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

[kaysixteen]

Aren't there faculty advisors to be cc'd here, to ensure that the students do one or the other of these things before the deadline, esp if they be freshmen?

[statsgeek]

I am out of ideas here.  Moving student hours outside of my office is not an option. 

In years past, students didn't visit during office hours because they didn't think far enough ahead to schedule.  So, ok, I made "walk-in" hours, no appointment needed.  Then they didn't visit (and slammed me on evals for not being available) because there's too many people at the time they stopped by and they can't wait.   Ok, walk-in hours AND I'll open a link where they can sign up for basically any other time I'm not in class or another meeting (because emailing me to schedule a meeting is an extra step they can't take).  And I offer either in person or virtual meetings. 

I remind students just about every class period of all the ways they can come see me, with or without an appointment, and that I want them to come ask me questions any time.  It's front and center on our LMS course page. 

I'm still getting assignments with "I didn't know how to do this and I asked a classmate and they didn't know either." written at the top. 

[marshwiggle]

I'm still getting assignments with "I didn't know how to do this and I asked a classmate and they didn't know either." written at the top.

This is the same classmate of whom it is said "I asked a classmate and they said there aren't any labs the first week of classes."

(In contrast to the note on the door of the lab stating that, indeed, labs begin the first week of classes.)

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I'm still getting assignments with "I didn't know how to do this and I asked a classmate and they didn't know either." written at the top.

This is the same classmate of whom it is said "I asked a classmate and they said there aren't any labs the first week of classes."

(In contrast to the note on the door of the lab stating that, indeed, labs begin the first week of classes.)

So annoying. I'll add. In lab yesterday, students didn't know that they had to READ the prelab material before coming to lab and taking the prelab quiz. Um, what did I tell you all to do last time we had lab???

[marshwiggle]

I'm still getting assignments with "I didn't know how to do this and I asked a classmate and they didn't know either." written at the top.

This is the same classmate of whom it is said "I asked a classmate and they said there aren't any labs the first week of classes."

(In contrast to the note on the door of the lab stating that, indeed, labs begin the first week of classes.)

So annoying. I'll add. In lab yesterday, students didn't know that they had to READ the prelab material before coming to lab and taking the prelab quiz. Um, what did I tell you all to do last time we had lab???

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTRKCXC0JFg

[FishProf]

Aren't there faculty advisors to be cc'd here, to ensure that the students do one or the other of these things before the deadline, esp if they be freshmen?

They have been.  It won't work. 

I have 80 advisees.  If I had to reach out to even 1/4 of those students to track them down and get them to go to classes, I wouldn't have time for anything else.

[the_geneticist]

I'm still getting assignments with "I didn't know how to do this and I asked a classmate and they didn't know either." written at the top.

This is the same classmate of whom it is said "I asked a classmate and they said there aren't any labs the first week of classes."

(In contrast to the note on the door of the lab stating that, indeed, labs begin the first week of classes.)

So annoying. I'll add. In lab yesterday, students didn't know that they had to READ the prelab material before coming to lab and taking the prelab quiz. Um, what did I tell you all to do last time we had lab???

Only if they want to do well on the quiz!  They can always just "try their best".

Some folks need to learn that they are asking the wrong classmate.  I don't know how they do it, but the lower achieving students find each other and work together.  How??  Why??

[arcturus]

I'm still getting assignments with "I didn't know how to do this and I asked a classmate and they didn't know either." written at the top.

This is the same classmate of whom it is said "I asked a classmate and they said there aren't any labs the first week of classes."

(In contrast to the note on the door of the lab stating that, indeed, labs begin the first week of classes.)

So annoying. I'll add. In lab yesterday, students didn't know that they had to READ the prelab material before coming to lab and taking the prelab quiz. Um, what did I tell you all to do last time we had lab???

Only if they want to do well on the quiz!  They can always just "try their best".

Some folks need to learn that they are asking the wrong classmate. I don't know how they do it, but the lower achieving students find each other and work together.  How??  Why??

They are all on GroupMe together, hoping that someone will post the answers there.

I just went through an activity where 1/4 of the students copied/pasted answers from the internet. They don't seem to grasp the concept that we can catch them cheating (without using software like Turnitin) if they use technical language that we haven't taught them in this class.

[FishProf]

My class just played a game that simulates evolution and population dynamics.  I tell them, quite conspicuously, to read ALL the directions before they start.

In 3 of the 4 groups, the student who thought they won, actually came in last place because they didn't read the part about overpopulation being bad.

Happens every year.

[MarathonRunner]

Aren't there faculty advisors to be cc'd here, to ensure that the students do one or the other of these things before the deadline, esp if they be freshmen?

They have been.  It won't work. 

I have 80 advisees.  If I had to reach out to even 1/4 of those students to track them down and get them to go to classes, I wouldn't have time for anything else.

Yikes. Our programs have dedicated advisors for students. Their job is to advise. I guess the US system is very different.

[kaysixteen]

80 advisees sounds like an *awfully* large number for most US schools.

Still, well... it would take five seconds to fire off a form email to an advisee that says, essentially, 'Prof Fish said that you need to either take the syllabus quiz or drop the class by Jan 31st.   Academically, you will regret it quickly if you do neither of  these.'

[marshwiggle]

80 advisees sounds like an *awfully* large number for most US schools.

Still, well... it would take five seconds to fire off a form email to an advisee that says, essentially, 'Prof Fish said that you need to either take the syllabus quiz or drop the class by Jan 31st.   Academically, you will regret it quickly if you do neither of  these.'

And that would be 5 more seconds spent on the course than the student did in most of these cases........

[the_geneticist]

80 advisees sounds like an *awfully* large number for most US schools.

Still, well... it would take five seconds to fire off a form email to an advisee that says, essentially, 'Prof Fish said that you need to either take the syllabus quiz or drop the class by Jan 31st.   Academically, you will regret it quickly if you do neither of  these.'

Contacting students who are in your class is easy.  "Reminder, start the quiz!  Last day to drop is [date]".

The issue is that most of us advise students that are NOT all in our classes, certainly not all in the same class.  Some places have a system to track students, but it relies on instructors to report who is failing/at risk.  Not trivial and it misses folks.

[kaysixteen]

We are talking about Prof X having a list of all his students, and their advisors/ advisor email addies.   Is this info not regularly provided to all faculty?  If it is, it would be very easy to spend those five seconds a kid, lets say maybe ten seconds a kid, to fire off those form emails to all the advisors of all one's own students who would be in such a situation...

[Liquidambar]

We are talking about Prof X having a list of all his students, and their advisors/ advisor email addies.   Is this info not regularly provided to all faculty?  If it is, it would be very easy to spend those five seconds a kid, lets say maybe ten seconds a kid, to fire off those form emails to all the advisors of all one's own students who would be in such a situation...

No.  At my school, I'd have to look up each student individually in our clunky database.  It would tell me the name of their advisor.  Then I'd have to look up the advisor's email in the directory.  It would be super annoying.  And it's not like the advisor would have any special insight into the student's issues or be able to make the student attend class.