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

[fishbrains]

Students, I know you are stressed, but THREE of you have now asked me for an extension I already gave everyone in a course announcement email last week. You know, the email with the subject head starting "PLEASE READ CAREFULLY"?

I have this image in my head of students reading the subject line as Please read: "Carefully," then saying the word "Care-ful-ly" very slowly, and then not reading the actual email at all.

It's been a long semester.

[FishProf]

6) Student emails me EVERY DAY leading up to deadline (I explain that I am doing hos and several others over the weekend and they will be done on time.

Busy weekend.

Too busy for proofreading, to be sure.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I really don't want to be a total tool, but Damn! I suppose my patience has run out, since I've been in limbo with this damn health issue and well, the rest of what's been going on in the world doesn't help.

Stu emails me a lab report and I don't accept them through email because if I did, then I'd be getting over 100 emails a week with files. This is the 2nd time I have had stu do this and I know I'm just extra aggravated. 

But, I was nice in my response. Only a week to go. I can do this.

[Puget]

Students, I know you are stressed, but THREE of you have now asked me for an extension I already gave everyone in a course announcement email last week. You know, the email with the subject head starting "PLEASE READ CAREFULLY"?

I have this image in my head of students reading the subject line as Please read: "Carefully," then saying the word "Care-ful-ly" very slowly, and then not reading the actual email at all.

It's been a long semester.

Haha-- like "speak friend and enter". More plausibly, they simply do not read their emails at all, though you would think at the point that they open their email to email me begging for an extension, they might take a moment to scan all those unread emails to see if they are missing important information?

It will surprise no one here that I have since fielded multiple emails from students saying they know I already gave everyone an extension but they really need an additional extension because [reasons]. In a few cases [reason] seems legitimate and serious and I've granted it, but in most cases [reason] is basically that they are trying to do it last minute after I've been been telling them since Nov. 1st that they need to be making steady progress, and explicitly told them this would not end well for them if they put it off till the last week. They may not like me, but they can't say I didn't tell them the truth.

[AvidReader]

Last month, multiple students in one class emailed to tell me that they were stressed about a Friday deadline (say the 13th, though it wasn't). We had had a lot of weather at the time, and some didn't have internet, so I said okay, and gave them a Monday extension. Emailed out a big announcement.

I went to enter the extension into the CMS, and the activity was due a week later (e.g. Friday the 20th). Then I had to send a new email.

All that to say: can you give your last-minute students who didn't read the email an extension that ends before the class-wide extension?

AR.

[fishbrains]

I just had a student email me and tell me that I needed to document exactly where I think she plagiarized an entire paragraph in her essay. She says Turnitin just states, "Submitted to PodunkUniversity," and that means nothing.

I replied that if I had to go so far as to document where the paragraph came from when I'm trying to help her, I might as well just fill out the Student Misconduct paperwork for her at the same time. Silence so far.

And I'm 93.4% sure the plagiarized passage came from a fairly famous essay written about the work, but I doubt she has read that essay.

Weird. [sigh]

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I know that I'm frustrated and I didn't get much sleep last night, but damn, Stu! Read the syllabus! Student emails me to ask if the final exam was the last test they just took. Noooooooo. I've only been emailing you, posting announcements (and it's in the syllabus) and screaming from the tops of the rafters that the final exam starts on Tuesday!

[teach_write_research]

Dear student, I have no clue what to offer you as feedback on that question that is both personal and beyond my professional specialization. I recognize that you are reaching out to someone you trust, but that's too much. Thanks for the practice in maintaining my boundaries?

[the_geneticist]

Dear student, I have no clue what to offer you as feedback on that question that is both personal and beyond my professional specialization. I recognize that you are reaching out to someone you trust, but that's too much. Thanks for the practice in maintaining my boundaries?

Time for an email like:
Dear student,
Thank you for your email.  It sounds like you are having a hard time due to [health issues; family issues; etc.].  If you haven't already, I would strongly encourage you to please contact your [academic advisor; counselor; etc.] as they can discuss options for how to complete your coursework.  Also, the [student counseling center; ombudsperson; student health center; national crisis line] is free and offers help for students in your situation [link to website].
Best,
Dr. t_w_r

[mamselle]

+1

Keep it about them, not you.

M.

[Puget]

Dear student, I have no clue what to offer you as feedback on that question that is both personal and beyond my professional specialization. I recognize that you are reaching out to someone you trust, but that's too much. Thanks for the practice in maintaining my boundaries?

