Kimmie just checking in. I've now logged over 100 tweets (and re-tweeted scores of them) where the professor didn't show up or just cancelled the first day of class at colleges all over the country.Terry P., who once ran the Misery Tweeter, found the same phenomenon a year or two ago, and it just floored me.
What are you doing on the first day? Why can't proffies make it? Are there really that many emergencies?
The page got backlash when Terry P. posted some of these (even with the pictures and names blurred), but I just wanted to report with this: "WHAT THE FUCK, PEOPLE!"
You can see some of them on Tweeter if you're so inclined. My first class is Thursday, and unless my brain or heart explodes (it's been years, another story), I'm going to be there.
I teach World History and I hate losing ANY class time; I can't imagine thinking that a day was disposable. There's always something to add...
ReplyDeleteTypically, the students can't make it either. We have to meet them where they are, don't we?
ReplyDelete(I'm being sarcastic, BTW.)
Hah! Good one!!! :)
DeleteI've been doing this for more than 30 years and this kind of thing depresses the shit out of me. All semester long i walk hallways seeing signs on door, "class cancelled," "email the professor," etc. It is much worse than when I started teaching.
ReplyDeleteI have a hard time holding students to the standard when they themselves tell me about it.
I had a class last semester that met once a week at 6 pm - yeah, terrible - and there was a class across that way that started at 3. Many times I found my own students in my class already, way too early. I'd ask, "Get out early?" and they'd say, "She never showed up at all." It was someone in my department who I'd always liked, but over time I came to like her less and less.
I teach labs and we start on day one, whether the lecture portion has met or not.
ReplyDeleteHowever, twice in the last two years - both times during the first week of classes but in January - I came down with a stomach virus. There was absolutely no way I could leave the house, let alone teach a class. It's a horrible coincidence that has me already paranoid about next January.
The first time it happened, I made it through the first day of labs with my first semester students then got sick that night. I cancelled the remaining labs that week - they were all with my second semester students and I knew they wouldn't think I was slacking off. Plus the other instructor couldn't take them. I was sick for the entire week. The I'd-rather-be-dead-or-at-work-than-feel-like-this kind of sick.
The second time it happened, I got sick the Sunday night before classes. This time, I had someone to take my classes for me until I could make it back myself halfway through the week. It killed me that my first semester students had that first impression of me but I made sure to emphasize that I wasn't letting them off easy.
Other than unexpected emergencies like these, everyone in our department has class the first day. And none of us have 'syllabus week' or even 'syllabus day'. I know there are students who look forward to doing nothing so I usually send a message to my classes letting everyone know we are doing a lab so they better be prepared.
As an undergraduate, my literature professor missed two of the first class meetings due to her eye being badly damaged. My roommate and I joked that the professor must be a vampire because she was forbidden to go out in the day due to her eye. Then, one night, a bat attacked my window. I'm not superstitious, but I always made sure to get assignments for class done posthaste after that incident! She did recover and did not lose her eyesight.
DeleteThere are times when it makes sense not to try to hold class, and having a stomach virus (which seem to be especially communicable) strikes me as one of those times.
DeleteI have 8:00 am classes this semester (by request). Let's see how many freshmen make it to an 8:00 Monday morning class their first day of college.
ReplyDeleteUpdate us on that, if you would, MAaM.
DeleteI'm sure many of us would love to know what happens.
Is that the bar? Profs can blow off class because students do? I had 23 of 23 this morning at 8 am and 22 of 23 at 9:30, and the one who missed had glass in his foot and emailed me before class was over.
DeleteEC1: Ok, it's not for a couple weeks though.
DeleteHiram, yeah, but don't you teach at Miami of Ohio? Keener U??? ;p
Yeah, but not the main campus. Rules are different out here where I am.
DeleteI teach hybrid courses, and this time, the first f2f meeting comes after the first online class would meet. In this case, I do "cancel" the first online class day 'cuz there's no point in holding it. Half the students wouldn't know to sign into the CMS anyway, and three-quarters of them wouldn't realize they had specific tasks to complete on the non--f2f days.
ReplyDeleteIn that situation, I sometimes wait, and sometimes send out an orientation letter which includes a description of how the course will work (including the weekly virtual deadline), instructions for accessing the CMS, and notice that they need to complete a short first assignment (usually an introductory post on the discussion board). It can be done (has to be done, in the case of online-only classes), but admittedly I'm not teaching freshman.
DeleteI love that reactions from the twits are mixed: some are happy and some angry. As long as there are still angry students who expect better of their profs, I say we haven't lost yet.
ReplyDeleteBut seriously: what are they doing? I haven't noticed that phenomenon in my department yet!
Wow. Cringing as I read this, because I can't imagine missing the first day of class except in case of dire emergency (now keeping fingers crossed for next week). Also laughing as I read because I am THAT instructor who sent out an email with the syllabus and the first readings one week before the semester began. Hey, if nothing else, my students know that they're getting their money's worth (and then some, because my pay is...well, that's another story).
ReplyDeleteCount me as another proffie who, while loathe to say "I'd never do that" (lest I bring down something awful on my head), makes every effort to be present on the first day of class, and every scheduled day of class (give or take the occasional announced-and-planned-well-in-advance absence for a conference, and, when I had a really old car, the occasional automotive disaster on the way to work. I still lose the occasional first class of the day to really bad traffic tie-ups; I leave at least an hour earlier than I need to, but, once every 2 or 3 years, even that isn't enough. We have really overburdened roads in my area, and it doesn't take much to bring on gridlock). If I am going to miss a class, but/and am still conscious, and capable of communication, I'll send an email, and usually also set up an online activity in lieu of class. Of course, it helps that I teach a lot of online and hybrid sections of the same class I teach face to face, so I often have a pre-prepared alternative close to hand.
ReplyDelete