If we could arrange to have the new students meet some of the instructors and have the instructors talk about where they are from and how they got here. It may help the new students see how we all came from different backrounds but share the same interests. This may help ease some of the new students apprehention of why they are here, and may help them stay in school.

If possible it would be a good thing if you could leave your personal troubles outside the classroom. This could interfere on how you would normally conduct your class.

We have to be on the lookout for signs of student frustration, because each student is different this may be more apparent in some students than others.