Time for an email like:
Dear student,
Thank you for your email.  It sounds like you are having a hard time due to [health issues; family issues; etc.].  If you haven't already, I would strongly encourage you to please contact your [academic advisor; counselor; etc.] as they can discuss options for how to complete your coursework.  Also, the [student counseling center; ombudsperson; student health center; national crisis line] is free and offers help for students in your situation [link to website].
Best,
Dr. t_w_r

This, but also if you have a way of alerting these people yourself (we have a form we can fill out to mobilize a care team), it is good to offer to do so for them-- if a student really is in crisis, they are often too overwhelmed to do the reaching out themselves. I've done one care team form and one informal referral email to a colleague I know in the counseling center (with student cc'ed) so far this week, and in both cases the student was relieved and thankful for the offer to help connect them with resources.

[Langue_doc]

Dear student, I have no clue what to offer you as feedback on that question that is both personal and beyond my professional specialization. I recognize that you are reaching out to someone you trust, but that's too much. Thanks for the practice in maintaining my boundaries?

Time for an email like:
Dear student,
Thank you for your email.  It sounds like you are having a hard time due to [health issues; family issues; etc.].  If you haven't already, I would strongly encourage you to please contact your [academic advisor; counselor; etc.] as they can discuss options for how to complete your coursework.  Also, the [student counseling center; ombudsperson; student health center; national crisis line] is free and offers help for students in your situation [link to website].
Best,
Dr. t_w_r

This, but also if you have a way of alerting these people yourself (we have a form we can fill out to mobilize a care team), it is good to offer to do so for them-- if a student really is in crisis, they are often too overwhelmed to do the reaching out themselves. I've done one care team form and one informal referral email to a colleague I know in the counseling center (with student cc'ed) so far this week, and in both cases the student was relieved and thankful for the offer to help connect them with resources.

I would also alert the Chair and ask for suggestions.

Some of the students live in such dysfunctional households that their professor is the only person they can talk to. Usually listening to them with compassion and referring them to the right office/resources is the best thing we can do for these students.

[Puget]

It will surprise no one here that I have since fielded multiple emails from students saying they know I already gave everyone an extension but they really need an additional extension because [reasons]. In a few cases [reason] seems legitimate and serious and I've granted it, but in most cases [reason] is basically that they are trying to do it last minute after I've been been telling them since Nov. 1st that they need to be making steady progress, and explicitly told them this would not end well for them if they put it off till the last week. They may not like me, but they can't say I didn't tell them the truth.

Assignment was due at 5 PM today and [reasons] have escalated. I'm sure some of these are legitimate, and everyone got the benefit of the doubt with a two day extension and instructions to contact their advisor if they end up needing more than that, but  but it is fascinating how hazardous an assignment deadline is for students and all their friends and relations.So far I have gotten:

1.Great-grandmother admitted to hospital and "family tradition requires we all wait outside the hospital"

2. Had "heart palpitations" and mother took to hospital (panic attack if true. . .brought on by not having finished her assignment?)

3. Friend was visiting from out of town and had a torn esophagus requiring student to wait at hospital without computer (I have thoughts about visiting friends in a pandemic, plus what hospitals currently allow non-patients inside??)

4. Long tale of family woe that is probably actually true

5. Mom has COVID and now she is feeling sick too (probably true)

6. Multiple non-specific claims of "not feeling well" or "being sick for the last few days" (I'm sure some of these are true, others not so much, but I refuse to try to determine which).

[spork]

^ I usually respond with "All assignments were available at the beginning of the semester."

. . .

I am increasingly unable to determine whether students aren't reading at all or *think* they are reading but lack basic reading comprehension skills. For example, a book about basket-weaving traditions in Peru, Malaysia, and India, successive chapters of which have been assigned each week of the semester, and I'm still getting writing assignments that read like "Baskets from these countries hold things and I feel as though that makes them important" or "The people who live in the province of Peru in Malaysia are known for making baskets." 

[mythbuster]

Writing class. After taking ans passing the plagiarism quiz. Student's paper is flagged by Turnitin as 60% match. Yup. Blatant plagiarism. I fill out appropriate forms, have tearful Zoom call wih said student, recommend using the writing center etc. etc. etc.

Student submission of the revised research paper. . .  now a 57% match. And not just to previously submitted paper. It matches the original sources once again.