Favorite student emails

[jimbogumbo]

I just wanted to check with you about the signup link for the individually assigned readings. Is it the one titled "Sign up for individually assigned reading here"? Just want to make sure I'm using the right one.

No matter how obvious you've made things. . .

Would a response such as "nope, I randomly puttee actual link someplace else just to screw with you" be wrong?

[Biologist_]

Well, let's see.  The semester STARTS on Tuesday, so I was thinking I would make course materials available on...Tuesday.

I'll take some of the blame there. I had all my classes up on Thursday. Students are already submitting work even though classes don't start till Tuesday.

I was always one of those freaky students who wanted to get ahead of things; so now if my class is ready to go, I just go ahead and release it.

Not advocating for early release, just saying ...

One of my students told me that she got sick over winter break and couldn't take the trip she had planned, so she went ahead and completed all of the work for her upcoming asynchronous class. She is waiting to submit most of the assignments because she didn't want the instructor to think she is odd.

[ciao_yall]

Well, let's see.  The semester STARTS on Tuesday, so I was thinking I would make course materials available on...Tuesday.

I'll take some of the blame there. I had all my classes up on Thursday. Students are already submitting work even though classes don't start till Tuesday.

I was always one of those freaky students who wanted to get ahead of things; so now if my class is ready to go, I just go ahead and release it.

Not advocating for early release, just saying ...

One of my students told me that she got sick over winter break and couldn't take the trip she had planned, so she went ahead and completed all of the work for her upcoming asynchronous class. She is waiting to submit most of the assignments because she didn't want the instructor to think she is odd.

I had a student finish all the classwork in the first few weeks. At a certain point, he already had an A in the class, but he kept coming and even took the final exam because he liked hanging out with everyone.

[arcturus]

From a student asking about how to do an assignment:

"...An example of the completed assignment would also help a ton."

Yes, I am sure it would. However, if I completed the assignment for you, then you would not have the opportunity to learn for yourself.

[marshwiggle]

From a student asking about how to do an assignment:

"...An example of the completed assignment would also help a ton."

Yes, I am sure it would. However, if I completed the assignment for you, then you would not have the opportunity to learn for yourself.

I assign a project, where students choose a project from a list. There are 3 sample projects, not from the list, which are complete and so they can look at them to see what is expected. As can be expected, a few students "choose" to do one of the sample projects.

I feel your pain.

[ciao_yall]

From a student asking about how to do an assignment:

"...An example of the completed assignment would also help a ton."

Yes, I am sure it would. However, if I completed the assignment for you, then you would not have the opportunity to learn for yourself.

I assign a project, where students choose a project from a list. There are 3 sample projects, not from the list, which are complete and so they can look at them to see what is expected. As can be expected, a few students "choose" to do one of the sample projects.

I feel your pain.

I stopped giving examples when students would just take the sample, change a few words and voila!

[apl68]

From the other side of the desk, I remember how frustrating it was to be working on a dissertation, keep having drafts rejected as needing more work, and being told, when I asked for more feedback, "I decline to write it for you."  To this day I can't decide whether my dissertation advisor didn't do well by me, or whether I really just wasn't good enough to understand what was needed.  Probably the latter.

[kaysixteen]

Hmm... you have said this before, and I contend that she should have told you in what areas more work was needed, what your current drafts were lacking, etc.  She could have done all of that without 'writing it for you'.  It is more or less the same argument that a student legitimately has when paper #1 is not graded and returned before paper #2 is due, allowing student in his ignorance to repeat the writing errors made in the first paper, on the second.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

My online class has a test due tonight and I just got this gem from a student which goes something like this:

"Prof: My computer was glitching and I couldn't finish the test. Can you just email it to me and I'll send it back? My other professors did this."

Um. That's a negatory.

[Puget]

Stu emails me today, 5 weeks into the semester, begging to add my class because she misunderstood the major requirements and now can't graduate this spring without it. She has all sorts of ideas about how she can make up for missing 1/3 of the semester of a discussion based advanced seminar class, all of which would involve mountains of extra work for *me*. No way buttercup, your lack of planning is not my emergency.

[kaysixteen]

Ok, I see your point and would not let her in either, but why is it that the major advisors in your dept allowed a senior to come to be in this position in the first place, and which admin gets to deal with the complaints from her parents?

[Puget]

Ok, I see your point and would not let her in either, but why is it that the major advisors in your dept allowed a senior to come to be in this position in the first place, and which admin gets to deal with the complaints from her parents?

They have staff advisors, and I recommended she meet with them, but ultimately it is the student's responsibility-- they can easily pull up their own requirement progress tracker and see what courses they are missing. They are supposed to do so before registering each semester. Sometimes adulting failures have consequences. . .

[FishProf]

Ok, I see your point and would not let her in either, but why is it that the major advisors in your dept allowed a senior to come to be in this position in the first place, and which admin gets to deal with the complaints from her parents?

Strange assumption here.  If students don't come for advising, that's on them.

[kaysixteen]

Gee, I dunno.   Even when I was a PhD candidate in the 90s, without one single professor designated as my 'advisor', it was pretty much SOP to have people like the head of grad studies meet with grad students to see how they were progressing and meeting reqs.   And grad students, ahem, actually ARE adults.   I certainly know that when I was a student at Dear Alma Mater uberelite SLAC in the 80s, it was unambiguously the case that we had to meet with advisors and would not have been allowed to get into this position, which seems to be lazy on the part  of the school, and serves little purpose-- how hard would it have been to have the girl told by someone in authority, say in October, that she would need to take this course this semester, in order to graduate this spring?

[Hegemony]

Gee, I dunno.   Even when I was a PhD candidate in the 90s, without one single professor designated as my 'advisor', it was pretty much SOP to have people like the head of grad studies meet with grad students to see how they were progressing and meeting reqs.   And grad students, ahem, actually ARE adults.   I certainly know that when I was a student at Dear Alma Mater uberelite SLAC in the 80s, it was unambiguously the case that we had to meet with advisors and would not have been allowed to get into this position, which seems to be lazy on the part  of the school, and serves little purpose-- how hard would it have been to have the girl told by someone in authority, say in October, that she would need to take this course this semester, in order to graduate this spring?

Note that the girl Puget was talking about is an undergraduate.