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

[OneMoreYear]

I'm having the hardest time getting my students to practice scanning some papers to a multipage pdf.  They will need to do this tomorrow for an exam.  I made a "practice exam" that involves doing this and have been nagging them about it all week.  25% of them still haven't done it successfully.  One student just submitted a second try with exactly the same problem I pointed out on his first try.  Do they want to fail the real exam because they can't figure out how to upload their work while the timer is counting down?

The really annoying thing is they probably think I'm a jerk for nagging them rather than realizing I'm being nice because I want them to be successful.

I am apparently the only one in my small department requiring students to scan documents and merge multiple pages to a single PDF.  I talked about it in the first day of class. I gave them a "quiz" requiring them to scan a multi-page document together (easy points here!).  Some students scanned & uploaded the quiz as multiple separate pages and wrote that they did not know how to merge.  In the next synchronous class, I threw the question to the students and had them tell each other how to do it (yay! multiple ideas came in the chat and students raised their hands to add others).  One student even offered to be a tech consultant to their classmates to show them how (small advanced class).  Everyone managed to scan the next assignment as a single PDF!  Success!

I realize my comment helps you not in the slightest as your exam is tomorrow.  I hope your students manage to scan their exams and not fail for a stupid reason.

[Liquidambar]

Thanks, OneMoreYear.  If I ever have to do this remote teaching stuff again (which I really hope to avoid!), I should follow your lead and have them talk to each other about it in a synchronous class.  Your class sounds like a good group.

I should note that my other class, which seems to be much stronger, managed to figure out scanning without my nagging them incessantly.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

My anxious student has been emailing me all day today. I answered twice, then gave up since I had a stack of things to do.

[OneMoreYear]

My anxious student has been emailing me all day today. I answered twice, then gave up since I had a stack of things to do.

Do you have an early alert for student success system (or some similar title) at your place (ours is run through the retention office)? We can sent the alert for students who are struggling (it's required if they are not attending, but can be sent for other concerns) and someone from student success and the student's advisor are looped in to the concern so they can provide assistance.  The faculty member does not always get a lot of feedback about it, but at least the student is on the radar of people who can help.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

My anxious student has been emailing me all day today. I answered twice, then gave up since I had a stack of things to do.

Do you have an early alert for student success system (or some similar title) at your place (ours is run through the retention office)? We can sent the alert for students who are struggling (it's required if they are not attending, but can be sent for other concerns) and someone from student success and the student's advisor are looped in to the concern so they can provide assistance.  The faculty member does not always get a lot of feedback about it, but at least the student is on the radar of people who can help.

Yes we do. The thing is, this student is doing well in the course! So, it's not that stu isn't 'getting it.' Stu is just very, very anxious (my opinion).

[Langue_doc]

My anxious student has been emailing me all day today. I answered twice, then gave up since I had a stack of things to do.

Do you have an early alert for student success system (or some similar title) at your place (ours is run through the retention office)? We can sent the alert for students who are struggling (it's required if they are not attending, but can be sent for other concerns) and someone from student success and the student's advisor are looped in to the concern so they can provide assistance.  The faculty member does not always get a lot of feedback about it, but at least the student is on the radar of people who can help.

Yes we do. The thing is, this student is doing well in the course! So, it's not that stu isn't 'getting it.' Stu is just very, very anxious (my opinion).

Are you required to respond to multiple emails from a student on a daily basis? Perhaps tell the student to write down the questions in a notebook and email you at the end of the day? Could some of these questions be posted on the Discussion Board?

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

My anxious student has been emailing me all day today. I answered twice, then gave up since I had a stack of things to do.

Do you have an early alert for student success system (or some similar title) at your place (ours is run through the retention office)? We can sent the alert for students who are struggling (it's required if they are not attending, but can be sent for other concerns) and someone from student success and the student's advisor are looped in to the concern so they can provide assistance.  The faculty member does not always get a lot of feedback about it, but at least the student is on the radar of people who can help.

Yes we do. The thing is, this student is doing well in the course! So, it's not that stu isn't 'getting it.' Stu is just very, very anxious (my opinion).

Are you required to respond to multiple emails from a student on a daily basis? Perhaps tell the student to write down the questions in a notebook and email you at the end of the day? Could some of these questions be posted on the Discussion Board?

The admin rule about email is to respond within 24 hours. I'll try to talk to stu and mention that I do receive a large volume of email, so compiling a list would be a good idea. I know I was venting earlier, it has been a long, long week.

[Puget]

My anxious student has been emailing me all day today. I answered twice, then gave up since I had a stack of things to do.

