Cisco Nuts wrote: > > John, > > First...CONGRATS!!!! > You can do it!! > Yes, there area moments when you feel that way...especially the > first couple > of times....but in the end you will come out a champ!! > > When I started teaching the CCNA/NP a couple of years back, I > too felt the > same initially, but personally, teaching has been the best > thing for me in > my life!! I love teaching and am passionate about it. I am just > dying to > pass the CCIE Lab so I can begin my own tutoring in my basement > for the > CCNA/NP/IP courses. > The trick is to really prepare for it the night before and then > dive > straight to the hands-on section in the class. Then start > explaining the > concepts about the material as you do the hands-on. Students > love the > hands-on!!
This brings me to a comment I was thinking about making anyway. Tom Lisa mentioned four types of learners. I think it was visual, aural, read/write, and kinesthetic (as in movement). I bet the kinesthetic learners do indeed like to dive right into hands-on, but how about the others? They may not. Take me, for example. Please take, me. Just kidding. If you do hands-on too early in a class, I won't get much out of it at all. I'll be thinking, "OK, that's a nice marketing demo, but what's it really doing behind the scenes? How does it work? Why does it work? Show me some architectural drawings, explain the components and how they relate to each other." I have to hear the theory first and see some visual explanations. And I'm not the only one like this. John has a difficult task because he has learners of all levels, from different walks of life. I bet he has a huge mix of learning styles. Now, you might think that networking attracts hands-on learners, so if he were teaching all "real networking people," he would have an esier time. I have actually studied this, and that's not so. There's definitely a mix of types who are attracted to networking, both analytical/theoretical types and kinesthetic learners. A few years ago I participated in a study of personality types of networking people. We used the Myers Briggs personality test. I came out as INTJ (Introvert, iNtuitive, Thinking, Judgeing.) A lot of other people did too. We have a tendency to do way to much theory first! ;-) The other side of Intuitive is Sensory. A lot of people in the networking field have S in their Myers Briggs personality type. These folks learn with their senses, especially their hands. They like lots of hands-on. Anyway, bottom line, you need to run your class in a balanced manner to accomodate all these types as much as possible. There's more about the Myers Briggs personality "sorter" here: http://keirsey.com/ Anyone else want to share what they are, or have we wasted enough bandwidth on this already? :-) Priscilla > Preparing your own notes help as students respect > you more than > just saying "Ok guys, let's turn to page 31 and talk about > Ospf. Ospf > is....." > > Good Luck. > > > > > > > > > > >From: "John Neiberger" > >Reply-To: "John Neiberger" > >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >Subject: OT: New Instructor Experiences [7:62826] > >Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 22:12:07 GMT > > > >I just feel the need to rant/vent for a bit and I knew there > were a > >bunch of you who might be able to relate to this. I've > started teaching > >a short, one-session general networking class for some of the > people > >here at the bank. The first session, which was really just a > runthrough > >with a handful of students, went fairly well. In fact, it > went so well > >that they increased the number of overall attendees to about > 60 or so. > > > >Last week I had another session that went exceptionally well, > except > >for a couple of students who really didn't want to be there. > I couldn't > >have asked for it to go better, and my boss heard lots of good > things > >about it. One person even said I should be a professor! :-) > Now, that > >brings us to today.... > > > >Today I had an afternoon class, and in my opinion it sucked > rotten > >eggs. I feel embarrassed to have been involved with it. I > can't > >think of too many ways in which it could have gone worse. I > rambled, I > >flew through 2.5 hours of material in about an hour, I lost my > place a > >lot. I'm not certain that I ever formed a train of thought > longer than > >a couple of cars, and I think even those trains were without > engine and > >caboose. > > > >Have any of you other instructors had days like that? As I > even > >mentioned in class, I felt like my 'explainer' was broken > today, and it > >certainly was. I'm hoping that I could get some sympathy from > other > >instructors with similar experiences. > > > >Okay, I'm going to go drown my disappointment in some coffee! > > > >John > _________________________________________________________________ > The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months > FREE* > http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail > > Message Posted at: http://www.groupstudy.com/form/read.php?f=7&i=62913&t=62826 -------------------------------------------------- FAQ, list archives, and subscription info: http://www.groupstudy.com/list/cisco.html Report misconduct and Nondisclosure violations to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
