Agreed. Point out that these are services that they are paying for via tuition, the staff at each of these department is there to help out the students. if students didn’t come by then they wouldn’t have jobs.
I’d also suggest:
what to do if there is a medical or family emergency and they cannot complete an assignment or make an exam.
what to do if you are failing a class, just because you couldn’t keep up. In particular, it’s okay to go to a professor and say “Hi, I think I’m failing your class”, they know nice people get bad grades sometimes
how to dispute a grade. In particular, don’t be rude.
for the purpose of meeting other students, I might suggest some really easy group project, even if it’s in class. maybe have each group research one of the above offices and make a power point. they’ll probably roll their eyes but IME it’s easy to slide into natural social conversation when you’re also working on something together
I know, right? But it happens all the time, obviously, or I wouldn’t have said it twice. And how are they gonna learn if nobody tells them? Once they do learn they’ll never get those first semesters back, either.
Teach them the different “modes” of reading - i.e. skimming, scanning, and critical reading. Help them learn which of these is appropriate and when. Let them know it is often OK and sometimes expected that they skim an assigned text, rather than trying to painstakingly go over every word.
I fully agree with this. My parents have poor financial habits so they weren’t good role models for personal finance management. I wish there had been a course in college to teach me the basics.
Say the course is going to be 500 points - 150 of them for a final, two 100 point midterms, a 50 point paper and 100 points worth of homework spread over the course.
Try your darnedest to be walking into that final with 350 points - ok, maybe 330. Doing perfect (or nearly so) up to the final gives you every opportunity to bomb the final and walk out with a C. On the other hand, blow off that “easy” homework - that “easy” paper, do poorly on those midterms, and you could be in the awkward position of having to ace the final in order to pass. (I loved being in the position of “having to write my name on the final to pass.”)
Which position would you RATHER be in?
Other advantages to starting strong - the professor will have a good impression of you - that will often result in the benefit of the doubt in grading. Coursework often builds - blowing off week two leaves you lost at week four and needing to catch up - nearly impossible over the course of a semester.
Show up on day one, take notes, read the chapters and do the homework in PREPARATION for the lecture. Stay one step ahead of the coursework - because falling a step behind will involve a sprint to finish.
Unless they’re not going to get this material in other classes, don’t waste time teaching Illustrator and Photoshop. If the students aren’t computer-savvy when they walk into your class, there is no reason at all to get that material, especially if they’re going to get it in other classes.
I think a better use of that time would be to teach Google and online research skills. It always shocked some of my professors to learn just how lousy some students’ Google-fu really was and how much they relied on material found on questionable websites. You should also teach e-mail and IM etiquette… spelling and grammar count in the real world, after all.
Teach them the basics of the Library of Congress classification system - I grew up on Dewey Decimal and was in for a shock the first time I set foot in a university library.
Teach them to grab a book on world history and read it, if they’re at all interested in taking humanities courses. I entered college having never heard of Charlemagne; when he came up in a class I was taking I was already at a disadvantage.
What other tips can you give to “non-traditional” (non-dorm living) students who are starting college courses?
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thanks for asking! Tell them to treat it like a job. Seriously. A passing ( C or better) grade is a paycheck. Better the grade, better the paycheck. Obscure? Possibly. Remind them of the “rewards” at the end of the tunnel. But then it worked for me, and you know how I turned out.
Ooh, this is a good point, too. I just finished off a speech class where the professor had to take time out of the rushed summer schedule to cover this, as many of the students were doing things like citing abstracts, relying on second-hand sources, or using untrustworthy sites. Or using Wikipedia for everything.
Treating school like a job in terms of hours is a good thing too… I’m disappointed that next semester I don’t have long (2+ hour) spares between classes, because that means I’ll have to be extra diligent about just sitting down and getting work done. Last term I even had days with 4 hours off between courses; I sat and did my assignments and readings, etc. And by basically being on-campus for 8 hours a day most days, I discovered that I didn’t have to worry about homework in the evenings. I could watch TV, go out with friends, have fun with my husband, talk on the phone, whatever, and I didn’t have to stress about that Calculus assignment I needed to do (well, most of the time, anyways). If school is your 40 hours a week job, it is actually really easy to keep on top of everything, and get (mostly!) straight As at that!
I’m a non-traditional student too; 27 years old, going for a second Bachelor’s degree, but I’m fortunate enough to be able to go to school full-time (I have a summer job and my husband works).
I had to re-learn how to study, and regain my confidence in my abilities, but the thing that makes it easier is that I want to be there. I want to learn, I want this new degree and the career I’m aiming for, and that matters so much more than anything else. I recommend students to really consider why they are at school; if it’s because “that’s just what you’re supposed to do”, then I would tell them to go get a job, go explore all kinds of careers and then come back and study something that drives them. Or go learn a skilled trade and make a lot more money. University isn’t for everyone, and that’s OK!
Don’t take on a time-sink activity if you can avoid it, especially not in your first semester. Time-sink activities include, but are not limited to, MMORPG’s and other online games, and positions of responsibility in some on- or off-campus organizations.
In almost all situations, it’s better to turn in a less-than-perfect assignment on time than it is to put off finishing it because it’s not up to your standards. Professors usually penalize late assignments. Even if they don’t, it annoys them and makes you look like less of a good student when you habitually turn in assignments late.
Most problems that you have with a professor or class have solutions. The solutions generally get harder and more unpleasant the longer you wait for the problem to go away on its own. If you’re feeling overwhelmed in a class, get help now, don’t wait and see if it will get better on its own. It generally won’t get better, and will often get worse.
Oh, and if you slack off till the end of the semester/quarter, never do homework, and then, right before the final, ask the professor (or TA) what you can do to bring up your grade- your professor will have a good laugh with his/her buddies about clueless students, and probably won’t give you an extra-credit project. Most professors or TA’s don’t do this when students ask this kind of question earlier in the semester, or when students who have clearly been trying to keep up ask this sort of thing. Most of them will try to work with you or help you understand the material, as long as it doesn’t look like you’re trying to get a good grade in a class while doing the minimum amount of work possible. That kind of attitude (“I’m just doing the minimum I have to do to get my paycheck”) wouldn’t go over well with your boss at work, would it?
So, I have copied many of your comments, put them into handout sheets, created a website just for this class and am ready to go for Monday!
Except for one problem - I just got a call today and they have switched the schedule around. They have dropped me from teaching this class! It seems there is a family emergency, one instructor has to leave town and they had to move everything around at the last minute. DAMN!!!
Not only that, but now I have to teach a different class - one that I have never taught before - and have until Monday (at 8:30 AM) to try to figure out what the hell I am going to do. I am going to pick up the textbook and syllabus today.
And to make this even worse, the course is in advanced Computer Illustration…and while I am fairly savvy at teaching the technical side of things in courses like this, I have trouble drawing a circle if you give me a crayon and a pie plate. My guess is that by week two, students will be throwing rocks at me in the parking lot.
Wish me luck.
And thanks for all of your comments! I am sure that I will be teaching this course again in the next few quarters, so the effort is not completely wasted. I will most certainly use your comments and suggestions for the next time I teach it.
