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

[lilyb]

Yes, that has been a common tactic among freshpeeps my my school -- they must hear it from someone, and they always seem baffled when I catch them. For what its worth, they've added "flags" to Turnitin, and white text is one of the things it is supposed to catch. (Aside: I think that's useless, since it generally highlights white text as matching anyway).

Other such shenanigans include using white quotation marks around everything. It's supposed to fool TII if the instructor has "ignore quotes" turned on. Also students have been using 0ther charac+er$ instead of letters. Some fonts make it a little more subtle than others.

After making all the white text visible for a recent (male) student essay, I had the pleasure of reading sentences that all revolved around the word "penis." Think "I love my penis," or just "penis penis penis."

Was this choice of gibberish meant as some kind of subliminal influence? Bodily self-affirmation? A glimpse into the interior monologue of young men today?

To cap this off, much of the black text was plagiarized.

Okay, so you MUST tell us how the conversation went!

I just flatly asked,"why, when I make this text visible, do we have all this talk of penises?" He was embarrassed and couldn't really answer. 
The plagiarism issue was much more serious.
His last essay certainly appears to be his own work. He has been much more engaged since that talk and has a chance now of passing the class.

Actually, I am really rooting for him to make it--not just my class, but college in general.

[teach_write_research]

I'm in a pit of grading mediocre essays that miss the main point and the evidence included is summarized based on the article abstract. Why am I wasting my life on this? ok I know why, because I assigned the work, and designed the learning objectives it connects to, but still...

[histchick]

I'm in a pit of grading mediocre essays that miss the main point and the evidence included is summarized based on the article abstract. Why am I wasting my life on this? ok I know why, because I assigned the work, and designed the learning objectives it connects to, but still...

I'm heading down into that pit myself this week.  It's for the paycheck, it's for the paycheck, it's for the paycheck...

[OneMoreYear]

I'm in a pit of grading mediocre essays that miss the main point and the evidence included is summarized based on the article abstract. Why am I wasting my life on this? ok I know why, because I assigned the work, and designed the learning objectives it connects to, but still...

I'm heading down into that pit myself this week.  It's for the paycheck, it's for the paycheck, it's for the paycheck...

The other day, colleague and I were having a virtual sanity-check meeting, and colleague said "guess that's why they pay us the big bucks." [where is that sarcasm font?]  So far, we've survived two rounds of retrenchment, so I guess that's something.

[secundem_artem]

I'm in a pit of grading mediocre essays that miss the main point and the evidence included is summarized based on the article abstract. Why am I wasting my life on this? ok I know why, because I assigned the work, and designed the learning objectives it connects to, but still...

I'm heading down into that pit myself this week.  It's for the paycheck, it's for the paycheck, it's for the paycheck...

My mantra has long been, "I go to work to earn the money to buy the dog food to feed the dog.  I go to work to earn the money to buy the dog food to feed the dog."  I just keep saying it over and over until the urge to start crying passes.

[fishbrains]

"This job keeps me in the top 10% worldwide. There are people who work much, much harder than I do for a lot less money. And I have the calendar schedule of a schoolchild. Git 'er done." 

[the_geneticist]

I'm in a pit of grading mediocre essays that miss the main point and the evidence included is summarized based on the article abstract. Why am I wasting my life on this? ok I know why, because I assigned the work, and designed the learning objectives it connects to, but still...

I try to reframe this sort of abysmal failure as an "opportunity for learning", but it can be really hard to convince myself sometimes.

[egilson]

"This job keeps me in the top 10% worldwide. There are people who work much, much harder than I do for a lot less money. And I have the calendar schedule of a schoolchild. Git 'er done."

While I don't have the schedule of a schoolchild, the rest of this is very much true.

[mythbuster]

The learning opportunity aspect only works if you think they will look at your feedback. One the last assignment of the semester, that all goes out the window.

I had a long email tale of woe today from a student who is "having difficulty with the deadlines" in my class. This for a class where all material, assignments, deadlines etc was laid out on the first day. If you wanted, you could get way far ahead.

I need a giant blinking billboard that says "YES! you can complete assignments BEFORE the deadline!"

[the_geneticist]

The learning opportunity aspect only works if you think they will look at your feedback. One the last assignment of the semester, that all goes out the window.

I had a long email tale of woe today from a student who is "having difficulty with the deadlines" in my class. This for a class where all material, assignments, deadlines etc was laid out on the first day. If you wanted, you could get way far ahead.

I need a giant blinking billboard that says "YES! you can complete assignments BEFORE the deadline!"

So true!  And sadly this is why online learning is hard for many students.  They have to be so much more organized and self-reliant.

[OneMoreYear]

The learning opportunity aspect only works if you think they will look at your feedback. One the last assignment of the semester, that all goes out the window.

I had a long email tale of woe today from a student who is "having difficulty with the deadlines" in my class. This for a class where all material, assignments, deadlines etc was laid out on the first day. If you wanted, you could get way far ahead.

I need a giant blinking billboard that says "YES! you can complete assignments BEFORE the deadline!"

In one of my classes, I write on the board DUE date does not equal DO date.  Probably doesn't reach the one who need to hear it most, but at least I've made a public service announcement.

[fishbrains]

I need a giant blinking billboard that says "YES! you can complete assignments BEFORE the deadline!"

I've been grading so much, I read this as "a giant bikini billboard."

Hmmmmm . . . which might actually work. Nothing like a 55-year-old pudgy dude in a bikini up on a billboard to drive home a point to students.

[apl68]

I need a giant blinking billboard that says "YES! you can complete assignments BEFORE the deadline!"

I've been grading so much, I read this as "a giant bikini billboard."

Not exactly the same thing, but some years ago the news in our state capital reported on a local billboard (Advertising a radio station, IIRC) that caused controversy with a likeness of a woman in a very low-cut outfit.  She ended up getting a change of wardrobe.

[the_geneticist]

A student who has missed the last month of labs emailed to say that they need "just until tomorrow" to turn in all of their missed assignments. 
They also failed the 1st midterm and the second one is tomorrow.
But they do not want to drop the class.


And another student who I've been playing email tag with to let them know that they STILL need to register has now declared that they don't want to register if they can't be excused from ALL of their missing assignments because it would "hurt their GPA". 

[kiana]

A student who has missed the last month of labs emailed to say that they need "just until tomorrow" to turn in all of their missed assignments. 
They also failed the 1st midterm and the second one is tomorrow.
But they do not want to drop the class.

I am also getting these extremely impractical catch-up schedules.

Like, if you are 6 weeks behind, no, you cannot catch up by the end of the week. It's not because I won't let you. It's because there is no possible way to complete the work that fast unless you already know it, which both of us know by now that you do not.