It's time to celebrate. Football starts this month and there's only a few weeks remaining in this license renewal period. I'm sure we will all be happy to have the CE classes behind us. We can now catch up on some of the work we had to let slide due to an overload in class schedules.

October is a good time to start thinking about the courses we want to get approved before next October. I can only speak for myself, but my workload is heavy and I have a tendency to put things off until the last minute. It doesn't hurt me to procrastinate because I always seem to meet my deadlines in plenty time. It does, however, hurt my students. Let's look at some things we should do.

Selecting a CE class title doesn't seem that difficult but we should devote ample time to naming our courses as to create interest and cause a prospective student to take the class. A good way to begin the process is to ask your students during a current class, what subject matter they would you to teach during the next license renewal period. The subject matter will help determine a name in many cases.

Now we can put pen to paper. We should begin by writing an outline of the course material we want to cover and select three most important topics we need to get across to the student. Next we should select three sub-topics for each major topic. This will allow us to teach all major points of interest and be able to adjust our class time based on student participation. In DREI training we learn from the top national speakers that most instructors include three times more material than they can possibly cover. They stress the importance of having fewer topics while making use of examples, stories; video clips and work sessions to engage the student.

The real work begins here with selecting the best possible material to get all major points across to the student. Searching for supportive material is most time consuming. Finding that right example or story that perfectly illustrates a point. I have found that searching for the perfect video clip is most difficult. I get to watching videos on YouTube and lose track of which one is best. Video clips that relate to the topic can be the most valuable teaching aid. It will create interest and the student will remember it for a longer period of time.

The important lesson for us to learn is that time spent in research and course creation just might make us look smarter than we really are. It will definitely make our classes more interesting to the student.

Respectfully,

James Anderson
2018 AREEA President