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

[the_geneticist]

A student just asked if there were lecture recordings for. a 1 week class that started yesterday meaning he has missed 2 days or 40% of the class.  He didn't add until yesterday afternoon  (yes, I work at that sort of place) and didn't bother to email me until 5 minutes ago.  This will not be an easy conversation for him.

Our summer classes are like that too!  I don't understand why the "powers that be" allow students to register until the end of week 2, even if the class is condensed to just 5 weeks.  It's not possible to "get caught up" when you've missed 40% of a course!
And they offer a special "take a year of organic chemistry over 10 weeks!" class that is just a cash grab.  Students ask if I think they should take it. I ask them if they LOVE chemistry.  If yes + no other plans/no job + good study habits = go for it.  Otherwise no.  The students are under the false impression that there is no way that 30+ weeks of content and labs will be crammed into 10 weeks and that it will be a trimmed down course.  Nope.  It's all of it with minimal time to think about things.

[apl68]

A student just asked if there were lecture recordings for. a 1 week class that started yesterday meaning he has missed 2 days or 40% of the class.  He didn't add until yesterday afternoon  (yes, I work at that sort of place) and didn't bother to email me until 5 minutes ago.  This will not be an easy conversation for him.

Our summer classes are like that too!  I don't understand why the "powers that be" allow students to register until the end of week 2, even if the class is condensed to just 5 weeks.  It's not possible to "get caught up" when you've missed 40% of a course!
And they offer a special "take a year of organic chemistry over 10 weeks!" class that is just a cash grab.  Students ask if I think they should take it. I ask them if they LOVE chemistry.  If yes + no other plans/no job + good study habits = go for it.  Otherwise no.  The students are under the false impression that there is no way that 30+ weeks of content and labs will be crammed into 10 weeks and that it will be a trimmed down course.  Nope.  It's all of it with minimal time to think about things.

Posters have talked in the past about how students like to imagine that these condensed courses will somehow be easier because they "take less time."  And unscrupulous administrations sometimes let them think that.

[the_geneticist]

A student just asked if there were lecture recordings for. a 1 week class that started yesterday meaning he has missed 2 days or 40% of the class.  He didn't add until yesterday afternoon  (yes, I work at that sort of place) and didn't bother to email me until 5 minutes ago.  This will not be an easy conversation for him.

Our summer classes are like that too!  I don't understand why the "powers that be" allow students to register until the end of week 2, even if the class is condensed to just 5 weeks.  It's not possible to "get caught up" when you've missed 40% of a course!
And they offer a special "take a year of organic chemistry over 10 weeks!" class that is just a cash grab.  Students ask if I think they should take it. I ask them if they LOVE chemistry.  If yes + no other plans/no job + good study habits = go for it.  Otherwise no.  The students are under the false impression that there is no way that 30+ weeks of content and labs will be crammed into 10 weeks and that it will be a trimmed down course.  Nope.  It's all of it with minimal time to think about things.

Posters have talked in the past about how students like to imagine that these condensed courses will somehow be easier because they "take less time."  And unscrupulous administrations sometimes let them think that.

Yep.  And it's particularly damaging to students who tried the course and didn't pass when it's the normally paced version.  There is no way they will pass when it's the lightning speed summer version.  But sure, take their money, let them fail again, and then make them beg to not be kicked out of their major & allow a 3rd attempt.

[MarathonRunner]

A student just asked if there were lecture recordings for. a 1 week class that started yesterday meaning he has missed 2 days or 40% of the class.  He didn't add until yesterday afternoon  (yes, I work at that sort of place) and didn't bother to email me until 5 minutes ago.  This will not be an easy conversation for him.

Our summer classes are like that too!  I don't understand why the "powers that be" allow students to register until the end of week 2, even if the class is condensed to just 5 weeks.  It's not possible to "get caught up" when you've missed 40% of a course!
And they offer a special "take a year of organic chemistry over 10 weeks!" class that is just a cash grab.  Students ask if I think they should take it. I ask them if they LOVE chemistry.  If yes + no other plans/no job + good study habits = go for it.  Otherwise no.  The students are under the false impression that there is no way that 30+ weeks of content and labs will be crammed into 10 weeks and that it will be a trimmed down course.  Nope.  It's all of it with minimal time to think about things.

