6 Tips to Liven Up Your Lectures

6 Tips to Liven Up Your Lectures Many graduate students find themselves at the head of the classroom, first as teaching assistants and later as instructors. However, graduate study often doesn’t teach students how to teach, and not all grad student instructors first serve as TAs. Instead, most graduate students find themselves instructing a college class with little to no teaching experience. When faced with the challenge of teaching despite little experience, most grad students turn to the techniques they have experienced as students. The lecture method is a common teaching tool. A poor lecture is painful for both students and the instructor. Lecturing is a traditional method of instruction, perhaps the oldest form of instruction. It has its detractors who argue that it is a passive means of education. However, the lecture is not always passive. A good lecture is not simply a list of facts or a reading of the textbook. An effective lecture is the result of planning and making a series of choices - and it need not be boring. 1.  Dont Cover It All Exert restraint in planning each class session. You will not be able to cover all of the material in the text and assigned readings. Accept that. Base your lecture on the most important material in the reading assignment, a topic from the reading that students are likely to find difficult, or material that doesnt appear in the text. Explain to students that you wont repeat much of the material in the assigned readings, and their job is to read carefully and critically, identifying and bringing questions about the readings to class. 2.  Make Choices Your lecture should present no more than three or four major issues, with time for examples and questions. Anything more than a few points and your students will be overwhelmed. Determine the critical message of your lecture and then remove the adornments. Present the bare bones in a succinct story. Students will absorb the salient points easily if they are few in number, clear, and coupled with examples. 3.  Present in Small Chunks Break up your lectures so that they are presented in 20-minute chunks. Whats wrong with a 1- or 2-hour lecture? Research shows that students remember the first and the last ten minutes of lectures, but little of the intervening time. Undergraduate students have a limited attention span - so take advantage of it to structure your class. Switch gears after each 20-minute mini-lecture and do something different. For example, pose a discussion question, a short in-class writing assignment, a small group discussion, or problem-solving activity. 4.  Encourage Active Processing Learning is a constructive process. Students must think about the material, make connections, relate new knowledge to what is already known, and apply knowledge to new situations. Only by working with information do we learn it. Effective instructors use active learning techniques in the classroom. Active learning is a student-centered instruction that forces students to manipulate the material to solve problems, answer questions, examine cases, discuss, explain, debate, brainstorm, and formulate questions of their own. Students tend to prefer active learning techniques because they are engaging and fun. 5.  Pose Reflective Questions The simplest way of using active learning techniques in the classroom is to ask reflective questions. These are not yes or no questions, but those that require students to think. For example, â€Å"What would you do in this particular situation? How would you approach solving this problem?† Reflective questions are difficult and will require time to think, so be prepared to wait for an answer. Endure the silence. 6.  Get Them Writing Rather than simply pose a discussion question, ask students to write about the question first for three to five minutes, then solicit their responses. The benefit of asking students to consider the question in writing is that they will have time to think through their response and feel more comfortable discussing their views without fear of forgetting their point. Asking students to work with the course content and determine how it fits with their experiences enables them to learn in their own way, making the material personally meaningful, which is at the heart of active learning. In addition to the educational  benefits, breaking up a lecture and interspersing it with discussion and active learning takes the pressure off of you as the instructor. An hour and 15 minutes, or even 50 minutes, is a long time to talk. Its also a long time to listen.  Try these techniques and vary your strategies to make it easier on everyone and increase your likelihood of success in the classroom.

