So... is it really SO hard to get the professor's name right? I'm not even talking about their writing the wrong form of address (i.e. "Mrs." or "Ms." or "Mr." instead of "Professor" or "Dr.") or including my first and last names. One student has abbreviated my name to some random initials (not mine) with my last name attached (which makes me wonder where they even came up with the initials). Eight have misspelled it (I don't have any unconventional spellings of this fairly common last name). One has written a completely different professor's name. Two students have simply resorted to: "Professor's Name" in the Heading.
And since I'm sharing experiences with names: A few weeks ago, a student insisted that the Registrar's Office had sent him to speak to me about correcting an Incomplete in his Water Sipping Techniques course from last term. I told the student that I didn't teach the class, and that I had never seen him before in my life. He insisted that he'd taken Water Sipping Techniques from me. I again reiterated that I didn't teach that course (and it wasn't even in my field). He insisted that I had taught him. After a few minutes of his trying to convince me that he'd taken the class from me, I logged in to our computer system to show him the courses that I had taught (none of which were Water Sipping Techniques), but he still looked like he didn't believe me. When I called the Registrar's Office to ask if they knew where he belonged, apparently the professor from whom he'd taken the class had the same first initial as mine (as in the difference between Brady and Brown). We weren't even of the same gender! And this was NOT an online course.
Have any of you noticed that students struggle to learn your names?
I feel for you, Contentious Cynic. It sucks when people get your name wrong.
ReplyDeleteI tutored a person once who insisted that my name is "Chris"
ReplyDeleteI have a student who doesn't seem to grasp that my main issue is him calling me by my first name. I corrected him early on ("Professor or Mrs. Writer, please"), and he now goes, "Thanks, Mrs. Snarky . . . uh, Professor Snarky." Sometimes he then catches himself and changes it to Professor Writer. I think he has some sort of learning or social disability, though, so I try not to let it bug me.
ReplyDeleteI have a difficult last name, but it appears on the syllabus and every handout I give them, and on my office door, and on the college website.
ReplyDeleteMany students don't learn to spell it though for a very subtle reason:
They don't give a shit.
I know; I'm blowing your mind.
On a slightly related note, I have about 115 students this semester. Exactly 5 of them actually call me Prof. Lastname. The rest have shortened or substituted in so many varieties of things that I can't even list them all in this space. I introduce myself as Professor Lastname. That's the culture at this uni, but they call me Kimmie or Mrs. Kimmie, or Mrs. Lastname, or Mrs. L(astname).
ReplyDelete"Call me Prof. Lastname" I say time and again.
I think Reg is right. They don't learn these things because they could not care less.
The one I hate most is when they call me "Miss". Not, like "Miss Whatladder" or "Miss Prof Whatladder", just "Miss". As in "Sorry I was late to class, Miss."
ReplyDeleteI haven't noticed them being willing to struggle to learn anything.
ReplyDelete@ Miss Prof Whatladder ...
ReplyDeleteMy experience has been slightly different.
When I taught high school in Major American Metropolis, I was often simply referred to as "teacher."
Upon my "elevation" to adjuncting at a college in the same city, I was flummoxed by being addressed as "Professor LastName" almost universally. (I was still earning my doctorate at the time.) It was folks from the (late, great) RYS who counseled me that I didn't need to correct them and that I should be grateful!
Since finishing my doctorate and settling into a mix of online and on campus classes, my experience has been campus based students split 50/50 addressing me as "Dr. LastName" or simply skip any form of personal address altogether.
I've gone through a bit of an evolution with my online students. Initially, I used a boilerplate signature, which included a script font of my first name followed by my full name, degree, and academic rank. I noticed that students almost evenly split between addressing me as "Dr. LastName", "Professor LastName", and "FirstName".
Again returning to the collected wisdom of the (now) CM community, I removed the script version of my first name.
Now, those online students who likely would have used my first name simply don't include any salutation on Email at all. :)
A few weeks ago, a student insisted that the Registrar's Office had sent him to speak to me about correcting an Incomplete in his Water Sipping Techniques course from last term. I told the student that I didn't teach the class, and that I had never seen him before in my life. He insisted that he'd taken Water Sipping Techniques from me.
ReplyDeleteOn the site that shall not be named, there is a scathing review of me and my teaching from a student for a class I never taught.
I am left wondering: Is this student too dumb to remember the name of the prof who actually taught that class? Or is the student just too dumb to review the class under its actual name? I mean, the student even included the course code, which indicates a department that I have never worked in.
In the end, the student is just dumb. And yet has incredible influence over my potential hire-ability (if the student was indeed in my class and has no memory of the department the class was designed for -- a specific major!). Might explain why the student did so poorly....
@Myth: That's outrageous. Is there no recourse for you? I have avoided even looking for my name on said site that shall not be mentioned!
ReplyDeleteThis isn't the first time I've heard of such instances. My friend works in our tutoring center. She says students regularly show up demanding tutoring for "so and so's" class and that professor doesn't even teach in that discipline. She has now printed out pictures of professors (from our college website) and asks students to point to the professor's picture. Sometimes they can do it. Sometimes they insist she is mistaken and leave in a huff.
