The semester began so innocently. Only 9 people in each of my classes. This was the semester that we would "pilot" a new web-based teaching tool. The man in charge of initiating this new program was very excited about it and had every intention of training the faculty members on using the program. It was also arranged that this same man would be my "mentor/administrative spy", as I am a new faculty member.
Well, the man is diabetic and severe complications put him in the hospital (and I mean very severe but I won't go into detail). So suddenly, I am left to figure out this web-based thing. So, I visited the Chair and got told, "No, I'm sorry, I wish I could help you but there is no one else who would be appropriate for a mentorship for you." (Note: He probably wasn't blowing me off, since there is an awful lot of gossip at this school and anyone else mentoring me would probably cause each and every single concern I ever had to suddenly appear on my eval with "unsatisfactory" marked.)
"So, what about the web-based thingy? We made the students buy it. Isn't there anyone else on campus who knows how to use the program?" Please note that I had absolutely no say in choosing the required materials for the course.
"Nope. Sorry!"
Ackward pause.
"You can call your mentor at the hospital. Here is his number."
And the room suddenly got cold...
It turns out that there are plenty of teachers on campus who know how to use the web-based thingy. But, they won't help. They have all sorts of excuses for not doing so. I suspect that they hate the program, and that this is the one opportunity for them to politically contribute to its demise. Unfortunately, they are doing so at the expense of my sanity and my students' sanity.
I have been scanning and posting homework problems to the web, as the only textbook for the course is the web-based thingy.
I called my mentor at the hospital, and of course the response I get is a shaky "I will be back on campus next week. Let's talk then."
So, I return to the Chair's office to politely explain that calling this very sick man at the hospital is futile. Of course, the response I get is as follows: Chair shakes head, "I'm disappointed that he wasn't able to help you. I'm sorry that you are not getting the support you need at this time." WTF?! The man is in the hospital in very serious condition and that's all you can say?
On the bright side, most of my students seem very patient with this BS, although it seems that every week I tell them that Professor Sickandgetstheblame will be here next week to show us how to use the software.
The real problem is that I am supposed to go inside the program and build a course somehow. I have logged into my account and cannot find anything in there that indicates how to build a course. I spent all those years in school to earn an advanced degree in Basket Weaving, only to be killed by something as simple as this! Gah!
Not only that but one of my students is kind of annoying me. She's not the crack-head soccer mom type, as I described in my earlier post. She's more of the "I'm too old to understand you" type. She's a returning student (30 year vacation) in the traditional sense and in the sense that she keeps returning to me with the same complaint over and over again.
At the end of every class, she confronts me with the following: "I'm a 53 year old woman! I've been out of school for 30 years! I don't get things like these young kids!"
Probably not the best idea to tell her to fuck-off, as it would probably result in the Dean catching VD.
Every day, I remind her about the tutoring center and my availability for help after class. It was like pulling teeth to get her to go to the tutoring center. "I'll have to get the tutoring application" is what she kept telling me.
Finally, she filled the damn thing out. Her next excuse? "They won't call me back!"
"So, go follow up with them" is what I kept telling her. At the next class meeting, she still hadn't followed up with them. We meet only twice a week and I didn't want this dragging on for the entire semester. Deciding to nip this in the bud, I walked her over to the tutoring center to see if we could get this thing straightened out.
Gosh! Wouldn't you know it? The supervisor at the tutoring center pulled her file out and showed us both how she did get a call back and that they are waiting for a call back from her!
She is also aware of Disability Services, as the rest of my students are.
What else can I do with her?
You know what really gives me the creeps? At the orientation for new faculty, the Dean mentioned how students could challenge a grade by claiming that "you didn't do enough to help them". Does this really have any merrit? Since when am I anyone's mommy or daddy?
Well, the Dean is clearly undermining the quality of the education your institution provides, and contributing to grade inflation (as well as some other issues mentioned elsewhere).
ReplyDeleteIs there a sales rep for the web-based thingy assigned to your college? That person may turn out to be useless, but at least he/she has an incentive to try to get it working for you, or to refer you to someone who can, while it sounds like your colleagues have a counter-incentive.
And how in the world did you find an institution with 9-person classes? That sounds great. On the other hand, everything else sounds like hell, so I guess there's a tradeoff.
"And the the room suddenly got cold..."
ReplyDeleteMisogyny does tend to create quite the chill.
