Part of the first day emphasis is to make course objectives clear to students. But if a student misses day one, due to either late registration or any number of external factors, is there a proper route to get them caught up just to make sure they're on course with the course objectives? What about pretesting? That seems like something they would hardly do for homework, or come in early or stay late to do. Do you just skip the pretesting for these students?

How do you go about motivating a student who doesn't really want to be there? They often show up late, or not at all, don't do large portions of projects and homework, and don't pay attention during lectures. How do you help someone succeed when they've setup personal road blocks?