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

[Stockmann]

The instructions say, and I mentioned, that in general your report should be 4-7 pages. Not 34 friggin' pages! This is not due an extensive bibliographical search or to extensive analysis. It's all filler, like tables and tables of raw data (of which plots are also included) and plotting data sets in separate figures when they really ought to be on the same set of axes.

Brevity is the soul of wit.

"Revise & Resubmit"

I gave them a low, albeit passing, grade for it, with the chance to resubmit.

[FishProf]

Day 1 of Spring.  Online course, which runs pretty much every semester.

First Announcement in the Course Shell (Last Friday) - How to turn off the annoying emails (detailed instructions with pictures! on setting the course shell to ONLY deliver announcements I push).

Second Announcement in Course Shell (Yesterday) - Ignore all the upcoming annoucnements UNTIL I announce you should pay attention again. (Explains why course copy will generate FALSE announcements).

Then, I copy the course and turn off/delete the inappropriate/premature announcements.

Then, I send the announcement that NOW they should pay attention to the emails.

Guess how many of 30 students have emailed me about due dates they missed because they didn't know anything was due already!

[RatGuy]

Ugh, I've got an argumentative student this semester. He actually said the words "you're wrong" three different times this semester. He said I slandered the Puritans and that I was being insensitive to Puritans specifically and Christians more broadly. He said that since I didn't attend seminary he doesn't recognize my authority to speak to any religious matters (only historical ones). He said that the "Puritans believed that the Bible said 'love thy neighbor' so they didn't treat the natives badly." I'm afraid that this kid is only going to escalate his belligerency.

For what it's worth, I told him that I wasn't passing judgment on the Puritan writers we've been reading, only explaining their beliefs and thought processes as they are illustrated by the readings. I also explained that we weren't in a religion class, and that I'm not preaching dogma. I'm only examining the texts as we understand them. But I can tell by the way he's addressing me that this semester might not go all that well.

[wwwdotcom]

Since he clearly knows that you're wrong, ask him where his theology degree is from?

[apl68]

Ugh, I've got an argumentative student this semester. He actually said the words "you're wrong" three different times this semester. He said I slandered the Puritans and that I was being insensitive to Puritans specifically and Christians more broadly. He said that since I didn't attend seminary he doesn't recognize my authority to speak to any religious matters (only historical ones). He said that the "Puritans believed that the Bible said 'love thy neighbor' so they didn't treat the natives badly." I'm afraid that this kid is only going to escalate his belligerency.

For what it's worth, I told him that I wasn't passing judgment on the Puritan writers we've been reading, only explaining their beliefs and thought processes as they are illustrated by the readings. I also explained that we weren't in a religion class, and that I'm not preaching dogma. I'm only examining the texts as we understand them. But I can tell by the way he's addressing me that this semester might not go all that well.

Which Puritan readers and works have you been reading?  This used to be part of my area of expertise.  Although I have to admit to having never been to seminary.

I'd like to think that this seminarian or ex-seminarian was taught to be more polite than that there.

[mamselle]

I've PM'd you.

M.

[RatGuy]

Ugh, I've got an argumentative student this semester. He actually said the words "you're wrong" three different times this semester. He said I slandered the Puritans and that I was being insensitive to Puritans specifically and Christians more broadly. He said that since I didn't attend seminary he doesn't recognize my authority to speak to any religious matters (only historical ones). He said that the "Puritans believed that the Bible said 'love thy neighbor' so they didn't treat the natives badly." I'm afraid that this kid is only going to escalate his belligerency.

For what it's worth, I told him that I wasn't passing judgment on the Puritan writers we've been reading, only explaining their beliefs and thought processes as they are illustrated by the readings. I also explained that we weren't in a religion class, and that I'm not preaching dogma. I'm only examining the texts as we understand them. But I can tell by the way he's addressing me that this semester might not go all that well.

Which Puritan readers and works have you been reading?  This used to be part of my area of expertise.  Although I have to admit to having never been to seminary.

I'd like to think that this seminarian or ex-seminarian was taught to be more polite than that there.

So far we've covered Winthrop's "a model of Christian charity" and Rowlandson's "the sovereignty and goodness of god"

I think he'll be quite interested in the readings (primary and secondary texts) on the Massacre at Mystic

[ergative]

Ignore all the upcoming annoucnements UNTIL I announce you should pay attention again.

But how can they learn the latter unless they've ignored the former?

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

[FishProf]

Ignore all the upcoming annoucnements UNTIL I announce you should pay attention again.

But how can they learn the latter unless they've ignored the former?

(Sorry, couldn't resist.)

Apparently, they can't.

And I've pondered how to address this issue in the past.

I suppose that back in October, before anyone was registered, I could have done the copy and editing, but I am not thinking of the Spring semester in October.

Perhaps I need to.

[mythbuster]

I don't publish my Canvas pages until they are showtime ready. So I do all the content copying behind the scenes. And even then I keep lots of the elements unpublished until I have triple checked due dates etc. So I recommend a similar approach- does your IT people not proves the shells for you in an unpublished state? If not I would heartily request it.

[lilyb]

Day 1 of Spring.  Online course, which runs pretty much every semester.

First Announcement in the Course Shell (Last Friday) - How to turn off the annoying emails (detailed instructions with pictures! on setting the course shell to ONLY deliver announcements I push).

Second Announcement in Course Shell (Yesterday) - Ignore all the upcoming annoucnements UNTIL I announce you should pay attention again. (Explains why course copy will generate FALSE announcements).

Then, I copy the course and turn off/delete the inappropriate/premature announcements.

Then, I send the announcement that NOW they should pay attention to the emails.

Guess how many of 30 students have emailed me about due dates they missed because they didn't know anything was due already!

This sounds like a nightmare to me. Why is your program sending out inappropriate and premature announcements? Why aren't the announcements in your complete control?
This would drive me nuts and make me avoid online teaching.

[FishProf]

When you copy over a course shell, any active announcement gets sent.

I think I found a solution, but it won't manifest until next semester.

[Langue_doc]

Your institution should switch to Canvas. I copy my courses, upload the current syllabi, change the assignment dates, manually delete the announcements, review the information in student view, and then publish the course.

[OneMoreYear]

Dear Graduate student,
Whoever told you it doesn't hurt to ask lied to you.

Dear other student,
I'm sorry you are having internet connection problems. However, I am confused by your email that internet connection problems prevented you from attending class. This is an in-person class. We are hy-flexing for students who cannot attend that day. And yes we realize that doing so has essentially turned this course into an online course.  However, we are still teaching in the classroom. If your internet is not working, just come to class.

TGIF.

[EdnaMode]

Dear Freshpeeps,

I make the instruction sheets for a reason. And most of you had me in class last semester so you're used to the format and what I expect to be done for this kind of assignment. For the love of all that's holy in engineering, stop asking "I know the instructions say not to [do things], but is it okay if I do it anyway?" No! It's not! Why are you asking me if it's okay to do something the instructions say not to do? **bang! bang! bang**

All the best,

Dr. Mode