Favorite student emails

[marshwiggle]

All good points--I am wondering, however, how one determines what prior knowledge is essential for any given non-101-type class, vs. simply using a prereq as a way of restricting class to majors or otherwise limiting the number of enrollees?

I only ever asked to get into a class where I did not possess the prereqs-- I was denied,and 36 years later I still think I had a good case to be made.

This is in the sciences. You have to know stuff, cumulatively. I don't think this is controversial. Maybe in the humanities it is different, but the idea should at least be familiar to you from language courses.

My daughter took humanities, and it was really strange to me that so many 2nd year courses only required that a student be in 2nd year; what specific courses they had taken didn't matter. The idea seemed to be that any first year course would teach essay writing, etc.

(For Kay) In STEM, not only do certain courses require specific content from courses in the same area, but often there are things like mathematical techniques that come up in several courses, and how a course is taught depends on whether a student has taken a course which introduced that technique. (It's really inefficient to "teach" that same technique in every course that uses it.)
So, often if a course has to be moved (for scheduling reasons) to a different term, then the content may have to change. E.g. if A and B both use some math technique, if A is taught first then B can assume it. If B has to move before A, then B will have to teach it, and A can assume it. Whichever course has to teach it will obviously be able to cover less field-specific content as a result.

I'm surprised that courses in humanities don't seem to depend so much on context from other courses. For instance, a course in North American 20th century literature would seem to be approached differently if students had previously taken 19th century British literature, ( or ANY literature course, for that matter).

I'm kind of curious how that works otherwise.

Actually there are such things as prerequisite courses in the humanities.  But pathways through majors do seem to be more flexible, so they're evidently not as common.  When I was a grad student, I served as a teaching assistant in a history field--colonial Latin America--outside my area of concentration--early modern Britain.  I was considered qualified to do that because I was familiar with the early modern West in general, and because I knew Spanish and was researching Spanish as well as English sources for my dissertation.  I would assume that in STEM a grad student wouldn't be as likely to reach across fields like that.

Actually grad studies are a little different, because different students will be coming from different places with different courses, so things are done on more of a case-by-case basis. So even in STEM, that will be a bit more flexible.

[the_geneticist]

It's the last week of the term and grades are *suddenly* students are realizing that they if they skip class they have missed out on assignments.

Hi Mrs. [lastname], I came 20 minutes late to the [basketweaving] discussion today because of an important volleyball game, and my TA did not allow me to take the quiz, is there any way I can get a make up time for the quiz? I have the [day, time] section with [TA].

They are polite, let me know which class they were taking - good job stu!
The rule is that quizzes are at the start of class.  Arriving late means you get whatever time is left of the 5 minutes. 

I said to please send me documentation that they were required to be at said game (on the team, coach, referee, etc.). 

I'd bet good money they they were not required to be there, but hopeful that the rules don't apply.

And the TA emailed to say Stu was more than 30 minutes late and the class was already well into the activity.

[RatGuy]

Student email:

Hey I just realized that I have a 0 for [a number of assignments, one of which was a major assignment due Monday 12/2]. I didn't know it was due can I do it late for partial credit?

I explain to the student that the assignment deadline has been posted online, on the assignment sheet, and we've discussed it at length in class. I also explain to them that their absences largely contribute to these zeroes, and list all the times the student missed in November.

Student response:

I know I've missed a lot of class but coming to class really isn't my thing.

[the_geneticist]

Student email:

Hey I just realized that I have a 0 for [a number of assignments, one of which was a major assignment due Monday 12/2]. I didn't know it was due can I do it late for partial credit?

I explain to the student that the assignment deadline has been posted online, on the assignment sheet, and we've discussed it at length in class. I also explain to them that their absences largely contribute to these zeroes, and list all the times the student missed in November.

Student response:

I know I've missed a lot of class but coming to class really isn't my thing.

Unless stu can take all online classes, they better get used to "passing my classes aren't really my thing".  Might want to gently ask stu why they are in college - maybe they need a bit of a wakeup call.

[marshwiggle]

Student email:

Hey I just realized that I have a 0 for [a number of assignments, one of which was a major assignment due Monday 12/2]. I didn't know it was due can I do it late for partial credit?

I explain to the student that the assignment deadline has been posted online, on the assignment sheet, and we've discussed it at length in class. I also explain to them that their absences largely contribute to these zeroes, and list all the times the student missed in November.

Student response:

I know I've missed a lot of class but coming to class really isn't my thing.

Unless stu can take all online classes, they better get used to "passing my classes aren't really my thing".  Might want to gently ask stu why they are in college - maybe they need a bit of a wakeup call.

Probably after graduation, (assuming that happens), "going to work" won't really be Stu's "thing" either.

[kaysixteen]

Giving you a passing grade really isn't my thing, but flunking your sorry ass, now that IS my thing.

[acrimone]

Student response:

I know I've missed a lot of class but coming to class really isn't my thing.

(start thought bubble)
Yes, well, answering blisteringly stupid emails isn't really my thing.  The silence of indifferent authority shall be the next lesson....
(end thought bubble)

CTRL+TAB and back to watching cat videos.

[RatGuy]

AMAZING FOLLOWUP

Student email:

Hey I just realized that I have a 0 for [a number of assignments, one of which was a major assignment due Monday 12/2]. I didn't know it was due can I do it late for partial credit?

