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

[kaysixteen]

What exactly is the point behind having students assign peer grading?   It seems fraught with potential downsides...

[FishProf]

What exactly is the point behind having students assign peer grading?   It seems fraught with potential downsides...

Having students evaluate each other and give feedback helps them see the good and bad in their own work.

[Langue_doc]

What exactly is the point behind having students assign peer grading?   It seems fraught with potential downsides...

Having students evaluate each other and give feedback helps them see the good and bad in their own work.

Peer-reviewing essays and/or research papers is a requirement in some of my courses. I provide students with a detailed rubric for each of these assignments. I also review the peer reviews to ensure that these are for the most part accurate.

[arcturus]

Dear "confused and misunderstood" student - Stop begging me to grade your late work. I know that you think you deserve an exception to the rules, but you really are better off with a zero for it being late than a zero for academic misconduct.

[the_geneticist]

TA, the reason you are not "feeling prepared" to teach is you have been NOT preparing.  Did you read the instructor notes? No.  The protocol?  No.  The notes taped to the podium by the prep staff that says EXACTLY where to find the equipment/reagents/plasticware? No.  Did you take notes during our prep meeting? No.  Did you even show up on time for our meeting?  No.
I can't help you if you won't use the supports we already give you.
Please.
It's Week 5!!

[artalot]

Hope springs eternal in the student breast. Professors never are, but always to be blest.
Ahh, finals, that time of year when the students who have no mathematical hope of passing the course show up for the final exam anyway. Sigh.

[waterboy]

Those hopeless final takers might at least be able to keep their financial aid. That's the only thing I can think of. Of course that means they were strategically thinking and...well, forget it.

[FishProf]

I have students (seniors) taking an exit exam for the major in the seminar course.  (Note: it doesn't affect their final grade).   There are 6 subsections, each written by a group of faculty in that specialty.  I know how to use all the tricks in the software for creating this test bank, and I am teaching a section of the Seminar, so it fell to me to collate, enter, and edit the questions (for format, NOT content). 

I told my students that I could not address questions they had about the accuracy of the scoring, but if they emailed me their questions, I would consult with the relevant faculty and get back to them.  Good enough?

Nope.  Thee students pitched a fit over questions on the exam and would not let it go when I reiterated the above.  One student, who argued vociferously over the validity of the question itself, eventually left in tears (student scored an 86%). 

I expect to get a request for a visit from the chair over this.  This really isn't my fault (and at least 2 of the 3 students are just dead wrong - the third might have a point, but I am not qualified to determine that.

[Chemystery]

Last week a student emailed me to ask if there was any hope of her completing the course with a B.  I responded in the affirmative and explained that a B was very much within reach, but that she was at her limit for dropped assignments in both lecture and lab. 

She did not show up for any class this week, nor did she turn in her assignment that was due from last week.  Perhaps she wanted the answer to be "no" when she emailed me last week?

[FishProf]

My final exam in an Animal Behavior course is taking place at a Zoo.  It is both a practical exam (actually watch animals and show you learned the appropriate techniques) and an oral exam (explain concept X).  This has been the plan for about a month.  Due to weather, I have changed WHICH Zoo we are visiting, and I posted the change, including the directions for taking the Train/Subway to the site.

I got this email this morning.

"Hello Professor,

This is [Non-traditional Student], I have never been on the T and I do not feel comfortable doing this trip. Is there any other way I can take the final exam?

Thank you for your time,"

You are an adult.  You could drive.  But, "I can't figure out my local mass transit system and that makes me too uncomfortable to attend the final" is.....well, I don't know what to call it.

[history_grrrl]

You are an adult.  You could drive.  But, "I can't figure out my local mass transit system and that makes me too uncomfortable to attend the final" is.....well, I don't know what to call it.

As a nondriver myself, I wouldn't assume the student can drive.

But a nondriver with access to mass transit likely uses that system regularly, unless hu is disabled in ways that prevent use of that system.

So yeah, that is very odd.

[marshwiggle]

You are an adult.  You could drive.  But, "I can't figure out my local mass transit system and that makes me too uncomfortable to attend the final" is.....well, I don't know what to call it.

As a nondriver myself, I wouldn't assume the student can drive.

But a nondriver with access to mass transit likely uses that system regularly, unless hu is disabled in ways that prevent use of that system.

So yeah, that is very odd.

What's particularly odd is this:

My final exam in an Animal Behavior course is taking place at a Zoo.  It is both a practical exam (actually watch animals and show you learned the appropriate techniques) and an oral exam (explain concept X).  This has been the plan for about a month.  Due to weather, I have changed WHICH Zoo we are visiting, and I posted the change, including the directions for taking the Train/Subway to the site.

However the student was planning to get to the original zoo, it's hard to believe that with a month's warning something similar could not have been arranged. (It seems unlikely the student would have been within walking distance of the original zoo, for instance.)

[Caracal]

You are an adult.  You could drive.  But, "I can't figure out my local mass transit system and that makes me too uncomfortable to attend the final" is.....well, I don't know what to call it.

As a nondriver myself, I wouldn't assume the student can drive.

But a nondriver with access to mass transit likely uses that system regularly, unless hu is disabled in ways that prevent use of that system.

So yeah, that is very odd.

Even if there's some reason this all makes sense, they could always take a Lyft. That's going to cost a lot more, but if they don't like the easily accessible, affordable option...

[FishProf]

There are 16 students in the class, and they've gone to 6 other field trips.  I don't know if this student can't drive, or needs to carpool, or what - but they've managed to get themselves elsewhere.

[OneMoreYear]

My final exam in an Animal Behavior course is taking place at a Zoo.  It is both a practical exam (actually watch animals and show you learned the appropriate techniques) and an oral exam (explain concept X). 

I hope all of your students showed up at your final exam, but I also just want to say that this sound so amazing! I want to have final exams at the zoo! It's got to be better than the reports I'm slogging through today.