I have mandatory conferences for the final paper before they submit it. It's due tonight online. Students currently have six hours to write it. She schedule a conference on Monday, then cancelled it. She rescheduled for yesterday. Cancelled it. Now she schedules one for today, shows up (miracle!) and I say "which of the options for the final paper among the three posted online did you take?""Which one would your recommend?" she says.
"Nooooo. Choosing the option is up to you. They're all designed to be equal in terms of difficulty." I give her the assignment sheet. "Is this the first time you've looked at this?"
"Yeah."
"Oh. Well."
"The second one."
"Okay, so, you'll take a chapter from our textbook and apply it to one of the case studies. Cool. Which case study will you use?"
"I don't know. I didn't read them."
"Oh."
And she stares at me, as if she expects me to do something.
"Well," I say, standing up, "thank you for coming in. This is a waste of time. Good luck."
Dude. Did exactly the right thing.
ReplyDeleteCaptain subtext translates: Tell me which assignment option to do and which case study to do it on, so that when I botch it, I can blame you for picking things that were bad for my learning style.
ReplyDeleteStudent evaluation: "Professor even admits that visiting office hours is a waste of time. I want a refund of the class time I paid for."
ReplyDeleteProfessor was totally unhelpful, dismissive, insulting, intimidating, etc.
DeleteDamned right
Delete