Adults in the classroom with personal problems.
On day one of the course. I tell my students. we all have problems and things going on in ourlives. "if they have a personal thing going on with them and they can not focus. Then I am gladly available for them".I try to help them with and open understanding. Making them more relaxed.We converse and they are very respondant. They are more than ready to go on with their daily tasks. Sometimes they just need to readjust themselves.
Stacy,
I like your idea of being proactive about knowing the right contacts in order to give a more specific piece of assistance to the student. Sometimes just giving them the correct information to start is half the battle of addressing a given problem. I find the my student body is particularly prone to personal problems such as homelessness, lack of access to transportation, lack of access to technology, personal or family illnesses, lack of food, lack of sleep, etc. I find the support services offered by my school (at least currently) unable to deal with any of these issues adequately. As a result, I try to empower my students by directing them as a whole to any free or discounted resource I can find, such as free books on the internet, free food, free culture, free healthcare events, etc. I offer them this information in the context of my Ethics class under the greater goal of instilling a self sufficiency ethic in alternate ways. This lets the students who are interested inquire further on their own and avoids singling any one person out for any particular problem.
Thanks for your time,
Melville
Mr. Jackson,
Most of my student are adult learner and I support them with my knowledge, time manor. So they respect what I has done for them.
Tu, can you share any trends you have noticed with respect to the classifications of students that tend to take full advantage of your support? Do students that make use of your services tend to perform better in the classroom? Thanks for anything you can share.
James Jackson
I tell my student that I am here to support them and always available for them. Whenever they need I will try my best to support them. Listening and give them your shoulder is the best support you can give.
Jennifer, well stated. Students need to have a consistent access to their instructors outside of the classroom. Even if students do not take full advantage it is critical that students know you are accessible. In time they will take advantage of your time.
James Jackson
I think letting your students know you are available to them to provide support or resources where support is available is key to building a rapport with the students. I am not saying you need to give them your cell phone number and have them call you in the wee hours of the night but sometimes just knowing there is someone in your corner that has your best interest at heart can mean alot to the student who doesnt have anyone backing them up on their decision to be in school.
bonnie, students can pick up quickly on those that teach to just earn an income and those that teach because they love to give back and are passionate about their subject matter. Hard to fool students in this way.
James Jackson
I agree. Personal committment goes along way.
sultana, students come to school for many reasons. The more you discuss how to handle any non subject matter topics during day one of class the more effective each class session will run. Students are not expected to be skilled professionals as this is why they are attending your classes so you need to be understanding and focus on making the most of any teachable moment that presents itself. If done correctly, the number of disruptions towards the end of a course term should be fewer than the ones you experience early in the term.
James Jackson
Stacy, great point. The focus of the instructor is to transfer knowledge to the student and not to make jusgement on them as a person or their life style. If they approach you with issues and you can recommend resources that is fine and expected but we as instructors need to wait until we are approached versus being proactive on personal issues. If you as the instructor notice possible learning disorders then getting to know the student better can provide great insight how to oversome such issues with the student's learning.
James Jackson
Stacy, great use of the soft handoff. Instead of just referring a student to a service, introduce them directly and ensure a connection is made.
James Jackson
Tamara, teachers do a lot more then teach but I understand your point. Best practice is to be collaborative with all services available to support students.
James Jackson
Adult Students come back to school to bring a change in their professional field. As a professional everyone should leave their personal problems outside the class room. If any unavoidable situation occur, the student should speak to the instructor before the class start and make some arrangements so the class time would not be wasted.
Is that strictly a phone service or is there a person physically on campus? If the service includes a person on campus, I would think you could pull the student aside after class or on break and say something like, "There's someone I'd like you to meet," and then take the student to the counselor and introduce them leaving the introduction very open ended such as, "This is (name), and she's available to talk to students about all types of things. She's a very helpful person, very knowledgable, and full of great advice." Would something like that work?
I also agree. We have an external student counselling service that we can refer them to. However, many times they are to embarrassed to call. I don't know how to remedy this. Our administrators have tried to get more students into this program but I don't think our success rate is very good at this time. If anyone has any suggestions please let me know. The service is at no cost to the student.
Instructors are there to teach. If a student is allowed to bring his/her personal problems into the classroom, it can be very distracting and actually cause the instructor to lose instruction time because they are dealing with the problem student. While you don't want to ignore the student's problems and seem heartless, the best remedy is to send them to student services where they can seek professional help and the instructor can go on teaching.
I definitely agree with your post and often refer student's to our student services director for any additional assistance.
There's a fine line there that you have to be careful not to cross. Instructors should avoid offering any kind of advice about the student's personal life that is not directly related to the classroom.