At least in Canada, I find a lot of premeds take organic chem, known to be a difficult course for many, in the summer, because many med schools (in Canada) don't look at summer courses when calculating GPA, and GPA is incredibly important in Canada for med school admissions. I enjoyed organic chem and did well, but I know most consider it one of the tougher courses.

[FishProf]

A student just asked if there were lecture recordings for. a 1 week class that started yesterday meaning he has missed 2 days or 40% of the class.  He didn't add until yesterday afternoon  (yes, I work at that sort of place) and didn't bother to email me until 5 minutes ago.  This will not be an easy conversation for him.

Our summer classes are like that too!  I don't understand why the "powers that be" allow students to register until the end of week 2, even if the class is condensed to just 5 weeks.  It's not possible to "get caught up" when you've missed 40% of a course!
And they offer a special "take a year of organic chemistry over 10 weeks!" class that is just a cash grab.  Students ask if I think they should take it. I ask them if they LOVE chemistry.  If yes + no other plans/no job + good study habits = go for it.  Otherwise no.  The students are under the false impression that there is no way that 30+ weeks of content and labs will be crammed into 10 weeks and that it will be a trimmed down course.  Nope.  It's all of it with minimal time to think about things.

At least in Canada, I find a lot of premeds take organic chem, known to be a difficult course for many, in the summer, because many med schools (in Canada) don't look at summer courses when calculating GPA, and GPA is incredibly important in Canada for med school admissions. I enjoyed organic chem and did well, but I know most consider it one of the tougher courses.

We discourage taking the Med School required courses in the summer because some most(?) schools won't accept* Summer and/or Community College courses.

*or look askance at those courses, particularly if a student has a lot of them (pers.comm.)

[fosca]

A student just asked if there were lecture recordings for. a 1 week class that started yesterday meaning he has missed 2 days or 40% of the class.  He didn't add until yesterday afternoon  (yes, I work at that sort of place) and didn't bother to email me until 5 minutes ago.  This will not be an easy conversation for him.

Our summer classes are like that too!  I don't understand why the "powers that be" allow students to register until the end of week 2, even if the class is condensed to just 5 weeks.  It's not possible to "get caught up" when you've missed 40% of a course!
And they offer a special "take a year of organic chemistry over 10 weeks!" class that is just a cash grab.  Students ask if I think they should take it. I ask them if they LOVE chemistry.  If yes + no other plans/no job + good study habits = go for it.  Otherwise no.  The students are under the false impression that there is no way that 30+ weeks of content and labs will be crammed into 10 weeks and that it will be a trimmed down course.  Nope.  It's all of it with minimal time to think about things.

Posters have talked in the past about how students like to imagine that these condensed courses will somehow be easier because they "take less time."  And unscrupulous administrations sometimes let them think that.

Yep.  And it's particularly damaging to students who tried the course and didn't pass when it's the normally paced version.  There is no way they will pass when it's the lightning speed summer version.  But sure, take their money, let them fail again, and then make them beg to not be kicked out of their major & allow a 3rd attempt.

This is likely why the second-half-of-semester 8-week classes are such a disaster: between the students who were failing the 16-week early on and decided to try again and the students who were not motivated enough to register in time for the 16-week class, many are doomed from the start.

[MarathonRunner]

A student just asked if there were lecture recordings for. a 1 week class that started yesterday meaning he has missed 2 days or 40% of the class.  He didn't add until yesterday afternoon  (yes, I work at that sort of place) and didn't bother to email me until 5 minutes ago.  This will not be an easy conversation for him.

Our summer classes are like that too!  I don't understand why the "powers that be" allow students to register until the end of week 2, even if the class is condensed to just 5 weeks.  It's not possible to "get caught up" when you've missed 40% of a course!
And they offer a special "take a year of organic chemistry over 10 weeks!" class that is just a cash grab.  Students ask if I think they should take it. I ask them if they LOVE chemistry.  If yes + no other plans/no job + good study habits = go for it.  Otherwise no.  The students are under the false impression that there is no way that 30+ weeks of content and labs will be crammed into 10 weeks and that it will be a trimmed down course.  Nope.  It's all of it with minimal time to think about things.

At least in Canada, I find a lot of premeds take organic chem, known to be a difficult course for many, in the summer, because many med schools (in Canada) don't look at summer courses when calculating GPA, and GPA is incredibly important in Canada for med school admissions. I enjoyed organic chem and did well, but I know most consider it one of the tougher courses.

