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The Venting Thread

Started by polly_mer, May 20, 2019, 07:03:27 PM

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clean

Update...

I got the call Wednesday morning that there was nothing that could be found that was wrong with the car. 

I told them to go ahead and change the oil.

It was ready about1230... right after I had a big salad and a bunch of orange drink.  They are now practicing social distancing, so they would not come and get me. I had to walk to the shop. It is not too far, only about a mile and a half. However, it was bright sun and 89 degrees.  I got about 100 yards from the shop and decided that I had better sit down a spell so that I didnt walk in there all out o f breath and scare them! 

So I spent like $130 for a diagnosis of "no problems" and an oil change. 

I m sure that whatever the problem was/IS will pop up at a more inconvenient time! 

On the positive side, the tire that was flat seems to be holding air.  So while it has 'run flat damage' as long as it is holding air, Im going to delay replacing the tires.  The tread on them is fine, only the age was the real issue, and I figure that until the tires are more worn, or the problem that caused the issue is diagnosed, Im not going to rush to put new tires on my 20 year old car!  (though it only has 64,000 miles)!

Later that evening, I scared my fiance.  I told her I was feel chili and took my temperature (97.9).  But the sight of the thermometer helped her to decide that she had better go home!  I think that it was sitting under the AC vent with a new sunburn from walking earlier in the afternoon.  I felt better yesterday, though I now have a small cough!
"The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am"  Darth Vader

mamselle

Reaching out to any forumites in the path or environs of the Jonesboro, AR tornado and the other weather issues in the midwest.

Thinking of you and wishing you the best.

M.
Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.

Reprove not a scorner, lest they hate thee: rebuke the wise, and they will love thee.

Give instruction to the wise, and they will be yet wiser: teach the just, and they will increase in learning.

clean

My university is now totally online for instruction.  However, in my classes I have used a combination of both in class and online quizzes.  One of the quizzes is due tomorrow.  It is not a new quiz, it is one I had given online for several semesters.  This quiz has been available for students to take since Monday
ON the link to go to the quiz, there is a note to go to a certain page and use the balance sheet and income statement on that page to calculate the ratios on the quiz.

The first very bitchy email I got this morning was a student irate that the quiz page did not include the information within the quiz.  He was quite insulting and noted that I needed to give him another attempt because he clearly failed the quiz.  His quiz time was still running so I copied the information that was right below the button to start the quiz.  In the followup email he sent in reply to my email showing him the information, he noted that it "did not look important! " 

I did reset his attempt and I then adjusted the instructions by putting the page number in bold!  He followed up with a complaint that I made it easier to see! 

The second email was just a while ago.  He claims that the eText does not use page numbers so he lost a lot of time looking for the information and then had to print it out.  However, when I go to MindTap (the publisher's site) there is a box right at the top of the page and when I put in the page number specified it takes me instantly to the page I specified.  His email includes all sorts of complaints that I did not tell them the format of the quiz.  (As I am not meeting at class time on WebEx and recording the session, I pointed out that it was discussed between the 20 and 22 minute mark). 

He then complained that it was unfair that he had to use the eText and search through the page for the numbers that he wanted.  He complained that the quiz was poorly designed and that "In the Army we have a saying that poor planning gets people killed.  Obviously, we are not in any extreme setting like that but to modify it, "poor design will get students failed." " 

I replied that my design was that students would turn to the printed page so that they would not have to be scrolling up and down looking for numbers on a computer screen.  No one has before complained about using the eText with this quiz in the past.  He now notes that part of his problem was that he went to the wrong page because a classmate told him something different than was in the instructions.

So, Do eTexts NOT have page numbers?  Is there a way to turn them on?  How do people with eTexts find the section of the book without a page number?

FInally.... this is a small rant, both emails were addressed to "Mr. Clean".  I was semi tempted to reply to these bitchy emails with a note that I would be glad to forward their emails to "Mr. Clean" (both my father and my brother as they did not specify which they really wanted the message to go to) and hopefully one of them would reply to their message.  If they wanted a reply from DR. Clean, perhaps they should rephrase their notes to highlight their own errors  and request a solution (Their errors include not reading the 'unimportant' parts of the instructions, and ignoring the instructions and asking a class member instead of DR Clean if there was confusion related to the use of the eText.  Certainly the root cause of BOTH complaints is related to MY failure to ensure that they actually PAID ATTENTION to what was written!) 

Does stupidity and bitchiness increase with social distancing? 
"The Emperor is not as forgiving as I am"  Darth Vader

downer

Sometimes I am able to rise above the annoyance of rude student emails and reach a higher plane, giving a polite reply.
Other times I am not, and I just delete them.

