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

[Larimar]

[/quote]

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
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I've observed this in my classes over time too. I hypothesize that the early classes attract the go-getters and the people who actually want to be there. (Okay, also those for whom it's the only section that fits their schedule.)

The worst time slot I've observed is 11am. Classes meeting in that time slot appear to attract the slackers and partiers and those who are only in college because their parents made them enroll.

Of course there are plenty of exceptions to both of these, but that's the impression I've gotten. I always ask for morning classes too, saying, "The earlier, the better".

[the_geneticist]

My favorite time to teach is 9:00am.  It gives me a small window of time to do any last-minute class prep and it's over well before lunch.  My least favorite time to teach is after 5:00pm.  My brain officially shuts off about 5:00 and all I want to think about is non-work stuff like cooking.

[ciao_yall]

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

I've observed this in my classes over time too. I hypothesize that the early classes attract the go-getters and the people who actually want to be there. (Okay, also those for whom it's the only section that fits their schedule.)

The worst time slot I've observed is 11am. Classes meeting in that time slot appear to attract the slackers and partiers and those who are only in college because their parents made them enroll.

Of course there are plenty of exceptions to both of these, but that's the impression I've gotten. I always ask for morning classes too, saying, "The earlier, the better".

Yep. My first semester teaching I had a mid-day class. "So, why are you taking this class?" Um, it's not too early in the morning.

[cathwen]

In my early days of teaching, my supervisors loved me because I always volunteered for the early classes.  My children had to be at the bus stop at 7am, so teaching early morning through very early afternoon allowed me to get home in time for them to come home from school.  And yes, my 8:00 and 9:00 classes were usually quite good, as they tended to attract eager beavers and morning people.  But of course, I also had the sleepyheads who couldn't get into a later section.

[AvidReader]

In my early days of teaching, my supervisors loved me because I always volunteered for the early classes.  My children had to be at the bus stop at 7am, so teaching early morning through very early afternoon allowed me to get home in time for them to come home from school.  And yes, my 8:00 and 9:00 classes were usually quite good, as they tended to attract eager beavers and morning people.  But of course, I also had the sleepyheads who couldn't get into a later section.

I love early classes. A few years ago, I taught at a school in a large urban area that offered 6 a.m. and 7 a.m. classes. I was asked if I would be willing to teach one of these, and I agreed, figuring that I would get nontraditional students who wanted to finish class and commute to work.

Nope.

I had two proactive commuters and a whole host of the "sleepyheads who couldn't get into a later section." Attendance dropped alarmingly after Week 3.

AR.

[Larimar]

One of the best classes I ever taught began at 6:30 am. There were only 12 students to start off, and this dwindled to 8 or 9 as the semester progressed. Those 8 or 9 students, however, were morning people and/or go-getters, and were awake and participating. We had great discussions.

This did mean I had to get up at 4 am, but I'm a morning person too (less so of late...), and I liked seeing the sun rise in the cool, crisp mornings, and commute to campus in virtually no traffic and always get the best parking spot when I got there.

That semester was a dream.


Larimar

[Biologist_]

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?

I wish the LMS would let me enforce rules on file names. Maximum number of characters, no periods, etc.

Moodle allows the instructor to restrict file types and sizes for each assignment but not file names. It also adds "firstname_lastname_code#_assignsubmission_file_" to the beginning of each file name. It's good to have the student's name in there, but I once had a file submission with a path length so long that I couldn't copy it from one folder to another on my computer until I changed the file name.

I guess I could set a policy on file names and make it part of the scoring for the assignment.

[FishProf]

I guess I could set a policy on file names and make it part of the scoring for the assignment.

I strongly recommend doing so.  Save your sanity.  Teach a useful lesson.  Win-win.

[the_geneticist]

Damn it student!  What part of "using your knowledge from today's class, explain [how to build a purple basket]".
Copying and pasting definitions of "purple" or "baskets" from Wikipedia is:
1. academic dishonesty
2. not even a valid answer

Congratulations!  You've earned a 0 and my intense scrutiny of the rest of your assignments this term.

[marshwiggle]

Damn it student!  What part of "using your knowledge from today's class, explain [how to build a purple basket]".
Copying and pasting definitions of "purple" or "baskets" from Wikipedia is:
1. academic dishonesty
2. not even a valid answer

Congratulations!  You've earned a 0 and my intense scrutiny of the rest of your assignments this term.

As artificial intelligence gets better at parsing language, organic stupidity gets worse, by basically just doing a keyword search.

[San Joaquin]

Yes.  Technology is supposed to augment, not substitute.  Hence the designation "dumber than a box of hammers".

[Stockmann]

Dear student, it's less than optimal when you ask in the afternoon me for a LOR that you need that same day. It's worse when you ask me if I can find another LOR writer for you. Then it turns out it's not actually needed for the same day. I'd had same-day LOR requests before, but never including recruiting another LOR writer.

*unrelated*

Dear other student, yeah, I sent you the forms for you to, you know, fill them in. I explained what they're for and everything, so I'm not sure why there would be any confusion. I don't go around randomly sending forms to people for the sheer hell of it.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

What the hell are my Astronomy students smoking? This is 'baby' Astronomy. Simple Astronomy.

Gimme Question: "List the four main layers of Earth's atmosphere. In which layer does weather occur?"

Student#1 response: "Magnetosphere, crust, hydrosphere. Atmosphere is where weather occurs."

Student #2 response: "Mantle, crust, inner core, outer core. Crust is where weather occurs."

I don't think I'm asking for too much here. Am I?

[mamselle]

Well, to no.. 2, I suppose tectonic plate movement is a kind of weather...I mean, stuff moves around, you know?

Just, like, very slowly. In the crust.

M.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Well, to no.. 2, I suppose tectonic plate movement is a kind of weather...I mean, stuff moves around, you know?

Just, like, very slowly. In the crust.

M.

:)