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

[apl68]

I once had a student who tried to take the course on his cell phone.  Needless to say, he was not successful and ended up dropping.

I've had students using cell phones for their online composition courses, despite the first page explicitly informing them that they needed to use a computer for this course. Needless to say, they either learned fast that using a phone to write MLA or APA style assignments was not a good idea or ended up dropping the course after complaining about the "mean" professor.

I've heard that at for-profit and other schools with lots of first-generation students this is not uncommon.  Anymore if the only tech one can afford to have is a phone, that's what one will have.  And people accustomed to doing everything by phone, and not very well-versed on the needs and realities of higher education, just won't understand why the phone can't be enough until they've tried it.

[Puget]

We do not have class today because students are doing an outside group activity instead. This is stated on this week's section of the CMS and highlighted in bright yellow. They also signed up for their outside activity slots in their groups last week, and I reminded them this was in place of class. Yet two students have emailed me today to say they are "confused about whether there is class today". I'm honestly not sure how much clearer it could be.

[mythbuster]

So, in Google docs, how do you indent, or right justify if not with the tab button? I've never used Google docs, so I would likely also be flummoxed.

[mamselle]

Google Docs is a nightmare, format-wise.

I refuse to use it or accept anything in it.

I realize collaborative writers might find it more helpful, but it makes me cross-eyed just to look at it.

M.

[secundem_artem]

I think this is the first time I've seen a faculty member get sacked because a few students complained "It's toooo haaaaaarrrrdddd!"  Can't help but think there's more to the story than what was printed in The Grey Lady.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/03/us/nyu-organic-chemistry-petition.html

[mythbuster]

 A student who working in my research lab is also working as the Supplemental Instructor for Intro to physics. He was asking me today how to deal with the fact that no one seems to remember any of the terms since the last class period! He's truly stumped as to how to deal with this in a nice way. His statement was "I can't teach them if they don't understand the terms." So true.

I will take this as hope that at least a few of them get it. I knew he was good fit for my research lab!

[fishbrains]

So, in Google docs, how do you indent, or right justify if not with the tab button? I've never used Google docs, so I would likely also be flummoxed.

You tab the same way you do in Word. But some funky stuff happens when students have to download their Google documents into Word format before putting them into D2L (don't know about other CMS's), so there might be a rub there.

The high schools around here give their students Chromebooks, so they are all using Google docs. Forewarned is forearmed and all that . . .

[mahagonny]

What do you say to a student who tells you 'then I got really sick...that's why I wasn't here for last week's...' and you saw them walking around campus hanging out with friends just outside the building as you went to lunch right after the class they didn't attend? I think of saying 'You know that staircase in the northern end of the building, the one that's all windows? How you can see people entering or leaving the building or congregating with friends just outside? And how your new hair color is so distinctive?'
See, when a student is gets sick, it sounds real when they tell you. Even if they're a crappy student. When it's a lie, it sounds too emphatic, or something. You can just tell.

[dr_evil]

I was doing some in-class problems yesterday to help students get ready for an upcoming quiz and lab assignment. I found out some of them are still confused about material from chapter 2 (we are in 4) and, even worse, think that it's just impossibly hhaaaaarrrrrrrdddd. As in, "how are we supposed to learn all this?" How about the same way I did back in high school? The way I've been telling you since we covered that in week 3.

Test 1, which might be the easiest of the term, was bad. I'm afraid of how bad exam 2 will be.

[the_geneticist]

We changed the prerequisites for our [Baskets 101, 102, 103] courses so that students can start them sooner.  Students can now take  [Basic Basket Materials A] concurrently instead of as a prerequisite to [Baskets 101]. But, no one who is teaching [Baskets 101] made any changes to their course.  What used to be a "quick review of [Basic Basket Materials A]" is now a speed lecture of content & concepts that the students HAVE NOT LEARNED YET.
It's bad.  The students are freaked out.  And the kicker is that one of the [Baskets 101] instructors was on the committee that proposed and approved this change.

[downer]

We changed the prerequisites for our [Baskets 101, 102, 103] courses so that students can start them sooner.  Students can now take  [Basic Basket Materials A] concurrently instead of as a prerequisite to [Baskets 101]. But, no one who is teaching [Baskets 101] made any changes to their course.  What used to be a "quick review of [Basic Basket Materials A]" is now a speed lecture of content & concepts that the students HAVE NOT LEARNED YET.
It's bad.  The students are freaked out.  And the kicker is that one of the [Baskets 101] instructors was on the committee that proposed and approved this change.

Facepalm!

[FishProf]

We are at the 1/4 semester mark, and 10 of 24 students in my Online course have not yet done ANYTHING.

Which, sadly, is about par for the course lately.

[mythbuster]

Oh lord. I think my 3rd year Master's student has gone off to cry in a corner. She was supposed to present a research paper today in lab meeting. She posted it up  to the lab LMS so I looked at it this morning. It was very familiar. A quick search- yup, she presented the same paper almost exactly a year ago in lab meeting. I called in to my office before lab (so in private) an informed her that she should present a new and different paper next week instead.  Her immediate response was to complain about the hours of work that went into this presentation. Sigh.
   So either she thought I wouldn't notice, or she legit does not remember giving a hour presentation of this paper. Both are bad. And it's not a very good paper. Either way she's not looking so great right now.
  Now I'm off to dig up some appropriate options for her for next week.

[kaysixteen]

How did this woman get to the third year of a Master's program (BTW, how long is the Master's supposed to take?)

[the_geneticist]

I'm looped in to a weird email discussion.  The TA claims that the student who needed to run to their room to get long pants never came back.  The student is claiming that they did go back, but it's not clear that they went back to that lab section.  And the student has also asked if they can make up the lab later (?).
Pretty sure that the student never returned to lab and is hoping we somehow won't notice that they weren't there and didn't turn in their assignment.