Certainly some etexts have page numbers. Generally Kindle does not. The one I am using from WW Norton does not have page numbers. So it can be more useful to give references to sections of the book.
"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."—Sinclair Lewis

Thursday's_Child

Quote from: clean on March 28, 2020, 06:11:28 PM
<snip>

Does stupidity and bitchiness increase with social distancing?

Alternatively, you might have a student who thrives in a military environment:
     (training - do this exactly this way - and re-training until you get it right, all at the third-grade level with no independent thought allowed)
but can't transition to an academic one:
     (here's the basic theoretical & practical information & a source of more useful information, lets work this problem, now you work this other problem).

I've had a very few of these.  They do get frustrated (and sometimes furious) because they expect to be given every necessary detail, to be shown how to work every possible problem, and for the exam to be the same for every class and every semester, and for it to be available for their study!  If those conditions are met they will meet expectations - pound the information into their heads until they have it cold.  But, the minute they run into anything novel or you expect independent problem solving, they are lost!

FishProf

I have a faculty member who has always perceived huself as the last bastion of academic rigor.  Now, in the face of a campus-wide P/F policy being implemented, hu has decided that hu will simply raise the Pass threshold because "no one can tell me what a passing grade is in my own class".

Why do some people just insist on being difficult?
I'd rather have questions I can't answer, than answers I can't question.

apl68

Quote from: mamselle on March 28, 2020, 05:15:44 PM
Reaching out to any forumites in the path or environs of the Jonesboro, AR tornado and the other weather issues in the midwest.

Thinking of you and wishing you the best.

M.

Not near Jonesboro myself, but I know people there.  A librarian of my acquaintance rode out the storm with his family in their bathtub.  Their home is now gone.  So far about 200 homes are known to have been damaged, of which 55 are probably totaled.  There were 22 injuries, two hospitalized, with no fatalities or life-threatening injuries.  The biggest single concentration of damage was a wrecked shopping mall--which was pretty much empty because of the quarantines.  The campus of Arkansas State University does not seem to have been damaged.
See, your King is coming to you, just and bringing salvation, gentle and lowly, and riding upon a donkey.

mamselle

Thanks for the update.

All good thoughts to your friend, their family, and their neighbors.

I can't imagine losing ones whole home like that.

Glad they were safe.

M.
Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.

Reprove not a scorner, lest they hate thee: rebuke the wise, and they will love thee.

Give instruction to the wise, and they will be yet wiser: teach the just, and they will increase in learning.

ciao_yall

Quote from: FishProf on March 30, 2020, 07:38:33 AM
I have a faculty member who has always perceived huself as the last bastion of academic rigor.  Now, in the face of a campus-wide P/F policy being implemented, hu has decided that hu will simply raise the Pass threshold because "no one can tell me what a passing grade is in my own class".

Why do some people just insist on being difficult?

Because they don't trust their students.

Parasaurolophus

Very bad allergies today.
I know it's a genus.

FishProf

Quote from: ciao_yall on March 30, 2020, 10:40:42 AM
Quote from: FishProf on March 30, 2020, 07:38:33 AM
I have a faculty member who has always perceived huself as the last bastion of academic rigor.  Now, in the face of a campus-wide P/F policy being implemented, hu has decided that hu will simply raise the Pass threshold because "no one can tell me what a passing grade is in my own class".

Why do some people just insist on being difficult?

Because they don't trust their students.
Wasn't expecting that response.  Can you clarify what you mean? (No snark)
I'd rather have questions I can't answer, than answers I can't question.

mamselle

Unrelated to the above:

Yep, that's exactly what I was trying to prevent.

I know your other job is more dazzling, but you draw on this one for your pay as well, and now things are a mess--and it affects me.

Answer your emails, do what I request when I ask for it, and stop playing diva with your other job while you use this one as a cash cow.

Really!!!!

M.
Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.

Reprove not a scorner, lest they hate thee: rebuke the wise, and they will love thee.

Give instruction to the wise, and they will be yet wiser: teach the just, and they will increase in learning.

AmLitHist


ab_grp

Quote from: AmLitHist on March 31, 2020, 05:59:59 AM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on March 30, 2020, 01:27:52 PM
Very bad allergies today.
+1 here, for the past week or so.

Me, too.  And now mulberry's back, which is just a party waiting to happen.

mamselle

Sorry to hear that.

You can thank the 18th c. colonial sericulture enthusiasts in the South and along the East coast, who imported the trees...
Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.

Reprove not a scorner, lest they hate thee: rebuke the wise, and they will love thee.

Give instruction to the wise, and they will be yet wiser: teach the just, and they will increase in learning.