Do you have an early alert for student success system (or some similar title) at your place (ours is run through the retention office)? We can sent the alert for students who are struggling (it's required if they are not attending, but can be sent for other concerns) and someone from student success and the student's advisor are looped in to the concern so they can provide assistance.  The faculty member does not always get a lot of feedback about it, but at least the student is on the radar of people who can help.

Yes we do. The thing is, this student is doing well in the course! So, it's not that stu isn't 'getting it.' Stu is just very, very anxious (my opinion).

Are you required to respond to multiple emails from a student on a daily basis? Perhaps tell the student to write down the questions in a notebook and email you at the end of the day? Could some of these questions be posted on the Discussion Board?

I once had great success with this with a student who would email me a question, then a few minutes later often email again to say never mind she figured it out. It seemed like just writing it down helped her focus and figure it out. I asked her to write down her question, then spend 10 min. trying to figure out out herself, and then if she still couldn't figure it out she could email me-- volume went way down.

[bopper]

Make it a quiz worth points to do this.

[teach_write_research]

[/quote]
...I know I was venting earlier, it has been a long, long week.
[/quote]

So much truth. Too many emails from a student doing well in the course = do something to take care of yourself. Venting here is welcome. Waiting until Monday to reply to the student seems reasonable.

If you can muster the energy send in the early warning message - even though the student is fine academically it's a potential mental health flag. The advisor folks can put it in context and follow-up as needed. I have a definite uptick in accommodations that are likely anxiety/depression related.

[Parasaurolophus]

I took Algebra in 9th grade and I'm sure there was a time when I learned how to do that, but I had certainly forgotten that by college and couldn't do it now. Of course, I wasn't taking optics courses, so there wasn't much need for me to remember. I can solve a simple equation for x, but after that, I've lost it all.

I keep finding small, niche everyday math situations where I don't remember how to perform the exact operation required, but I have enough of a weird patchwork knowledge left that I can reason out a more complicated way to the right answer. It feels really weird when it happens.

One of the things I most look forward to about hatching an egg is having to re-learn all that basic math. Maybe it'll stick the second time around.

[Langue_doc]

...I know I was venting earlier, it has been a long, long week.
[/quote]

So much truth. Too many emails from a student doing well in the course = do something to take care of yourself. Venting here is welcome. Waiting until Monday to reply to the student seems reasonable.

If you can muster the energy send in the early warning message - even though the student is fine academically it's a potential mental health flag. The advisor folks can put it in context and follow-up as needed. I have a definite uptick in accommodations that are likely anxiety/depression related.
[/quote]

Early warning would be a good idea especially if the student is emailing all the professors. It also puts the student on notice that multiple emails on any given day are too many and might make the student come across as unprofessional.

My headbanging: I invariably get emails from students when I'm grading as they can see my comments. I was dreading grading today until I got around my "visibility" on Canvas by selecting the "hide grades" features. I now have my magic cloak of invisibility and can grade in peace.

The headbanging is for the quality of the submissions and the students' unfamiliarity with the detailed directions for the assignments. Read the directions, Stus, don't just scroll through them without stopping to make sure you know what is expected of you.

[writingprof]

My anxious student has been emailing me all day today. I answered twice, then gave up since I had a stack of things to do.

Do you have an early alert for student success system (or some similar title) at your place (ours is run through the retention office)? We can sent the alert for students who are struggling (it's required if they are not attending, but can be sent for other concerns) and someone from student success and the student's advisor are looped in to the concern so they can provide assistance.  The faculty member does not always get a lot of feedback about it, but at least the student is on the radar of people who can help.

Yes we do. The thing is, this student is doing well in the course! So, it's not that stu isn't 'getting it.' Stu is just very, very anxious (my opinion).

You should ask stu how many times a day hu calls or texts hu's mother. My guess is double digits.

[spork]

[. . .]

The headbanging is for the quality of the submissions and the students' unfamiliarity with the detailed directions for the assignments. Read the directions, Stus, don't just scroll through them without stopping to make sure you know what is expected of you.

When grading in Canvas, I've been frequently pasting the pre-written comment of "See the rubric and assignment directions." No other comment.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

[. . .]

The headbanging is for the quality of the submissions and the students' unfamiliarity with the detailed directions for the assignments. Read the directions, Stus, don't just scroll through them without stopping to make sure you know what is expected of you.

When grading in Canvas, I've been frequently pasting the pre-written comment of "See the rubric and assignment directions." No other comment.

This is a good idea. I try to personalize comments, but it is so time-consuming.