Student profiles

Types of student

Students are either independent or corporate students. The following page goes into more detail about corporate students, but the fundamental differences are:

  1. Independents buy their own books and pay for their own classes; corporates get lessons through their companies and we deliver the books to them;
  2. Corporates are often on a shorter course (say six months), whereas independents can buy classes and those lesson points never expire (as long as the student books one class every two years);
  3. Corporates require end of term reports and assesments.

Finding a student

When a student books a class with you, the lesson will appear on your main home page ("MY PAGE"). Clicking on the student's name will bring you to his/her profile. The Skype icon will bring you to his/her Skype account.

Profiles

Students are required to complete most of their profile on sign up. You should get everything you need to know from a student's profile. When you learn something about a student (in their first class or any subsequent lesson), please add to their profile if you think it pertinant.  Just click "EDIT" on their user page and then edit the relevant section of their profile:

Then, edit the relevant section of their profile. The profile sections you will most often have to add or edit are the "Course & test results" and "Needs & company (staff only)" tabs. (See the green links at the top of the student's profile — only visible after you click "Edit"):

Visibility & tone

With the exception of the "Needs & company (staff only)" section of the student's profile, everything you write on The English Farm is visible to the student and should therefore be addressed to them. Do not refer to them in the third person. The "Needs" section is just for us, but nevertheless should be written in a professional and polite manner.

Needs

This is the part of the profile for teachers to share information about the student. It is private, and only staff can see it. Please annotate anything you add with your initials and the date you find it out: ex. "Has 2 kids (MR 17/4/2016)."

Here is where the information you include in the "Needs" section comes up on the student's profile so it is visible to the other teachers:
 

Some of this information is to help us, but it might be creepy for the student if they know we are sharing things. If, for example, you see a student has kids, do not say, "I see you have two kids!" if you want to talk about parenting. Just ask if they have kids (you know they do, and you want to bring it up as a topic of conversation, if you can see they don't, then you needn't bother).

Student milestones and characteristics

There are few flags on the student's profile to help you learn more about their usage of The English Farm and also to see quickly if they are a corporate student or not. They are hidden until you click the link (you'll see on the profile, in the image they are open). If you know a student, you don't need to consult these.

They will tell you if the student is either:

  • New or has taken the trial lesson;
  • Has bought points or not (i.e. taken a second class);
  • Has continued or not (i.e. bought points and then kept up their classes);
  • Has done an assessment or not; and
  • Is a corporate or independent student.

These should help you know where the student is at in a glance.

IMPORTANT You can switch these flags on or off if you think that they are not correct (they should be OK, because they are all automatic). Please don't mess with them unless you are absolutely sure they are wrong. The configuration of these flags affects the notifications that the students get from us and messing with them might make us look a bit silly.

Lesson histories

On the left side the student's page is their lesson history.

Below that, you can see the total number of lessons.

Lesson records, assessments and progress reports

Just click the blue or red button for the student to create a lesson record, assessment or progress report for them. When you save it, it is added to their userpage and lesson/assessment histories:

Common complaints

For your edification, here are some of the more common complaints that students have about teachers.

  • The teacher did not correct me.
  • The teacher did not offer me alternative phrases.
  • The teacher was not professional in appearance or attitude.
  • The teacher talked too fast/too slow.
  • The teacher gave me no notes.

Please avoid these by being professional and polite, staying on target and by giving lots of feedback and corrections at all times.