When I first started my first class, whenever I would run into a challenge that was difficult for me to figure out overcome I had to look into
different resources, usually with fellow teachers, my
my manager my my boss of the school who is also a teacher I was able to consult with them. They were online
discussion boards I discovered where teachers wish would discuss some problems that they ran into or how to set up a class
along those lines I took a lot of online classes myself, and I tried to remember what worked for me.
What was a distracter and didn't help me learn, and what was actually used in the course that did help me learn.
By going through those myself, I knew what worked for me, but I know that
not everyone learns the same way I do, so I have to try to remember that
That's one of the insights that a lot of people don't realize
Is that everyone learns in a different way, some people are more visual, some people are more hands on and it's
really difficult to try to figure out what works for the whole classroom, especially when you have 20 or 30 students.
Having access to materials, and to reference materials for teaching classes,
things that would help me organize and structure my classroom
would have been very beneficial. If not for any other reason than that I spent so much time
doing the research myself, that I really felt that that took time away from my students. Being an industry professional who got into teaching
the advantage to that is that I can share real world experiences of how the material is being used
out in the job place. When I was spending all of this time trying to do the research and trying to learn how to create my class
that was valuable time that I didn't have to spend with my students and to share
that extra level of material, that
Would probably be beneficial for them with material to learn it. One of the problems
that a lot of students have and it's a question that comes up a lot in my class
is "how is this material help me when I get my degree"
So it's something that the students really need to have especially those that can't look long term
at a four year curriculum often takes them five years
It, that's a long time to go without a reward, without getting some sort
tangible item that's going to help them out, so you need to have direction, you need to have
some means to understand fully that this material is valuable, that it is material that you will end up using when you get your degree.