Staff and Student Accountability
I think with any situation, you have to have boundaries. I have noticed with some of my students this is the first time for this. I always tell them that even though they are in school, the professionalism starts here.
Hi Dwayne,
I completely agree with you. It's challenging to be around students (and people in general) that feel that the world owes them something. I always start off my classes by letting the students know what I went through to get to where I am today. I do not tell them as a sob story or to make them feel sorry for me. I tell them because I want them to see you can achieve your goals despite what is going on in your personal life. I tell them that as well. It reaches some, but not all. Those it has reached have thanked for telling my story and they tend to have a greater respect for me.
Sounds to me like you need to teach at Harvard and get out of the Career School Teaching business. To be blunt I think it’s your failure to communicate how important you are to your students lives. Would that same student be asleep at a friend’s birthday party even if he worked all night? You should make yourself more entertaining and interesting to your students. Good luck!
Scott,
How do you demonstrate and evaluate "professionalism" in your classes?
I agree that professionalism needs to start in the classroom. It gives them time to build some of these skills before they are out in the job place.
Jackie,
We do wear a lot of hats as an instructor. It is difficult to leave things that are impacting us emotionally outside of the classroom when we walk in to teach a class.
I have found it effective to try to start each class with something positive to get me and my students into the right frame of mind. It might be somehting I can congratuate a student on. It might be a positive story from the newspapapr. It could also be an appropriate joke. It just needs to make people feel good as we start the class.
We do have a job description to educate ,model, mentor and monitor. Sometimes this is the only side we see as instructors of this process. Getting students in the classroom is only half the battle and keeping them there is another story. The daily struggles we all deal with instructors, students ,staff and management it all has its place in our normal day, but we somehow need to leave those struggles at the door when we come in. As an instructor you may have to wear many hats ,instructor ,counsuelor ,coach ,mediator and manager are just a few.
Having feelings and caring for your students is necessary. What the school environment is supposed to be doing is preparing the attendees to become productive members of society. Having spent twenty years in the services of our government (US Navy) before moving into my new career trying to teach adult learners things that should have been taught to them in kindergarten. I cannot describe the feeling that I get, when I see a student go off to a job and they get fired their first day. I feel that the entire school system has let them down, and has done them a great disservice. Thankfully most of the times this happens, it's a part time job while the student is still in school so I have time to work with them before they try again.
An emphasis on student self-direction and efficacy means that we teach and engage students in specific strategies that offer them opportunities to make decisions and solve problems on their own without being told what to do at all times.
I see classmates and class teacher as a family,who pay respect ,work hard and held accountable for outcome . Latif Rahman.
Chad,
The first day of the course is very important is setting the tone, but maintaining that tone is even more important. This shows that it is real.
I also agree. The first day of class truely sets the tone for the course. I have found that setting and maintaining complete professionalism through the entire course becomes infectious.Keeping a positive,professional attitude will certainly help with student accountability.
Great discussion in this thread. The point I take from Dr. Pace's comment is do we know why they're falling asleep? If we give them some "attention" and discover the issue them maybe their "retention" won't be an issue. Is there an issue at home, is there a medical issue, could it be that the instructor needs to liven things up a bit? We won't know until we pay some attention to the issue.
Could not have said it any better. When students realize there is no compromise on the boundaries inside a classroom, they complain and groan, but in the long run respect you for them.
Dr. Pace
Does it matter? No. If they choose to work and attend school it is their responsibility to be prepared to handle the work/school load. It's not our responsibility as educators to make their life easy. They made their choice so they must deal with the consequences.
If staying awake is too tough a task for them then they need to double check their priorities. I am not saying that having a family or a job is a bad thing, but spreading yourself too thin is.
Cynthia,
Could it be that these students that fall asleep have worked all night or have kids and other issues that keep them awake nights?
I found your comment interesting and very true. I am soon-to-be an instructor and currently in the process of training. My job for now is simply observe teacher-student general relation. As I read about attention= retention, i also felt a little hard to manage when I couldn't help but think about the couple of students that fell asleep everyday in class so far, even on the first day! My question is, does the student really want to learn? and will this attention=retention theory apply? I guess I may end of with some living examples of "entitlement" attitude... food for thought. Thanks for sharing.
Dwayne,
There is no doubt that today's students have a strong sense of entitlement and that as instructors we spend a great deal of time working to change their perception. There is also no doubt that the time spent waking students takes away from the students who are there to learn. Still, its easy to fall into the habit of viewing all student in the same light. How ever, I have found that when I take the time to talk to a student and ask about their personal lives that I get alot more cooperation and effort form them. Often students go unnoticed and quietly slip away with out our ever knowing they had a problem or were dealing with serious issues out side of class. We may not be able to keep all their asses in class but we can avoid loosing who could succeed if we spent just a little time with them.
Your statement couldn't be more true! I have found,on my own, that you can make or break your class if you don't set the foundation of what expectations you have of your students, and what they can expect of you. I set this up on the first day of class and then hold that level of professionalism throughout the course. The students enjoy having stucture and rarely try to find the limits.
Dewayne,
I agree with your assessment of the "entitled generation". I do believe that attention = retention is part of the solution. However, Attention is not just waking up the sleeping student, but communitating with the sleeping student during break or at some time to get to the heart of the issue. However, you are correct by saying that students need to work for their success.