Knowledge Sharing Networks and Strategic Alliances Essay

Knowledge Sharing Networks and Strategic Alliances - Essay Example The fruits of this research are going to be reaped by many firms in the future when they decide to form a Strategic Alliance and Networks with another firm. Strategic Alliances can be defined as voluntary agreements between firms for exchanging, sharing, and codevelopment of products. A strategic network may also be formed for the purpose of information sharing and using the knowledge learned from one part of the world by one firm, and then applying this learned knowledge to another part of the world through a different company. In the past research was also done to determine the behavior and performance of firms as a consequence of these alliances and partnerships. However, the major focus of the past research was the proclivity of firms or motivation behind entering into the partnerships and what variables were used by these firms for choosing their strategic partners. One important factor that was unearthed by this paper that gives firms motive to form strategic partnership is the use of information. As the paradigm of knowledge has shifted and firms rely on quick and fast information transfer and usage to increase their profitability, information has a premium attached to it. Many firms form strategic alliance and networks to get hold of this information and use it in their businesses for better profitability and performance of the organization. Hence, strategic networks and alliances have become increasingly important in the sphere of businesses today. (Gulati, Alliances and Networks, 1998) There are various factors that have to be considered before a firm makes a decision about the type of strategy that it is going to implement. Historically, businesses or focal firms can either take hold of other firms through investment, joint ventures or acquisition. However, as the time has elapsed it has become increasingly difficult to predict what kind of strategy, the focal or a firm in need of partnership is going to follow. In a study done on 87 firms and 9276 d eal announcements, it found that a lot of factors play an important role in strategic partnership decisions. These factors range from economics to other important fields in a business context. They include transaction costs, R & D benefits internalization view and the level of technological stage of the targeted firm. It was also worth noting that other conventional theories also hold importance in the decision made by the firms to form Strategic Alliances and Networks. Agency Theory, for example, provides grounds for Strategic Alliances and Networks to materialize. Agency theory states that agents act on the behalf of the principle. The finding in the paper says that one firm agrees to act on the behalf of the other and chooses to forego its own business and resources. it becomes fairly easy to form Strategic Alliances and Network. (Belen & McGahan, 2005) Many other important factors play a very important role in the formation of Strategic Alliances and Networks. A study done on Ne twork and Alliances show that profitability of a firm is likely to increases if there is some sort of connection between the industry participants. This is one major reason why firms operating in an Oligopoly collude and form cartels. Hence, forming strategic alliances and networks increase the

Researched Thematic Analysis All in the Timing by David Ives Essay

Researched Thematic Analysis All in the Timing by David Ives - Essay Example too Also significant to remember is that it there are usually several themes in an artistic work, all tightly woven together and inter-related--some minor--some major. David Ives (b. 1950) attended Northwestern University where he began writing plays. He produced his first play, Canvas, in New York City with the Circle Repertory Company. He later took on a job as an editor of Foreign Affairs and eventually studied drama at Yale University's School of Drama, where he received his MFA. He is known for many successful plays including, All in the Timing, Words, Words, Words, Sure Thing, and Philip Glass Buys a Loaf of Bread. His latest play, Don Juan in Chicago, received the Outer Critic's Circle's John Gassner Playwriting Award and a Drama Desk nomination for outstanding play. Ives also received the 1994 George and Elizabeth Martin David Ives' All in the Timing is a contradictory and even absurd comedy encompassing six acts. The first selection is entitled Sure Thing. It is a chronicle of the possibilities that exist when two people try to have a cup of coffee together. It starts with the question "is that seat taken" with responses starting with "yes, I'm waiting for someone" to "no, have a seat." It takes a few moments to become comfortable with the switching of scenes but it is eerily mesmerizing to watch the scene unfold and recognize that you yourself have been in that exact position. (Samudrala ||, 2005) The second selection, Trotsky, is about Leon Trotsky. He has a mountain climber's axe smashed/buried into his skull by his communist gardener, Ramon, the day before, yet he remembers nothing. His ice pick phobia is the focus of this act, but it is the mountain climber's axe that does him in. The weird part (yes, something weirder that an ice pick fetish) is that his wife comes in the room with an encyclopedia from the 1990s (the play is set in 1940s) to inform him that the book says he is going to die today. The third selection, Philadelphia, is interesting. It takes place in a coffee shop where the various inhabitants are stuck in different "cities" or states of mind. The person in a Los Angeles is perpetually carefree and doesn't get upset that his wife left him, or that he just lost his job. The person in a Chicago feels worse than dead, and the person in a Philadelphia gets exactly the opposite of what he asks for. The person in the Los Angeles explains everything to the person in the Philadelphia so he finally learns to ask for the opposite of what he wants. Unfortunately, the person in the Los Angeles gets sucked into the other person's Philadelphia and he finally feels the pain of losing his job and wife.The fourth selection is called English Made Simple. It involves a man and a woman at a party who are demonstrating language for the labcoat-wearing-maybe-psychologist person also on stage. Sure Thing, when a variety of possible outcomes were presented. (Schmidt, 205) The fifth selection is called Words, Words, Words. It is a bizarre look into the lives of three monkeys

Organizing a trip to Edingburgh Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3250 words

