On the less cheerful side, it's not a good sign, is it, when a student who added at the last possible minute emails an instructor 6 days later to introduce hirself, and ccs the email to two people with the same last name as the student (and non-uni addresses)? I, of course, replied to sender (only), but none of the possible interpretations of the family dynamics underlying that cc: that I can dream up bode well for the kid's ultimate success in the class. I will, however, strive to keep an open mind.
Finally, I'm wondering if I'm being paranoid or appropriately cautious to feel a bit apprehensive about the fact that an unusually high proportion of the students in my online class (c. 1/3) are in the exact same major, and probably know each other in person (while I, of course, wouldn't recognize any of them if (s)he ran me over with a skateboard at high noon on the main campus walk).
Uh, can I buy you a drink?
ReplyDeleteI was afraid of that.
DeleteNot of course, the "buy you a drink" part, but the "this looks bad enough to offer a drink" part. The online-class dynamics seem particularly iffy to me -- basically, the worst of both worlds. My correspodent-with-apparent-parents will presumably either catch up or disappear pretty quickly (and at least the parents didn't email me directly).
Delete