I explain to the student that the assignment deadline has been posted online, on the assignment sheet, and we've discussed it at length in class. I also explain to them that their absences largely contribute to these zeroes, and list all the times the student missed in November.

Student response:

I know I've missed a lot of class but coming to class really isn't my thing.

Final Exam was scheduled for Monday the 9th. Student doesn't show up, so when the period is over I enter a zero into the online gradebook. Student emails an hour later:

I just saw that I have a zero on the Final Exam. I went to Aspen Colorado for the weekend and my flight back was cancelled due to a snowstorm. I have attached a screenshot of this cancellation. How can I go about rescheduling the exam?

I mean, taking a skiing trip the weekend before finals week is a pretty big flex.

[apl68]

Another youth whose parents have evidently decided to outsource all education involving things like choices and consequences and responsibility to the schools.

[EdnaMode]

AMAZING FOLLOWUP

"snip"

I mean, taking a skiing trip the weekend before finals week is a pretty big flex.

And situations like this are why I have in my syllabus that they must notify me BEFORE the exam, or as quickly as is feasible, if they have a situation that prevents them from being on campus to take the exam. I'm sure there is mobile phone service, wi-fi, computers, etc. in Aspen so Stu could have notified you in advance, and not waited until grades were posted. The entitlement is strong in that one.

[Sea_Ice]

AMAZING FOLLOWUP

"snip"

I mean, taking a skiing trip the weekend before finals week is a pretty big flex.

And situations like this are why I have in my syllabus that they must notify me BEFORE the exam, or as quickly as is feasible, if they have a situation that prevents them from being on campus to take the exam. I'm sure there is mobile phone service, wi-fi, computers, etc. in Aspen so Stu could have notified you in advance, and not waited until grades were posted. The entitlement is strong in that one.

It's blindingly obvious that, given the flight cancellation, Stu was being pro-active about getting in more skiing, and thus truly wasn't available to arrange for a make-up final in advance!  Stu is a go-getter with a very bright future ahead, having been brought up to be able to recognize unique opportunities whenever they occur and knows to always "strike when the iron in hot".  You really couldn't expect Stu to just sit around, doing nothing, in Aspen - right?? 

[sinenomine]

My students are taking their final exam online right now, and a handful are pestering me with questions along the lines of "You asked [restatement of the question]—-Is that what you meant?" and "You asked up to provide examples from topics we covered in class—-what does that mean?" While I'm responding patiently, I'd really like to say, "If you paid attention and participated in class, you'd know the answer. The very last day of the semester isn't the optimal point for starting to think about the course!"

[marshwiggle]

My students are taking their final exam online right now, and a handful are pestering me with questions along the lines of "You asked [restatement of the question]—-Is that what you meant?" and "You asked up to provide examples from topics we covered in class—-what does that mean?" While I'm responding patiently, I'd really like to say, "If you paid attention and participated in class, you'd know the answer. The very last day of the semester isn't the optimal point for starting to think about the course!"

Way back when I used to give exams, I intentionally did not come on campus the day before an exam, since the vast *majority of people wanting to talk to me at that point were the people who had blown off the course all term and now wanted fairy dust sprinkled over them.


*The small minority were the hyper-anxious students who were terrified some obscure point would shackle them with an A instead of an A+, to the total destruction of their future.

[the_geneticist]

Some students just need some reassurance that they're OK.  Most of my students are freshmen so I build in a LOT of check-ins.  Fall is when we get the ones who are *really* anxious - came in scoring high in math, having their butts kicked by Chemistry, and 99% think they are premed*.

*not because they really want to be, but they know that you need to go to college to go to medical school.  And they think that being a doctor is a $$$ career.  Or their family said the only way they will let them go to college is so they can be a doctor.  Our health-professions advising folks are swamped.

My "wins the gold star for being the MOST super-anxious student" has emailed to ask if medical schools will hold it against him for earning an A in Baskets 101 lab.

[apl68]

Some students just need some reassurance that they're OK.  Most of my students are freshmen so I build in a LOT of check-ins.  Fall is when we get the ones who are *really* anxious - came in scoring high in math, having their butts kicked by Chemistry, and 99% think they are premed*.

*not because they really want to be, but they know that you need to go to college to go to medical school.  And they think that being a doctor is a $$$ career.  Or their family said the only way they will let them go to college is so they can be a doctor.  Our health-professions advising folks are swamped.

My "wins the gold star for being the MOST super-anxious student" has emailed to ask if medical schools will hold it against him for earning an A in Baskets 101 lab.

For several years there, pretty much every other student that our high school's guidance counselor brought to the Rotary Club--we're talking about essentially the top half of our small-town high school's senior class, basically every student who might have any chance at all of college--wanted some kind of career as a nurse, physical therapist, etc.  Part of this was due to the local hospital and medical practices having a great outreach effort.  I suspect the rest was a matter of medicine being one of the very few few occupations that the average student or parent today is actually aware of.

Absolutely none of the hundreds of local college-bound hopefuls I've heard speak wanted to major in the humanities, even broadly defined.  I can barely think of any who've expressed plans to do anything other than STEM in one form or another.  You could probably count the number who want to be school teachers on the fingers of one hand.  That's probably about the only other profession that requires a college education that most of them can think of--and who would ever want to be a teacher?  Young people in general seem to know of the existence of very, very few trades and professions.