How do other teachers deal with students who have severe personal challenges?
We all have students come to us with excuses and needs, but how do others handle the more severe problems?
It seems that in my online classes I have more deaths and family issues then I saw in a regular classroom. In most cases I allow the students extra time to complete their work. In other more severe cases I refer to an administrator for more information before making a determination. I am very careful not put anything in writing to the student that I don't believe him.
I have the family severe problems and I give them sympathy and say, I will help with an extension. Then I notify Student Services of the problem. End of story. We can only help so much.
@hammit39 : We have all had some students come to us with some severe challenges they were not able to deal with. I know we are all compassionate and empathetic with our responses on the outside while we realize we cannot help everybody. Every institution has it's own guidelines on what is and is not acceptable for you to do. Whenever I have prior knowledge regarding what my student is experiencing I can help them better than if I find out during the last week of class. I do my best to work with my department chair and our academic advisors to ward off any future problems by helping them get some real solutions. We are not always successful but we try to do as much as we can for each one.
@miltonclark :This is a very smart move to not put too much in writing.
@hammit39 :I do too, just today a student told me they worked during the day and it is hard to complete the assignments for a two week class. I emailed some suggestions on how to use time management. I will not let them make an escuse such as this. I worked the entire time attending a brick and mortar and took some online classes. Our student have got to want the education also.
