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

[the_geneticist]

Nailed it!
Stu arrived more than 20 minutes late, didn't know which room he was supposed to be in, and was SHOCKED I wouldn't let him participate.  I told him to email me & I'll let him do the one-time-only online makeup lab.
Stu sent an email saying that he drove 2.5 hours only for 'the [first name] themself' to 'deny him entry'.  And since we have no tolerance for allowing late folks to participate, he is considering dropping*.
Dude.
I am [first name] aka "Dr. Geneticist".  I introduced myself to you.
Did you think the person you talked with was somehow not the person you emailed?

*Stu is a super senior who needs my freshmen level [baskets 101] lab to graduate

And super hopeful, super late stu is probably going to be super upset (again) when they see that they earned a failing grade on the makeup worksheet.  Which they had all week to complete.
Most students earn >95%.  Stu got 45% mostly from not answering the question that was asked and/or not following the directions.

"Draw a [basket]" =/= you may draw a [clay pot]
"Watch the video and ask a question about [X]" =/= write something about [Y and Z]

[AmLitHist]

"Draw a [basket]" =/= you may draw a [clay pot]
"Watch the video and ask a question about [X]" =/= write something about [Y and Z]

Well, there's the problem, Geneticist: clearly you're just being too picky!  /sarcasm

[the_geneticist]

Stu is on track to be here in Fall quarter as well.
I've already alerted their academic advisor due to the unprofessional attitude + poor performance

It's HARD to fail freshmen [baskets 101] labs, but it's not impossible

[mythbuster]

If your freshman labs are like ours the criteria for passing is 1) Show up and 2) Follow the directions. It's a surprisingly high bar for some.

[the_geneticist]

If your freshman labs are like ours the criteria for passing is 1) Show up and 2) Follow the directions. It's a surprisingly high bar for some.

It's the showing up that is hard, especially during Summer Sessions.  Even more so because the co-requisite lecture is remote & asynchronous

[RatGuy]

If your freshman labs are like ours the criteria for passing is 1) Show up and 2) Follow the directions. It's a surprisingly high bar for some.

It's the showing up that is hard, especially during Summer Sessions.  Even more so because the co-requisite lecture is remote & asynchronous

Today (Wednesday) is the first day of my summer session. Tomorrow is a federal holiday, so classes resume on Friday.

Out of the 13 students enrolled in my course, 5 have emailed to say they won't be attending until Monday (the class meets every day).

[the_geneticist]

The for the classic "life is full of choices, choices have consequences"

I've had to add in "The [travel/traffic/family plans] EXPLAIN why you were absent. But they don't EXCUSE you from the missed assignments/lab/quiz/etc."

[kaysixteen]

Question for those teaching uni summer school courses, who have also done it for, say, 10+ years-- do you see more of this sort of entitled absenteeism today than back then, and does the ongoing effects of covid have anything to do with this?

[fishbrains]

I don't know. Whoever decided to start RatGuy's classes the Friday after July 4th (if in the U.S.) could have thought that through a little bit more. And if I ended my vacay three days early just to have the professor jibber-jabber through the syllabus and cut us out early on day one (something too many of us still tend to do), I'd be pretty miffed.

With K's question, I think Covid has made in-person attendance for anything that really doesn't require a physical body presence a little more optional. In this sense, if RatGuy's first class meeting absolutely requires the students' presence to be functional (a lab, for example), then the students need to suck it up; if their presence isn't all that important (and I know that can be hard to admit), then I'd recognize the poor planning with the dates and post a video so people aren't lost on Monday. Especially in the U.S. where many people don't get much vacay time to work with.

I know I recently had to attend a meeting on campus that didn't really require my physical presence just because the organizer "wanted to see everybody." We were not amused.

[kaysixteen]

I take it that this meeting 'organizer' was someone with authority over  ye who could have sancioned you for non-attendance at hu's meet and greet?

Yes, the OP's campus adminiscritter who scheduled these dates should be sent to a reeducation seminar at 0700 Saturday morning in August.  But the students do not know what will be discussed at the first class meeting, and should get into the habit of showing up, esp at shortened, accelerated schedule summer classes, and, more importantly, their parents should learn not to schedule their sprites' vacays during summer school.  One might well wonder how likely it would be that the latter will be doing so, sadly.

[fishbrains]

You're not wrong, K, but I could see why a student would take the chance of missing a Friday start day; and I wouldn't take it too personally as the instructor. I'm also thinking that not too much work is getting done tomorrow at my campus by the staffers who drew the short straws.

The meeting was just weird. I think some extroverts struggle to understand how much we introverts have pretty much thrived during and post-Covid.

[RatGuy]

I don't know. Whoever decided to start RatGuy's classes the Friday after July 4th (if in the U.S.) could have thought that through a little bit more. And if I ended my vacay three days early just to have the professor jibber-jabber through the syllabus and cut us out early on day one (something too many of us still tend to do), I'd be pretty miffed.

I totally agree it's poor planning, and it's even worse when all the admin offices are barren today as *almost* everyone is on vacation, faculty excluded.

Here's the thing for this class: there are a number of online sections of this course. Plenty of space. Chair says "if students don't want to meet in person, tell them to take the online section. Since this class is designated F2F, we are required to hold those classes f2f and you can't change that unilaterally [vague references to accreditation]. " At least he acknowledges that it's a stupid schedule, but places the blame in a weird place: if we started the summer session on July 8, then we don't have enough time to complete it before the Very Important Pre-Fall-Term Football and Greek Activities.

It's fine. I just gotta roll with it.

[Sea_Ice]

I don't know. Whoever decided to start RatGuy's classes the Friday after July 4th (if in the U.S.) could have thought that through a little bit more. And if I ended my vacay three days early just to have the professor jibber-jabber through the syllabus and cut us out early on day one (something too many of us still tend to do), I'd be pretty miffed.

I totally agree it's poor planning, and it's even worse when all the admin offices are barren today as *almost* everyone is on vacation, faculty excluded.

Here's the thing for this class: there are a number of online sections of this course. Plenty of space. Chair says "if students don't want to meet in person, tell them to take the online section. Since this class is designated F2F, we are required to hold those classes f2f and you can't change that unilaterally [vague references to accreditation]. " At least he acknowledges that it's a stupid schedule, but places the blame in a weird place: if we started the summer session on July 8, then we don't have enough time to complete it before the Very Important Pre-Fall-Term Football and Greek Activities.

It's fine. I just gotta roll with it.

Oh, yes - all must give way to the truly important facets of undergraduate education...

[AmLitHist]

The meeting was just weird. I think some extroverts struggle to understand how much we introverts have pretty much thrived during and post-Covid.

This.  Of course I wouldn't wish the disease aspects on us again, but man, I miss that ability to be left alone to do my work--and I was more productive, and certainly happier, doing it.

[FishProf]

There's always one.  Today's inappropriate lobbying for an A.

"As I had shared before, I am an International/Non-traditional student and I ought to receive an A in order to pursue further academics/scholarships in the U.S. I've had a 3.9/4.0 GPA for the past 4 years - and it would mean the world to conclude this Summer my degree - Summa Cum Laude. "

Well, you should have thought of that before you went an got an A- then, shouldn't you?