Speaker 1: Sometimes, you may struggle to schedule and complete sessions each week due to student behaviors. This video will explain how to handle various types of student attendance issues. There are many different types of behavior that can affect student attendance. You might have a student who takes too long to respond to messages, making scheduling difficult, you might successfully schedule sessions but have a student repeatedly canceling or not showing, sometimes your student may simply disappear for weeks at a time, and finally some students ask to take a break from the sessions. First, be aware that these situations do happen occasionally and don't stress about them. If you're communicating clearly with your student and attending sessions regularly, the problem is not your fault. There are many different reasons why a student might struggle to respond to messages or attend sessions. For example, they may not be in the habit of checking emails often and just miss your messages. Or sometimes students have technical problems with their email and get locked out or stop receiving emails. Or they may have problems with time management and organizing their schedule. Or they might be just an issue of motivation. Think about your own classes at school or college. In each class, there's a range of people from very responsible and diligent students to less motivated, less diligent ones. Just as schools work to teach all of these students, our mission at Engine is to help every student, not just the most organized and motivated high achievers, so we'll see all kinds of students in the program. Regular weekly practice is very important for student progress. An occasional missed week is okay, but a pattern of missed sessions is not. So if a student is struggling to attend sessions weekly, you should help them to get back on track. Here are some steps you should take. Our first tip will help you if you have communication issues. If you're communicating via email, ask us if your student prefers social media or a chat app like Instagram DMs or WhatsApp. Weekly email is not the best option for your buddy, and you will have smoother conversations via social media. Second, if you don't already have a consistent weekly time and Zoom link for your sessions, try to set one up if that's possible. This minimizes the need to email back and forth throughout the week and avoids confusion between different days, times, or links. If you will need to reschedule a session, for example, due to a school commitment or vacation, mention this to your student at the prior session and verbally agree on a new day and time together. Then send a confirmation email or message with a new day, time, and link. If you're still having issues, it's time to set and review some rules with your student. Remind your student that attending sessions weekly is part of the end-of-program rules. Come up with clear guidelines for communication and session attendance. As the volunteer, you're in charge here. Tailor the rules to the specific problems you're having. For example, if your student has issues with tardiness, your rule can be you may not be more than five minutes late to a session. If your student takes too long to reply to messages, the rule might be respond to messages within one day. Last minute cancellations, ask your student to request to reschedule or cancel sessions at least 72 hours in advance. If you get no-shows, tell your student those no-shows are not allowed except in case of a true emergency. Make sure your student understands the rules, discuss them verbally at your next session, and confirm in writing, if possible. This doesn't have to be an awkward and complex conversation. For example, I might say something like, hi Maria, before we start today, I want to talk about something important. You missed last week's session without telling me. And this is really difficult for me, and I would like to avoid this happening again. So let's agree on a rule. If you can't come to a session, you need to tell me at least three days before. And of course, if you have a real emergency, like getting very sick or an accident, I understand. But otherwise, please always give notice. Sometimes a student will ask to take a break from sessions. Often this happens because students get busy with exams at school, college applications, or encounter some kind of health or family issues. We do allow students to take breaks while they're in the program. And if your student asks for a break, you should determine how much time he or she would like to take off. And now you have two options. If you would also like to take a break during this timeframe, you don't need to do anything. Just be sure to contact your student after the break to get sessions going again. If you would like to keep volunteering, email us at info at ngprogram.org to explain the situation and we can match you up with a new student. If your buddy is still not attending sessions regularly or responding to messages after you've tried the strategies, please email info at ngprogram.org about any problems within two weeks. Don't wait for months if you're having an issue with your student. We'll help you solve the problem. If we can't resolve the situation, we'll ask your student to leave the program and find you another buddy if you would like.