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

[arcturus]

Supervised one graduating senior for a 3-credit thesis this semester. Thesis was scaffolded around submitting drafts of different parts of the thesis throughout the semester. Student ignored my repeated comments about clarity, supporting claims with evidence, and using scholarly sources. Now student is complaining about getting a B- on the thesis.

I will be emailing her a pdf of all of my annotations and comments about her work.

How dare you apply academic standards to her work? "Everyone" knows that independent research/independent study classes are an automatic A grade!

More seriously, I sometimes ask the student "what grade do you think you earned for your work this semester?" as part of our wrap-up meeting at the end of the semester.  This allows us to have a conversation about whether or not the student met the expectations. Usually, students are honest about their self-evaluation. I do have to bolster the confidence of some, but I rarely have to tell a student that they have done much more poorly than they think they did. Of course, that is because all of *my* students are above average!

[FishProf]

Why? Why? Why?  Is it really so hard to PUT YOUR NAME on the paper you are submitting?

My instructions are clear and consistently applied.

"File format MUST be in Portable Document Format (PDF). Name you file [Your Last Name] - [Assignment Name].  So for the "Black Box Lab", I would name the file Fishprof - Black Box Lab.pdf"

If they don't do both, I don't accept it.  ALL. SEMESTER. LONG.

And yet, for the final paper in my seminar class (ALL supposedly graduating Seniors!) I got these:

Seminar Paper.pdf
Seminar paper.doxc
Title of My Paper.pdf
My paper.pdf
My rough draft fixed.docx
Bio Seminar Paper Final Draft.pdf

In exactly ZERO of these submissions is the NAME of the student listed anywhere.  I also got

FirstNameLastname - My paper.pdf
LastNameFirstName - My paper.pdf
First Name - Due date.docx

I should just give them all zeros and let them come to me.  Or not, as they may choose.

[OneMoreYear]

I assume that means that your school is ok with your doing this?   IOW, if mom shows up with a signed FERPA waiver and wants to chat about son, and you tell her your policy is you just do not ever do this, waivers-notwithstanding, and then mom trots over to some deanlet, what would he say?   

My Dean would (has, in fact) say "FERPA waivers ALLOW the professor to speak to you, they do not REQUIRE it.  Your son is an adult so he can deal with this".

Only one of the reasons I love my Dean.

I have also been lucky that this has been the stance of the administration I've worked for. I had one case in which the administrator asked (but to their credit, did not require) me to talk to a parent who had a signed FERPA waiver and was insisting their student could not have possibly failed my intro-level gen ed class. I offered to have a meeting with the student and the parent in the room together, as I'm not having a conversation about the student without them. Parent agrees.  I assumed that the parent was going to drag the student into the meeting with me. I was surprised when the parent showed up alone, stating that the student would join us. Parent keeps trying to "start" the meeting as they student must be "running late" and they don't want to waste my time because they are confident this can all be cleared up quickly.  Student never showed up; parent left angry. I never heard from them again.

[AmLitHist]

I assume that means that your school is ok with your doing this?   IOW, if mom shows up with a signed FERPA waiver and wants to chat about son, and you tell her your policy is you just do not ever do this, waivers-notwithstanding, and then mom trots over to some deanlet, what would he say?   

My Dean would (has, in fact) say "FERPA waivers ALLOW the professor to speak to you, they do not REQUIRE it.  Your son is an adult so he can deal with this".

Only one of the reasons I love my Dean.

This has always been the situation for me, too, FishProf.  If it ever changes, I'd file a grievance re: academic freedom, based on years of having (and been backed up on) this same policy.  Just because I CAN do something, doesn't mean I HAVE to do it, and flipping that switch on this situation could open a whole other can of worms.

ETA, in response to K16's question: I'm at a public CC, not a private place.  Even when I did adjunct at my grad school (selective private Catholic university), we were ordered--as TAs and adjuncts--never to engage with parents, FERPA be damned.  Then again, it's a Jesuit school--"the folks who brought you the Inquisitions," as our faculty jokingly (??) reminded us! (No, there wasn't much whining or BS tolerated there, even from legacies or big donors' kids.  I guess they figured everyone knew the rules going in.)

