Wednesday, October 5, 2016

A Conversation I Had Today

"Tardy Theresa, I noticed that you've been coming late to class a lot lately.  Is something preventing you from coming to class on time?"

"Nope.  I'm just late," she chirped.

"Uh, don't be late?" I said, not quite sure how to respond to such cheerful admission of fecklessness. 

"Oh, okay!"

Well.  There was a teaching moment well-seized.  I'm sure that resolved the issue completely.

--Prof Chiltepin


11 comments:

  1. The last time I asked a kid why they were always late (for an 11 a.m. class) they told me it was just "impossible" for them to get up so early in the morning. Because I love nothing more than being a lifecoach/Mom for students I made suggestions like go to bed earlier, but s/he continued to wander in 20 minutes late all semester. I gave the syllabus grade penalty, dropping hir to a D+. Didn't care. Now I just mark them off.

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  2. At the start of class, write her ETA on the board. When she comes in (late), conspicuously check the close and put a check mark next to the time if you're right. If not, put an X through it and ask who had whatever the time is in the Theresa pool today.

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    Replies
    1. TRIED IT, Peter. Today's students have no shame. My "Theresa" was delighted we were talking about her.

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    2. The smarter kids might construe that as a FERPA thing or other grievance.

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  3. Wow. Usually, my other students laugh and Theresa feels at least some sense of shame. I'm sure her boss will be quite understanding.

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  4. I had a number wander in late today, but at least they had an excuse: career fair. Hard(er) to argue with that one.

    The standard excuse on my campus is parking (which, of course, really doesn't change much over the course of the semester, so the smarter students -- or at least those with better life skills -- figure it out after the first week or so of classes, but some apparently never do. If anything, at least judging by the attendance in my sections, parking should get easier as the semester goes on, since fewer students seem to be on campus, or at least in class, on any given day).

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  5. Big Rule #1 - Never, never care more than they do. If you do, is is like putting down chips at the gambling table; you may be winning for a little while, but in the end you end up losing everything. In this case, your sanity, your self respect, and depending upon the metrics that your retention or promotion are based upon, your job.

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  6. A snappy comeback I use for shameless cases is "A boss in the real world won't like this." Of course, this no doubt has little impact on egregiously shameless cases, but it does get heard by the other students in the class. Saying nothing may signify to them that this behavior is OK: I want them to know it isn't, and it won't be.

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    Replies
    1. I just shut up and wait until they get comfy. Of course, this irritates the rest of the class as they were concentrating. They seem to get the message across better than I can (although I get some really nasty comments about this on the Site That Shall Not Be Named).

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