Let the students know what is available
A powerful point I picked up on in our training here concerning retention is that we need to let the students know that we can help with more things than they may realize. I have started, once a week, to let my class know that if they are having any kind of struggle (financial, personal, transportation, housing etc.) that we have many resources here at the school for them and they can contact me privately before or after class to figure out who to talk to or they can go to student services and let them know what their situation is so they can get the help they need before it becomes too big to fix.
I agree with what you are saying always look for the positives and not dwell on the negatives.We are living in some tough times and we have to keep the student focused on there education and how times will get better.
Do you ever take some class time to discuss how students handle some of these problems? A kind of sharing of best practices. Students can learn from the success of their peers.
We get a new class every 3 weeks and on the first day I spend time to let the students know how much the school can help them. However most of them dont know when they are in over their heads and when to seek help. It would be great to have some kind of chart or guide for the students to pass out on the first day listing all the help and maybe when to start asking for help.
