, and sure enough, the time I did actually do CPR at school pulling my hair back first made a big difference. Boo is teaching not just facts and figures. She's got to get people to really know this stuff. The first aid course was invaluable. We used to wait for parents when a child broke a limb. We learned that we need to take the child in immediately! Sure enough, one child might have lost his foot if we had not taken him in for a broken limb as quickly as we did.

Boo, you are teaching real life saving skills. I love the ABC. When I was in a panic putting my hair back, I just thought, "ABC!"
Made it easy!

 

[CFLarsen]

As far as communication... this next tip works in marketing too: always offer them something for free if they participate. A partcipation point, use of a notecard on an upcoming test, an extra office hour for them to use, etc. They'll find these helpful, and you'll know that offering them didn't matter to their success anyway.

Why would you need to "offer them something for free if they participate"? They are there by their own choice. If they choose to f*ck up their own education, that is their choice. Just sad they take up the place of someone who would be more interested in an education.

Knowledge isn't something you should lure people to get. If they don't want it, fine. If they do, no "offers" should be necessary.

 

[T'ai Chi]

Use of a notecard?
What's the point of that?
This is condoning cheating. If students use cheat sheets in my exams they get an F on the exam.

Uh, I'll tell you the use. The use, in the subjects I am in, is not to memorize dozens of formulas but rather be able to use them, and derive them if necessary.

I used to help teach undergraduate mathematics and statistics, and those folks have a hard enough time without trying to memorize formulas.

It is hardly condoning cheating, pal, if we allow them to use one notecard, front and back. Obviously the questions we make on the exams aren't simple "What is the formula for the standard deviation?" questions, but rather ones than make them use their brains a bit. And it is a rather common things that is done in many universities and colleges.

 

[Jeff Corey]

So why not provide the formulae to everyone who takes the test?

 

[CFLarsen]

Apparently, you're not too familiar with today's undergrads at any large urban university....

That may be so. Do we accept a dumbing-down, or do we do something about it?

Aren't mankind supposed to be smarter and not dumber ?

 

[T'ai Chi]

So why not provide the formulae to everyone who takes the test?

Everyone can write down what they choose to on their single 3x5 notecard.

The test questions are not simple, so the notecard is almost worthless while taking the test.

Preparing the notecard, however, is great for preparing for the test, because they really read their book.

 

[bpesta22]

That may be so. Do we accept a dumbing-down, or do we do something about it?

Aren't mankind supposed to be smarter and not dumber ?

Claus.

I think the dumbing down thingy at public universities is due solely to the much more lenient admissions requirements nowadays.

Anyone with a highschool dipl. or equivalent gets in.

So, a large chunk of these students lack the academic / cognitive ability to succeed in college, In other words, they aren't smart enough, yet we have to teach them. Flunking half the student body is not an option, so we dumb down, and a 4 year college degree today is worth about a high school diploma 30 years ago.

We still have some standards in grad school, but yeah, I guess we gave away the undergraduate degrees.

See the problems caused when we ignore the importance of innate IQ and assume that all people would benefit from a college "education"?

JMO, sorry to hijack.

B

 

[Jeff Corey]

See the problems caused when we ignore the importance of innate IQ and assume that all people would benefit from a college "education"?

Quite an assumption, a la the Bell Curve.
I hope you don't teach psychology, where that assumption is still being debated.

 

[bpesta22]

Quite an assumption, a la the Bell Curve.
I hope you don't teach psychology, where that assumption is still being debated.

I'm warping minds as we speak

So, now I gotta further hijack the thread

What serious scholars are debating it, now that Gould is dead?

I Just lectured on IQ today as a matter of fact-- A study by Tziner and Edin-- the israeli tank crew study.

Tanks have a 3 man crew.

The Israeli military assigned all possible combos of ability to training groups:

All three High IQ

All three Low IQ

2 highs one low

2 lows; one high

Interesting results. The all-high groups kicked major butt (I even wrote that on the board). Having just one low IQ person in the team reduced performance by a lot (i.e., an interaction).

Teams where all members were low IQ performed like McCale's navy-- did the worst by a longshot.

Adding just one high to the group-- to hold down the fort-- significantly boosted performance.

They also measured and manipulated motivation levels, which didn't matter nearly as much as IQ.

So, p = m x a is incorrect, but we've known that for a long time; except it's not politically correct, so we continue to bash IQ tests and IQ science in the media, and in the general public.

While I'm on the subject of organizational behavior, guess what trait best predicts job performance? IQ!

Guess what trait best predicts leadershp? IQ!

My lectures on the topic are backed by relevant cites in decent, peer reviewed journals. I figure in that regard I'm doing my students a great service.

What do you base your lectures on?

Show me the data suggesting the opposite and I'll look at it.

B

 

[Boo]

I have always enjoyed teaching in a one on one situation but have never tried formalized teaching. Call it performance anxiety.

I am still very nervous, but am more comfortable with the material. I have been rehearsing how I want to say things.

Knowing that this will be an audition for a job is adding to the anxiety.

So Yahweh, can I steal the koosh ball idea?




Boo

 

[Clancie]

Sometimes what people think of as "dumbing down" is actually simply using better teaching methods.

Writing on the board and having students taking lecture notes and tests has never been shown to be the most effective way to learn--although it certainly is the easiest way to teach.

 

[Jeff Corey]

Writing on the board and having students taking lecture notes and tests has never been shown to be the most effective way to learn--although it certainly is the easiest way to teach.

No. Testing is necessary to give the teacher and the student feedback.
You try it.
It aint easey.