@Myth & CC -- I believe professors can have their names/profiles removed from RMP by request.
ReplyDeleteCould, are you serious? I would love that!
ReplyDeleteI have no problem with being called by my first name. I prefer it. However, I have a virtually unpronounceable and unspellable first and last name. Everyone mangles it, even my colleagues, and I'm really not offended.
@Ovreductd: is it REALLY a struggle to learn a name? Really?
ReplyDeleteI'm really pretty strict about students spelling my name correctly and calling me Ms. LN. It's not difficult, honestly, to figure out my name. I write it on the board the first day of class and tell them that I will not respond to Mrs., other variations (or other names), and especially not my first name. The first time they mess it up (in the first couple of weeks) I correct them. After that (or if it's obvious that they're doing it to dig at me) I refuse to answer until they use my full, correct name.
ReplyDelete@issyvoo, if my name were a difficult one to spell or remember, I think students might actually then take more time to get it right. But it's not: it's a color. An ordinary color. One that students would learn to spell in the second grade. Yet it is STILL difficult to remember or spell!
ReplyDeleteBleah, and they are so prickly when you forget their names. At least mine are.
ReplyDeleteI have a really unusual first name. Like so unusual most people have never heard of it before meeting me.
ReplyDeletePeople tend to say my name alright after meeting me. Though there are exceptions.
Spelling is a totally different ballgame. I had friends and colleagues/mentors/bosses that have spelled my name wrong so many times I've given up on correcting them. Doesn't matter to me -- I know how to spell it!
@CouldBeBetter
ReplyDeleteYou are posting under multiple monikers, which is against a blog rule. Please choose one login for comments and use only that.
Do not post under multiple monikers or logins.
@CC
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure if it's going to make you feel better or worse when I tell you I had a student misspell THEIR OWN name on an essay - twice. (Yes. Same paper. And their name was the equivalent of John Doe, in both syllables and difficulty.)
@drunk: I've seen that, too, from time to time :o).
ReplyDelete@College Misery -- Uh, I think there's some mistake. I've been using this moniker -- and *only* this moniker -- on CM for weeks now. Are you perhaps confusing me with another person on this thread?
ReplyDeleteMy CC's email system has a standard system for generating addresses: first initial + last name + number if someone else already has the email address with your first initial and last name. My last name is not common, and it begins with a vowel. Now you would think that a student would be smart enough to know if her email address is jdoe14@mycc.edu and her name is Jane Doe, then my email address, which is, let's say, sinstructor@mycc.edu, then my first name would start with an S and my last name would be Instructor. Yet every semester, I get emails addressed to Professor/Dr. Sinstructor. Also, my first name is obviously feminine, yet I get emails every term addressed to "Mr." Sinstructor.
ReplyDeleteThe "Miss" thing is cultural, I think. I'm from the Midwest and never heard it when I was a student or beginning my teaching career there. I get it often in the South, and not just in the classroom. It's frequently used in restaurants, stores, and even professional offices. I guess I take it as a compliment because "Ma'am" seems to be reserved for those they think are older women.
@CouldBeBetter
ReplyDeleteYou have used another moniker here though. You could email me directly if you'd like. If you've left the old one behind, that's absolutely fine. I try to avoid the multiple moniker thing so we don't have abuses of people writing back and forth with themselves. IP tracking information connects your current moniker with a former one, and I just wanted to offer a head's up.
Thanks.
@CM -- I *did* email you about it, weeks ago, before I did it, and you acknowledged it. . .
ReplyDelete@CouldBeBetter
ReplyDeleteI cannot apologize enough. I checked with the former moderator of the site who you corresponded with. It was my fault for not being more thorough. Please accept my apologies.
Thanks. No problem. Kind of ironic on a discussion thread about remembering names, eh? ;-)
ReplyDeleteIt drives me nuts when they misspell my name (even more than the Mrs. or Teacher thing), since I do teach online, so my name is literally everywhere. It's not a common name, but it's short enough.
ReplyDeleteI always point it out, and mention that it's important to address the audience correctly. But I've found that a student who is not "with it" enough to spell my name correctly the first time is also not with it enough to read my feedback.
Then there is the story about the student who came to the department office to leave a message for her instructor. When asked for the name, the student paused, puzzled, finally answering, "Staff."
ReplyDeleteI used to think the anecdote apocryphal. No longer...
@Vanessa, that's funny! :o) And probably true!
ReplyDeleteI ask that my students call me by my first name-- we *are* partners in learning, after all. When I worked in a middle school, I was forced to ask students to call me "Ms. Grad-Student," but most of them just ended up calling me "Miss." I hated so much not having a name! To me, that's more disrespectful than using my first name.
ReplyDeleteNow, all my students call me Gracie and no one refers to me as "Miss" or "You." Better yet, there are no awkward attempts to address me without calling me anything!