Organizing a trip to Edingburgh - Essay Example Art and other portraits are among the major contributions of Edinburgh. Scottish art council, National gallery of Scotland, Scottish National Portrait Gallery and other art centers are the major attractions. Edinburgh has witnessed lots of International twin programs from various universities and colleges across the world. The trip involves a large number of students and members of the faculty who will guide the students in different aspects during the trip. Some other university staff will also be part of the trip and their assistance is expected to make the trip more fruitful. The date selected for the trip is the month of May when the University classes are suspended due to summer holiday (5TH May, 2009 to 9th May, 2009). Flight tickets are being obtained for all the persons going for the trip. As per the rate given by the travel agents, the air fare is 200' per person (100' for Wales to Edinburgh and 100' for Edinburgh to Wales). The trip will be in business class. Hotels will be booked in Edinburgh for the trip. The rooms will be of double or triple occupancy. Rooms will be allotted to students and staff as per their preference. As per the rates provided by the hotel manager in Edinburgh, each person has to pay 200 ' daily for lodging. This price includes all the hotel facilities except food. ll the people goi Cab Fare ll the people going for trip are to assemble at the University campus. Cabs will carry them from the University campus to Wales airport on day 0. Cabs will also be hired to transport people from Hotel in Edinburgh to the airport of Edinburgh. As per the rates provided by the Cab association, they are going to charge 10 ' per person. All the cabs will be fully air conditioned. Food All the participants will be provided with breakfast, lunch, evening snacks and dinner. Breakfast will be provided by the hotel in Edinburgh. For lunch, restaurants have been selected in Edinburgh with flexible food items. Three different restaurants have been selected for three days of trip in Edinburgh. The restaurants have

How does a CD work? :: essays research papers

TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction ................................................................................................pg. 2 Factors Creating the Demand For Secondary Storage ............................pg. 2 Why Buy Optical ........................................................................................pg. 3 CD Physical Characteristics.......................................................................pg. 4 How Does a CD Work.................................................................................pg 5 What is a CD-R............................................................................................pg 5 What is CD-RW...........................................................................................pg 5 How Does A CD-RW Work .......................................................................pg. 5 Advantages of CD-RW ..............................................................................pg. 5 DVD.............................................................................................................pg 6 DVD VS. CD...............................................................................................pg 6 Glossary ......................................................................................................pg 7 Questions .................................................................................................... INTRODUCTION The use of optical storage continues to grow at an incredible pace. The word optical in the computer industry refers to any storage method which uses a laser to store and retrieve data from media. This term includes such devices as CD-ROM , rewritable optical, WORM, CD-R, and optical jukeboxes or autochangers. Most of us are familiar with CD-ROM, but other terms such as rewritable optical, WORM, and CD-R, may be foreign. Rewritable optical devices use media that allows data to be written repeatedly, while WORM technology writes data permanently to disk. CD-R , stores information permanently to a compact disc and is read on low-cost CD-ROM drives. These devices are currently sold as single or standalone items. The continuing development of optical technology has opened up many new avenues and created limitless possibilities. Migration software now allows unused data to be moved from its original location to an optical device where it resides until it is needed. Since the only thing that touches the media is the laser, it is the most durable way to store and archive data. Optical storage solutions are also used in a wide variety of applications such as document timing, records retention, backup systems, and desktop publishing. FACTORS CREATING THE DEMAND FOR SECONDARY STORAGE Because of its high capacity, low cost, durability, and random access to large amounts of networked information, secondary storage satisfies an essential need of data intensive organizations. This need for secondary storage arises from a number of factors: Digital convergence. The move towards graphical user interfaces and the success of operating systems, such as Windows, Windows 95, and Windows NT, have resulted in a significant increase in the average size of a stored document. Industry estimates indicate that the average document size has grown almost tenfold (PC Magazine, 03/10/98, "To Write or Rewrite?") The information superhighway. The explosive growth of on line services, led by the Internet, has resulted in unprecedented use of such services to reach potentially huge new customer base. Another consideration for the need of reliable secondary storage is the increasing cost of managing storage on network servers. According to Strategic Research Corporation, as storage requirements explode, organizations are finding that the cost of managing the storage is almost four times the cost of the actual storage due to server downtime, backup procedures, and hard disk failures.

