For me, teaching was not developing a lecture and reading from notes, or using a powerpoint slide presentation and talk about the points on each slide... NO... my teaching revolved around the best ways to get student to retain knowledge.
The number one way for students to retain informatin is by teaching that information to other members of the class.
The second best way is for students to learn by doing... and in that process "Hands On" is perhaps the ideal way but not everything is hands on... so, I would create projects that the students would have to work on either indivdually or as a group and then present the findings of the project to the rest of the class. The presentation was a form of teaching.
In most every group project there will always be one or two who try and let the other members do all the work. So, part of that problem was solved by having everyone included in the presentation... but, I also had each team member grade the performance of all the other members and used those result as a % of their overall group project grade. So, the team could get an "A" but individuals might not end up with and "A" because they did not contribute.
I also required the team and each team member to make status reports about the project for a grade and to make sure the team was on the right track.
There were no final exams in my class because student memorize for the exam and forget. That serves no purpose. My final exam was the project report, project results, and the project presentation. I also required the other teams to ask questions (also for a grade) to see how the team would respond to those questions (also for a grade).
When a student taught a concept, they were graded on their presentation skills, their use of handouts, their ability to involve the class, a class exercise, how well they used the material in the textbook, and how much outside information they brought in that was not included in the textbook. There was a minimum and a maximum amount of time and they were graded on how well they operated within that range of time.
Class participation was graded to show that you had read the chapter(s) or that you were listening enough to ask a question or offer an opinion.
I gave teams time to prepare on their projects in class rather than try to meet outside of class. AND... I never kept the students in class unless there was something for us to do just to make sure that the class lasted a specific amount of time. Sometimes, we missed breaks because of a discussion and sometimes we went past the end of class time because of a discussion.
If someone was late to class, I would not repeat what they had missed. I expected their team members to bring that person up to speed at the break. In a 4 hour class, I would have a 30 minute break after 90 minutes... another 90 minutes and they could leave unless there was something to do.
My students could eat and drink in class and could leave for the restroom anytime they wanted or needed or if they got a phone call. I encouraged them to use their cell phones and laptops to make sure that I was telling them the truth or do a Google search to add something to the class discussion.
Profanity was not allowed unless it was being used as an appropriate adjective to make a strong point. Some people like to talk dirty just to be talking dirty and that was not allowed as it would not be allowed in business or industry.
Finally, family always came first so if you had a problem and needed to leave early, I would bend over backwards to fill you in myself as to what you might have missed. I handled sickness or prearranged vacations the same way. I was trying to teach respect for each other.
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