Definitely call the sales rep. They have a strong incentive to help you since you're making them money. They want to keep you happy. Also call IT. Somebody on your campus advocated for this. They have an incentive to see it work too. Find some allies.
ReplyDeleteAckward, indeed. Close at the heels of "none the less". The irony, my dear sir, of having you contribute to this particular website.
ReplyDeleteYour vintage student does sound tiresome, but I'd love to know how you're privy to her medical status. The certainty with which you say asking her to "fuck off" might result in the allegedly amorous Dean catching a VD is quite... interesting. Did you, perhaps, try the 'ameliorate with affection' approach first? In that case I wish you a speedy recovery.
Or are you merely of the canine persuasion?
And it didn't occur to you call the company that makes the bloody software? It's good to see that the suppposed stupidity of *some* American undergraduates has such excellent guiding lights.
ReplyDeleteI'd invite you re-examine why your colleagues are so unhelpful and dismissive of your misery. Department politicking just mightn't be the reason.
I second the "call the rep" party, followed closely by the "call IT" party.
ReplyDeleteAre you an adjunct, by chance? Sometimes I've noticed that people are somewhat less helpful if they sense the "blood in the water" surrounding the adjunct staff. However, I've remedied this in the past with a three pronged approach of food, politeness, and recognition. Learn your IT folks' names, bring them snacks, and when you write your end of term letter to your chair, recognize them by name again.
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ReplyDeleteAdministrators who haven't been in a classroom in years and who insist that if anything is wrong, it must be the teacher's fault, invariably make me very angry. You aren't your students' mommy or daddy: that isn't your job.
ReplyDeleteIf your students try to challenge a grade by claiming that you didn't do enough to help them, require them to prove negligence on your part. This may not be so easy for them, if you have a well-written, precise, lengthy syllabus that reads like a legal contract and has been checked carefully for loopholes, and you have been scrupulous about adhering to it. It's an arms race, but modern students are often short on know-how. As far as your decidedly immature 53-year old goes, remind her that the excuse she's using becomes less plausible the longer she's in college, and therefore with every time she uses it.
This is the second time you've intimated that female students get their way by prostituting themselves to administration. One hardly knows where to begin with someone who thinks this is funny. It's beneath us all.
ReplyDeleteYour 53-year-old student reminds me of a 30-something friend of mine, tackling university education for the first time, in a different country and culture than that of her upbringing. Despite having been a good student in her home country and obviously being a relatively intelligent person, she was convinced that she couldn't manage any of the requirements of a university degree -- understanding the reading, writing essays, keeping her class-schedule straight, or even interacting with her classmates. She blamed it on 'cultural differences' which didn't, in my opinion, seem to offer an adequate explanation.
ReplyDeleteEventually, with some help from me, she connected her abysmal lack of self-esteem to the years of psychological abuse she suffered during her marriage, from which she was in the process of escaping. She had completely lost confidence in her ability to even hold a conversation with another person, because for years she had been told by her husband that she was 'crazy' and 'stupid'.
It's hard to know what your student's situation really is, but what about suggesting a visit to the college counseling center for general support as a non-traditional student? (She's probably unaware of just how poorly prepared many of her younger classmates actually are, for example.) If there are additional factors contributing to her lack of confidence, it also may be a first step for her in addressing them.
I've also run into midlife female returning students with serious self-confidence issues, which I don't always recognize fast enough. One woman handed in a paper that completely missed the point of several lectures I'd given on that precise topic, so I gave it a C- (content: adequate; writing and organization; fine; analysis: 0). She responded by dropping the class and sending me an note by campus mail apologizing, saying that she had just returned to school, that obviously she didn't get what she was supposed to be doing and didn't belong here, and was going to return to caring full-time for her aged father. I never saw her again.
ReplyDeleteI felt horrible, because if she had only come in to see me we could have talked through the problem and her next assignment would likely have been fine. I was very sorry to see her abandon the enterprise.
Male returning students have, I think, exactly the same confidence issues, but express them differently.
To put it plainly, our school is underfunded. The Counseling Office and Disabilities Center are ran by the same person. Students are sent to her, and she shows them where to obtain counseling off campus. The student must pay for it out of pocket. We have no counselors, therapists, etc. on campus. Resources like a student health center are not available to students.
ReplyDeleteShe can, however, request special accomodations. That conversation would be between her and the Counseling Dept/person. She would need to produce a note from her doctor before Counseling could suggest any accomodations. Unfortunately, this particular school ties my hands until Counseling can suggest accomodations.
