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

[the_geneticist]

I wish I could get one of my summer students to understand that assignments are due in class. He realizes that he's forgotten to do an assignment, so he scrambles in the wake of class to finish it. Then he does not put it in my mailbox in the department -- he just crams it in the crack in my office door. But I share an office with two other folks, and random papers sometimes gets lost. Now he's claiming he submitted his final paper (late) to my office door, but no one seems to know where it is.

This is why I only allow submissions on the CMS (and tell them they are responsible for checking it actually went through)-- everything is logged and time stamped, so no arguments.

Tell him to email it to you by a specific day and time (like 5:00 today).  If he really wrote it, then it's no problem.

[RatGuy]

I wish I could get one of my summer students to understand that assignments are due in class. He realizes that he's forgotten to do an assignment, so he scrambles in the wake of class to finish it. Then he does not put it in my mailbox in the department -- he just crams it in the crack in my office door. But I share an office with two other folks, and random papers sometimes gets lost. Now he's claiming he submitted his final paper (late) to my office door, but no one seems to know where it is.

This is why I only allow submissions on the CMS (and tell them they are responsible for checking it actually went through)-- everything is logged and time stamped, so no arguments.

Tell him to email it to you by a specific day and time (like 5:00 today).  If he really wrote it, then it's no problem.

As a portfolio assignment with a few different components, this isn't just a Word doc they can send to me. Syllabus stipulates that assignments are submitted in class, and that students need to be in class to submit assignments.

[Anon1787]

As a portfolio assignment with a few different components, this isn't just a Word doc they can send to me. Syllabus stipulates that assignments are submitted in class, and that students need to be in class to submit assignments.

Why do you accept late assignments that fail to meet that requirement? If you're willing to accept late assignments not submitted during class you should specify a clear procedure that students must follow (e.g., late assignments must be submitted to your mailbox to receive any credit).

[the_geneticist]

Put a zero in the grade book and call it a day.

[Langue_doc]

+1 to what others have suggested.

Stu wasn't in class, didn't submit hu's assignment, so assignment earns a zero.

You aren't responsible for assignments that are pushed through cracks in your office door instead of being submitted in person in the classroom.

[OneMoreYear]

Dear incoming graduate student, we still have two weeks until the semester starts and you are already on my list. Unless you demonstrate an immediate and significant improvement in your problem solving skills, I do not foresee you having the critical thinking skills to make it through one semester of this program, much less graduate.
Of note, I am the professor for two of your first year graduate courses. I am not your kindergarten teacher. "What should you do?" You should think.

[RatGuy]

+1 to what others have suggested.

Stu wasn't in class, didn't submit hu's assignment, so assignment earns a zero.

You aren't responsible for assignments that are pushed through cracks in your office door instead of being submitted in person in the classroom.

Whenever he swung by my office in the past, I took his stuff because it seemed cruel just to say "walk across the street and put it in my office box." It's easier just to take it then.

But the dude WAS in class. That's why it's so nutty. It's like he doesn't realize it's due until he sees everyone else turning it in. And a zero on the final project means an F in the class. And if that's run up the chain there's no guarantee that I'll not get in trouble for following my policies if I could have extended grace. I've been reprimanded before for entering a zero on a final project. That's just campus culture here.

[mamselle]

Ye-ow. Reprimanded for giving the grade earned?

My sympathies.

M.

[the_geneticist]

+1 to what others have suggested.

Stu wasn't in class, didn't submit hu's assignment, so assignment earns a zero.

You aren't responsible for assignments that are pushed through cracks in your office door instead of being submitted in person in the classroom.

Whenever he swung by my office in the past, I took his stuff because it seemed cruel just to say "walk across the street and put it in my office box." It's easier just to take it then.

But the dude WAS in class. That's why it's so nutty. It's like he doesn't realize it's due until he sees everyone else turning it in. And a zero on the final project means an F in the class. And if that's run up the chain there's no guarantee that I'll not get in trouble for following my policies if I could have extended grace. I've been reprimanded before for entering a zero on a final project. That's just campus culture here.

