Seeing the future is an important part of keeping the dream alive, Lily. Having prospective employers review your students work can be a strong motivator. Of course, you have to keep a wary eye on the employers to make sure they don't say things that may have the opposite effect.
You get what you reward, Joanne. Obviously, attendance is important but you are also creating a strong sense of team. Each student knows that their actions reflect on their group as well as themselves.
Does anyone else do anything similar to this to reward positive behavior and build esprit d'corps?
In the reading materials for this week, it was stated that
"Teaching students how to identify problems, develop alternatives and communicate solutions are important skills that are invaluable to the student and highly sought after by employers."
How can we do this? It seems that it is something advisors can do, but how can faculty across disciplines incorporate the building of these skills into their courses?
Input is appreciated!
Teri
This is a wonderful idea. We also have been "dabbling" with a similar thing with our faculty. Although there isn't a contest, we showcase a faculty member and they get an opportunity to tell their story of success and overcoming barriers. This shows the students "real" people who have made it and again serves to encourage that informal mentoring process.
Teri
We have a similar process, but the faculty communicate any potential problems to academic advisors, who are then responsible for calling students and talking with them. The only real issue this raises is that faculty are often reluctant to "chase" problem students themselves and pass it on to the academic advisors prematurely. Any advice for how we might be able to rememdy that?
Teri
Tough issue, Teri. It's no secret that many faculty members don't feel comfortable with student issues, so expecting them to “chase†problem students when they have an alternative to pass them on is optimistic. The good news is that they are reporting the problem students at all.
Unless you develop some objective criteria re: when it is appropriate to refer a problem student and include it in the instructor's performance evaluation, you are likely to have performance that reflects the instructor's personality. Training on problem solving and mentoring may be useful, but it won't be personality changing. Creating teams that meet periodically to discuss problem students may serve to move the transfer point.
At a former school, we would have cookouts for our students during the warmer months of the year. Hotdogs, hamburgers, chips, and pop were provided free of charge with administrators and staff doing the cooking. Occasionally during colder months, we would serve donuts and coffee or cider to the students. On these occasions, class times would be adjusted. For cookouts, classes were shortened and students could eat before leaving for the day. For the donuts and coffee times, classes were shortened and the "social period" was approximately 30 minutes in mid morning. The students were very appreciative of these events because they saw the events as the school GIVING something to them.
Paula, I agree that students do appreciate these kinds of events. However, if they become routine they begin to become right rather than privilege and may even become a dissatisfier if you change your practice. Do you do anything to make sure that everyone participates? Frequently, the students who are least engaged with the school simply take the opportunity to leave.
At our school we publicy recognize students who have perfect attendance. This is imporant to re-emphasize that employers will value attendance and appearance as well as the school. We also offer a "best dressed" award for the students who portray the best version of interview appropriate clothing.
How frequently do you recognize people for attendance, Melissa? What method do you use to “publicly recognize†the students? Do you get any negative feedback about the “best dressed†award from students who don't believe they can afford a new wardrobe?
I'm not sure how frequently the students are recognized for perfect attendance as this is my first contact with this school and I only teach at night. I believe they are recognized at the end of each quarter through signage around the school.
I haven't had any negative feedback regarding the "best dressed" award from students who don't believe they can afford a new wardrobe. But from what I have seen, it's not about a new wardrobe, it is about taking what you have and creating a polished and professional image for interviewing.
It's a marvelous program. I had actually suggested something similar to our school approximately 2 years ago, but they still haven't placed it into gear.
Is there anything you can do now to get things moving, Katayoun?
Well, I have made suggestions and apparently they like the ideas, but it's still not in place.
I know that the program coordinators give rewards to their students and that the Registrar gives certificates to students with excellent attendance and academics. Maybe I should start something in my own classroom as well.
Our school has student appreciation every 5 weeks. We have luncheons and breakfast for the students and award perfect attendance and deans list certificates. We also have a mentor program where the staff are assigned students for there first few months in school. We also have a program called grad max for students to log on and answer question about how things are going in their life and in school.
Do you try to measure the effectiveness of any of these initiatives, Suzanne? How effective has the on-line service been?
This is truly wonderful. Where did this quote come from? I intend to send it to all of our staff and faculty as a reminder of our daily mission.
We work on this in several ways but a couple stand out to me.
First, we have committed not to be a policy driven school system. We feel that policies tend to take away the personalized service that we want to give to our students. Clearly, we do have policies in force which guide us, but we have also empowered the school leadership to make decisions not based upon the policy -- but what is best for the student. In the vast majority of the cases where we have made an exception, the student goes on to graduate and start their career.
Secondly, we recognized that two segments of our student population tended to get the most attention from our faculty and staff: those with the most trouble and those with the great grades. We realized that this negleted almost 80% of our population. We created awards and programs that recognize those who show improvement. If a student takes their overall GPA from a C to B -- we recognize their efforts with a variety of awards. This helped us to give an equal portion of attention to those who previously did not get as much as they deserved.
It must haven taken considerable time and effort to develop local leadership that has earned your trust to make sound decisions based on student needs. How did you do this? Is the authority centralized with the campus director or are the decisions made by an executive committee? How often do you regret over-ruling the published policy?
We managed to develop our leadership in two ways. First, we really work hard to develop leaders from within. We have a program which identifies potential leaders in our junior management ranks. By trying to promote from within, we have have people who have seen the process first hand and are able understand the reasoning that is required to make such a decision. Also, our Home Office staff helps in this process. Campus Directors almost always call and bounce their ideas around with our Home Office leadership team. Ultimately, the final call is left in the hands of the Campus Director, but usually they will consult with their staff and the Home Office staff before they override a policy.
There has been some pain from this approach. When we first rolled this out, some campuses went way too far and there were no rules. As a result, we had a couple of sticky situations with regulators. After that experience, we required that Home Office at least be consulted in the process before a policy is over-ruled. At this point, we can document that 70 - 75% of student who we made exceptions for have gone on to graduate -- this usually quells most questions from regulators.
