Mentoring and tudoring are great ways to assist some students over a hurdle, but how do some of you handle the ones that do not have the basic knowledge of the topic required to even be in your class? When you realize they have somehow made it to you but they are completly lost....what do you do? What about many students seeking your help at the same time, not another tudor, but you. I teach a course that is very advanced, and some students are afraid to ask questions, this sometimes leads to a "Can I talk to you after class" line of students seeking private help from me. This can be overwhelming to say the least. What are some ways you would suggest handling these types of situations?

It is very hard to retain students when they arrive with alot of personal issues. Like no money, homeless, criminal backgrounds, no job, no food to eat. What practices are there for students who arrive with these situations and think they can also handle school and studying on top of these personal issues?

Being in a culinary student we begin discussing externship with students on day on and encouraging them to get a job in the industry. This is apart of their vision and goals during school. Does anyone have any advise on getting students or motivating students to secure externship sites early before their final six weeks.

Some students feel because they are customers and paying for an education they deserve to do what they want. Being a culinary school how do you get students to understand that they are in college for an education and not just for free meals. They think because they are paying for college they should be allowed to eat what they want.

We use many of the techniques described especially making phone calls and following up on our students. What is the best practice for getting correct or accurate phone numbers. Our students appear to change phone numbers constantly and when you call they no longer work. This is very frustrating.

I realize that not all students have the stomach for it, I being one, but I have seen others get a great deal out of student created study groups. I could not encourage this extra-classroom activity enough. It provides support amoung the students and a focal point on the substantive learning process.

Great module, if nothing more than, to remind me that should I tread beyond the subject matter of the class too far I am out of my league and could cause greater damage than the student at first realizes.

It seems incongruous to refer to stress as objective and strain as subjective. It seems too obvious to say that our coping skills differ and are not universal. It is precisely the uniqueness of our coping-skills and our stress which makes this module so helpful and the lesson so challenging; sans the statement that stress is objective.

It seems to me that retention is only possible with one who desires to be retained. It has been my experience that instructors have a better view of a students desire than an admissions representative. Far from a criticism this appears to be a truism. As such, how can one better balance the success anticipated by the admissions representative of a new student with the success (i.e., retention) actually achieved in the classroom.

One of the most important facets in developing a retention program is to hire faculty who are driven to student success.Faculty who are excited to be teaching and working with students who re-enforce how the curricula the students are learning will apply on the job. I also would have a school newsletter written by students. The students will fill out an instructor performance survey and a curriculium relevance survey so we can see if we are meeting the students' needs. To accommondate student success I would use the following: Seminars for study skills, time management, test taking, dealing with anxiety; Appreciation Events; Awards Assemblies; Clubs; activities where faculty and students interact.

Stress is demands placed on a person that require adaptive and coping responses. Some students have to work 40 hours per week, come to school full-time in order to get their loans and/or grants, and still be a parent. We, the faculty need to walk a mile in the students shoes in order to comprehend what each students stressors are.

If the faculity teaches the materials using learning strategies to meet all learning styles the students should be happy with class. I try to get a team of students from Miller-Motte Technical College to participate in community projects such Relay for Life. This year we teamed up with the Massage Department--giving free massages at the Relay for Life Celebration as well as discount coupons. Our team rasied $1810. This team is really proud of what they have accomplished and have bonded together. Bonding of the students really helps retention.

Personally I believe that our institution needs much more student involvement. A newsletter would be great, picnics, and school field trips as well as career based field trips and activities are also something that I believe would boost moral

I believe that it is both the administration and the faculties responsibilities to keep retention numbers high. Administration needs to be up front when getting students in the institution enrolled and it is faculties responsibility to make sure that what we are teaching is relevant to what is needed in the field

Being primarily an online instructor I wanted to express the importance of retention in that environment as well. Being online we are sometimes disconnected from the campus and the students. We don't get to see them on a daily or weekly basis - so we rely on monitoring their participation and assignment submissions. Further it is harder to identify students whom are struggling or having a hard time if they don't express it. Because just because they are handing in their work, etc. doesn't mean they are having a positive and enriched experience. As an online instructor it is very important to keep your students interactive and get to know them a little bit. Make yourself feel inviting and encourage students to ask you questions or express their concerns. Further you should monitor student activity and message quickly students whom are not active. You don't want to reach the student before it is too late!

I find that working along side the student in class or lab helps the student throught there struggles with certian tasks seeing the instructor go throught the actruall labror that the task calls for is more motivating then him just talking about it.

what do you mentor when parents want the student to go studie at a college rather than a technical school.

I agree with many of the other comments that the self-recogition of blind spots is not easy but it is helpful to know of the existence of such blind spots. I detect the existance of my blind spots in test results by the students. I find the difficulty on measuring blind spots even more baffling when not all students suffer the frustration of dealing with my blind spots. In other words some students perform remarkably well, in spite of my blind spots, and some students do not. Student blind spots, although less meaasurable, are far more alarming to me than my own. Would not overall student success verify that instructor blind spots are more myth than extant.

I would find it very uncomfortable, and even a bit careless or dangerous to intiate contact with a student on a personal level. Even were the student to initiate the discussion the line that should not be crossed begins to materialize. What do you think of this red flag?

We all have a part in this program, the campus as a whole, the administrators, education managers, housing, facilities, instructors ect... to include the students. We seem to get alot of finger pointing on who is responsible for retension, just because the instructors have the face time doesn't mean that they need to be the soul savors for our students. The student needs to be willing to accept help from all persons they deal with at their school, as well as to acept that on occasions they (the student) needs to conform or correct a problem they may be pushing. If we all work together we can all gain from this in many ways, keeping students interested in school, keeping employees on a interactive level that stimulates them to higher levels of job gratification.