Oh for Pete's sake... I'm going to have to flunk one of my students unless she relents and takes an incomplete. Sigh. She's done one of 7 assignments, has two more fair sized ones and a presentation to go, and while she insists she is going to do her best to crank through everything in the next three weeks, I sincerely doubt she can. Her history in the program is full of this same sort of behavior. She also insists that she WILL NOT do any coursework past the last day of class. Well that makes it kind of hard for me to work with her, you know? She's such a nice woman, too. Bother.
I did tell the librarian, who has STILL not put up a few of the readings for the last couple of classes, that I got dinged on my evals as a result of the electronic readings fiasco. She said she felt badly, and I confess I was thinking, "well you SHOULD, dammit!" Next term (assuming I teach - now my confirmation has been pushed out to next week) I am going to require a reader. I love our librarian to death; she can find absolutely anything if it exists, and she goes above and beyond to be available. Apparently she has a weak area or two as well though.
So I'm wondering, is there anywhere else my first class is going to be cursed? I think I turned things around with the students pretty well this week and they seemed happy with me. I had to completely rework their major assignment thanks to our online library being down, so they were pleased about that. I also agreed to meet half an hour earlier so we could all go home at 8:30, which is good for me too. The audio in the room didn't work so my fun videos to alleviate the boredom of the lectures crashed, but I think it was still fine.
I was tempted, but bit my tongue over the 'we have way too much reading' complaint. The most I've required was two chapters and one journal article, and usually less. This week, in just ONE of my four classes, I have to read 7 journal articles, averaging 25 pages each, and two heavy chapters. HA! Whine about my reading assignments indeed...
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4 comments:
I have to say that I can't stand whiny students. Don't complain...do the work/reading, don't do it and fail, or drop/withdraw; those are the options...pick one! :P This weekend I have to read 70 pages of "Capital: volume one", Karl Marx, plus "Communist Manifesto", Marx again. Write a response paper to both... all due Monday morning. I also have to finish operationalizing my concepts, find 4 journal articles (and review them), and begin preparing questions for interviews...all Due Tuesday morning in Research methods. And I don't even want to talk about Microbiology...what I have to do there makes the above look like nothing at all! If all I had to do was read a couple chapters...I would be one very happy camper!
I can only imagine what flunking a student feels like, but sometimes you gotta do what you need to do especially since she is not willing to work past the last day of class. It's just arrogance to make demands when she's the one asking for leniency.
I think I am going to get some push back when I assign more readings after the midterm. It is for their benefit, yet they fight it. ugh.
You should have seen my students after they took my midterm. I really wonder when so many people care more about a grade than actually learning. I'll spare you the rant here, but I blogged about it a couple weeks ago.
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