[Laura Ghezzi]

Dear Fellows,

As faculty, you represent the face of the college to our students. Because of this, you may encounter questions from students that lie outside your area of expertise – mathematical content. We’ll be spending some time on November 16th addressing these kinds of questions, and giving you the resources you need to help direct students most effectively.

Before Seminar 6 on November 16, please post here on the OpenLab ONE or TWO EXAMPLES of questions you’ve received from students that are *not* directly related to course content (questions about registration, careers, financial aid, bureaucracy, personal problems, etc.) – especially questions you aren’t sure how to answer, or “questions that scare you!”

[Bruce Kan]

The one question that I regret the most was a student who asked me for the information of a school counselor. He was having some personal issues and wanted to speak to someone. I told him I didn’t know and I still feel terribly about not being able to point him in the right direction.

Bruce

[Laura Ghezzi]

Around the last day to withdraw from classes often students ask me advice about withdrawing (not necessarily from my class). How does it affect financial aid? I suggest they consult the financial aid office, but I wish I could provide more guidance. If the class has a co-requisite that I am passing do I have to withdraw from that too? Not sure…

[Victor Sirelson]

I get frequent questions/complaints/frustrations about availability of text books. Here are 3:

1) I cannot afford the text book – what can I do?
2) The textbook is not yet available – how can I do the work?
3) Can you post the text online?

I do my best to offer possibilities, but the only one that works is if I can either let them scan my textbook sections with their phones or if I somehow provide a digital version that I can post on Blackboard.

This is a serious obstacle for these students as well as for the smooth progress of the course.

[Marianna Bonanome]

I also get questions about withdrawals from my students – if they need to withdraw from my class, do they have to worry about a cap on the number of withdrawal credits they accumulate? Also, how does withdrawing from a class affect financial aid? Inquiring minds want to know…..

[Lucie Mingla]

Sometimes you face the struggle of the students that may have disabilities that they are not aware of.
They know that they are struggling with something, but they don’t really know what that may be.
For example, I just had a student this semester that has a lot of issues on understanding the math concepts (even a very simple ones).
He told me that someone had told him that he may have dyslexia.
I advised him to go to the student adviser and ask about where he could do his evaluation in a professional way.
I didn’t know where exactly to send him …….so that he could get a valid recommendation for follow up…..