Creating Personal Support Systems
How can you help students identify and create personal support systems?
Judy,
You make a number of excellent points about how to keep students engaged in the learning process while coping with external challenges. They need support to keep their eyes on their career goals and not be distracted by individuals that would like to derail their success efforts.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Having support can be critical for an individual, whether they've just finished high school, or they're re returning to class after 30 years. Without support, it is incredibly easy to lose motivation and succumb to the "why am I even bothering" mentality.
Finding support can be a challenge in and of itself. In an ideal world, your friends and family will support you and, if needed, provide the extra "push" to succeed. However, this world is hardly ideal.
Far too often, I hear students complain that their parents think career college is a waste of time; spouses feel "abandoned" to household responsibilities while the student is in class or studying; friends accuse them of "trying to be better than us". In these situations, support is that much more critical, and that much more difficult to find.
It may be necessary to reach out beyond their comfort zones to find other people for their support group. Other students can really help in this area as many of them have similar struggles. Another suggestion that can work is joining some other group (sports team, book club, church organization, etc).
Bronzel,
What are some ways that you have found to be successful in communicating with your students? What has worked best for you?
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
By knowing what the resources are the students can feel better about themselves.
By having open commucation with your student.
Andrea,
Great to hear about the support services your college provides. They are essential in keeping students in school. Your personal touch of meeting with each student provides "value added" benefits for each student and their career progress.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
My answer is twofold. First, I like to meet with each student individually within the first two weeks of class. Having them set a goal first usually helps with identifying support systems. Each goal may/will require different support, depending on the goal and the subject. Second, the company I work for has systems in place to assist each individual student. First, we have a staff member with a counseling background available to the students. Second, we contract with a company that is available 24/7 to assist our students with support systems. Overall, I have the resources necessary to assist my students with identifying support systems.
Michelle,
Having a support group is very important to and for students. This interaction helps the students to see how they will need to work with others when they are in the work world.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I like to have students work in groups. I teach them early on in their college program, when they don't know each other. Having them work in groups allows them to get to know each other and make friends. By the end of the semester, they have found a good group of friends within the class. I see them often studying together and encouraging one another. They have found a support group.
get together with a group and discuss things..good and bad...and organize activities..
team up with a friend.. get family involved.. have one on one meeting to understand students better.
I often try to get in touch with a student one on one on a regular basis to make sure they have their support systems outside the classroom. I often provide help with trying to find community resources that are available to my students and sometimes will even discuss them with the class as a whole. They sometimes inform me of resorces that I wasn't aware of as well.
Margo,
Good strategy as many students are unaware of how to create a support system for themselves.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
When students enter college for the first time, I encourage them to get a study-buddy and form study group to aid them in developing supportive relationships with others.
Aprilan,
I agree with you about not becoming too involved in the personal lives of students. You are doing the right thing in referring them to the Students Assistance Office. Also, you have to control the discussion of student lives in class or their problems will soon take over the class and no progress will be made in sharing the content.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Aprilan,
Good strategies for instructors to follow. Thanks for sharing them with us. I know they will be of value to many instructors as they do their instructional planning.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
Wesley,
So true and so important to student success. Many of my students come from situations where they have never had any kind of support for anything and knowing they have someone they respect and respects them support them is a powerful motivator. This is what teaching is all about.
Gary
Dr. Gary Meers
I agree with what you have stated here. However I also do not like to get personally involved in my student's lives. I prefer to have a division in an instructor on the material being covered and a counselor. I do not feel class time is the appropriate time to discuss life experiences which are not relevant to the material being covered. Even outside of class times I am very hesitant to discuss certain life experiences because I truly do not want to know. I will gladly refer them to counselors though.
In the courses I teach there are weekly Chat sessions so that students can socialize with other students. These chat sessions are steered by the instructors. We also offer a student lounge where students can speak freely with other students. Both of these allow the students to socialize and develop relationships with other students. Many of my students come to class without a support system. When asked on the first day, “who is your support system†many of my students have no one. I will also pair students up. If by chance one student is excelling and another is struggling I will suggest that the students rely on each either. The student who is excelling has an opportunity to informally teach the material to the student who is struggling. Teaching is a great way to master the material.
