Students need someone to listen to them and help them settle issues that they feel are out of control. In those instances, I look for opportunities to speak to them and give them guidance with confronting issues and posing behaviors that will yield positive outcomes. They find what we have discussed helpful.

Many times students feel as though no matter how hard they apply themselves they can never be as effecitve as others.Some pose limited learning capabilities(comprehension issues). Trying to make them feel competent amidst their fellow students has been a challenging task.

While teaching is great, its been a continuous problem with all departments sending the same message across the institutions entire spectrum. Notable, many of the students are annoyed with these signals but in some instances, its hard to clarify. Ultimately, I feel like the enemy.

I am new to the field of education and have a background in community mental health. Similarly to higher education, there was a tremendous pressure on the me and my fellow coworkers to retain clients as it was crucial for the budgeting of the program. From that experience, I think the working environment is important for overall retention rates. If staff feels overworked, unappreciated and not supported, they do not put in their best efforts and it is felt among the clients (students) as well. Just as retention is a school wide responsibility, our responsibility is to ensure the staff is treated just as well as the students. A staff that feels supported will be more likely to put in that extra effort to connect to students.

Our institution like most, if not all, has all of the challenges outlined in the tutorial. I've gained some valuable insight into tackling some of these issues. Basically, these examples are proving to be a barometer on how we attack these issues and how these methods can enhance retention.

high expectations are critical to establish righ from the beginning.

It is critical to provide continual orientation to guarantee student success.

I have not been teaching in a school for a long time. However, I have noticed that ounce you lay down course expections, students get a little intimidated. I feel like this has a lot to do with the rentetion in our facility.

I'm an Admissions Agent AND Student Services Coordinator for my location. Do I have more challenge since I'm both, or will I find it easier since I've been with the student from prospective status to graduation???

I think it's unrealistic to expect everyone in an organization to "buy in" to the mission to the point where everyone is contributing to the common good, due to high turnover, policies, individual personalities, or simply the challenges the industry presents. A realistic goal is to have a climate where a majority of the organization is working for the common good, but actively trying to bring the others along. Not to be pessimitic, but the culture described is obviously an ideal to be strived for, but rarely reached.

Everything in this class was right on target with what I try to accomplish. I work for a large school with small classes but I know all the staff in each department. we work will together to meet our schools goals and provide a positive learning experience for our students

Little things like attire, smiles, handshakes, welcoming statements go a long way in creating a positive first impression that are lasting. It's amazing how vivid student's memories are of that first day in class and things you said that first day. It's a very important day for them, so it's critical your impression is positive.

Although we do a lot of "counseling" in this industry, we are not in the Mental Health business. Mental Health professionals deal with much more serious conditions, addictions, etc. that we are not trained to handle. We do however perform more "life coaching" than a traditional higher education as well as academic counseling, but we are not in the Mental Health business by any stretch.

I have the reputation in my program as being theInstructor you love or hate. My students will say they love me because I am fair, firm consistant, honest and will help whenever I can to help them be successful. They will tell other students - You will love her if you are here to learn and succeed but if you are here just to waste time you will not like her. Just being in class is unacceptable in my class. You have to work hard and earn your grade. I have had a 93-99% retention rate for the past three years.

I had the fortune to experience a culture/group of individuals that served as a mentor for me in Graduate School. The entire Department's focus was on learning rather than GPA, modeling behavior, and mentoring new teachers in all of the ways the course describes. Each instructor cared about every student in the program and went above and beyond to prepare us. They also took the time to get to know us an people.

I always call students who fail to show during Week 1. Sometimes, they don't even realize that the new semester as started and they just needed a simple reminder!

I advise my students to make friends with another student peer on the first day of class. I encourage them to exchange phone numbers and email. This way, when one of them doesn't show up to class, they are more likely to ask their student peer about what was missed.

So many of our courses require a textbook. Students often wait until Week 2 or 3 to get ahold of the textbook and this sets the course way back! One solution I have found is to email the students BEFORE the course meets for the first time to set an expectation about timely textbook acquisition.

I have found that it is extraordinarily important to make a great impression on the first week of class. I try to be as enthusiastic, positive, funny, and engaging as possible to ensure that we all get off to a great start. If you lose the respect of your students on the first day of class, it is nearly impossible to get it back.

I found that the way we interact with the students does have an impact on the future of the students. We can help the students with the showing them the right attitude and how they can be more successful.