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

[the_geneticist]

I spent hours getting together all of the safety documentation that is now required for all lab classes only to be told "Summer classes don't need that".

*bang!bang!bang!*

[apl68]

I spent hours getting together all of the safety documentation that is now required for all lab classes only to be told "Summer classes don't need that".

*bang!bang!bang!*

Well, it's not admin's fault that you forgot that in the summer accidents just don't happen that much, and so you don't need to document safety.  Right?

[the_geneticist]

I'm going to send all the documentation in anyway.  If they want to chuck it in the shred bin, then that's on the admin and not on me.

[sinenomine]

More of a head shake than a full bang on the desk: the student in my class who's consistently turned in long, detailed papers turned in a short and poorly thought out final assignment. He tried to make it look longer by putting it in a large font size (14 point) and ending each line of text early by hitting the return key. C'mon, man!

[Antiphon1]

More of a head shake than a full bang on the desk: the student in my class who's consistently turned in long, detailed papers turned in a short and poorly thought out final assignment. He tried to make it look longer by putting it in a large font size (14 point) and ending each line of text early by hitting the return key. C'mon, man!

Did he also triple space and use a huge font? 

[the_geneticist]

Ah, to be a student trying to find ways to make your writing take up more space.  Did he slightly expand the character and/or word spacing?  Got to use all the tricks if you are trying to meet a page number minimum

Nothing like being a scientist trying to figure out how to make your abstract under the word count limit & still fit in all of the important stuff!

[Liquidambar]

More of a head shake than a full bang on the desk: the student in my class who's consistently turned in long, detailed papers turned in a short and poorly thought out final assignment. He tried to make it look longer by putting it in a large font size (14 point) and ending each line of text early by hitting the return key. C'mon, man!

I once told a class that as a student, I wrote papers in Courier because it was wider than other fonts.  Their assigned paper had a word count, not a page count, so I didn't mind sharing this unhelpful tip.  One of them was inspired to write his paper in Courier anyway!

[Langue_doc]

More of a head shake than a full bang on the desk: the student in my class who's consistently turned in long, detailed papers turned in a short and poorly thought out final assignment. He tried to make it look longer by putting it in a large font size (14 point) and ending each line of text early by hitting the return key. C'mon, man!

Were the long, detailed papers AI generated?

[apl68]

In our graduate student grading seminar--the only real preparation any of us got before being put to work grading papers--one of the example papers we reviewed was what somebody described as "a three-page paper with creative spacing" that the [redacted] student had tried to pass off as a five-pager.  And then you had an example of a paper with tiny font and spacing to try to cram in twice as many words, courtesy of a student who didn't know how to be concise.

[AmLitHist]

More of a head shake than a full bang on the desk: the student in my class who's consistently turned in long, detailed papers turned in a short and poorly thought out final assignment. He tried to make it look longer by putting it in a large font size (14 point) and ending each line of text early by hitting the return key. C'mon, man!

Did he also triple space and use a huge font? 

My all-time favorite remains a paper from one of the "fly-boys" (aeronautical engineering students) I taught in grad school:  He submitted his first essay entirely in the old "M&Ms candy" font! Yes, every letter was a different M&M - pretty colors and all.

I was not amused, but it did go into our department's Student Papers HoF!

[AmLitHist]

More of a head shake than a full bang on the desk: the student in my class who's consistently turned in long, detailed papers turned in a short and poorly thought out final assignment. He tried to make it look longer by putting it in a large font size (14 point) and ending each line of text early by hitting the return key. C'mon, man!

I once told a class that as a student, I wrote papers in Courier because it was wider than other fonts.  Their assigned paper had a word count, not a page count, so I didn't mind sharing this unhelpful tip.  One of them was inspired to write his paper in Courier anyway!

Anybody else remember that pre-historic version of MS Word that contained the "fit to page" tool that would jimmy the kerning, margins, etc. for you? That was my best friend through grad school, esp. for the prof who refused to read anything over 3 pages - even one word on page 4 would earn you an F with him!

[Antiphon1]

More of a head shake than a full bang on the desk: the student in my class who's consistently turned in long, detailed papers turned in a short and poorly thought out final assignment. He tried to make it look longer by putting it in a large font size (14 point) and ending each line of text early by hitting the return key. C'mon, man!

Did he also triple space and use a huge font? 

My all-time favorite remains a paper from one of the "fly-boys" (aeronautical engineering students) I taught in grad school:  He submitted his first essay entirely in the old "M&Ms candy" font! Yes, every letter was a different M&M - pretty colors and all.

I was not amused, but it did go into our department's Student Papers HoF!

Ya gotta love some creative problem solving.  I never had the M&Ms font, but I have had Comic Sans, Old English, and Lord of the Rings knock off Norse (can't remembber the name) a few times.  My spirit left my body and reached for the light when I opened those files.  It's funny now; not so much then.

[apl68]

The most far-out "creative" I ever saw in grading was a student who gave her pages names (Pooh, Piglet, Tigger) instead of numbers.  To be fair, the prof I was TAing for, in urging students to number all their pages, said jokingly "If you can't number them, at least name them."  And she took him up on that.  The prof and I were both amused.  It helped that it was a fairly good paper.

[kaysixteen]

Even if it were otherwise a fairly crappy paper I would have given her 20 points for creative following of directions.

[MarathonRunner]

Class ended two weeks ago for the compressed spring semester. Final exam was last week. Today student sends me their letter from accommodations, and student is asking to submit work late. Said letter says nothing about extensions on assignments (some students have an accommodation to ask for extra time on assignments, if they contact the instructor ahead of time). Sorry student, you sent me the letter after class ended, but even if I had had it earlier, it says nothing about asking for assignment extensions. I've granted such extensions to several students who sent their letters on time and had that as an accommodation. You did neither. I'm sure you'll trash me on the student evaluations if you bother to complete them. Being registered with accessibility services doesn't mean you can simply get away with ignoring deadlines.

I certainly benefited from extensions as a student after suffering a severe concussion, but my letter said I could negotiate extensions. So I do provide them to students with that accommodation, as I know how valuable it can be. This student is asking, after the fact, for an accommodation that is not on their letter/file. I guess they think simply being registered with accessibility services means they should get special treatment? Yeah, no. I provide whatever accommodations are documented.