News:

Welcome to the new (and now only) Fora!

Main Menu

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

Started by the_geneticist, May 21, 2019, 08:49:54 AM

Previous topic - Next topic
Print
Go Down Pages 1 ... 49 50 51 52 53 ... 259
User actions

Larimar

#750
December 10, 2020, 08:43:25 AM
Quote from: Chemystery on December 09, 2020, 07:40:00 PM
Quote from: Puget on December 07, 2020, 05:43:46 PM


3. Friend was visiting from out of town and had a torn esophagus requiring student to wait at hospital without computer (I have thoughts about visiting friends in a pandemic, plus what hospitals currently allow non-patients inside??)



I received a long email from a student patiently explaining to me how everything I do is wrong.  One of my many transgressions is that the amount of time he has to spend studying for my class stops him from getting together with his friends on the weekend and having a social life.

I really wanted to respond with something to the effect of "Given that we are in the midst of a global pandemic and should not be getting together with others outside our households, I will read this as 'your class may have saved my life.' You're welcome."




LOL! I like this response!

the_geneticist

#751
December 10, 2020, 01:01:17 PM
I have a student that contributed very little to a group project and missed the presentation.  I'm giving them a chance to earn a better grade than their current 0*, but they have until 4:00 today.  Haven't heard from them yet and the clock is ticking.

*Why? Because I want it documented that I gave them an opportunity to succeed.  Well-prepared students would have already done the make-up presentation or at least sent an email to say "thank you, may I present at X time?".

the_geneticist

#752
December 11, 2020, 09:16:30 AM
Sorry to double-post:

The student was a no-show and didn't even contact me*.  Time to put that very well-earned 0 in the grade book and save those emails.

*In an ironic twist, they did text their group members to beg them to "write down what to say" about the project.  They declined (and forwarded me the messages).

fishbrains

#753
December 11, 2020, 11:38:24 AM
We were in some training session (I think it was about gen-ed something-or-other) way back when, and faculty were lamenting/whining about how much time we spend within our syllabi and our professional lives acting as if we teach to classrooms full of sociopaths.

The trainer pointed out that if 1% to 5% of the general population consists of sociopaths, mathematically, faculty had damn-well better keep covering their a$$es.

That response has always stuck with me.
I wish I could find a way to show people how much I love them, despite all my words and actions. ~ Maria Bamford

Parasaurolophus

#754
December 11, 2020, 11:40:42 AM
A few days ago, a couple days before the deadline, a student emailed me a draft of their paper to read. (So many have done this, despite repeated warning that I won't do it, and that the whole point of giving them the topics on the first day of class and allowing them to rewrite their papers is to give those who need it a chance to consider my feedback. Anyway.) I took pity on her and gave it a quick skim. Good thing I did, because she wasn't citing properly, was citing external sources (which I've forbidden), and wasn't discussing the article I required them to discuss in the first place.

Yesterday--which was a day after the deadline!--I got another email from her begging me to look at another draft. I refused, but I was curious so I checked it out. As far as I can tell, nothing has changed--including the fact that it's still not actually the assignment I assigned. WTF? Come on!


I suspect there are a fair few of them like that, lurking in the pile. Sigh.
I know it's a genus.

arcturus

#755
December 11, 2020, 04:01:53 PM
Last week: meeting with student regarding cheating on the final project. Student appears appropriately contrite.
This week: now scheduling a meeting with same student regarding plagiarism on the very last assignment in this class.

<bang>
<head>
<desk>

spork

#756
December 12, 2020, 09:04:57 AM
As I do every semester, students are grouped into teams for projects and there is a teammate evaluation at the end of the semester in which students rank each other's contributions. I compute an average ranking for each person on each team, which contributes a minimal amount toward the course grade. The whole process is outlined in the syllabus and in the quiz on the syllabus. The evaluation form I send out (a Google Form) contains explicit directions, such as "you have 10 points to distribute among all members of your team, including yourself, however you see fit. If the scores you assign total more than 10, your response will be discarded."

So of course I get students doing things like awarding 7, 8, 9, or  10 points to everyone on their team. Or not completing the evaluation at all. Or being willfully ignorant of terms like "average." Or refusing to understand that all points earned contribute to the course grade whereas a less than perfect score does not translate into being penalized by having points they never earned taken away.

And of course I begin receiving email complaints from students -- all of whom "just don't understand" how they could not be regarded as the most valuable member of their respective teams -- within seconds of posting scores in the LMS gradebook this morning.
It's terrible writing, used to obfuscate the fact that the authors actually have nothing to say.

Puget

#757
December 12, 2020, 10:39:17 AM
Student with a D who has never responded to any of my messages all semester does not turn in final assignment (worth 10% of grade), and does not respond to my messages informing her that she is losing 10% in late penalties every day and that Friday is the last day to turn it in for any points (40% late penalty). Then she submits the assignment at 4:30 AM this Morning, which is no longer Friday even if the sun isn't up yet. And TurnItIn shows she's plagiarized 20% of it from the sources. Now I have to decide whether to just give her a zero or fill out an academic misconduct report. Probably I'll just give her a zero, explain why and warn her never to do it again, not that I have much confidence she'll read or attend to that message either.
"Never get separated from your lunch. Never get separated from your friends. Never climb up anything you can't climb down."
–Best Colorado Peak Hikes

Parasaurolophus

#758
December 12, 2020, 09:08:00 PM
Quote from: Parasaurolophus on December 11, 2020, 11:40:42 AM
A few days ago, a couple days before the deadline, a student emailed me a draft of their paper to read. (So many have done this, despite repeated warning that I won't do it, and that the whole point of giving them the topics on the first day of class and allowing them to rewrite their papers is to give those who need it a chance to consider my feedback. Anyway.) I took pity on her and gave it a quick skim. Good thing I did, because she wasn't citing properly, was citing external sources (which I've forbidden), and wasn't discussing the article I required them to discuss in the first place.

