""Tom Lisa"" wrote in message [EMAIL PROTECTED]">news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]... > John, > > A good classroom experience begins with three things: preparation, > preparation, preparation! This is not to say that you didn't prepare, > but each class requires additional preparation even if taught before. > Another issue that arises is that every class has its own synergy. The > concepts that were readily assimilated by one group become more difficult > to unravel than a Gordian Knot by the next. > > You may have been lulled into a false sense of security by the first > couple of groups and then got blind-sided by the last. I suspect that > you felt your "explainer" was broken because you were only prepared to > explain things in one way and ran into a group that needed it in another > format. Individuals have different learning modes (preferences). A > diagnostic instrument called VARK (Visual, Aural, Read/Write, > Kinesthetic), developed by Neil Fleming, Lincoln University, Canterbury, > New Zealand, shows how learning preferences affect the teaching process. > If you prefer to learn in one mode, you tend to teach in that mode. > However, if it doesn't match the preferred mode of the majority of your > class, then you will have "one of those days." >
Even though I think my biggest problem today was severe sleep deficit, you may be onto something. Each of these classes is a mixed bag of people: technical and non-technical, mainframe vs. non-mainframe programmers, support staff vs. design-oriented staff, technical middle management along with non-technical upper management... you name it, they're throwing it all at me and they're mixing up each group. That makes it very difficult for me; if I go too technical I'll completely lose the non-technical people, and vice versa. The nice thing is that this is only supposed to be an intro level class. Heck, it's barely a class. I'm trying to cram an intro to TCP/IP and general networking into three hours. :-) Generally, it's worked well except for today. I only have four more classes to go, spread out over the next two months. I'm definitely going to prepare differently from now on. You are correct that my success last week made me prepare less this week. I should have prepared exactly the same, but I didn't and it showed. I'm also going to change some of my materials. Yes, I created the materials from scratch, which is an interesting ordeal in itself. People who've never written material for a class or written a lab scenario from scratch really ought to try it sometime! ;-) Thanks to all for your comments and empathy, John Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=62842&t=62826 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
