Saturday, July 9, 2016

Snowflake Mail. From Cindy.

Good evening.

I'm sorry that I am e-mailing you this late. I just checked my grade and saw that I did very poorly on the midterm. I scored a 30%. Is there any extra credit opportunities I can utilize either this week or next to raise my grade? I'm hoping to end the semester with at least a C but sometimes I feel like I'm not doing that well on the homework too. 

I do the practice homework assignments and it makes sense, or if it doesn't I redo it. 

Thank you for your time. I'm sorry again that this e-mail is being sent so late in the night.

24 comments:

  1. Emailing me in the middle of the night is unforgivable!
    You fail!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Once when I was in the navy, some yutz who liked me woke me up in the middle of the night to say good-bye, because he'd decided to desert. I said, "I'm turning you in!" He said, "What for?! Deserting?" I said, "No, for WAKING ME UP."

      Once, after having told that story at a dinner party with other college faculty, I was told, "You know, relatively few professors can tell colorful stories like that..."

      Delete
  2. There wasn't a name attached to this e-mail, either.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow. A real intellectual giant there, Cindy. When they graduate, start work and make a mistake, do they think their bosses will give them a chance for extra credit?

      Obviously, students that ask for extra credit are struggling. They can't do the work we give them, so the solution is extra work? Sigh.

      Delete
    2. Just as disturbing is when students can't do an assignment, and simply write, "This was confusing." I write, "This won't impress a boss in any job you might get after graduation."

      Students often react resentfully when I tell them there's no extra credit in my courses, because they are used to having it. It's very common in high schools. Still, saying, "Extra credit is for high school, not college" doesn't work, because it's all too common in college. Terry McGlynn has an excellent article how "Extra Credit is Unfair to Students" on his Small Pond Science blog, here:

      https://smallpondscience.com/2013/08/29/extra-credit-is-unfair-to-students/

      Delete
    3. "There wasn't a name attached to this e-mail, either. "

      A student at a part-time gig I once did created an anonymous mail address to ask for extra credit.

      Not sure how s/he thought that would pan out, as eventually s/he would have to tell me who s/he was....

      Delete
    4. If you accepted, she would have told you her name. If you refused, you wouldn't have been able to know which student argued with you. This may also have been a collective effort. If you said yes, several students would have asked for the extra credit.

      Delete
  3. Some snowflakes are incensed when you tell them there there is "no extra credit in this class." For others their shoulders just slump a bit. It's in the syllabus, by the way.

    I have always wanted to tell them that I could give them an "extra credit" assignment, but the grade on that assignment will only replace the grade on the assignment they screwed up... even if it is LOWER! MUWAHAHAHAHAHAH!

    ReplyDelete
  4. No extra credit, but extra tuition.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Do you really think professors are who set tuition? If you do, then how come most of them these days are adjuncts?

      Delete
  5. "Dear anonymous student,

    Allegedly, your situation, for you, would be concurrently improved if I had two hundred dollars in my back pocket right now."

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sharing time!
    Now, I should say that I feel some sympathy for this student's obvious befuddlement. I also believe that meaningful, living-wage work should be available to ordinary people, not just those exceptional candidates with whatever magical blend of skills, training, experience, and low self-esteem employers are looking for at the moment. Not everyone is a blazing genius, and that's okay.

    But.

    Whoever told this young woman to Follow Her Dreams has a lot to answer for.

    I have 57% in annotated biliography, 57.14% in iclickers, 58.18% in final, 97.6% in class participation, and 77.14% in the midterm totaling to 347.06%...does this mean I passed with a C or better. Also, could you double check my final. I don't think the grade is right. I hate those scantron things because for some odd reason it puts me really low.


    Her major?
    Accounting.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I understood a weighted average in 4th grade, not long after I'd learned fractions. I suppose if one never learns fractions, a weighted average could look like sleight of hand. I then explain, "No, this is worth this much, and this is worth THIS much..."

      Delete
    2. I now have an explanation/demonstration of a weighted average on my syllabus (which is not as long as yours, Frod, but it's getting there).

      Delete
    3. I have given up on trying to explain the weighted percentages in my class -- and they're so, so simple. Half of their grade comes from their research project, which is two separate documents: an annotated bibliography and a specifically directed research essay. Getting them to understand this alone is challenging. Some of them never figure out that the annotated bibliography and the research essay are two separate documents -- even though they are not assigned at the same time, have different assignment instruction sheets, and have completely different deadlines. We also take extensive time separately for instruction for each, and I post examples of each for them online.

