A friend of mine has something of a cold. This is the email I received from her today:
Health-wise, I've been asleep pretty much all day. Golden Boy Grad Student came by at 11:00 to pick up the DVD for the library reserve so that my ungrateful wretches can pretend they're gaining knowledge. I told them to text me if there were problems since I can't receive e-mail* and I received this message: "Some of us feel like we are being punished with extra work because you are sick. Watching the movie is ok but because we are receiving the questions [about the movie] days after normal class time they will set us back on our normal weekend class work (which is a lot during this time of the semester)."
I am not quite sure what's going on--I think that she doesn't have these questions ready to go, and so she's telling the students to watch the movie and answer the questions later.
But, the text is pretty audacious. "Some of us feel..."
On the other hand, this colleague has a domestic creature that knocked over a mug of tea and damaged the touch pad on her machine (hence she cannot read email.)
One could obtain a mouse, but that is a whole other story.
"Some of us feel..." bllleerccccchh.
Professor BlackDog,
ReplyDeleteI've been conversing with some of the other posters and commenters, and some of us feel that this post is not up to your normal extremely high standards. There is not enough smack to satisfy us through the weekend, just in case you are unwilling or unable to post again until Monday. The need for snarky smack over the weekend is especially high at this time of the semester.
We thank you for your prompt attention to this situation. :)
@ BlackDog
ReplyDeleteTell Nyquil to tell Golden Boy to bring a
lead-weighted pool cue to the next class, and if somebody complains again, have GB unmercifully beat that student with the cue....I know the Hell's Angels did that at Altamont, but it did get a point across; always pay Sonny Barger in beer....So what if the administration complains? It's like what they say in the Church of the Subgenius: "Fuck `em if they can't take a joke."
@Strelnikov...Golden Boy is very "in touch" with the labor movement in countries to the south of Starvistan, but sadly out of touch with good stuff like the Hell's Angels in Cali.
ReplyDelete@Pat from Peoria...Please review your grades via Obscure Grading Technology and make an appointment to discuss your concerns on Monday. I will be in my office from 10am until 1230pm, and you'd better bring me a sandwich.
I was discussing some graded work with a student in office hours and she acknowledged that she'd been confused about the assignment. Unfortunately, that's when she broke out the ol' "I know a lot of people in the class were wondering what you wanted..." "I know a lot of people struggled with this..."
ReplyDeleteReally? Well, then, A LOT OF PEOPLE failed to read the assignment and A LOT OF PEOPLE failed to ask me directly when they had questions, since my office hours were unattended and my email inbox was free from student inquiries. Sounds like A LOT OF PEOPLE have issues with being adults who take responsibility for their work.
Even though the student knows most of the (small) class well, I'm confident "a lot of people" translates to "my two BFFs in the class, who are pissed that they got poor grades this unit, too."
During my first year as a wee small Professor Beaker, a student complained that everybody he knew was failing my class, which meant I wasn't grading fairly. I insisted that he was exagerating since only a handful of students were doing poorly.
ReplyDeleteFinally, I opened my grade book and asked for the names of all the people he knew were failing, just to prove him wrong. (I wasn't going to show him their grades, I just wanted to verify that he was wrong.) He listed four people and, you guessed it, they + him = all students failing the class.
I told him that we can solve this problem easily if he makes friends with other students.
Similar to Beaker Ben, I had a gradflake last summer who gave me that "a lot of the others" cr*p. Well.. he was creepy and was a bit of an outcast and folks said stuff to just get away from him!
ReplyDeleteHis letter grade was a few letter grades below everyone else's. He had no clue.
Standard response: "Under FERPA rules, I cannot talk with you about anyone else's class circumstances or grades. I can tell you that if you or anyone else has questions about the material, you're welcome to come by during office hours or email me for clarification."
ReplyDeleteEh, I sympathize with the flakes on this one - remember, I'm a student, not a proffie. I took a class where the homework was due on Monday was always posted to Blackboard the day before on Sunday, giving us less than 24 hours to complete the homework. It usually took hours and hours to complete (a cryptography class where everything had to be done manually, so decrypting one DES cipher by hand could be a very lengthy process). And I had to work on Sundays. We all (literally, in person, not using the presumptive 'we') begged the proffie to post the homework sooner, if not right after the Monday class, at least by mid-week, but he never got around to it until Sunday night. So, depending on how many days after the class the grad student gave them the questions, I think this is a legitimate complaint. If it's just a couple of days after class, that shouldn't be a problem, but if the grad student is providing the questions five or six days after class - or the day before they are due - that can be tough on students who have a lot of work for other classes or who happen to be at work the day before class.
ReplyDeleteI know you think we all do the assignments the night before they are due anyway, but some students do try to plan their time so as not to have to rush through homework, and it's always appreciated if proffies can give a little lead time for homework assignments rather than posting them the day before they are due.
@Patty -- Yep, in the situation you describe, this sounds like a bum deal. I'm one of those people who actually has to sleep at night, so if I was getting an assignment at 5pm on Sunday that would take me 5 or 6 hours, that would be a Big Problem.
ReplyDeleteIn the situation she is describing, she's asked them to basically do 1/2 an hour of work in place of a 75 minute class. (They would have watched the movie outside of class anyway, it's on the syllabus, but they would have discussed it in class.)