The part I hate myself for is that I feel bad and I didn’t do anything wrong!!! I know I am helping to teach them a valuable lesson, and I know if I were a boss in the real world, they would be fired. I don’t think it is too much to ask for them to make this class a priority for four days out of the semester. I don’t think it is too much to ask for them to read one paragraph in the syllabus (reading the whole thing is a pipe dream). I used to just let them make up the exam, knowing full well 99% would do poorly and eventually drop anyway with fewer complaints and stomping. Give them the rope and you know the rest… But as I reviewed that tactic, I really began to feel it was wrong. It certainly sounds inhumane and unethical to let them play in traffic whilst standing idly by. Ironically, the students thought I was nice for “giving them the opportunity blah blah blah.” Poor stupid snowflakes. I didn’t do it for you, I did it for me, so I didn’t have to see you cry in my dreams or get grumpy admin emails about “flexibility” and “retention.” But we all know not one of those snowflakes learned anything from their “opportunity” because almost all failed or withdrew and did the same tea-partying thing the next semester. They didn’t learn any better how to conduct themselves in class, or to RTFS, or take responsibility, all they learned was you can blow off the exam and the proffie will let you make it up, no biggie. I am guilty of that.
Today I know better, so I tried to do better. I wanted a different outcome, so I tried a different behavior. It feels strange, and a little bad, but I think that is generally how change feels. I was once told early in my career not to rob a student of the opportunity to learn from their failure. I guess I need to take that advice to heart. It is easy to talk the talk. It is tough to walk the walk.
Academic Charlotte Anne
Oh, I am also in your shoes. Thank you for posting this....Yesterday, I had one stomp out in a huff after learning that the failure to take notes, study or do more than smirk at me lead to Exam Failure. My fault, of course, that there was a F on an exam.
ReplyDeleteI also felt badly because ...is that how failure will be dealt with by this student in all his future career/ schooling? How many classes will be dropped because Snowflake must actually do some work? How many jobs will be lost? I wish (ed) that student had talked to me, but then again, student wouldn't follow basic rules to begin with, and so why would student listen to my pearls of wisdom about overcoming challenges through sweat, and blood, and tears.
Ugh. I haven't tried it (I don't give many exams), but a couple people here have mentioned using a system under which when a student misses one exam, the weight of the others increases proportionately. If the student misses all other exams, the final is worth the entire grade (or the entire part of the grade devoted to exams). While there would be some drawbacks to this system in an ideal world where exams actually served their intended purpose (i.e. testing and solidifying knowledge soon after it was taught), given the realities you name (students who start flaking early usually fade away in the long run), it strikes me as a pretty good system. It's also a good answer to the retention/flexibility police: you're giving them the maximum opportunity to succeed (of course you're also giving them enough rope to hang themselves with, but it's up to them what they do with it). The one catch would be if you had some sort of midterm grade reporting: you'd have to make it clear that zeroes on exams would be reported as such then, even though they could be made up through increased weight on later exams, including the final.
ReplyDeleteAll the exams count, but they get to drop 50% each of the two lowest exam scores. They can miss one exam with a valid excuse; but otherwise, they receive a zero that will count toward their final grade as one of the two low exam scores.
DeleteCharlotte Anne, I am squarely in the "let them make up the exam, they will fail anyway" camp for the reasons you cited. Yes, this allows them to continue bad behavior without being confronted by the consequences. My justification is that if I'm supposed to be teaching life lessons to an 18 year old, then
ReplyDelete1) I should be trained in what to teach them,
2) Paid more, since all I do now is teach chemistry, and
3) God help us all if this is really necessary.
I know that 18 year olds are not fully formed adults and I enjoy the feeling of helping a student realize how to be a better person. However, that's not my job. My job is to teach chemistry. I will administer my class in a way that maximizes their potential for learning chemistry with a secondary goal of minimizing the bullshit that I have to put up with from students and administrators. Everything beyond those two goals is stamp collecting.
I think you are doing the right thing. It is not your job, as BB points out, to teach them life lessons. At the same time, changing their diapers isn't either in your job description. Giving them an extra opportunity to take the exam rewards cluelessness, opens the gate to requests for any other changes on the rules defined by your syllabus and, more critically, encroaches on time you should be spending in (research / class preparation / getting really drunk / walking your pet porpoise)[choose one].
ReplyDeleteYou need to work on the feeling-bad side of the problem. Practice maniacal laughter in front of a mirror until you persuade yourself that it is your sacred duty to put misery in their worthless lives.
I want the porpoise.
DeleteThis semester I've institute the following: Late assignments will be reduced by one full letter-grade for every day they are late. You have 48 hours to submit a late project. After that, you receive a zero.
ReplyDeleteI've got one snowflake - the one sucking up most of my time, of course - who is already failing. I suggested she withdraw, and she showed up for the next class. She wanted to know what my policy for late projects was. I explained it was spelled out in the syllabus. Could I clarify, she asked (translation: I don't feel like reading the syllabus). Then she went on about why she missed several classes, and also said she didn't want to get into it (I hadn't asked), saying, "I don't know if it makes any difference, but...". It doesn't make a difference; the attendance policy stands. Guess what. She didn't show this week either; didn't turn in the assignment.
Ogre that I am.
I'm not giving make up tests for laziness and/or stupidity. If you have a bone sticking out of the skin, we'll talk.
ReplyDeleteI'd record the grade as "excused," as with any other legitimate health problem. I don't even give make-ups for compound fractures.
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ReplyDeleteThe part I hate myself for is that I feel bad and I didn’t do anything wrong!!! [UnQuote]
It took me several years to say "no" to students like this, but it has gotten much easier with practice. Even when they get all teary I can still stand my ground and not feel the least bit bad about it.
Bravo for you! This makes me feel like at least someone, somewhere, sticks to their policies... and that's not easy, either, when colleagues left and right don't. It's not YOUR fault they didn't do their part.
ReplyDeleteDon't give in. This is how they've made it as far as college because people don't have the spine to say no and stick to it. They're lazy, whining, manipulative, entitled asses who have learned, to their detriment, that everything is negotiable. Parents, relatives, teachers, administrators, and possibly some judges have been letting them off for eighteen years.
ReplyDeleteIt's time they learned that not getting their way is not fatal. Neither is failure.