Question of the Week #14

Well, for me, not to repeat the answers and comments in mine or other's posts, I'll just say this:

I believe in my students until they show me too much apathy. Because of this, a lot of students don't jive well with me. I don't tolerate BS excuses for why they cannot study, why they cannot do work, or why they cannot put in the effort. If they show me apathy, then I give them what they want - I leave them alone. I, myself, am very busy and yet, I find time to study consistently, because I want to certify and keep certifying, because after 30 years in the field, I still have heart.

Maybe that's harsh or cold, but let's face it - anyone can certify. A few people have natural talent, but most of us have to work are butts off to earn the certs we have. And if they don't want it more than their excuses, I have no patience or time for them.

I am an encourager when it comes to this stuff. If you find me a student who TRULY wants it - who is willing to put in the time, I'll break my arm to help them out. Apathy, though... #OhHellNah. If they are here and can't get past their need to "smoke weed and play video games" (real excuse), then they aren't worth my time. And I certainly don't want that person rolling into a work site as if he/she knows the score, with my name attached to their apathy.

Maybe I'm sounding kinda preachy or another one of my pontifications (@Jarrel), but give me one student with heart and I'll make a crack IT professional who can set the woods on fire. Give me a hundred apathetic losers, and I'll just go make coffee and watch them walk in, walk out, and not even think twice.

Because that's what it takes. Heart. Anyone with heart can do it. Not everyone has the heart.

And every time I need a reminder of the kind of heart required, I'll watch things like these. I can't post them, since they carry a fair bit of profanity, but it's this kind of thing that reminds me what being a professional truly takes.

- I Got Nowhere Else to Go - An Officer and a Gentleman
- A Game of Inches - Any Given Sunday
- The Death Crawl - Facing the Giants

But I can give you these two things that have been at the core of my life:

- What It Takes to Be Number One - Vincent Lombardi
- The Man in the Glass - Peter Dale Wimbrow Sr.

/r

I love the poem, "The Man in the Glass".
Thanks for sharing it @Rick Butler - plus your pontifications.

I feel you. It really ain't easy to teach people who doesn't want to be taught, or those who are not interested.
They are in my classroom so I let them be, but I'll focus my energy and attention to those who are attentive.

But what if none or, what if majority of them are non-attentive?
Which then leads me to answering the question:

Rich Pernai said:

Question:
What are YOU doing today or what CAN you do to put your students in the best position to pass the certification exam?

In this thread, we want YOU to share your best practices or tools you may use to get your students to the next level. We will share some more ways on how you CAN get your students into the best position.

Click to expand...

(1) I don't stick with the slides. They are my guide to ensure that I am teaching all items; that I do not miss anything but I don't use them much in presenting things to class. I talk and discuss with my students. We search the internet for new tech and what's going on in the world. I find that slides bore the students, and I get bored when my class is bored, so I try to use various tools. I ask my students to go through the contents of learning materials on their own, i.e. CertMaster Learn, but inside my class, we discuss.

(2) Where possible, I talk while the students do the practice labs. That is why I love CertMaster Labs, or any labs for that matter. I follow the 70-20-10 rule. 70% learning by experience i.e labs, 20% learning by discussion i.e. by groups, classmates, forums, then 10% learning by formal education.

(3) I always think of ways to make learning fun. Ofcourse, not all topics are fun in nature, but I try to make it engaging. We use Kahoot - for cases where mobile phones are allowed. We also use Cram.com for flashcards - although CertMaster also have those tools and bits of games. Then we do the quiz show where, using MS Forms, the students write a question from a particular chapter, which I then turn into Quiz which everyone will then try to answer. I find that the students become more competitive in doing this, as they try to prove that they know better than their classmates - plus, I get to have more questions in the question pool as well. Win-win, right?

It became more challenging when the pandemic came co'z the student's behaviour is different when they are just connecting via the internet. They can do stuff without you knowing and you can't really get everyone to have their cameras on - co'z yes, the internet speed sucks even here in Australia.

That's when I decided to record my sessions, and share it with the students afterwards so that, in case anyone missed to capture a point or two, they can just view the recording and catch-up.

Long post but I hope you find it useful.

Labs, Labs, Labs and practice, practice, practice.