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

[fishbrains]

Oh, Lordy. AmLitHist, I offer you the drink of your choice.

I'm on Eastern time and it's past 5:00 PM here, so I'll start drinking until AmLitHist has access. Just another service I offer.

I wonder if a college has ever been sued for taking advantage of students with disabilities (diagnosed or not)--of taking students' money even though they clearly lack the ability to succeed.

[FishProf]

How, dear students, do you expect me to give you the points for a lab that does not have your name on it anywhere?  Not in the document.  Not in the file name.

Think McFly! What am I gonna do with 30 labs all labelled "lab 3" with no names?

[Parasaurolophus]

How, dear students, do you expect me to give you the points for a lab that does not have your name on it anywhere?  Not in the document.  Not in the file name.

Think McFly! What am I gonna do with 30 labs all labelled "lab 3" with no names?

Figure out the average score and then assign it to everyone? =p

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

How, dear students, do you expect me to give you the points for a lab that does not have your name on it anywhere?  Not in the document.  Not in the file name.

Think McFly! What am I gonna do with 30 labs all labelled "lab 3" with no names?

Is there any way to trace them using your IT Department? That might be too much of a hassle though.

[San Joaquin]

One of my early class announcements is that I auction off any unsigned work, and that the good ones go high.

[FishProf]

How, dear students, do you expect me to give you the points for a lab that does not have your name on it anywhere?  Not in the document.  Not in the file name.

Think McFly! What am I gonna do with 30 labs all labelled "lab 3" with no names?

Is there any way to trace them using your IT Department? That might be too much of a hassle though.

I could figure it out. By why would I do that?

[polly_mer]

How, dear students, do you expect me to give you the points for a lab that does not have your name on it anywhere?  Not in the document.  Not in the file name.

Think McFly! What am I gonna do with 30 labs all labelled "lab 3" with no names?

Is there any way to trace them using your IT Department? That might be too much of a hassle though.

I could figure it out. By why would I do that?

That looks like a learning opportunity for many folks on dealing with the zero.

[mythbuster]

In my science writing course, students must complete a unit on paraphrasing and plagiarism. They must take a quiz about these topics and earn a score of 100% to be able to submit their papers. This all happens the week before the paper is due.
   And yet, I just completed filling out the misconduct form for THREE students in this class with blatant, egregious plagiarism. One has a Turnitin matching score of 85%! Another retained the references from the original sources in the sentence text, but of course did not reference those papers in her references list.

[EdnaMode]

Stu is taking my class, a requirement for his major, for the second time. The first time he stopped showing up about midway through, didn't answer emails expressing concern over his grade, and he failed the course. He's enrolled in it again, his attendance is sporadic, and his current grade is quickly reaching the point where passing may not be numerically possible. He still doesn't respond to emails or flags in our system. But, he has been going to a tutor. On the last tutor log I received about him (students can indicate whether they want their professors to know they're going to a tutor, or not), it said he was there to receive help preparing for an upcoming practical quiz. He then proceeded to skip class the day of the practical and didn't respond to my "Dear Stu, you missed the practical, here's how you can make it up," email. **sigh** If he fails again, he'll have to petition to take it for a third time.

[the_geneticist]

Why do you keep trying to schedule late night lab sections paired with an 8:00am lecture?! 
Students hate them, TAs hate them, I hate dealing with the emails from the TAs and students that hate these lab times.
Late evening lab times are always the last to fill and the hardest to find TAs to teach.
Yes, classes are online, but they are synchronous.  No one wants to have lab until 10:00pm and then have lecture at 8:00am. 
Can we PLEASE double-up on the lab times that are popular?

[onthefringe]

Why do you keep trying to schedule late night lab sections paired with an 8:00am lecture?! 
Students hate them, TAs hate them, I hate dealing with the emails from the TAs and students that hate these lab times.
Late evening lab times are always the last to fill and the hardest to find TAs to teach.
Yes, classes are online, but they are synchronous.  No one wants to have lab until 10:00pm and then have lecture at 8:00am. 
Can we PLEASE double-up on the lab times that are popular?

Or at least pair unpopular lecture slots with popular lab slots and vice versa?

[polly_mer]

Why do you keep trying to schedule late night lab sections paired with an 8:00am lecture?! 
Students hate them, TAs hate them, I hate dealing with the emails from the TAs and students that hate these lab times.
Late evening lab times are always the last to fill and the hardest to find TAs to teach.
Yes, classes are online, but they are synchronous.  No one wants to have lab until 10:00pm and then have lecture at 8:00am. 
Can we PLEASE double-up on the lab times that are popular?

That's just weird, even if you were teaching astronomy where late nights are standard.

Although, I'll have to say that I didn't care much more for the "lecture at 10 AM, lab runs that night from 7-9 PM" combo that I ended up with one year as an undergrad.  I much preferred terms where we had labs in the morning and lectures mid afternoon.

[the_geneticist]

Why do you keep trying to schedule late night lab sections paired with an 8:00am lecture?! 
Students hate them, TAs hate them, I hate dealing with the emails from the TAs and students that hate these lab times.
Late evening lab times are always the last to fill and the hardest to find TAs to teach.
Yes, classes are online, but they are synchronous.  No one wants to have lab until 10:00pm and then have lecture at 8:00am. 
Can we PLEASE double-up on the lab times that are popular?

That's just weird, even if you were teaching astronomy where late nights are standard.

Although, I'll have to say that I didn't care much more for the "lecture at 10 AM, lab runs that night from 7-9 PM" combo that I ended up with one year as an undergrad.  I much preferred terms where we had labs in the morning and lectures mid afternoon.

It's a huge class so we normally have 6 lab sections every day, sometimes more.  I just hate that the way registration works the preferred lab times are reserved for the Learning Communities.  The students who are academically behind or needing to repeat the class get last choice of lab sections.  It's particularly hard on commuters.  I wish they would "spread the pain" and make the LC students take an occasional evening lab.

But since we're online, I got my wish!  We doubled up on the popular lab slots & eliminated the late labs!

[Aster]

Why do you keep trying to schedule late night lab sections paired with an 8:00am lecture?! 
Students hate them, TAs hate them, I hate dealing with the emails from the TAs and students that hate these lab times.
Late evening lab times are always the last to fill and the hardest to find TAs to teach.
Yes, classes are online, but they are synchronous.  No one wants to have lab until 10:00pm and then have lecture at 8:00am. 
Can we PLEASE double-up on the lab times that are popular?

We mostly stopped offering 8am, remote classes on my campus this semester, because students just weren't signing up for them, and we predicted atrocious attendance.

But our late night, remote classes are doing very well  with both enrollments and attendance, so we're keeping those courses on the books next term.

[AvidReader]

We mostly stopped offering 8am, remote classes on my campus this semester, because students just weren't signing up for them, and we predicted atrocious attendance.

But our late night, remote classes are doing very well  with both enrollments and attendance, so we're keeping those courses on the books next term.

My 8 a.m. class this semester has had far better attendance and retention than my noon class (same course). I've asked for all morning classes next semester.

AR