Creating clubs is a great way to engage students. It gives them the opportunity to talk about school or something else. Sometimes, relaxing is as important as hard work.
Our school has an electronic system whereby we post any contacts, information gathering, problems, etc. that we learn the students have or that we have with them. This appears to be the ideal place to find out things that we might not be privy to on a regular basis. Admissions, Financial Aid, and the Business Office also make use of this system.
Faculty use it to contact students with absences, notify them of missed assignments, and basically maintain contact with them for retention purposes.
However, it can be a forum that we use for information sharing, also. I do believe that we not only need to attend Orientation to gather such information, but should perhaps use part of the first day to gather some basic information that each student might want to share with us as a getting acquainted period. We will be setting up class standards, calling role, other typical first day duties.
Why not take some time to help ourselves and the students out be a slightly less formal time to increase the information we have about each other beyond what we learned in Orientation. Would you agree?
As faculty, we are not privy to personnal information admissions collects. During our program orientation with faculty that will be teaching a specific trade as we are a vocational school, we ask each student to tell us about themselves and why they chose the particular field they want to pursue.
Our Admissions Department really do not share information about students unless it is necessary to know for teaching purposes like special needs, but I do try to know a little something about my students so that I can talk to them more easily.
Students love to talk about themselves and their passions. A little appropiate background information presented about a Student in a classroom situation can break the ice and foster some really good conversations.
The admissions department only shares what the student has told them openly.It is not really shared with the faculty.
During orientation we encourage the students to talk to each other especially if they want to carpool and form study groups.
The Instructors that teach on Day One of the new students have a list of ice breakers that they can choose from. This is when the faculty can get their own information about the students.
This is very beneficial for the Instructors so that they can adjust their teaching methods to the different learning styles of the students.
We don't share student information here.I'm pretty sure it's a Federal, if not a State crime. Instead we inter-act with our students and find common ground on the subject matter.
We ask the students what obstacles they see in their educational path and how they will overcome those problems.
We find out why they are interested in college and how they view their future once they are done.
were the students come from and what they look forward to ?
Erika--
Great! Do you do anything with what the students tell you during this exercise? For instance, does that information go in their file somewhere to remind them of their goals when they are thinking of leaving?
Susan
When admissions reps take potential students out on tours is when the majority of our faculty pitches in and offers any assistance.
Our orientation is built similar however once the student enrolls, we have a team that specializes in retention take over. Any students we feel have been missing too much, or academics aren't up to par they contact the student and console them.
They have students write down thier goals
Maybe identifying hobbies or community involement they are involved in.
About their children and hobbies. Asking the student how thier children are and how are they doing in school. I aslo like to ask them about th example they are now showing their children by being back in school themselves.
Information about where the students graduated from High School or where they were located geographically might be helpful. The staff at orientation could maybe mention sporting events or things that are happening in that area (or maybe a childhood trip they took to that city) to help give that personal connection to the student.
I would say, work status and working hours, contact information in case of emergency, Program of study, expected grad date, a good email address for instructor/student correspondence, phone number.
This information is vital for individual consultation and follow up in case students miss class.
If there is a disability or problems at home that may interfere with their attendance or work issues, or even just the desire to be a great student and perform well at school, maybe nervousness about entering school....any of these will help me in paying attention to that students needs
In admissions we ask about the students life schedule (particularly if they're working) to make sure they don't commit to a full time program if they only have time for a part time program. We also ask in admissions if there are any learning disabilities that we should be aware of to help get through the program.
We have new students fill out a "Goal Form" in which they let us know why they chose to come to our school, what specific area of interest they have, if they have any prior experience and what they hope to gain from completing the program. This information is then entered into our student database. It helps to know their background and where they plan to go from here.
