Enhancing Student Retention

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Ask a question from your peers to help you in your professional work. Seek different points of view on a topic that interests you. Start a thought-provoking conversation about a hot, current topic. Encourage your peers to join you in the discussion, and feel free to facilitate the discussion. As a community of educators, all members of the Career Ed Lounge are empowered to act as a discussion facilitator to help us all learn from each other.

Rosie Branciforte

Motivation is Easy

When I offer suggestions to fellow instructors, my main point is be happy and love your material. Students will not motivate themselves so it is up to the instructor. I also recommend the text by Jenson titled Active Learning which offers activites that will engage learners with lesson content. The days of standing in front of a room and spewing information are gone.. students want it real, relevant, and exciting. Talking heads go home!

Rosie Branciforte

Focus on Students

An instructor needs to understand that once in the classroom "it is not about me". The focus must always be on the students - are they learning, are they paying attention, did they understand the concept? I have made a conscious effort throughout my career of leaving my personal feelings, pains, or concerns outside the door. Students pay a lot of money for courses so they deserve 100% - not a half-hearted 75% because I have a pain!

Rosie Branciforte

Be here and do what we are doing

I share this sentiment with students the first week of classes... be here and do what we are doing. It reminds them of their responsibility in my classroom. If they can meet this challenge, I then must supply the reason for attending. If I create an exciting and interesting learning environment along with positive nurturing feedback, they will return each day. Retention is the sum total of many different steps and strategies with the instructor at the hub. I love being the hub!

William Young

Cultural diversity

My classes have been very culturally diverse , and on occasion , there may be a bit of a language barrier . These students definitely require some extra attention to ensure that they understand the material . Once they feel comfortable in class , however , they all have been very eager to share their cultural traditions or whatever is appropriate for the discussion . The extra time spent with them really pays off to enrich the class .

Jo Pressey

Enthusiasm

When you enter into your class room you should always be filled with excitement about what you are about to teach. Students feed off of our motivation to teach each lesson. They look forward to learning if learning is approached correctly.

Jo Pressey

Share time

I think when you take the opportunity to allow the student to share what they may have on their minds very early before class time begins, they will appreciate what the instructor allowed them to do and respect the instuctors authority in the classroom.

Jo Pressey

Making the student feel important

One way of retaining a student that may seem very bored with the classroom experience, is maybe have them assist the instructor in his/her lesson for the day and express to them that they did a wonderful job with assiting.

Jo Pressey

Teaching Student with ADHD

WE need to identify our students with ADHD in our classrooms. It's hard to teach this student when there are so many distractions such as windows in the classroom, a friend that sits next to them. We need to give this student room to move about; to release energy, provide assignments and instructions in writing and orally, and use high impact audio visual aids to keep their attention focused on the lessoned being taught at hand.

Nicole Grabowski

Excitment

Coming into the classroom in the morning and being in a great mood and telling the class about something great that has happened to you and asking them to do the same starts the day off to a great start and gets everyone ready to learn.

Nicole Grabowski

Personalm Stories

Telling your students personal stories can be one of the best things that you can do.It helps the student to understand that youare knowledgable in regard to there feild and that you to can make mistakes.

Nicole Grabowski

Personal needs

Sudents vary in there need for attention, im my experience I have delt with students who needed you to tell them every step of the way that they were doing a good job, where I have had other students that don't even want you to come near you. It is a matter of finding a common ground between both and understandign both students needs.

Nicole Grabowski

Student learning needs

When you are delaing with students that have such a large range of learning styles and needs, it is important to understand them all. When giving exams for example it is important t track the progress of the students so that you may be able to identify a learning need and take care of it before the student is to far gone.

Quiana Dickenson-Wade

Show and Tell

I think allowing students to share their own experiences is a great way to motivate student and have them become more involved in the course and the other students in the course.

Stephen Shastay

It's about Competency

Once they enter my classroom, older students are the same as young ones. Why? Because everybody is different. Everybody has goals, needs, requirements. And they are all different. Every single person. A teacher must be able to reach all of the students. One can argue that each student has different needs; but in truth, despite those needs, the students will almost certainly be taught in a group setting. For instance, if the only diversity found in a class is age, the teacher will still be unable to focus on the individual needs of each student. If you direct your attention… >>>

John Dufresne