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

[AmLitHist]

And if sections get added, because of over-enrollment, "abandon hope all ye who enter here".

Oh no, don't say that!  My spring version of this same course was added late.

There are threats to increase everyone's course caps.  I hope it'll alleviate pressure enough that students who don't want to be in my class can shuffle around, but I'm not optimistic.

The perfect storm of awfulness is when a section is added late AND it's in the evening.  No one wants to be on campus that late to teach or to learn.

The last minute lab we added was honestly the "barrel scrapings" of repeaters and procrastinators.

I had a late-added, second-8 weeks online Comp I section this spring.  It worked out about as badly as I'd expected: 25 were registered, but 11 were immediately administratively dropped for non-participation in the first 10 days. I'm down to 9 still registered, with 3 of those not turning a thing in since about Halloween, so F's; there will be 1 solid B, maybe two C's, and the other 3 D's.  I hate these sections--but Admin adds them and is going to pay somebody to teach them, I might as well teach them.  The grading load is usually light, at least.

I've argued for years that our un/der-prepared students need more than the 16 weeks, yet Admin sees those $$$ and constantly insists on 12- and 8-week sections to accommodate those who can't get their @*$( together to register on time.  Gee, I wonder why those same students flame out (by and large) in those shorter sections?  Someone should do a study--or just ask any faculty member.  Pfft.   

(The other idiotic thing they do is have advisors talk to students who aren't participating in 16-week classes during the first month do section changes into these later-starting sections. Why, of course they'll piss away the first month of school, then magically turn into motivated students with excellent time management in that new section!)

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I hear ya' ALH. Same thing at my place. If you have $, then you can take whatever the hell you want. They were even putting kids in my courses who did not have the proper Math prerequisites. Yes, the College makes money, but it hurts students who are not prepared.

[fishbrains]

One other problem we've run into with these eight week, second half of the semester classes at my CC is that either a full-timer has to teach them as an overload or we have to hire the Worst Adjunct Ever because all the good ones have already been assigned classes.

Fun times.

[kaysixteen]

Is it just me, or have various threads here in recent weeks demonstrated that many more *graduate students* have begun to act like, and show the abilities, of young undergrads?

[Hegemony]

For various reasons I taught graduate seminars for many years and then had about an eight-year break. As I prepared to start graduate seminars again, I was warned that "graduate students are different now." And hoo boy was that true. In the before times, you laid out the reading for the week, they read it all (I am not one of those people who gives out more reading than can be done reasonably), had thoughts about it, and you all gathered around a table and talked about it for three hours. They were keen, they came prepared, they had plenty to say.

When I started up again in 2019, things had changed drastically. Some of them hadn't even done the reading! What are you in graduate school for, if you're not interested in the reading? They all sat there like bumps on a log. I consulted my colleagues. They confirmed that now we have to prime the pump. I now assign each student an article to "specialize in" every week. I pre-assign someone as the leader of the week's discussion. We change topics and modes every 45 minutes. We have in-class exercises such as I do with undergraduates. It's still like pulling teeth to get them to take initiative. Maybe it's just our place. But it's a depressing development.

[Zeus Bird]

Is it just me, or have various threads here in recent weeks demonstrated that many more *graduate students* have begun to act like, and show the abilities, of young undergrads?

Just as college has become the new high school, grad school is now becoming equivalent to undergraduate study.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

I wish I could say this to the student who needs to pass my class, hmm, maybe I will, but in nicer terminology:

"You failed every single test (except for 1 D) AND the final exam- what grade did you think you would get???"

[Stockmann]

So a student contacted me to say that he had tried doing the (latest?) quizzes online and hadn't been able to. I replied that the quizzes are in-person only. This is an official f2f course section - not a hyflex, hybrid or mixed section. There is one online section for this course, but I'm not teaching it.

I really don't think I was this clueless in middle school.

[FishProf]

[Student]: Hi. There is something wrong with my grade on blackboard. The grading criteria says that everything is weighed evenly, yet I scored an average of above 80 on the lectures and the video quizzes but a 72 on the reading quizzes and it dragged my average down 10 points. It should be a 77-78 if they are actually worth the same amount. On blackboard it says lectures, videos, readings, and the test are all 25%. I'm very confused. Thank you for your help.

What I wrote:
Hi [Student],
As the announcements say, the grade is calculated AS IF you got a 60% on the final.  If you do better than that, your average will rise.  If you do worse, you don't pass.
Fishprof

What I Thought:
All semester the gradebook has been showing your grade AS IF you got a 60% on the final.  How is it you are just noticing now?

[MarathonRunner]

Is it just me, or have various threads here in recent weeks demonstrated that many more *graduate students* have begun to act like, and show the abilities, of young undergrads?

Both last year and this year I've had masters students who apparently can't / won't / don't read assignment instructions or watch the videos about how to approach the assignments. PhD students (I'm a PhD candidate but TA for a course with both masters and PhD students) seem no different since I've been TAing this course.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

So, I'm checking some of the videos from my online exams and notice that one kid is sitting there in his underwear. What the hell? Do I need to include a statement that they need to wear appropriate clothing when taking exams? SMDH.

[FishProf]

I have a student who is demanding the opportunity to make up a quiz that he missed b/c he was sick that day.

A quiz that was available for a week.   

[Puget]

Please everyone, warn your elderly relatives-- finals season is very hazardous to the health of grandparents and other assorted "close family members". Yet somehow, when the I express my sympathies and provide instructions for requesting an excused absence from the advising office and taking the exam in January, and explain that no, taking it early or online is not an option, these relatives tend to rally. It really is mysterious.

[kaysixteen]

I get the part about the reduction in maturity beginning to filter up to grad school, but I am also wondering whether there have been, for various reasons, an overall reduction of the standards for *admission* to grad school programs (and, of course, I am not even considering here fifth-rate programs that always took whomever, diploma mills, etc., but rather just considering regular grad programs, and even those at high standards or even elite schools?

[sinenomine]

My freshman writing class chose their topics for their final projects on November 1st. The papers — 5-6 pages — are due today. One student emailed me last night to say he hasn't been able to make any progress on it, so can he change his topic? Sure, go ahead and research a whole new topic at the last minute. Whatever.