[history_grrrl]

I have also been lucky that this has been the stance of the administration I've worked for. I had one case in which the administrator asked (but to their credit, did not require) me to talk to a parent who had a signed FERPA waiver and was insisting their student could not have possibly failed my intro-level gen ed class. I offered to have a meeting with the student and the parent in the room together, as I'm not having a conversation about the student without them. Parent agrees.  I assumed that the parent was going to drag the student into the meeting with me. I was surprised when the parent showed up alone, stating that the student would join us. Parent keeps trying to "start" the meeting as they student must be "running late" and they don't want to waste my time because they are confident this can all be cleared up quickly.  Student never showed up; parent left angry. I never heard from them again.

The few times I've interacted with a parent, they always start out assuming their kid is a darling angel whose version of events is completely true - and end up sorely disappointed. I remember one - a single mom - who started out angrily accusing me of providing bad customer service and ended up crying on the phone about her son having lied to her for years about attending class and doing coursework while milking her for tuition money she could barely afford. It was really sad.

[FishProf]

Student:  Why did I lose 10 points for not having an abstract?

Me:  Because the Rubric says Abstract - 10 points.

Student: But I didn't think my paper needed one.

Me [Fantasy Response 1]: Well, you were wrong, weren't you?

Me [Fantasy Response 2]: I agree with the first half of your sentence.

Me: That isn't your call to make.  That is why I gave you a rubric.

[the_geneticist]

Student:  Why did I lose 10 points for not having an abstract?

Me:  Because the Rubric says Abstract - 10 points.

Student: But I didn't think my paper needed one.

Me [Fantasy Response 1]: Well, you were wrong, weren't you?

Me [Fantasy Response 2]: I agree with the first half of your sentence.

Me: That isn't your call to make.  That is why I gave you a rubric.

I'm getting this question, only about exam scores.

Student: Why did I get a 0 on the "draw a [basket]" question?

Me: Because you left it blank.

Student: But, does that mean I did it wrong?

[FishProf]

I'm getting this question, only about exam scores.

Student: Why did I get a 0 on the "draw a [basket]" question?

Me: Because you left it blank.

Student: But, does that mean I did it wrong?

Ahhh, the old "Don't I start at 100% and only lose points for WRONG answers"?  schtick.

No, no child.  You start at zero.  You earn points for what you do correctly (i.e. points for things that are both relevant and true).

[apl68]

Student:  Why did I lose 10 points for not having an abstract?

Me:  Because the Rubric says Abstract - 10 points.

Student: But I didn't think my paper needed one.

Me [Fantasy Response 1]: Well, you were wrong, weren't you?

Me [Fantasy Response 2]: I agree with the first half of your sentence.

Me: That isn't your call to make.  That is why I gave you a rubric.

I'm getting this question, only about exam scores.

Student: Why did I get a 0 on the "draw a [basket]" question?

Me: Because you left it blank.

Student: But, does that mean I did it wrong?

And this is why so many employers are so reluctant to give recent graduates--from either high school or college--a chance.  It's like most of them have intellectual disability issues.

[FishProf]

I have to revise my rubrics.  There are things wrong in these papers that I didn't anticipate.

Dear Students - the Abstract is a summary, not a teaser trailer.

[sprezzatura]

"In a world . . . ."

[Antiphon1]

"In a world . . . ."

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away . . ."  That's what they really meant.

[onthefringe]

I have to revise my rubrics.  There are things wrong in these papers that I didn't anticipate.

Dear Students - the Abstract is a summary, not a teaser trailer.

As my postdoc advisor used to say "It's not a mystery story. Tell them what you plan to tell them. Then tell them. Then tell them what you told them."

[the_geneticist]

"In a world . . . ."

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away . . ."  That's what they really meant.

"Since the dawn of time, humans have longed for . . . ."

[FishProf]

Damn.  A plagiarism case just fell into my lap.  The student is inarguably guilty.  The paper was flagged by SafeAssign and it looks highly suspicious, but the poster he submitted is a slam-dunk case.

"In the GMO Corn Experiment, we test the hypothesis that wild animals such as squirrels and deer prefer non-GMO corn, and avoid GMO corn.  If there is something that makes animals avoid GMO corn, we should know about it. Such a finding would have widespread impacts. If animals don't have a preference, then we can focus on other issues."

Ummm, this is a literature survey, and YOU didn't do any of this (as it took place in 2016, when you were a sophomore in high school.

This student is supposed to graduate, and is applying to med school.  He has a med school committee interview scheduled for next week.

Or, at least, he did.