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

[fosca]

Fosca, pls clarify your point here-- what exactly is it that your students are doing that you think is plagiarism, but they do not, and how would they have to fix it?

Students are copying word-for-word or taking information from outside sources with no quotation marks, citations, or references in their work.  When I point out that's academic dishonesty they say "Oh, sorry, I write first and then go back and put the quotes and stuff in last, and I must've forgot because I had so much else to do.  I'll redo it now."

It's not so much that they think it's not plagiarism, but they think because it's an accident or a mistake that it won't count against them and they can just redo it with no penalty. And either no one has caught it before, no one has told them it's a bad idea, or they think that saying that will prevent them from the consequences of handing in college work that is plagiarized--I've had at least two students use that this semester alone.

Or, what Marshwiggle said. 

I did just report a student who, much like AmLitHist's student, was given feedback on their lack of proper quotation/citation/reference, but when they handed in work that had the structure and the phrasing and the definitions  directly from a specific outside source with no quotation/citation/reference, they tried to play the "I'm just teaching myself and I didn't know!" card.  Oh, did I mention they had also watched a video on proper paraphrasing and citation and wrote a couple of paragraphs on what they learned?  Their appeal was denied, so a happier ending.

[the_geneticist]

I have a new TA for my class who seems to be suffering from "main character syndrome".

He has not taught this class before.
He has never taught any classes before.
He hasn't even read the protocol for the lab for today.

But he is happily giving his opinion on how the lab could be taught differently, trying to give instructions to the other TAs, etc.

The experienced folks are all too nice to just thump him upside the head with the lab manual.

I think I'm going to be repeating "what does it say in the protocol?" over and over with him.

[the_geneticist]

I have a new TA for my class who seems to be suffering from "main character syndrome".

He has not taught this class before.
He has never taught any classes before.
He hasn't even read the protocol for the lab for today.

But he is happily giving his opinion on how the lab could be taught differently, trying to give instructions to the other TAs, etc.

The experienced folks are all too nice to just thump him upside the head with the lab manual.

I think I'm going to be repeating "what does it say in the protocol?" over and over with him.

I think I could write a book about this new TA.  As in a "don't be this guy"guidebook.

He's confidently wrong about so many things.
And he's constantly asking me questions about trivial things related to his research.  Why? My guess is he's trying to feel good about himself if he finds something I don't know.  Joke's on him - my postdoc was in his research field.

[AmLitHist]

I'm down to 3 people still enrolled in my developmental Comp I co-req class (started at 8).  Only 2 of them have a chance at passing the Comp I. 

Neither of those 2 showed up to class yesterday.

On the other hand, a woman who dropped the class 2+ weeks ago did show up, so I guess there's that. (I sent her home and went to my office to hang out until the Comp I class started later in the morning.)

[fishbrains]

I'm down to 3 people still enrolled in my developmental Comp I co-req class (started at 8).  Only 2 of them have a chance at passing the Comp I. 

Neither of those 2 showed up to class yesterday.

On the other hand, a woman who dropped the class 2+ weeks ago did show up, so I guess there's that. (I sent her home and went to my office to hang out until the Comp I class started later in the morning.)

I've felt that pain. A super-small co-req course is just another form of walking death. Sometimes a semester just can't end too soon.

[the_geneticist]

I'm down to 3 people still enrolled in my developmental Comp I co-req class (started at 8).  Only 2 of them have a chance at passing the Comp I. 

Neither of those 2 showed up to class yesterday.

On the other hand, a woman who dropped the class 2+ weeks ago did show up, so I guess there's that. (I sent her home and went to my office to hang out until the Comp I class started later in the morning.)

I've felt that pain. A super-small co-req course is just another form of walking death. Sometimes a semester just can't end too soon.

Ugh!  I think that teaching evaluations should be entirely optional for a class that small. No way to get any useful feedback if the students aren't actually going to class and/or have no chance of passing.

[downer]

Not really a vent, more an observation.

Giving exams in for classes, I can be confident that some students will finish the exam and leave before other students even turn up to take the exam.

It generally means that the classes are not well prepared for the exams.

[FishProf]

Giving exams in for classes, I can be confident that some students will finish the exam and leave before other students even turn up to take the exam.

I don't allow that.  Once someone leaves, no one else can start.

[downer]

Giving exams in for classes, I can be confident that some students will finish the exam and leave before other students even turn up to take the exam.

I don't allow that.  Once someone leaves, no one else can start.

I admire the hardassity of the policy.

[FishProf]

I admire the hardassity of the policy.

I don't see it as hardassity (but I will accept the label for myself), the exam is compromised once someone leaves.

[downer]

I admire the hardassity of the policy.

I don't see it as hardassity (but I will accept the label for myself), the exam is compromised once someone leaves.

Well, for the exams this semester I gave them the questions 2 weeks previous. Many still hardly write anything or get it mostly wrong.

[marshwiggle]

I admire the hardassity of the policy.

I don't see it as hardassity (but I will accept the label for myself), the exam is compromised once someone leaves.

The rule here for final exams (that has been in place for ages) is that people can be allowed in late until half an hour after the exam stars, but people can't leave until after an hour, so there's no possible overlap.

[the_geneticist]

I admire the hardassity of the policy.

I don't see it as hardassity (but I will accept the label for myself), the exam is compromised once someone leaves.

The rule here for final exams (that has been in place for ages) is that people can be allowed in late until half an hour after the exam stars, but people can't leave until after an hour, so there's no possible overlap.

Most folks here will warn students "if you show up after someone has already left, then you can't take the exam."  In reality, they make a 3rd/4th version of the exam just for the late folks.

[RatGuy]

The Venn Diagram of "students who most need to attend the review session" and "students who ask if they'll lose points if they don't attend the review session" is almost a circle.

Seriously, I've got 9 out of 24 students who've emailed me to say they won't be attending today's final exam review, and all of them are in the bottom half of the class in terms of grades. I mean, it doesn't count as a grade per se, but don't you think it'll be helpful to raise your final exam grade? Or is 2pm on a Friday cutting into your social life?

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Student missed the final exam because stu mixed up the days. I understand that things happen, but I've been talking about this exam for the past two weeks, posting about it online and oh, it's in the syllabus. I guess it would have helped if stu came to class more often...

Edit: Should I take pity on stu and allow a makeup with penalty? Damn, this kind of thing always gets me in trouble though...