The Key is Cooperation

I'm laid-back, easy-going and fun. Those also happen to be the qualities of my favorite childhood teachers. I tell this to my students right off from the beginning.

"I'm here to teach. You're here to learn. If we work together, we can have fun while you learn. If you want, you can try to take advantage of that, by goofing off and not paying attention. Either way, i still get paid. The only one that loses out is you, because you will have left here in the same situation as when you came here. And don't think that you can learn everything in the last week, because if it were possible, that's how the program would be run. So please, for yourself, not for me, pay attention in class."

So far, most of the students I've given that little speech to have paid attention in class and learn a lot. Today, my last class learned the basics of MS Excel in about an hour and a half. They now know how to make a finished spreadsheet for a payroll budget. And they learned because they paid attention. We even made jokes along the way. They had fun while learning.

And to think that when I started here at least three other ("older") instructors told me "don't cut them any slack, Give an inch, they'll take a foot.", "You got to be tough with them.", "If you let them lose respect, they'll run all over you."