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[polly_mer]

Am I the only one who has students printing assignments in the classroom during class?  Yes, there are computers in this classroom and, yes, there's a printer in the back, but they are for use for work done in class to be turned in at the end of class.  You are supposed to bring your printed assignments with you to class, not disrupt the first ten minutes of class with the chatter of the printer because you couldn't be bothered to follow instructions.

I would be more sympathetic to the printing issue if (a) I didn't know how many printing facilities we have around campus, (b) considered printing expenses to be a reasonable college-attendance expectation, and (c) weren't old enough to have spent hours of my life at the computer center waiting for the printouts to be brought from the back room because printouts were only available every half hour during peak times and every two hours during slack times like midnight to 7 am.

I'm with Rowan that if I asked for a hard copy, then I had a good reason for doing so (or maybe a bad reason), but it doesn't matter because that's what I asked for and in the absence of extreme emergency hardship, that's what I will get if you want me to grade it.

[seventhyear]

(c) weren't old enough to have spent hours of my life at the computer center waiting for the printouts to be brought from the back room because printouts were only available every half hour during peak times and every two hours during slack times like midnight to 7 am.

OMG I'd forgotten about doing this!  Or blocked it out.

I actually have listed "$20 for printing on your ID card or access to a working printer" as a required item on my syllabus.

[galactic_hedgehog]

Am I the only one who has students printing assignments in the classroom during class?  Yes, there are computers in this classroom and, yes, there's a printer in the back, but they are for use for work done in class to be turned in at the end of class.  You are supposed to bring your printed assignments with you to class, not disrupt the first ten minutes of class with the chatter of the printer because you couldn't be bothered to follow instructions.

No, but I have had students not pay attention to the lecture because they feverishly working to finish answering the lab questions (which they've usually had a week to do).  I now combat this by requiring the labs to be handed-in at the start of class the day they're due.  After that, penalties start immediately.  I used to have 10% if handed-in by the end of class and 25% per day after that, but I'm thinking of going straight for the 25%.

[polly_mer]

Am I the only one who has students printing assignments in the classroom during class?  Yes, there are computers in this classroom and, yes, there's a printer in the back, but they are for use for work done in class to be turned in at the end of class.  You are supposed to bring your printed assignments with you to class, not disrupt the first ten minutes of class with the chatter of the printer because you couldn't be bothered to follow instructions.

No, but I have had students not pay attention to the lecture because they feverishly working to finish answering the lab questions (which they've usually had a week to do).  I now combat this by requiring the labs to be handed-in at the start of class the day they're due.  After that, penalties start immediately.  I used to have 10% if handed-in by the end of class and 25% per day after that, but I'm thinking of going straight for the 25%.

Are your students good enough at the math to realize that 25% means an A becomes a C and a C becomes an F?

[concordancia]

Am I the only one who has students printing assignments in the classroom during class?  Yes, there are computers in this classroom and, yes, there's a printer in the back, but they are for use for work done in class to be turned in at the end of class.  You are supposed to bring your printed assignments with you to class, not disrupt the first ten minutes of class with the chatter of the printer because you couldn't be bothered to follow instructions.

No, but I have had students not pay attention to the lecture because they feverishly working to finish answering the lab questions (which they've usually had a week to do).  I now combat this by requiring the labs to be handed-in at the start of class the day they're due.  After that, penalties start immediately.  I used to have 10% if handed-in by the end of class and 25% per day after that, but I'm thinking of going straight for the 25%.

Are your students good enough at the math to realize that 25% means an A becomes a C and a C becomes an F?

All of my assignments are due at the start of class, 10 minutes before class for electronic submissions. I got tired of students skipping class to do assignments, then wandering in late.

[galactic_hedgehog]

Am I the only one who has students printing assignments in the classroom during class?  Yes, there are computers in this classroom and, yes, there's a printer in the back, but they are for use for work done in class to be turned in at the end of class.  You are supposed to bring your printed assignments with you to class, not disrupt the first ten minutes of class with the chatter of the printer because you couldn't be bothered to follow instructions.

No, but I have had students not pay attention to the lecture because they feverishly working to finish answering the lab questions (which they've usually had a week to do).  I now combat this by requiring the labs to be handed-in at the start of class the day they're due.  After that, penalties start immediately.  I used to have 10% if handed-in by the end of class and 25% per day after that, but I'm thinking of going straight for the 25%.

Are your students good enough at the math to realize that 25% means an A becomes a C and a C becomes an F?

