What sort of programs do you offer that carry over to the home life of students? Are these after school offerings? Weekends?
Who coordinates them? Are they free?
What's a course plan? Is this the way competencies are measured?
Has this been effective for you? Have you seen behavioral change because of these contacts?
Our school has a fund set aside to help an emergency situation of finacial stress. There are qualifications for it, but it does make the difference between dropping out and going home, or staying and finishing scholl for a lot of students
Graphic Design as a department has a wide variety of tutorials, in-class and home assignments, quizzes, tests, and also Projects.
A project is an activity that involves the process that a graphic designer will encounter in "real world" client requests.
The student is assigned a complete Project that requires them to build on their skills as they increase their skills level.
I use my 47 years of experiemce gained in all aspects of the advertising, marketing, publishing, prepress, print production, consulting, software testing, and implementation to develop a problem for them to solve. An example is a current project that challenges them to create a fictious name and create a logo using Illustrator files of a wide variety of animal images. They are limited to 2 spot colors and black. The project developes in four parts. The logo, a customer Punch Card, a Price List to order their coffees and teas, and a Poster that can be any event that will bring customers into this fictious "Coffee" shop.
They realize that using consistent, unified colors and graphics, the same two type families, provides a client with a true branding identity that can be printed as a "ganged" job (all of the parts are printed at the same time, many up).
My main point in my original post is that alowing them to provide input into the project such as limiting themselves to one color and black, or any number of other minor changes that do not change the project objectives or the desired results always improve their performance. They feel that they are more involved and I see it as a further understanding of the issues of the problem they are challenged to solve.
I know this is a long answer, but there is never any singal solution to a subjective challenge. No, they do not have the authority to change the objectives and purpose of the project. Yes they can tweak certain aspects that would be acceptable to a client in any situation.
I teach my students to always expect client input. If I, as the client, don't provide the opportunity for them to experience this, then they won't be absolutely prepared for the "anything can happen" reality of their chosen field.
Ned
These programs are free to the students. We have had programs in which the students could bring their children to school....for instance Easter bunny, Christmas, cookouts. Short classes for relaxation, childcare, etc.
Also, programs that provide cooking classes for the students....eating healthy at home....food preparation.
These programs are held during school break hours when no other classes are taking place....middle of the day....evening. Rarely on the weekends.
Staff and faculty members at the college all participate in these programs....depending on the topic area.
We recently contracted with an outside agency for mental health, stress, life coaching services. Our in-house academic advising personnel are not qualified to assist with the mental health issues/life coping issues that were being presented by our students. In the current economy it seemed that more and more students were experiencing personal stress levels that were causing issues with their functioning successfully at school and outside of school. By offering this service, free of charge, to our student, it shows that we truly care about them as a person--not just as a student. They can call and speak with a licensed counselor as often as they need.
a student can not drop a class with out manager conculing......
we have an instructor summit meeting once a year and that lets people know the school is commited to our sucess.
We have student councilers available that students can go to for help and support for a wide range of problems. They are in place to help retention and to ease fears and dought.
A practice at our school that demonstrates school commitment is when instructors or staff donate bicycles to students who can't afford transportation to get to school and work etc.
School commitment is very essential to our jobs at "my" school. The students have breaks every so often, but the teachers remain in the classroom incase someone has a question. I deal with adult learners and sometimes you have someone who is afraid to ask questions. I have stated to them that the question not asked is the stupid one.
We also have instructors who specialize in certain subjects and they also tutor students who seem to be struggling. We have an open lab on Fridays so the students can work on the clinical aspects as well as the academics.
We have makeup day on Saturday incase someone has other commitments during the week and still need to see someone for help.
We tend to go out of our way to help the student not only be successful in the school, but we have student advocates here who help with personal things too; for instance, daycare issues. We have a saying here "Expect to Win". What do you win, you ask. Well, you win a career, a better life with their families. Many go on to be productive people in our society.
Could you please give me an example with student input for your lesson plan. I think this may work.
one of the ways we as instructors demostrate school commitment is through student advisements. By advising the students on their attendance, grades, professionalism, to let them know we do care about their education.
Club activies.
Volunteer events in the community.
Relay for life is a school wide event.
I have been a teacher on the front lines of education for over 15 years. The best person, equipped to reflect a culture of school commitment, is the teacher. If we are able to guide and refer the student to the numerous resources availbale to them such as: student services, financial services, placement services, as well as academic services, then the student will have a better chance for success. A student will know that we are committed to their success when they know that we care about their needs. They don't care what you know, if they don't know that you care!
Nice idea. In my program, we give an award at graduation but I have always kept a "secret" to surprise and honor a student at graduation. I can now see that it might behove me to make this know to our students as something to build towards.
I have often thought of doing a contest (we are graphic design) where students submit their work and then the whole student body votes on the best design of the month or the term. A prize would be awarded to the winner. I'm more motivated to follow through on this given the discussion taking place here, THANKS.
Interesting concept, but how do you enforce it? How do you avoid creating a situation where the student simply walks out and doesn't come back?
This is quite a commitment by your school. How have the students responded? Are more using the service? Is the new counseling service located in your building?
Did you do external referrals before engaging this agency?
