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

[onehappyunicorn]

Student started the semester by missing 7 of the first 16 class meetings. This is a studio art class that meets for 6 hours per week. My suggestion was for them to withdraw, the class has an attendance requirement, but student insisted that they would make up all of the missed time and now that they weren't having car trouble they would be in class. The attendance policy is in the syllabus and I also post it in the course announcements because I don't want anyone to be caught by surprise.

I let Stu know I would be happy to open up the painting studio whenever they wanted to come in and make up time, Stu looks at me like I've grown three heads. No, they'll do it at home. Okay, most students have a very difficult time oil painting at home since it can be very messy, you need a good amount of space, and you need ventilation, but fine. Stu then spends the next class trying to get me to cover all of the material from the first part of the semester. Even when I am helping other students Stu keeps hovering and trying to ask questions. I let Stu know that I'll be happy to help them catch up during office hours, I'll even come meet them up at the studio so I can demo, Stu doesn't care for that option either.

Fast forward, Stu has sporadic attendance and then after the withdraw date passes Stu disappears for almost four weeks. I email two more times with no response so I assume they are just done. I get an email this week with pictures of all the "make up" work Stu has been doing from home. It's all terrible, of course, bad enough that even if they were making it to class their grade would not be a passing one.

I let Stu know that even if they make the rest of the classes there is no way they are going to pass. Stu responds "You mean to tell me that even though I made up all the work you are going to fail me?" Yes, that is correct, please refer back to the course policies as per the syllabus, and as posted in the course announcements.

Stu's mother then calls and leaves a message on my office phone, she wants to know why I couldn't just open a virtual meeting during class so her student wouldn't fall behind. Stu is always working hard, everyone else helps him out, why can't you be more accommodating, etc. Fortunately the chair backs me up and has stepped in. We absolutely are not talking to the mother. Stu has been here for a while, they are in their early 20s, btw.

Stu will be on academic probation after this semester (despite "working hard" they are below a 2.0) and in order to get the failing grade off of their transcript they will need to take the class again. Guess who is the only faculty that teaches this class?

[apl68]

Sounds like a student with issues that go beyond simple laziness and disorganization.  Glad your chair backs you in cases like this.

[kaysixteen]

Do you have to let this student make up this class?

[onehappyunicorn]

Yes, thankfully my chair is very supportive.
We are an open enrollment institution so students can take any class multiple times as long as they pay. If he does come back we'll have a conversation up front and I'll document it just in case.

[kaysixteen]

Ok, but eventually, even multiple failures ought to be able to garner the student enough basic course-related info to pass the class, without, ahem, actually having learned much of anything.

[onehappyunicorn]

One would assume, yes.
I believe our school policy is after they fail a course three times they cannot take it again. I haven't seen that happen but I remember a student who failed a course twice being warned that they had one more chance...

[the_geneticist]

We allow one repeat, a third attempt only with special permission.
But honestly, if a student fails once* they almost always fail again.

*Unless there was a big disruption/something outside of their control (e.g. medical crisis) that is now resolved.

[the_geneticist]

Sorry for the double-post, it's getting to be crunch time for our Spring term.

A TA just told me today (it's Week 7) that a student has been arriving at lab 30-60 minutes late EVERY SINGLE WEEK.  And the TA has been letting them participate.  And giving them credit for their "due at the start of class prelab".

Why didn't the TA tell me the first time this happened?  The official policy is that 10 minutes late = you can't participate.  And late pre-lab assignments = 0 points. 

And the kicker is the TA casually mentioned that the student has been copying their answers from other student worksheets all quarter.

[Langue_doc]

Sorry for the double-post, it's getting to be crunch time for our Spring term.

A TA just told me today (it's Week 7) that a student has been arriving at lab 30-60 minutes late EVERY SINGLE WEEK.  And the TA has been letting them participate.  And giving them credit for their "due at the start of class prelab".

Why didn't the TA tell me the first time this happened?  The official policy is that 10 minutes late = you can't participate.  And late pre-lab assignments = 0 points. 

And the kicker is the TA casually mentioned that the student has been copying their answers from other student worksheets all quarter.

Do these TAs get away with not following protocols? I would email TA with the list of above infractions and also CC the Chair/Grad Stu Advisor/Whoever else who should be aware of this so that there's a paper trail. You've probably documented this, but just my two cents.

[the_geneticist]

Oh, I am documenting.  They are not my worst offender, not even for this quarter.


New TAs seem to fall into 2 categories:
super strict
super pushover

I don't think they understand that being "super nice" and giving 100% to everyone on all assignments actually HURTS the students just like finding picky ways to dock points hurts students.

[kaysixteen]

What say you fire him in order to make an example of him?

[marshwiggle]

What say you fire him in order to make an example of him?

Firing TAs in the middle of term produces a difficult choice:

A. Fire, and then try frantically to find someone who wants the job partway through the term, (especially with the potential need to sort out the previous person's mess), knowing that if you can't find someone you have to do it all yourself.

B. Keep them on and try to push, plead, etc. just to get through the term with their problematic efforts but knowing that after the term ends you're done with them.

"Making an example" is a pretty short term effect, since the nature of the job involves a candidate pool who have at most a couple of years of institutional memory. And the other TAs who are doing a good job don't need the example.

[the_geneticist]

I can't fire TAs directly since they were hired by the department, not by me. 
I can document & report them to the chair.  And say that they are not qualified to teach that particular class again.

[secundem_artem]

Not really consistent with the theme of this thread but.....

Teaching evals arrived in my inbox again.  Excellent for one course, quite mediocre for the 2nd.  And this, of course, led to the usual self-examination of wondering about my career choices.

So today, I was just cleaning up my office, throwing out old paper, tidying up when I came across a 2" stack of thank-you cards that I've received over the years.  I went through and read them.  Got a tiny bit emotional. It seems like I've actually changed a few lives for the better. 

I need to find a way to forget the negativity and focus on the positives.  If only I knew how.

[FishProf]

I am going to be vague about details b/c it doesn't really matter.

Student watches/listens to online lecture.  [Stu] sends this email:

"Quiz Question: T/F 'Scenario X is best understood by  using model Y.' I am curious to ask why this answer is considered to be TRUE and not False?

Model Y is .... [using an online source]

I am thinking that [Scenario X] is not [Model Y] because [misapplied reason Z].

I want to understand how the X applies to Y."

SO, I go back to my lecture to review exactly what I said...

"[X] is best modelled by [Y] because [reason z]."  The question is literally what I said in the lecture - no nuance, not a different scenario, no need to extrapolate.