      Five percent of their grades in my writing classes comes from journals and other low-stakes "points" work, like small quizzes and in-class writing assignments. Five percent. They submit their journals online and the percentage of the journals they submit is tracked online automatically. It's disturbing how many of my students equate this percentage of their five percent for points to their total grade. "But it says I have 90 percent online!" I can't tell you how many times I've attempted to explain this to students.

      Honestly, I'm baffled by their complete and total inability to follow directions and figure basic percentages.

      Delete
    4. I think it's analogous to their inability to write a simple bibliography entry, working from a model. They're used to it being done by a machine (algorithm), and so just don't see the need to do it themselves (even though the algorithm doesn't work perfectly -- or, rather, the databases from which it's drawing may be incomplete, incorrect, or just plain incompatible -- and catching/correcting any mistakes is really quite a simple job).

      I'm glad to know some other teachers haven't yet given in an moved to a total-points-for-the-semester system. I probably will eventually, but it seems comparatively inflexible (e.g. when one has to adjust to a snow day), and the weighted average JUST ISN'T THAT COMPLICATED. Ahem.

      Delete
  7. I'm guessing this student sleeps with hir phone by her pillow, with all alerts turned on, and doesn't imagine that anyone would do anything else (or not install their work email on their phone at all; actually, I have mine installed, just in case, in a separate app, but almost never check it).

    Just another case of how all the technologies are blending together: emails read more like texts when composed on a phone, and now emails, which used to be a way to communicate an idea to someone asynchronously, without bothering them, to be answered at their convenience, come with an expectation of immediate reply from some people, and are presumed to wake recipients up in the middle of the night, as phone calls used to do.

    And then there are those of us with this odd vestigial sense that long distance calls should be made late in the evening, or at least after 5 p.m., to save money. Try explaining that to a 20-year-old.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. > Try explaining that to a 20-year-old.

      Even in my mid forties that's kind of a nostalgic thing. It was a big deal when I was quite young, but the dissolution of Ma Bell came while I was in middle-school and the differential dropped rapidly thereafter.

      Delete
    2. It was still a thing when I was in college and even early grad school (or maybe my father, who supplied the phone card, and sometimes called himself, just wasn't that good a shopper). I still think that way for a moment when I pick up the landline; less of a problem with the cellphone (even though I have a pay as you go plan, but I never use up the minimum minutes I pay for per month anyway).

      Delete
  8. Our first summer session ended at the end of June, and at the end of that session, I made it clear that students wouldn't be able to receive their research projects and final essay exams until fall semester. Because so few students want to pick up this final work, I also made it clear that I'd need advance notice in the fall to provide comments on the final work; providing feedback on work that nearly 100 percent of the time winds up in recycling in about a year is useless.

    I made it clear to students -- through our online site, by email, and several times in class -- that they'd have to email me during fall semester if they wanted their work back. I made it clear, likewise, that I would be completely unavailable after the first week of my summer break.

    Lo and behold, the first day of the second week of summer break, I received a request from Queen Clueless for her work "as soon as you can get it to me, with complete comments." For her email efforts, she received my automated vacation response. She sent another email and received another automated response. She sent another one ... and finally said she'd contact me in the fall.

    Yes, I did check my email to see how it would play out. No, I didn't answer any of her email.

    ReplyDelete
  9. And another thing ...

    The issue of snowflake email is infuriating because the majority of the email I receive is the result of students not following directions or seeking information from me directly that they already have through the syllabus or instruction, which I post online. There are some grade-grubbing emails and some emails that tell me that students won't be in class and some emails asking for last-minute extensions -- and each of these is a subset of the email that indicates an inability to follow directions, since each of those things is addressed in the syllabus and not one solution for each is to email me.

    Our contract now states, though, that we must respond to student email and voicemail within two business days of having received it. That means that if you have well over 100 Hamster Composition students, as I often do, literally hours of a single day may be spent responding to really, really, really, really stupid student email and voicemail messages.

    Fortunately, this only applies to semesters in which one is teaching. I am not teaching this semester -- hence the radio silence for Queen Clueless.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Are you allowed to reply "I believe you'll find the answer to your question in [fill in course document]. Please re-read it, and let me know if you have any questions." Because I'd be very tempted to do that.

      I suppose you could even do an auto-reply (or perhaps a signature line, allowing you to hit "reply" and then "send") during term time. But it wouldn't do to send the signature line to the Chief Officer for Student Appeasement, I suppose.

      Delete
    2. Are you allowed to reply "I believe you'll find the answer to your question in [fill in course document]. Please re-read it, and let me know if you have any questions." Because I'd be very tempted to do that.

      I am, and I do.

      Delete

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