I totally agree with the fact that an instructor must hold his or her students accountable. I've seen situations where an instructor didn't hold his students accountable for their work and so lost control of his class.

Negative energy can kill any organization, but it is essential to minimize negativity in our business more than most. We are promising to change futures and change lives, which will only come with a positive, forward-thinking attitude.

The more information the students have about what is going on and what is expected of them the more comfortable they will feel with what is going on around them. Don't leave a question unanswered.

Positive Influence; Generally when an instructor keeps a positive influence the students do too. Most of the students feed off of the instructor attitude.

Tell Tell Tell ; From what we are taught here to help with student learning is, Students are told 6 times to help in the memorization process. We tell them what we are going to do. We tell them why. We tell them how, and then we tell them all over again.

One of our companies saying here is: We are Changing Lives One person at a time to help people achieve their dreams. Example, we have people in place to help students with life’s obstacles. When a student is having issues, we are able to step in and help with Financial Aid, Employment Services, ect…..

Humor in the classroom can be a way of warming bonds with students which can later be used as a springboard for more serious discussions relating to issues surrounding student retention.

Sometimes it is helpful to quiet our preconceived notions notions and biases. Try not to be mentally developing a response before we have completely listened to a student's concerns. Practice active and proactive listening.

I did my dissertation on retention at a small, Appalachian college. I found the main correlated factor to retention was family influence and expectations. The most common response was "I do not want to let my family down."

Even though I have taught for a number of years for an institution that focuses on retention, I learned a lot in RT 101.  In fact, I learned more than I had anticipated.

The information that stood out the most to me was that on stress and its relationship to student withdrawal.  I had never linked a student's withdrawal from a class with his or her fear of failure.  I plan to use this information to focus more on encouraging my students and to point out to them that they can succeed and how we can work together to make that happen.

 

Student retention is good for students, stsff, and financial interests. Scott Humphrey.

Each and every morning as I walkk in the door to our institution, I pause, take a breath, then walk into the building with the intention to greet whoever I meet with a positive attitude. And with that greeting, also remind myself to continue this attitude all day. Leave your problems and negative attitude outside the door.

a lot of my students want to know how and why i decided to become a chef

students love when i talk about my work experience

it feel good when you have an inpact of somebody live

I think we have a lot of students that don't know what they are signing up for. I have students that tell me they have never owned a screwdriver and now are a year into mechanics school. I have asked why they are here and they just thought it would be fun and not so hard.

As a new instructor, how much involvement is needed on my part,in working with student services?

As I get older, I see that each of the students that I think are not taking the course work seriously are doing nothing different then I did at their age. I am becoming more tolerant or understanding of these concerns. First I try to make each student feel that completing something you started is as important as the decision you made to start it in the first place. Education in any area is never a waste of time because you should always take some knowledge skill or life lesson away from the experience. I am beginning to see that focusing on these outcomes capture more interest from the student. I try not to focus on perfection but rather a good experience with the course material. I believe that a lot of the students that left may have left because I thought I cared too much and may have put unrealistic expectations on the students. Every student may not have the same vision of the outcomes or expectations that I have of the material being delivered. I guess we all sooner or later figure out what it is we will do. However, all the life experiences make us what we become.

Students need to be made to feel like they are more than just a number to their school. They want to feel that they have a name, face and story that the faculty/staff know and care about. If they have that feeling they are more likely to get help with their stress and be successful.

As a faculty member, I feel it is my responsibility to be sure those students understand the requirements of the course and that they have the skill set to be successful in the course. It can be very frustrating and discouraging for students to feel as if they are in over their head right from the start of the course, so the first week I do a review of content that I know is an expected foundation to be successful in the course. If the students are not adequately prepared for the course, I can pick it up right away and intervene with some tutoring before they get buried in the new content.