Topic: Bang Your Head on Your Desk - the thread of teaching despair!

[Aster]

Sometimes a class will just behave anomalously.

I lost a third of a class this week to later-term Withdrawals. On average it's usually only about a quarter.

[mbelvadi]

I hope you'll accept a librarian's "teaching" in this thread. I had a student come to me for help finding sources for her paper. Intro criminology class, choose a theory from the class and apply it to modern crime in Canada. She wanted to do "inherent good and evil" - her prof told her to research "demonology". I persuaded stu that he was kidding

My guess is that the prof probably actually said "deontology". Although I have zero confidence that someone teaching criminology has a good handle on that ethical theory.

Although demonology would be great...

Duh! I'm going to confirm with the stu, but I'll bet you're right!  That actually makes some sense, particularly if the prof falsely assumed that the stu meant good and evil of the actions rather than the person. Since she had in mind the person (I had to convince her that she was not going to successfully prove that most crime in Canada is caused by the fundamentally evil character of the criminals, which was what she wanted to do, especially in a sociology rather than religious studies course), "demonology" seems almost eggcorn-like in terms of how she leaped to that mishearing.

Just wanted to give you all the followup. The stu actually had this in email, and the prof indeed wrote "demonology" and had a followup verbal discussion that reaffirmed that. Just reinforces for the nth time in my career that it's good to get unusual requests/orders/statements in writing in case of later dispute.

[Parasaurolophus]

Wow. I'm glad you followed up!

But now I'm left with so many questions...

[mythbuster]

In a student resume, in the top of page skills summary "adequate GPA".
    Now don't all hurt yourself fighting over who gets to hire this particular student!

[Thesneezyone]

It starts. My first "what can I do to get my grade up?" email for the last two weeks of the semester came in today.

Suggestions: time travel and do the work from the beginning?

I so often want to write back and ask "I don't know, what do YOU think you can do to get your grade up?"

-Sneezy

[writingprof]

In a student resume, in the top of page skills summary "adequate GPA".
    Now don't all hurt yourself fighting over who gets to hire this particular student!

Oh, he's already been hired.  In fact, he's my boss now and reports directly to the provost.

[Caracal]

Just wanted to give you all the followup. The stu actually had this in email, and the prof indeed wrote "demonology" and had a followup verbal discussion that reaffirmed that. Just reinforces for the nth time in my career that it's good to get unusual requests/orders/statements in writing in case of later dispute.

I wonder if the student is just not explaining the assignment well? Or has gotten a garbled idea of what they are supposed to be doing? The idea that bad actions were the result of people coming under the influence of the devil was, at various points, a widely accepted explanation for crime. Plenty of people still believe that in some form. In some sense, it isn't all that different than believing that someone's childhood traumas predispose them to Commit crimes. Obviously demonic influence isn't really going to be an explanation that would fly in the field of criminology, but maybe the point is to explore how ideas about crime might change depending on what theories are adopted? Demonology is a weird word to use though.

[teach_write_research]

Small thing but frustrating.

In a class of mixed majors:
When the education major ignores the assignment instructions which I intentionally structured so that they had ample guidance but I could evaluate and give feedback to all 60 quickly. Yes, fill out the project worksheet making sure you identify all the details you will need. No, don't post me that, only post answers to the few short questions in the actual online assignment so that I know you are on track. It's in the instructions. I said it in class.

"Just wait until you have students of your own..."
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/15738/just-wait-till-you-have-children-of-your-own-by-erma-bombeck-and-bil-keane/

[xerprofrn]

At least make it difficult for me to find the document you plagiarized from so that I can just grade the assignment and move right along. But now I have to have the conversation, give the zero, and initiate Student Code of Conduct.

[present_mirth]

I had FOUR students in my Brit Lit class do the reading today. Four out of a class that has twenty-one on the rolls (although one of them has never showed up, and some of the others stopped showing up weeks ago). The reading was a very easy-to-read contemporary short story that I think many of them would actually like.