ReplyDeleteMA may nail it...one of my carpool participants (the slightly smelly vegan one) is a 'returning to school' male. He got his first degree in a hard science, but now he's going back to get a degree in psychology so that he can be a counselor. (He's having a touch of midlife crisis.)
ReplyDeleteHe worries a great deal about not doing well, and he responds to these concerns by asking really obnoxious questions in class and then lamenting how his grade is suffering because he "doesn't want to play the game" ... of...you know...studying.
MA? You mean Mid-life Anxiety?
ReplyDeleteI don't know about some of this. It's your course, right? You should be able to use or not use the online tool as you best see fit. That means using it or not using it to the extent dictated by your syllabus, and even THAT isn't the last word. So I'm not sure how 'cornered' you are.
ReplyDeleteAlso.. figuring out software packages isn't that hard. I admit, I find blackboard/moodle/etc to be insufferable... but not impossible. I'm amazed that you took on this course thinking you would pick up learning about the software as you went - didn't you test drive it first?
It sounds to me like maybe your chair is telling you to man up.
No, I did not have the opportunity to test drive it. The program was dumped on me at the last minute. I had to scrub all of my lesson plans. However, I will man-up as you say.
ReplyDeleteBlackDog - I've seen exactly that behaviour in returning-to-school Midlife Males. IObnoxiousness, blustering, and trying to impress the prof with his wonderfulness by visiting and taking up time 'chatting' in her office about subjects unconnected with the course material, so that she will notice how intelligent and not-like-the-other-kids he is, are common tactics.
ReplyDeleteThey are a fairly transparent cover for fear of failure; I think a major career change for a Midlife Male is much scarier than it is for a midlife female, who has probably had several career changes already (counting the moving across the country with the husband's job, the going to part-time for awhile when the kids were born, etc - women's early careers are statistically much more disrupted for family duties than men's are); also, males are trained to attach much more of their self-image to their careers. So changing horses in their mid-thirties or forties, without any guarantee that the new career will pan out, makes men very anxious, which one can understand.
I just wish it didn't quite so often produce self-aggrandizing chest-thumping and let-me-tell-you-again-how-wonderful-I-am behaviour in the sufferers. If you want me to believe you're wonderful, do the reading, show up for class, and hand stuff in on time. And when it earns a B instead of the A you were certain it deserved, I'd really appreciate it if you didn't spend quite so long trying to show me I'm wrong ... but perhaps that's too much to ask.
Bleah. Unfortunately some of the most hostile, accusatory, out-in-left field students I've seen have been returning female students. After an exasperating conversation protesting her well-deserved F grade on her first paper, one of them said to me, "I was raising children before you were born!" I said, not unkindly, "I'm sorry, but that doesn't qualify you to grade your work any more than my Ph.D qualifies me to raise children." At which point she started sing-songing "I have a Ph.D.! I have a Ph.D.! Look at the stuck-up Ph.D.!" and calling me obscene names.
ReplyDeleteI backed her out of my office, called her advisor, and told her advisor that she was welcome to do the work for the course, but not welcome in my office ever again. Then I called Student Disciplinary Affairs and reported her behavior, and she received a formal reprimand placed in her permanent file. Frankly, I didn't care if that was the right thing or the wrong thing. It was just outrageous.
a reader sends this in:
ReplyDeleteI wish I could give you some insight into how to handle your web-based class, but I have no frigging clue, although there seem to be some good ideas here to explore.
However, as far as your 53 year old student goes, I think I know what is going on. People choose to go back to school for many reasons and it is scary, overwhelming, and challenging. When you return to college because you want to push yourself beyond dishes and diapers, you expect those challenges and rise to face them. If you go back to college because you don't know what else to do or because everyone else thinks it's a good idea, you tend to fail. If you don't see failure as an opportunity to learn, it can be devastating. So really, it's easier to say "I can't, I'm too old, I don't understand" etc. It's not really your fault then. You can't help her if she doesn't want to succeed.
I have some sympathy for this woman. I've been there; terrified at the thought of going to school, afraid I would fail, and that the world would know I didn't have what it takes. Shit, I even worried about my clothes. But I am older than she is and I'm telling you, this Cranky Old Lady gets it and she kicks academic butt.
"I have a PhD! I have a PhD!" seriously? holy crow, that woman needed to relearn her kindergarten lessons on playing nicely together before she set foot in a college. Wow.
ReplyDelete