‘Death of a Salesman’: Everyone fails in a waste of misplaced energy and Miller offers no comfort to his audience

‘Death of a Salesman' is dominated by the theme of failure and the protagonist Willy Loman is certainly the main exemplifier of this. The complexity of this play, however, makes it difficult to label with such a generalised comment. I would not disagree that the action of the play centres around failure but I feel that some comfort is offered through other characters such as Charley, Bernard, Howard and Ben. Willy Loman has undeniably failed in every aspect of his life. He has been defeated in business, he is a poor father and a poor husband. As Dukore says ‘The inadequacies of what he buys mirror the inadequacies in his sales, which in turn reflect his inadequacies as a parent'. Willy is not a success in business, despite describing himself as a ‘big-shot' to his sons. He dedicates a lot of time to his work and has been employed by the same firm for 34 years, however, he has to borrow money from his neighbour Charley as a means of survival as he is cruelly cast off by his ruthless boss, Howard. Willy unsurprisingly finds this humiliating and difficult to believe, ‘you can't eat the orange and throw the peel away – a man is not a piece of fruit'. Willy has no status as a businessman and he confesses that ‘the trouble is, Linda, people don't seem to take to me'. Willy believes in the fantasy of the American Dream which suggests that wealth and an attractive personality alone can make him happy. We even see Willy being patronised when his boss addresses Willy as ‘kid', representing that Willy is still seen as a kid in the business world. Willy is a failure at home and his sons, Biff and Happy, ‘both seem condemned to repeat their father's failure and relive his self-deception'. We see this as Biff steals a fountain pen from Bill Oliver as if the family are trying to grab onto any bit of success that they can find. Willy has brought his children up telling them that all they need is to be well liked to succeed. Happy rates success by how many girls he can seduce and he describes his relationships as ‘like bowling or something. I just keep knockin' them over and it doesn't mean anything'. Willy repeatedly sends contradicting messages to his sons desperately trying to find something to help them to become successes. Willy also fails as a husband. He had an affair which is only known to Biff, but Willy's guilt is represented through the stockings that Willy gave to his mistress. He has cheated Linda as she still has no knowledge of his affair. The play shows ‘a man's destruction through the tearing away of his protective covering of lies and self deceit' as Willy is constantly lying to himself and to his family about who he really is. Willy shares his faith in the American Dream with other fictional characters including Lennie and George in John Steinbeck's ‘Of Mice and Men' and others of Miller's characters like Marco and Rodolpho from Miller's play ‘A View From The Bridge'. Similar to this play, ‘Death of a Salesman' could be described as a modern Greek tragedy. Miller is very interested in this style of writing and applying it to a modern audience. ‘Death of a Salesman' could be described as a tragedy as it addresses many of the elements that Aristotle outlined. This play gives unity of time, place and action and we only see the last 24 hours of Willy's life. Again fitting in with Aristotle's ideas, the protagonist is flawed and this is Willy's determination and commitment to the American dream, and the play encourages the audience to feel catharsis at the catastrophe. Miller has, however, deliberately rejected Aristotle's idea of status and has made Willy an ‘un-heroic hero'. Miller wanted to show the ‘tragedy of a common man'. Even Willy's name ‘Loman' shows us that he is exactly that – a ‘low-man' and is similar to Elmer Rice's ‘Mr Zero' in his play ‘The Adding Machine' but Willy also seems to be an everyman and Miller said that ‘everyone knows Willy Loman' because as well as showing the destruction of one man. Despite its realistic trappings, ‘Death of a Salesman' is universal, thus a more vivid dramatisation of a modern everyman' – Willy is also representing the destruction of everyone who has bought in to the American dream, and in this way the play could also be called a political play. The mixture of traditional tragedy and Miller's own unique brand of drama allows the audience to recognise the protagonists' flaws in themselves. Willy's energy is certainly wasted as he spends the majority of his time at work, without anything to show for it. This could contribute to his failure as a husband and a father as dedicating more time to these things may help to repair broken relationships. Willy is so committed to the American Dream that everything else in his life seems to be breaking around him including household items like the fridge and the car. This symbolises Willy's race against age and limiting factors to be a success, and he fails to do this. We learn in the play that Willy is good at practical work and this work is admired by Charley, ‘That's a piece of work. To put up a ceiling is a mystery to me. How do you do it? ‘ Willy obviously has a skill but this skill is not used. Willy would be happier working in the country using his hands but he works in the city to try and satisfy his value of success which is to be working in the city and people have said of Willy that he has been ‘dwarfed by his surroundings' which I would agree with. Willy is in an environment in which he cannot survive and this idea is represented by the seeds that we see Willy desperately trying to plant at the end of the play. Like Willy, the seeds cannot grow in the environment that they are in. Willy wastes his energy as he ‘fears the present and romanticises the past' and his confusion of past and present is shown in the play through retrospective exposition. Willy spends a lot of his time talking to characters of the past instead of focussing on the present and facing up to his problems. The original title of the play was ‘The Inside of His Head' and this was because through the play we are seeing exactly what is happening inside Willy's head which is a mass of contradictions. He misplaces his energy in the past whilst still living in the present and this is what essentially causes Willy's eventual suicide. We see Happy also failing in the play as he is still a strong believer and follower of the American Dream to the end. He mirrors his father as he is still lying to himself about this fantasy and he refuses to admit that he is a failure. During The Requiem, Happy still insists that ‘He had a good dream. It's the only dream you can have – to come out number-one man'. Happy is still fooling himself and he has learnt very little even after this tragic experience, and this offers no comfort to the audience, it merely demonstrates how Willy's failure still lives on in Happy and shows Happy's wasted energy. Other characters in the play, however, are successful showing that not everyone in the play fails, and in contrast to Willy's downfall we hear the story of Bernard, Biff's school friend who succeeds due to hard work and becomes a lawyer. He shares our pity for Willy. The audience also meet Charley, Bernard's father who is a very compassionate, benevolent and caring man who is also a success in business and we see through Charley and Bernard that you do not have to be ruthless to be successful. There are, however, ruthless characters such as Bill Oliver, Biff's former boss, and Howard Wagner who was Willy's boss. These men are ruthless businessmen as we see through Howard's dismissal of Willy and Bill Oliver's unwillingness to speak to Biff about business propositions. Both Bill Oliver and Howard Wagner understand the business world – something which Willy fails to do. They both acknowledge that to succeed they need to be brutal and this is what we see Howard do. It could be said that Howard is a cruel man for dismissing Willy, however, for his business to survive it would seem the obvious thing to do as Willy no longer credited the company. I would disagree that Miller offers no comfort to his audience. By the end of the play, Biff admits to his father that ‘I'm a dozen, and so are you' and instructs his father to ‘take that phony dream and burn it before something happens'. Biff's turns his back on the American Dream and this is certainly comfort to the audience because he has found himself and knows who he is unlike his brother, and his father. There is a lot of failure in this tragedy. The focus of the play is Willy Loman who does fail and it would also be true to say that Willy does misplace his energy and there is little comfort due to the emotion of Willy's suicide. Miller said that ‘Most human enterprises disappoint' and this view is certainly shown throughout the play and through Willy's life. Bernard and Howard, however, are very successful due to hard work and if nothing else this is comfort to the audience as they represent a type of success which isn't based around being ‘well liked'. Biff's enlightenment at the end of the play is also comforting as there is now some hope of success beyond the American Dream and hope that Biff's energy will be used in a more constructive way.

