Life experiences
An instructor's flexibility, an understanding that babies do come early, families experience the death of a friend or loved one, blizzards prevent travel to class, illness of student or child takes priority encourage motivation
I agree that it is important to show compassion for the student’s situation, but we also have to be careful with the student’s privacy, here at are campus we are not to ask students anything about what is affecting them and their learning experience.
Alice,
This is the human factor in teaching and it needs to be an essential part of all that we do as we work with our students.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
I agree. Taking a moment to touch base and show some caring I believe can make the difference in your success [or lack of success] with a student under your teaching.
Many of my students are single Mom's, have jobs, and are struggling to get to school on time. the school policy is not flexible when it comes to wearing a uniform, coming to class on time, having assignments done completely by the deadline and if 1 day late a 30% drop in grade. I find that students learn better when deadlines are flexible because of life circumstances.
I agree that by showing care and concern motivates because students feel that you are truly concerned about their success.
Yolanda,
Well said because for those of us that live in areas of the country where winter has been working us over it has been a serious of adjustments due to school closings, power outages, ice storms, etc.. We have been tested a lot with our ability to make adjustments and keep our students moving forward.
Gary
Gary Meers, Ed.D.