We had kind of a limping and anemic class discussion with the four, and then I gave them the instructions for the final exam-period activity, which I think was the only reason most of them showed up at all, and then they spent the next half hour being SOOOO CONFUSED about the activity (which requires them to read a couple of texts they haven't seen before without knowing the title or author, and to respond to them from the perspective of a magazine editor in the early twentieth century, and to have some ideas about how these two texts might relate to some of the other things we've read). In other words, if you do not know how to read or interpret literature and you haven't been paying attention all semester, you're screwed, and the SparkNotes won't help you. Good luck.

[FishProf]

My provost just sent me an email from a "concerned parent" about an instructor in one of my [Introductory Basketweaving I] sections (I'm the chair).  One head bang for each of the following:

1) The complaint doesn't concern "her daughter" who is doing fine, although it is her only class that isn't an A;
2) She is concerned for the other students;
3) The majority of the class is failing (they aren't);
4) The last exam had an average of a 38 (it didn't, it had a 62 - for a practical exam.  The LOW was a 6);
5) The professor in question was "fired" from his previous position (he wasn't);
6) The students are "afraid to come forward" (they weren't, they just complained to their department chair, who came to me.  I sent her away to tell the students to talk to the professor, then me);
7) There is tutoring available, which indicates how bad the class is since tutoring was needed (that's not how tutoring works) but it was set up so late - the week before Thanksgiving, that is isn't much help (it started Oct 17th);
8) Other sections with other professors have 75-80% averages (they don't);
9) My provost sent it to me, just as an FYI, but didn't respond to the parent. (I certainly am not going to do so)
10) Number of student complaints about [Introductory Basketweaving I] this semester = 4.  Number for THIS professor = 0.

What a waste of my emotional time and energy.

[Aster]

My provost just sent me an email from a "concerned parent" about an instructor in one of my [Introductory Basketweaving I] sections (I'm the chair).  One head bang for each of the following:

1) The complaint doesn't concern "her daughter" who is doing fine, although it is her only class that isn't an A;
2) She is concerned for the other students;
3) The majority of the class is failing (they aren't);
4) The last exam had an average of a 38 (it didn't, it had a 62 - for a practical exam.  The LOW was a 6);
5) The professor in question was "fired" from his previous position (he wasn't);
6) The students are "afraid to come forward" (they weren't, they just complained to their department chair, who came to me.  I sent her away to tell the students to talk to the professor, then me);
7) There is tutoring available, which indicates how bad the class is since tutoring was needed (that's not how tutoring works) but it was set up so late - the week before Thanksgiving, that is isn't much help (it started Oct 17th);
8) Other sections with other professors have 75-80% averages (they don't);
9) My provost sent it to me, just as an FYI, but didn't respond to the parent. (I certainly am not going to do so)
10) Number of student complaints about [Introductory Basketweaving I] this semester = 4.  Number for THIS professor = 0.

What a waste of my emotional time and energy.

If I am reading this right, the provost did the right thing by informing you of this, but is neither scolding you nor asking that you respond to this parent. It's just a heads-up for you to file away and keep in mind if you get jumped on the telephone or in your office by some random irate citizen.

And yes, I most definitely would not respond to this parent. That helicopter parent is trolling your college hard to punish you for not giving her perfect daughter an "A".  I would not be surprised if this creature copy/pasted these same nastygrams to various college review sites. Anyone writing the provost directly to complain about something as trivial as this this has one enormously hyper-inflated opinion of herself.

[FishProf]

My objection is the Provost sent it on, without responding to parent at all. 

[ciao_yall]

My objection is the Provost sent it on, without responding to parent at all.

Well, having had nutjob parents email Board members, etc, and then having provost types eagerly try to please that nutjob parent, I would be grateful the provost let me decide how to handle it.

[FishProf]

My objection is the Provost sent it on, without responding to parent at all.

Well, having had nutjob parents email Board members, etc, and then having provost types eagerly try to please that nutjob parent, I would be grateful the provost let me decide how to handle it.

I would prefer the provost simply reply "The student needs to discuss this with the professor.  IF that is unsatisfactory, they should go to the chair of the department".  Ya know - follow the procedure laid out in the student handbook.