Short Rotation
In our school we only have each group for 15 days. That makes it hard to get involved with anything but delivering the material in class.
a lot of times I really don't get to know much about the student until the end of the session.
This can make harder to have a positive impact on retention
Daniel,
You may want to consider developing some activities in which students can "reveal" a bit about themselves. Depending on the subject, the activities can be related to the lesson.
Short rotations can always be tough however, you will find that even if a student is not in your class they will still know who you are and will still talk with you. This can help with retention.
getting to know the students is a priority... working with them for only 15 days in one half of the school is a problem, however on the other half we have them for up to 6 months and getting to know them from begining to the end is much more advantageous for making a positive impact.
Charles,
What are some specific things you do in the 15 days to establish a relationship with your students?
I ask the where they are from, what do they do to relax. Find out what they would like to do in the industry. What their motivations are to come here and their goals.
How about in the very first class, having the students fill out a short information sheet and then passing these on each 15 days to the new instructor. The students will appreciate the instructor who makes a personal correlation. Students also want to be a part of the school, each classroom and a part of the instructor's successes. It goes full circle because these students will comment about those speficic faculty being caring and sharing. It will go a long way toward positive student success rates also.