We discourage taking the Med School required courses in the summer because some most(?) schools won't accept* Summer and/or Community College courses.

*or look askance at those courses, particularly if a student has a lot of them (pers.comm.)

Most med schools in Canada no longer have prerequisites, but students need the knowledge for the MCAT for schools that need the MCAT, and for the few schools that still have prerequisites, summer courses count as fulfilling requirements, but don't count for GPA. So it's a thing that Canadian premeds take organic chem, and other courses that could lower their GPA in the summer. It's something that should be changed, imo, but I'm "only" an inter professional health care provider, not an MD.

[the_geneticist]

Students, stop pretending you don't know how to upload a .pdf file!  You've had to do this MANY times in this class.  No, I will not keep track of your emailed files for you.  No, I will not grade things you email me instead of uploading like you were asked.  No, I will not upload it for you.

I've had to reply "We will only grade submissions that are uploaded" to at least 10 students just today.

[the_geneticist]

Sorry for the double-post.

Colleague,
You need to post grades from lecture.  Students are in full-on panic mode.  They have turned in 3 of the 5 [baskets].  You have only graded the first one.  They are turning in another [basket] this week. 

At this point, you may as well just give them points for completion since they have 0 feedback on what they need to improve.

When you described your plans before the start of the quarter, I told you that you were going to spend HOURS grading these [baskets].  You said it wouldn't be that much time/work.  Just post the grades.

[kaysixteen]

So what will happen if the students complain that, since colleague did not in fact grade the old assignments before the students had to submit the new ones, this was unfair, and poor grades earned therefore are not legitimate?

[the_geneticist]

So what will happen if the students complain that, since colleague did not in fact grade the old assignments before the students had to submit the new ones, this was unfair, and poor grades earned therefore are not legitimate?

The students will have a very valid complaint and grounds for a grade appeal.

[Antiphon1]

Update:d late adding student dropped the class last Thursday and did not get a refund.  No good outcome for the institution in this instance.  I predict the student will complain up the chain and get the money refunded  after much rending of clothing and gnashing of teeth.  So glad to be done until fall. 

[the_geneticist]

A student emailed me to make an appointment to talk about their presentation for Week 10.  We scheduled a time.  Student showed up and wants to talk about how to make a presentation in [pottery].  My class is [baskets].  Both classes do have a presentation in Week 10, but they are different classes.  Stu looked at the WRONG office door.  Dr. [pottery class] and I do have offices in the same building, but not next to each other.  And our names are on the doors!  Our names aren't similar, don't rhyme, and don't even start with the same letter.
Stu was very embarrassed, but I still don't know how they made that mistake. 

[fishbrains]

A student emailed me to make an appointment to talk about their presentation for Week 10.  We scheduled a time.  Student showed up and wants to talk about how to make a presentation in [pottery].  My class is [baskets].  Both classes do have a presentation in Week 10, but they are different classes.  Stu looked at the WRONG office door.  Dr. [pottery class] and I do have offices in the same building, but not next to each other.  And our names are on the doors!  Our names aren't similar, don't rhyme, and don't even start with the same letter.
Stu was very embarrassed, but I still don't know how they made that mistake.

Probably the same way we walk into the wrong classroom, start setting up, suddenly realize our error, and then have to make a dainty exit. I mean, not me of course, but I've heard of it happening . . .

[Caracal]

A student emailed me to make an appointment to talk about their presentation for Week 10.  We scheduled a time.  Student showed up and wants to talk about how to make a presentation in [pottery].  My class is [baskets].  Both classes do have a presentation in Week 10, but they are different classes.  Stu looked at the WRONG office door.  Dr. [pottery class] and I do have offices in the same building, but not next to each other.  And our names are on the doors!  Our names aren't similar, don't rhyme, and don't even start with the same letter.
Stu was very embarrassed, but I still don't know how they made that mistake.

Probably the same way we walk into the wrong classroom, start setting up, suddenly realize our error, and then have to make a dainty exit. I mean, not me of course, but I've heard of it happening . . .

I always try to assume a look on my face and walk out in a way that might suggest to the students who were wandering who the hell I was, that actually I was supposed to be in the classroom, but now it is time for me to depart.