I sometimes find it difficult to keep the class moving on. I am always conscious that I don't want to run out of time at the end of the course and have to cram things in. In turn that means that I feel like I'm going a little quicker than some of the students would prefer, but there are others that are getting a little frustrated that things aren't moving fast enough.

Teaching in a college provides a bridge between university learning and school learning. It seems that students new to the college struggle a little with the transition between school and college teaching. Coming from a very recent (and quite long) university background I probably appear to demanding of pupils who have just come through the school system and I probably expect them to come round to uni style working to quickly. I sometimes wonder how to better get pupils around to the idea that they have to do work outside of class and to go look for material other than what I provide for them. I've already tried talking and explaining the time constraints. I wonder about some sort of research(ish) assignment, but as assignments don't count toward final grades getting them to do homework is sometimes hard enough.

As far getting students to "buy in" to what they are doing, its hard getting feedback from them. I don't want to approach them to directly but I've only had a few comments on this blog despite trying to emphasise it as much as I feel I can. I'm considering some sort of anonymous form but as I know what their handwriting looks like I'm not sure I'd get an honest response. I don't really mind what they say, I'd just like them to say something. I'm not sure how to get this across to them. I'd just like to know if they would like anything done differently because at the moment I'm just doing what I think is right which may or may not be correct.