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

[mythbuster]

Fishbrains and Amlihist, I'm with you. A good portion of my students didn't seem to get that remote instruction meant wore work on their part, not less. Many of them seem convinced that since it's  pandemic is mean of us to expect them to do any work at all.
I had a student ask in the review session for the second exam if he should be studying the video lectures that I have put together on each topic.  Why else would I have created them?

[AvidReader]

I had a student ask in the review session for the second exam if he should be studying the video lectures that I have put together on each topic.  Why else would I have created them?

Most of mine don't watch the video lectures because they are "boring." Yes, the "how to make a works cited entry for the website you needed to include" video was not as exciting as writing the works cited entry in class with me would surely(!) have been. I omit my scintillating(!) wit and humor so videos will be shorter. I recommend that, when possible, they watch the video while doing the activity shown in another window, on another device, or even on a piece of paper, pausing as needed. They could also use the textbook, but that is "boring" too. Guess how the works cited entries turned out?

Would anyone like to make an exciting citation music video with me?

(Actually, it's probably already been done).

AR.

[RatGuy]

Many of them seem convinced that since it's  pandemic is mean of us to expect them to do any work at all.

I might have commented on this elsewhere, but my wife supervises students in a non-academic unit on campus. Her student workers have repeatedly said "this semester doesn't count" and they believe that the university will make a last-minute change to P/F. If this mindset is widespread, then even the A students aren't putting forth their normal effort because "it doesn't matter."

I've had students tell me in emails that I "graded their exam wrong." I've been hearing all sorts of complaints, both at my university and on social media, about the snark of student emails. I'd yet to hear about BCCing the chair until this thread.

[AmLitHist]

Here's the item, "Keyboard Courage," from the 10/5/2020 IHE.

I actually resorted to calling students by name in my 102 LVL this morning.  I hate that; it feels so third-grade-ish.  But after waiting them out for 2 1/2 minutes on a simple question ("Who is shown in this visual argument? Describe the people."--about a photo of football players and coaches, some kneeling, presented in the textbook), I'd had enough.  I still barely got any responses. It ticks me off; students usually love the chapter on visual arguments because it's fun, it's something they have experience with and think they know all about, and so on.  Not this bunch, though.  They're working my last nerve.

RatGuy, I'm the one BCC'ing my chair and dean--that way, when either one answers the phone with a shrieking student on the other end, they'll have some background.

[FishProf]

I'm the one BCC'ing my chair and dean--that way, when either one answers the phone with a shrieking student on the other end, they'll have some background.

As a chair, I very much appreciate when faculty do this.

[Langue_doc]

After a couple of unproductive emails, I advise the student to talk to the Chair, cc'd on the email.

[Aster]

It's not unusual that I have several students that failed to take their exams last week.

It *is* pretty weird that not a single one of those students has contacted me to ask for a makeup. I wonder what happened to these people...

[mamselle]

I know.

In another situation, when I realized a friend hadn't replied to an email in a week, I first went to their church website to see if they were on the prayer list as being ill.

There are so many different parameters and expectations at present.

M.

[kaysixteen]

Lemme guess: LVL = 'live video lecture'?

[Dimple_Dumpling72]

I am SO sick of the snotty emails I'm getting from students over the past few weeks. IHE, I think, did an article on this a few days ago; I'm trying to get ready to teach (between answering snotty emails), so I'll try to find and link later.

I get the whole "screen bravado" thing, and "they're stressed," but dammit, so am I.  Our customer-first place generally expects us to be happy punching bags, which I've never gone along with, but even for this place, I've never had so many over-the-top messages this early, or even in an entire semester, as I've had since mid-September.

My responses are getting increasingly snarky, BCC'd to my chair and dean, who have been supportive. I'm not mean, but I'm giving these students chapter-and-verse of why I'm not putting up with the attitudes (e.g., they turn in crap work that ignores instructions--or, my favorite, NO work--then bitch about grades; one turned in a paper late on Sunday, then raised hell because it wasn't graded and returned by Tuesday morning). 

Grrr.  Sorry.  Off to teach two LVL classes where I'm the only one talking again.  Surprise, kiddies:  if you won't talk, I have lots of writing ready for you to do instead.

I'm sorry I'm so late to this discussion, but "happy punching bag" is exactly how I've been feeling.

[Aster]

I may have to revisit the Student Conduct Code and brush up on the policies for verbal and written harassment.

Being extra nice and accommodating to students this semester certainly has an abusive downside. I feel like a high school teacher at a charter school.

[Larimar]

Stu Dent, how in the whole galaxy worth of worlds did you place into my class? I am aware that you are ESL, but you should still have the language skills to write a coherent basic sentence, in fact, an entire coherent basic paragraph! I am then asking you to put several of those together into an essay. You also should have the skills to read the assignment sheet that I posted online. If I ask you for an essay on an abstract concept, using a source text, don't just latch on to one detail in the source text and turn in error-riddled meanderings about only that, ignoring the actual topic, and completely lacking in documentation.

Grr. Argh.

At least this was easy to grade.

[the_geneticist]

Dear graduate TA,
If you do not know the answer to a very essential topic (think "how to weave reed baskets" in a Basketweaving 101 class), then I expect you to:
read the background materials
read the relevant parts of the textbook
watch the short video on that topic
try the practice problems
grade yourself with the answer key
and TELL ME you need some help

Do not, I repeat, do not just make up an answer to tell your students since you "aren't sure the answer key is correct" (spoiler alert: it's correct).
You are going to have to re-grade all of those assignments.

[reverist]

As a fellow philosopher, I smiled when I saw "brackets." :)

:)

My partner's a continental (I'm an analytic). Talk of brackets and bracketing makes her apoplectic.

I love it! I believe I saw elsewhere that you're teaching a metaphysics and epistemology class. I'll stop the derailment of the thread here, but I am wrapping up a PhD thesis dealing with, amongst other things, the metaphysics of causation.

[reverist]

I am SO sick of the snotty emails I'm getting from students over the past few weeks. IHE, I think, did an article on this a few days ago; I'm trying to get ready to teach (between answering snotty emails), so I'll try to find and link later.

I get the whole "screen bravado" thing, and "they're stressed," but dammit, so am I.  Our customer-first place generally expects us to be happy punching bags, which I've never gone along with, but even for this place, I've never had so many over-the-top messages this early, or even in an entire semester, as I've had since mid-September.

My responses are getting increasingly snarky, BCC'd to my chair and dean, who have been supportive. I'm not mean, but I'm giving these students chapter-and-verse of why I'm not putting up with the attitudes (e.g., they turn in crap work that ignores instructions--or, my favorite, NO work--then bitch about grades; one turned in a paper late on Sunday, then raised hell because it wasn't graded and returned by Tuesday morning). 

Grrr.  Sorry.  Off to teach two LVL classes where I'm the only one talking again.  Surprise, kiddies:  if you won't talk, I have lots of writing ready for you to do instead.

I feel this so much. I had a student who simply sent me the following: "Just to think I worked so hard on this paper and you grade it so hard. Unrealistic."

The student received a B, and for easily documentable reasons. I decided to be nice, and wrote something like: "I can see that you are frustrated, and frustration often comes when our expectations don't align with outcomes. You did receive a good grade, and it was not a bad paper! It was just X, Y, and Z. Hope this helps!"

This is an adult woman who is probably a good 15-20 years older than I am, not an entitled youngin. Who knows what's going on there!