The Continued Need for Face to Face

This week, I was questing around to see what new iPad or technological gizmo I was going to write about. As I started thinking, though, I was finishing up an exercise I call "Face to Face" with my Economics of Personal Finance seniors. I started doing this several years ago after reading some articles on the importance of the personal relationship in education - and having a few students say they weren't comfortable going in for extra help in all their classes. Also, my husband is fond of saying that we are often trying to change people's behavior 'at the margins.'

So, here's the deal. Each student makes an appointment to come see me one on one for about 10 minutes on a free period. During that time, I ask them about how their classes are going, if they're stressed, and to tell me about their favorite class. I make a point of asking the student what their passion is - the thing they do that makes them happiest to be themselves. That's the starting point. Over the years, I've learned about students who do off road unicycling, feel at one with God when they are surfing, and design beautiful pieces of art. The conversation then goes where it goes, and I finish up by having them ask me something. Those have been interesting questions, too. I've talked to students about premarital sex, illicit drug use, politics, religion, education, travel, and research.

I do this exercise with each new batch of students at the start of the semester, and while it isn't possible to have hard numerical data, I believe that the Face to Face has increased comfort for at least a handful of students a semester and made it more likely that they will come to me with questions, both academic and personal. While no teacher can expect to truly bond with every student, it seems to me that we should be trying to set up a community where every student can bond with someone they can go to for commiseration or celebration.

The only technology I use in this exercise is a Numbers spreadsheet to jot down a few notes while I'm chatting with them - just so I remember which student does what. Especially for these finance seniors who are in a hybrid classroom/online experience with Showbie and do a lot of their assignments digitally, the chance to talk to them one on one has been truly valuable. It takes a fair amount of time to get each student in, but it has been worth doing for me.

I figure that if out of the 16-20 students in each class, I can make a connection with at least 1-2 students, it is time well spent. I'm not asking for a lifelong bond to form - just to make them comfortable enough with me that they will come in for help when they may not have otherwise. This is truly changing behavior just at the margins, but that's what we do each and every day as teachers. We pride ourselves on having low student teacher ratios, but it is the increased potential for nurturing and mentoring because of those ratios that I think is really important. Besides, it is fun to learn what the students are up to and how they see the world.