I Love My Students ...
… well, most of them anyway.
On Friday, I happened to be walking past the Student Union, and some guys were tossing a Frisbee around. An errant toss brought the disk to me, so I caught it and winged it back toward them. They thought that was pretty neat, and asked me if I played. I told them that I used to play a lot of Ultimate, and the next thing I knew, I was tossing the Frisbee with them. Turns out that they have impromptu games every now and then when the weather’s good, and I now have an invitation to participate. I don’t know when I’ll have the time, but maybe I’ll bring in some suitable clothes, just in case …
I gave exams in two of my classes today, and got unexpected feedback from two different students. Of course, there was the usual moaning about how hard the tests are, but I figure that if students aren’t complaining about how hard I drive them, I’m not doing my job properly.
One young lady, after handing in her exam, told me how hard it was, but then she said that she appreciated it nonetheless. Most teachers, she told me, just give multiple-choice questions, because they’re a lot faster and easier to grade than are essay questions. (Believe me, I know! There are few things I dread more than the prospect of spending the weekend grading test papers. Sure, I could just give multiple-choice tests and be finished with my grading in an hour, but I wouldn’t feel right about it.) “Your tests are a lot harder,” she told me, “but so many science teachers just tell us things; you explain things to us, so we can understand them.” I told her that that’s precisely why I give essay questions; because I want them to understand the material, instead of just memorizing “facts” that will be quickly forgotten.
Another student told me pretty-much the same thing later. He also made a point of saying how much he had to devote to studying for my tests. “Good,” I told him, “I want you to study for my classes.” It’s always nice to get such feedback from students.
Then there’s another matter I’ll have to deal with. There’s a young lady taking my Human Anatomy and Physiology class who, I’m given to understand, is repeating the class, having taken it last year under the previous instructor. Well, unless things change drastically and very soon, she’s going to fail the class under me, too.
The young lady in question has a terrible attendance record. In fact, when she showed up in class today to take the exam, that was the first time I’d seen her in 2 weeks. Naturally, she’s doing very poorly in the class, and she’s going to fail at this rate. She insists that she’s getting class notes from other students, but that’s no substitute for coming to class.
And she has been just as bad about missing labs. Some professors have a “miss 3 labs and you automatically fail the class” rule, and I’m thinking that maybe I should add that to next year’s syllabi. If I had such a rule, she’d have been out some time ago.
When I’ve tried to talk with her about her performance, she has simply said that her grandmother is sick, and that’s why she misses class so often. (Most often, these conversations have been via e-mail, since it’s not like I have had many opportunities to talk with her in person.) She says that she and her family are spending a lot of time with her grandmother at the hospital.
Well, I’m more than sympathetic, but perhaps she should make a decision about where, exactly, her priorities lie. If she really must be spending so much time attending to Grammie in the hospital, then perhaps she should simply withdraw for the semester, rather than get a bunch of “F”s. (I presume she’s doing no better in her other classes, though I could be wrong.)
Anyway, not having much luck getting in touch with the actual student, I called the school’s Retention Counselor and explained the situation. She promised to contact the student and have a frank discussion with her.
So, today I got an e-mail from said student, saying that she’ll be by “sometime” to discuss matters with me.
Hmm.
You know, treating your professor like an employee isn’t a good way to get into his/her good graces.
She did the same thing for the last lab exam. I have 2 different lab sections for this class, and she’s in the first. An hour before the exam, she sent me an e-mail informing me that she would be taking the exam later. Since I was in the lab setting up the exam when she sent the e-mail, I didn’t get it until after the exam was over. Being a decent fellow, however, I informed her that she could take the exam with the second lab section – or not at all.
She had wanted to take it several days later, three days after everyone else in the class had taken it. She hadn’t asked if she could do this, she had told me that that was the way it was going to be. She was mistaken.
If she thought I was going to spend an entire day setting up a lab exam for one person, she was sadly mistaken.
So anyway. I haven’t answered the e-mail yet, but I’ll tell her when I’ll be available, and she can come then, or not at all.
Frankly, I don’t see it as at all likely that she can pass the course at this point. Maybe she can squeak by with a “D,” but if she gets a “D,” she’ll have to take the class over again anyway, since it’s for her major. Perhaps she’d be better off to just cut her losses now and try to get into a better frame of mind for next year. Regardless, we’re going to have a discussion regarding the subjects of personal responsibility and setting of priorities, among other things.
In a more cheerful vein, there’s a fairly large patch of more or less barren ground alongside the Science Building that has been bugging me for some time. I floated the idea that maybe it’d be neat to clean it up, roto-till it, and try to plant a wildflower garden. My colleagues thought that was an excellent idea. I’ve never tried to design a wildflower garden, but I’m thinking it sounds like a fun project. So, this summer I’ll probably start cleaning the site up and testing the soil to find out what its pH is. Then I’ll know which native wildflowers might be able to grow there. With that information in hand, I can start planning the garden.
I’m thinking that it’d be neat to plant a couple of small trees (maybe a Flowering Dogwood and/or an Eastern Redbud), with ground cover such as native violets and other native wildflowers. Maybe we could put a park bench in one corner and a slate path. It could prove to be both a pleasant retreat and educational too.
I’m looking forward to the project! I imagine it’ll be a bit of trial-and-error, but hopefully it’ll turn into something to be proud of.
Cheers,
Michael
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“The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.” -- Socrates
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