Monday, February 11, 2013

Students.

I have a class that meets at 8 am. We've been working on a project now for 3 weeks. It's due today. At 8 am!

A huge storm blew through here and woke me up around 4 am. Out of habit I turned my phone on in bed and checked my email. 3 out of my 30 students had sent me "rough versions" of their project for me to "look over," "check out," and/or "correct" (!).

"When?" I wanted to write. "Are you fucking kidding me?" I wanted to write.

We're student centered here; did I mention that?

15 comments:

  1. I like these, in the same way as I like students who simply fail to write anything on their exams: it's easy and guilt-free to deal with.

    "Sorry," I can say, " there just weren't any physical hours during that time I could have looked at it. You really should have brought it by a week ago." And then I laugh at them, long and hard.

    OK, not really. C'mon, tenure!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hirram, I work at a very student centered kinda place, and I don't think anyone here would think you should have checked e-mail in the middle of the night or even on a Sunday at all.

    In other news, I had a student e-mail me last Sunday at 1pm telling me she did not understand the homework I had given on Wednesday, and that she needed to speak with me rather than e-mail because that worked best for her. She told me she would be off work at 3:30 pm and that my window for calling her would be between 3:30 and 5pm because she had a Super Bowel party to go to after that. I enjoyed deleting that e-mail. When I got up the next morning, I noticed she e-mailed me again at 11:30pm, asking a specific question. I guess she did not get too drunk at her party. As the class begins at 11am, I thought I would be nice and answer her, which I did around 7:30am. There's student centered and then there's ridiculous.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Bella, I don't know whether you MEANT to write it as "Super BOWEL", but I just sprayed a mouthful of coffee over the keyboard.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Super Bowl Sunday night, Super Bowel Monday morning.

      Delete
  4. I've done *a lot* of things in bed, but turning on my phone is not one of them. Ever. Let alone become a habit.

    ReplyDelete
  5. LOLOLOL! I would like to take credit for meaning it, as I HATE FOOTBALL. But no, it was a spelling mistake. Alas. I don't want to lie but it is sure tempting.....

    My apologies. English professors are people too. Super bowl. I guess maybe it was a Freudian slip?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sometimes I think that students don't *really* expect you to go over their papers or projects at 4 in the morning. I actually think the whole move is meant to show the professor that "look! I care! I'm seeking feedback! Tell me how great my project is and that it needs no corrections so I know I'm getting an A!"

    When I get these last-minute emails (which I always ignore), I'm tempted to make huge, substantive suggestions that the student could never implement. "The argument doesn't hold water. The entire paper needs to be restructured. The thesis statement makes no sense. You obviously haven't considered x, y, and z aspects of the reading--go back and reread the text and see what you can come up with. See you in four hours!"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good God. One would like to think they don't expect feedback at 4 AM. But you would probably be wrong; see Bella's Super Bowel example.

      Delete
    2. I once had that same thought, in a similar situation, and indulged it. Four in the morning the day a major paper was due (at nine). The results were hilarious. I identified the three biggest problems I could in twenty minutes flat (it was only a four page paper) and then sent back my critique. In less than a minute, I got back an email that said, "I don't think I can fix all that by the time the paper is due. Can I have an extension?" (or words to that effect). Naturally, I said, "no" and "should have sent it in for feedback earlier." Snowflake actually handed in the paper with some of the problem areas corrected... she also looked frazzled as hell and looked vaguely terrified the rest of the semester. That was fun.

      Delete
    3. @Wylodmayer - Brilliant!!! She was hoist on her own petard AND a lesson seemed to be learned - there may have been hope for her, after all...

      Well played!

      Delete
  7. Well, obviously, you're not going to check email before an 8 a.m. class, so you can send a reply after class (if they don't accost you in class) reminding them of your office hours. I just hope none of the messages came with a 'receipt requested" prompt.

    I almost never agree to "look things over" via email. It's just too easy for the students to do (sometimes repeatedly), and too time-consuming for me. I generally suggest a conference, because it's more "efficient" (it is, at least for me, and not only because few of them follow through). Another tactic: tell them to put specific questions (up to a certain limit, say 6) in the email or (better) in the margins of the paper, so you can answer in kind. That makes them actually think about the paper (which of course cuts down the requests considerably) and makes it easier to reply (and one can always bring up another, more global problem if one chooses, but can also say "sorry, I was just paying attention to the places you directed me to, and didn't notice that larger issue" if one misses it/chooses not to engage because one knows there isn't really time for them to fix it). Of course, even such carefully-directed queries need to be sent with a reasonable amount of lead time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Repost with less error? LOL.

      I am teaching in a field of hamster science, and I communicate ideas well verbally and in writing. My students and advisees at my SLAC will often come to me, not only for recommendation letters, but also for help with their personal statements or CVs.
      I do not mind helping these students (and future alumni), but my time is limited. I eventually stumbled on a technological solution that maximizes my impact: ask the student to turn on the recording function on their cell phone while I verbally share how to improve their writing.

      Delete
  8. I read homework and assignments via email all the time. So few take me up on it, I don't mind. And I really see huge improvement when students take advantage of that.

    But I do set a deadline. "For projects due on Mondays, the last time I'll review material is Friday at 8 pm." Something like that. Then I can rest easy knowing I've offered.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Sunday night, at 11PM, I got an email too (HW due Monday 10AM). "I got started on that problem and took a picture [attaches large file with bad phone pic, probably from a bar]. Can you tell me if I am on the right track?"

    I'm all about the students: "It's wrong for two reasons: reason A and reason B. But here is an idea to help you solve it" [fairly complete outline attached.] Do I get a than-you email back? Noooo...

    But next morning, as I walked into class, so chipper: "Oh, thanks for that email. Can you explain how to do that problem? " So that's how I started the class. I'm actually happy when they care enough to ask (I monitor my email the night before); mostly they just turn the HW in with only the trivial questions halfway done.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yeah, I had essays due today at 11 a.m. and had three that were sent to me at 4:12 a.m., 7:30 a.m., and 10:14 a.m. I simply responded with: "The campus writing center has tutors available to help with this level of work. Be sure to seek their help in the future, since there is no way the Writing Lab is going to open in time for you to make any substantial changes."

    I'm all for helping students who plan ahead and seek my help in advance. I won't, however, enable students who wait until the last minute and then expect me to "fix" things for them because they procrastinated.

    ReplyDelete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.