Mary Olivers piece of reading Of power and time Free Essay Example, 1250 words

And the occasional success, to the striver, is worth everything (Oliver, 1995). It is with the effortless brilliance that Mary Oliver describes her world as a portrayal of her situation to the reader making the essay more inspiring to readers through its descriptive elegance. Point in mind is the description of her position and the movement of the clock, It is a silver morning like any other. I am at my desk and The clock! That twelve-figured moon skull, that white spider belly! How serenely the hands move with their filigree pointers, and how steadily! (Oliver, 1995). The reader is absorbed to her world and is transformed by her use of description to make the reader part of the essay and clarify on the art of thinking and writing making it awesome in an amazing manner. The words of Oliver Mary describe my life in terms of my constant struggle to balance ordinary life and creative life. Writing and the interruptions that very frequently occur in life depicted in the essay is a cl ear description of the life I struggle with each day with the aim of churning out the best art. We will write a custom essay sample on Mary Oliver's piece of reading Of power and time or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now I believe the essay is relevant today and will be relevant in future days due to the struggles, which everyone tries to understand artists and the increasing proportion of artists working on different forms of art. The essay has led me to visualize the subject of art and the creative process. She has made me realize that the creative process has to take precedence over the other activities and interruptions that come the way of the artist. The creative process also requires the concentration of the efforts of a writer at all times, as there is no specific position or place for the creative process to occur. The tone of the essay is serious as the author aims at augmenting our understanding of the most conducive environment for one to be an artist and ensure the produced art that lasts for eternity. This makes the essay readable ensuring the reader gives the essay the seriousness it deserves. The serious tone is consistent with the purpose and the au dience of the paper.