Friday, May 13, 2005
More Student Trials
Well, no more e-mails from that student. I guess she just accepted the fact. This was not as bad as another student I had, who failed my class one semester and then took me again the next. He was an athlete and needed my class to retain eligibility. He wrote me an e-mail apologizing for the previous grade and promised to do better. I thought it was very mature of him to own up to his failing and looked forward to having him in class because, when he was there, discussion was lively.
So everything was fine until he didn't turn in a couple of assignments. He was then gone for about a week and gave me a story about a dead relative. Then, when he did show up he would sleep to the point of snoring and I would have to slam the podium or get someone to nudge him. I understand jocks, I was one in high school, and I think they sometimes get bad press in college. Their entire lives are structured, they are up very early to very late with someone telling them where to go at all times. But I had so many athletes miss the first few minutes of my class because of lifting, drills, etc. that I began to ignore them and went on without them with the rest of class and refused to back up and go over stuff with them when they did show up. Our classes are only 50 minutes, and to miss 10 or 15 of that is pretty serious all told.
So this guy then sends me an e-mail during finals week saying that he knows he didn't turn in one assignment (it was two) and he expects it to be dropped. I don't "drop" grades like other teachers. I don't understand dropping the lowest grade on an assignment. To me that's an artificial inflation at the end. Plus, again, there were two grades missed, not one. Also, everyone in the class has to attend workshops outside of class, a minimum of 6, in order to receive 20 percent of their grade. He didn't go to one. Not one. So the most he could make in my class is an 80 percent even before figuring in two Fs.
Anyway, the e-mail goes on to say that he thinks he has "about a B" and that if there is a way to push that to an A, then I "need" to give him extra credit to do it. Amazing. As I've said previously, I don't know if it's the culture we live in that tells kids they are entitled to anything, but the balls of this kid just astounded me.
Finally, the e-mail ends by saying that if he doesn't get this grade, he may not be back next year. Big incentive for me.
This was one kid I didn't bother to respond to and duly affixed an F onto his official transcript.
It's not as if our college even has good teams, by the way.
Moving on, I can't read one thing at a time. I have reader's ADD I guess. So yesterday I was reading Tess by Thomas Hardy for my comps next semester, the newest Sports Illustrated and The Essential Jack the Ripper at the same time. Going back and forth, just in the period I spent reading them, the word "freak" showed up in them all. Just a weird coincidence.
Rachel, what was that thing in the bowl? Even ET said she wasn't sure. I'm sure it's the obvious answer, but maybe:
"Rectangular and only those with a vagina would have one"
A Madonna cassette tape?
An empty Whitman's Sampler?
A coupon for Bath and Body Works?
An enrollment card for TCC's pottery-making class?
The book He's Just Not That Into You?
A renewal notice for Cosmo?
I can't think of anything else chauvinistic enough at the moment.
So everything was fine until he didn't turn in a couple of assignments. He was then gone for about a week and gave me a story about a dead relative. Then, when he did show up he would sleep to the point of snoring and I would have to slam the podium or get someone to nudge him. I understand jocks, I was one in high school, and I think they sometimes get bad press in college. Their entire lives are structured, they are up very early to very late with someone telling them where to go at all times. But I had so many athletes miss the first few minutes of my class because of lifting, drills, etc. that I began to ignore them and went on without them with the rest of class and refused to back up and go over stuff with them when they did show up. Our classes are only 50 minutes, and to miss 10 or 15 of that is pretty serious all told.
So this guy then sends me an e-mail during finals week saying that he knows he didn't turn in one assignment (it was two) and he expects it to be dropped. I don't "drop" grades like other teachers. I don't understand dropping the lowest grade on an assignment. To me that's an artificial inflation at the end. Plus, again, there were two grades missed, not one. Also, everyone in the class has to attend workshops outside of class, a minimum of 6, in order to receive 20 percent of their grade. He didn't go to one. Not one. So the most he could make in my class is an 80 percent even before figuring in two Fs.
Anyway, the e-mail goes on to say that he thinks he has "about a B" and that if there is a way to push that to an A, then I "need" to give him extra credit to do it. Amazing. As I've said previously, I don't know if it's the culture we live in that tells kids they are entitled to anything, but the balls of this kid just astounded me.
Finally, the e-mail ends by saying that if he doesn't get this grade, he may not be back next year. Big incentive for me.
This was one kid I didn't bother to respond to and duly affixed an F onto his official transcript.
It's not as if our college even has good teams, by the way.
Moving on, I can't read one thing at a time. I have reader's ADD I guess. So yesterday I was reading Tess by Thomas Hardy for my comps next semester, the newest Sports Illustrated and The Essential Jack the Ripper at the same time. Going back and forth, just in the period I spent reading them, the word "freak" showed up in them all. Just a weird coincidence.
Rachel, what was that thing in the bowl? Even ET said she wasn't sure. I'm sure it's the obvious answer, but maybe:
"Rectangular and only those with a vagina would have one"
A Madonna cassette tape?
An empty Whitman's Sampler?
A coupon for Bath and Body Works?
An enrollment card for TCC's pottery-making class?
The book He's Just Not That Into You?
A renewal notice for Cosmo?
I can't think of anything else chauvinistic enough at the moment.
As someone in possession of a vagina (yes, it's mine!), I am wholly offended (pun intended) by the suggestion that I might have a Madonna cassette tape. IF I did, however, the toilet would really be the only suitable place for it. Same with the "He's Just Not That Into You" book. I will, however, take a Whitman's Sampler any day...unless it has been in the toilet.
I think maybe the reason the student said he had about a B or whatever might be because he's such a dumbass that he can't calculate how to come up with his grade. That's why God invented Excel, idiot college kid!
Anywho, Tampax cardboard applicator. When it gets in water and sits a while it unrolls an unknown [by me] shape. One side is white (that part you see, smoother too) the other side is cardboard colored. Shall I demonstrate sometime?
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