Surely the student saved the files?  I'm assuming this wasn't all written out by hand.  Tell them to email you a new copy.

[Anon1787]

But the dude WAS in class. That's why it's so nutty. It's like he doesn't realize it's due until he sees everyone else turning it in. And a zero on the final project means an F in the class. And if that's run up the chain there's no guarantee that I'll not get in trouble for following my policies if I could have extended grace. I've been reprimanded before for entering a zero on a final project. That's just campus culture here.

IMHO, your campus culture isn't doing students like this any favors. Be that as it may, why do you believe that Stu finished the assignment and forgot to submit it during class when it's more likely that Stu failed to finish it and has been playing for additional time (since that seems to be Stu's pattern of behavior)?

I would insist that Stu put another copy of the assignment in your mailbox (or in your hands directly) and the grace would be not to assess any additional penalty. Don't put yourself in the position of having to prove that you did not lose Stu's assignment.

[mamselle]

OK, but wasn't part of the problem that it's a portfolio, not something that can be turned in online as such.

That usually implies (in the art world) a large 28" x 36" handled folder with contents that, these days, may also not just be 2-D, or may have parts that stick out, or whatever.

If it's some other discipline, the size or irregularity might be less of a factor, but a portfolio usually, still, can't be submitted online. It's not about sending a file, the work needs to be handed in by hand, is what it sounds like.

And if that's the case, then, you made yourself available for the handoff and the student wasn't there with the materials, so....that's it, usually.

M.

[kaysixteen]

What did this incoming grad student do two weeks before the semester started to warrant such a rebuke, albeit on an anonymous ol forum?

[OneMoreYear]

What did this incoming grad student do two weeks before the semester started to warrant such a rebuke, albeit on an anonymous ol forum?

Ignored multiple emails from our department chair regarding important concepts such as class registration, claimed they must have never been sent such information (yes, they had been sent everything), asked me what they should do about it (read your emails!), then proceeded to ask questions that indicated they must have ignored a large portion of information about what they were signing up for when they enrolled in our program. 

I'm not the chair, their advisor, or an administrative assistant (despite the fact that they continued to call me Mrs. Year in their emails).  I'm an instructor who was sending information about book ordering b/c we have a new system this year, when I got caught up in an email exchange with this very lost student.

I was nice, kaysixteen, I helped them find the information, get set up, and answered their questions.  If I was this student's advisor and they were coming in to our undergrad program straight from high school, some of their confusion would have been understandable. Not at the graduate level, when all of the information they needed was already provided to them. The level of cluelessness and lack of problems-solving demonstrated in the email exchange was concerning, so I rant here.

[poiuy]

Ignored multiple emails from our department chair regarding important concepts such as class registration, claimed they must have never been sent such information (yes, they had been sent everything), asked me what they should do about it (read your emails!), then proceeded to ask questions that indicated they must have ignored a large portion of information about what they were signing up for when they enrolled in our program. 

I'm not the chair, their advisor, or an administrative assistant (despite the fact that they continued to call me Mrs. Year in their emails).  I'm an instructor who was sending information about book ordering b/c we have a new system this year, when I got caught up in an email exchange with this very lost student.

<snip>  If I was this student's advisor and they were coming in to our undergrad program straight from high school, some of their confusion would have been understandable. Not at the graduate level, when all of the information they needed was already provided to them. The level of cluelessness and lack of problems-solving demonstrated in the email exchange was concerning, so I rant here.

If I were you, I would alert the student's advisor with a cc to the Graduate Studies director about this student's mode of operations.  They may be able to give this student a clue or three before further damage occurs.

[the_geneticist]

Our summer students have been really varied in their skills.  The really good students are as good as ever, but the struggling students are shockingly bad at the basics.  Things like reading directions, turning in assignments, checking their scores, reading feedback on their assignments.  One TA asked for what to do for a student who didn't do a task in class (it's OK!  The assignment was due the next day!  They could do it from home!).  The student was under the impression that if they "forgot" to do [task], then they would be excused from the assignment. 
Uh, no.  That's not how this works.