Yesterday--which was a day after the deadline!--I got another email from her begging me to look at another draft. I refused, but I was curious so I checked it out. As far as I can tell, nothing has changed--including the fact that it's still not actually the assignment I assigned. WTF? Come on!


And again, a third time.
I know it's a genus.

arcturus

#759
December 13, 2020, 03:25:47 AM
Quote from: Puget on December 12, 2020, 10:39:17 AM
Student with a D who has never responded to any of my messages all semester does not turn in final assignment (worth 10% of grade), and does not respond to my messages informing her that she is losing 10% in late penalties every day and that Friday is the last day to turn it in for any points (40% late penalty). Then she submits the assignment at 4:30 AM this Morning, which is no longer Friday even if the sun isn't up yet. And TurnItIn shows she's plagiarized 20% of it from the sources. Now I have to decide whether to just give her a zero or fill out an academic misconduct report. Probably I'll just give her a zero, explain why and warn her never to do it again, not that I have much confidence she'll read or attend to that message either.


What to do about the plagiarized work that won't be eligible for a grade is a common quandary. Because the process at my school requires a meeting with the student as the first step in any academic misconduct filing, I have come to the decision that it is not worth my time to file misconduct reports for work that will not be graded (also, my misconduct sanctions are almost always a zero on the assignment, so that is equivalent to the grade they earned). At the same time, I am aware that it is important to get this information on the record, as it is both a learning opportunity for the student, and important for the University to see the pattern of behavior if it is repeated in other classes. My large scale solution to this problem is to not allow students to submit late work, so therefore I cannot see work that will not be graded. However, I have a few exceptions to this rule, and I always kick myself when it results in this situation.

Langue_doc

#760
December 13, 2020, 02:12:24 PM
Stu who uploaded the peer review pages instead of hu's draft and failed to see my comments regarding the wrong submission has now sent four emails since 7 PM yesterday along the lines of "woe is me, I don't have any feedback on my draft, I'm at a disadvantage, please look at my draft now and give me feedback". Stu, read my comments. I alerted you on Wednesday and completed reviewing the drafts on Thursday. What were you doing on Friday? Thursday evening? I am not a 24-hour 800 number customer service person. Aaargh!!!

smallcleanrat

#761
December 13, 2020, 05:27:54 PM
Multiple students who took incompletes for a class in the Spring term were emailing within 1-2 days of the due date for their incomplete work (which included a final term paper). Between the end of Spring and the due date they have had roughly six months to finish their work.

-"What were the requirements for the paper again? I forget what we're supposed to write about."
-"I can't find the outline I made in the Spring. Do you have any notes on what I was going to write about?"
-"So, it's like an essay or something right?"
[I remind them they're supposed to write a literature review]
-"Could you explain again what a literature review is supposed to look like?"

I was getting stressed just reading their questions. I get waiting until the last minute to finish the writing, but not for 1) getting familiar with the assignment's requirements and 2) extracting and synthesizing information from a couple dozen research articles.

Charlotte

#762
December 14, 2020, 04:15:59 AM
Quote from: smallcleanrat on December 13, 2020, 05:27:54 PM
Multiple students who took incompletes for a class in the Spring term were emailing within 1-2 days of the due date for their incomplete work (which included a final term paper). Between the end of Spring and the due date they have had roughly six months to finish their work.

-"What were the requirements for the paper again? I forget what we're supposed to write about."
-"I can't find the outline I made in the Spring. Do you have any notes on what I was going to write about?"
-"So, it's like an essay or something right?"
[I remind them they're supposed to write a literature review]
-"Could you explain again what a literature review is supposed to look like?"

I was getting stressed just reading their questions. I get waiting until the last minute to finish the writing, but not for 1) getting familiar with the assignment's requirements and 2) extracting and synthesizing information from a couple dozen research articles.

Are these the students who were told by a TA that they did not have to complete a term paper? I think I remember something about that and was curious the outcome.

sinenomine

#763
December 14, 2020, 06:15:20 AM
The final paper for my research class was due yesterday. Students have known about it all semester, samples from previous students were provided, and we have been working on it in staged steps for two months. Yesterday, 50 minutes before it was due, a student emailed me to say he wasn't clear in what the paper is supposed to be about and could I clarify. Sigh.
"How fleeting are all human passions compared with the massive continuity of ducks...."

fishbrains

#764
December 14, 2020, 11:27:44 AM Last Edit: December 14, 2020, 11:30:35 AM by fishbrains
Quote from: sinenomine on December 14, 2020, 06:15:20 AM
The final paper for my research class was due yesterday. Students have known about it all semester, samples from previous students were provided, and we have been working on it in staged steps for two months. Yesterday, 50 minutes before it was due, a student emailed me to say he wasn't clear in what the paper is supposed to be about and could I clarify. Sigh.

I've always wanted to reply to these with just, "Bruh . . ."

I usually just suggest they review my videos and my emails on the topic and let me know where exactly they are getting lost. I'm not spending my time reviewing weeks' worth of information and inserting it into their heads. This ain't The Matrix.
I wish I could find a way to show people how much I love them, despite all my words and actions. ~ Maria Bamford
Print
Go Up Pages 1 ... 49 50 51 52 53 ... 259
User actions