Although I cannot help but remember the many times over the years when I was given the wrong room number for the first day of classes, arrived early, discovered the room had been changed (but admin never notified me), I had to find a PC, look up current info, then find the building, then find the classroom, and pray the students were still there 30 minutes after class was supposed to start.
I've seen your retweets about cancelled classes and I think it's a bit of a shitty thing to do. You have no idea why a few professors may have called off class today. Your judgment is supposed to be withering I suppose but it doesn't bug me. I often cancel the first week because simply put no work gets done anyway. Students need to find their way around campus and I'm happy to see them once they have their bearings. I don't need a schedule to know how best to deal with my classes. Some of the complaints elsewhere on this page about lazy professors and first impressions are just too precious.
Mike, if you think our judgement is supposed to be withering, rather than light hearted water-cooler talk, then you're more of a fool than the rest of your note suggests. (That's actually quite an accomplishment.) What can students do during the first week? Mine cover a chapter in the textbook, just like they do every week.
If you aren't teaching classes, why would the university pay you to be there?
Wow...seems like an epidemic!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I cannot help but remember the many times over the years when I was given the wrong room number for the first day of classes, arrived early, discovered the room had been changed (but admin never notified me), I had to find a PC, look up current info, then find the building, then find the classroom, and pray the students were still there 30 minutes after class was supposed to start.
A reader named Mike T. sends this:
ReplyDeleteI've seen your retweets about cancelled classes and I think it's a bit of a shitty thing to do. You have no idea why a few professors may have called off class today. Your judgment is supposed to be withering I suppose but it doesn't bug me. I often cancel the first week because simply put no work gets done anyway. Students need to find their way around campus and I'm happy to see them once they have their bearings. I don't need a schedule to know how best to deal with my classes. Some of the complaints elsewhere on this page about lazy professors and first impressions are just too precious.
I suppose one *could* cancel classes if one is too incompetent at their job to get something done in the first week.
DeleteI manage just fine getting stuff done the first week (hell, students hand stuff in on the first day in most of my classes).
Mike, if you think our judgement is supposed to be withering, rather than light hearted water-cooler talk, then you're more of a fool than the rest of your note suggests. (That's actually quite an accomplishment.) What can students do during the first week? Mine cover a chapter in the textbook, just like they do every week.
DeleteIf you aren't teaching classes, why would the university pay you to be there?
No class? That's for sure.
ReplyDelete