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

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

One of my TAs has been autofilling the grade book with full credit for all assignments for all of their students.  They did not understand why that was a problem!

WTH? Time for a talk.

[OneMoreYear]

One of my TAs has been autofilling the grade book with full credit for all assignments for all of their students.  They did not understand why that was a problem!

WTH? Time for a talk.

I'm assuming their students were not complaining!

My TAs tend to be more lenient graders than I am, even with rubrics.  In one skills-based class though, I am usually able to convince them to grade the shit out of it b/c the students need that feedback--and the rubric grades are built to handle a lot of errors initially b/c of the developmental progression of student learning..

[the_geneticist]

One of my TAs has been autofilling the grade book with full credit for all assignments for all of their students.  They did not understand why that was a problem!

WTH? Time for a talk.

I'm assuming their students were not complaining!

My TAs tend to be more lenient graders than I am, even with rubrics.  In one skills-based class though, I am usually able to convince them to grade the shit out of it b/c the students need that feedback--and the rubric grades are built to handle a lot of errors initially b/c of the developmental progression of student learning..

Oh indeed!  The students are not complaining.  They are getting full credit even if they were absent!  The TA was originally grading using the rubric, but got behind, and figured this was a way to "fix" the situation.  The TA's plan was to "adjust the grades if needed".  How?!?  Randomly take off a point here are there?  Remember to put in zeros for anyone who was gone?
It's week 9 of 10.  I'm just done.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

One of my TAs has been autofilling the grade book with full credit for all assignments for all of their students.  They did not understand why that was a problem!

WTH? Time for a talk.

I'm assuming their students were not complaining!

My TAs tend to be more lenient graders than I am, even with rubrics.  In one skills-based class though, I am usually able to convince them to grade the shit out of it b/c the students need that feedback--and the rubric grades are built to handle a lot of errors initially b/c of the developmental progression of student learning..

Oh indeed!  The students are not complaining.  They are getting full credit even if they were absent!  The TA was originally grading using the rubric, but got behind, and figured this was a way to "fix" the situation.  The TA's plan was to "adjust the grades if needed".  How?!?  Randomly take off a point here are there?  Remember to put in zeros for anyone who was gone?
It's week 9 of 10.  I'm just done.

Just damn. This reminds me of an adjunct who would give students D's and F's on tests, but let them 'make up the difference' and get an A on tests, so the entire class, except for maybe 2 people who got B's, were getting A's. The Chair was pissed. Major CF.

[the_geneticist]

We have a new instructor who is giving all students 100% for just turning in assignments (no feedback, no checking for accuracy).  I think the Chair might be suspicious when more than 90% of the class gets an A+.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

We have a new instructor who is giving all students 100% for just turning in assignments (no feedback, no checking for accuracy).  I think the Chair might be suspicious when more than 90% of the class gets an A+.

Sheesh!!!

[the_geneticist]

The Final Exam is tomorrow.  I posted a study guide, practice questions, sent reminders, encouraged folks to look a their midterms, etc.

Not sure which of these is the worst for the day before the final:

What should I study?
'Am I at risk of failing?' from Stu* with a C-
What is the question for #3 that has answer c?
Will you post more practice questions?

[mythbuster]

I will vote that the last-asking for more problems is the best of them. That at least implies that they may have exhausted the ones you did post up. Whether they are actually learning how to solve the problems, rather than just memorizing the answer is a different issue.

The first- "what should I study" Is one that will ding you on your evaluations for not providing a "study guide". 

On my most recent evals I had one student who stated that I needed to give a percentage breakdown of how many questions on the exam come from each lecture!

Good luck with the final- hopefully they all show up relatively on time.

[the_geneticist]

I will vote that the last-asking for more problems is the best of them. That at least implies that they may have exhausted the ones you did post up. Whether they are actually learning how to solve the problems, rather than just memorizing the answer is a different issue.

The first- "what should I study" Is one that will ding you on your evaluations for not providing a "study guide". 

On my most recent evals I had one student who stated that I needed to give a percentage breakdown of how many questions on the exam come from each lecture!

Good luck with the final- hopefully they all show up relatively on time.

There is a study guide. 

You sure it's a student and not one of those "professional development" folks in disguise? Lol. 
I could do this by learning goal, but I'm not mapping it to every day since there is a lot of overlap, repetition, and building of skills.

Dare you to say "there is 0% materials from Monday May 29th on you Final"

[apl68]

On my most recent evals I had one student who stated that I needed to give a percentage breakdown of how many questions on the exam come from each lecture!

That's bizarre.  At least that student is ready to work with percentages.  Or thinks so, anyway.

[Antiphon1]

On my most recent evals I had one student who stated that I needed to give a percentage breakdown of how many questions on the exam come from each lecture!

That's bizarre.  At least that student is ready to work with percentages.  Or thinks so, anyway.

"Stu, how about watching/attending all the lectures and taking notes rather than playing the averages?"  I've had the same request.  This person just wants to know which lectures are most important rather than trying to synthesize the information. 

[bio-nonymous]

On my most recent evals I had one student who stated that I needed to give a percentage breakdown of how many questions on the exam come from each lecture!

That's bizarre.  At least that student is ready to work with percentages.  Or thinks so, anyway.

I always get some students who seem to be peeved that they have to learn anything that isn't going to be asked directly on the exams...they want each PowerPoint slide to have the answer to an actual test question on it (likely in bold, large red font, and highlighted) and no extraneous information "that isn't on the test"...sure would make studying easy! What is the point again? Learning or checking boxes?

[mythbuster]

If you all loved that one, here's the other one from this semester that had my colleagues howling. I teach an online course required for our majors with weekly assignments, but otherwise asynchronous. So EVERYTHING is available once you pass the syllabus quiz.

One student was super peeved that I dared to have assignments due the week of exams in other courses in the major. He just couldn't believe that I wouldn't consult with the other profs to spread things out!

Hey kid- First, not all of you are taking the same courses. And second, try planning ahead! Most assignments in this course only require about 1 hour of work per week tops.

[apl68]

On my most recent evals I had one student who stated that I needed to give a percentage breakdown of how many questions on the exam come from each lecture!

That's bizarre.  At least that student is ready to work with percentages.  Or thinks so, anyway.

I always get some students who seem to be peeved that they have to learn anything that isn't going to be asked directly on the exams...they want each PowerPoint slide to have the answer to an actual test question on it (likely in bold, large red font, and highlighted) and no extraneous information "that isn't on the test"...sure would make studying easy! What is the point again? Learning or checking boxes?

It may be a measure of the extent to which K-12 education has become so focused on teaching to and taking tests.  Their teachers surely haven't all been telling them in so many words that school is all about testing.  But with the emphasis on testing being what it is, that's the understanding of education that the students have internalized.  If it's not tested it doesn't matter, just as if you don't have pictures in today's world it never happened.

[the_geneticist]

On my most recent evals I had one student who stated that I needed to give a percentage breakdown of how many questions on the exam come from each lecture!

That's bizarre.  At least that student is ready to work with percentages.  Or thinks so, anyway.

"I promise that 100% of the questions on the exam are from material learned in class."