Well, there are no letter grades until the final grade, so it's all numerical.  Perhaps I should follow Alan's lead and put down some sort of grade up-to-that-point.

[polly_mer]

Am I the only one who has students printing assignments in the classroom during class?  Yes, there are computers in this classroom and, yes, there's a printer in the back, but they are for use for work done in class to be turned in at the end of class.  You are supposed to bring your printed assignments with you to class, not disrupt the first ten minutes of class with the chatter of the printer because you couldn't be bothered to follow instructions.

No, but I have had students not pay attention to the lecture because they feverishly working to finish answering the lab questions (which they've usually had a week to do).  I now combat this by requiring the labs to be handed-in at the start of class the day they're due.  After that, penalties start immediately.  I used to have 10% if handed-in by the end of class and 25% per day after that, but I'm thinking of going straight for the 25%.

Are your students good enough at the math to realize that 25% means an A becomes a C and a C becomes an F?

All of my assignments are due at the start of class, 10 minutes before class for electronic submissions. I got tired of students skipping class to do assignments, then wandering in late.

My syllabus is now 14 pages long with a checklist of "Things you absolutely positively must know right now!" sheet because of this kind of thinking and an inability to read all the first 13 pages of details in a timely manner (what, I don't have to commit to a class until the second week of school so why are you on my case about all that first day exposition of expectations?).  Maybe it's just me or the schools that I attended or tunnel vision on my part while being a student, but doggone it students should do something reasonable until told of a particular professor's preferences or just fail quietly like students did when I was a student.

Get off my lawn, you young whippersnappers!

<on preview>

Well, there are no letter grades until the final grade, so it's all numerical.  Perhaps I should follow Alan's lead and put down some sort of grade up-to-that-point.

Yep, because they definitely can't do that kind of hard math of adding everything up and dividing to compare the number to the letter grade they want.

[nocurving]

Am I the only one who has students printing assignments in the classroom during class?  Yes, there are computers in this classroom and, yes, there's a printer in the back, but they are for use for work done in class to be turned in at the end of class.  You are supposed to bring your printed assignments with you to class, not disrupt the first ten minutes of class with the chatter of the printer because you couldn't be bothered to follow instructions.

No, but I have had students not pay attention to the lecture because they feverishly working to finish answering the lab questions (which they've usually had a week to do).  I now combat this by requiring the labs to be handed-in at the start of class the day they're due.  After that, penalties start immediately.  I used to have 10% if handed-in by the end of class and 25% per day after that, but I'm thinking of going straight for the 25%.

Are your students good enough at the math to realize that 25% means an A becomes a C and a C becomes an F?

Even if you write out how their grades will be calculated, you'd still get some who cannot do the math.  In my syllabus, I've written, 90% from exams and final, 10% from homework.  I've had students email me after their grades have been posted saying they think they should have gotten a higher letter grade.  Turned out they're calculating their scores based on their exam scores and adding the 10% from the homework.  After a couple of similar emails, I had to emphasize that "the homework are 10% of your grade, not bonus points".

[cc_alan]

Well, there are no letter grades until the final grade, so it's all numerical.  Perhaps I should follow Alan's lead and put down some sort of grade up-to-that-point.

Yep, because they definitely can't do that kind of hard math of adding everything up and dividing to compare the number to the letter grade they want.

Well... weighting can complicate things. However, it amuses me that my students do far more complicated tasks in class every week than calculate their grade and yet it was such a challenge to many of them.

The important thing is that it minimizes my frustration levels. A happy Alan is a relaxed Alan.

The guy I referenced above

[mended_drum]

This is not really unusual in content, but I thought that the way she phrased it deserved note:

"Dr. mended_drum,  I know that you don't like it when students ask you to change their grades and that you never say yes, but is there anything I could do to get a B as my final grade instead of the C?  I just really want the B."

What I wanted to reply:  "When you write that 'you know' something, what exactly does that mean?"

What I actually wrote:  "I'd be happy to double check the calculations to make sure there was no error in recording your grade.  I cannot, however, record any grade other than the one that you earned."

[pedanterast]

"I just really want the B."

Dear student:

Try this:  want in one hand and spit in the other hand, then let me know which hand fills up first.

Sincerely,

Prof

[mountainguy]

Magic math strikes again . . .

[polly_mer]

What I wanted to reply:  "When you write that 'you know' something, what exactly does that mean?"

I often want to write or say this in response to students who make clear that "know" seems to mean "I need filler before I make an absurd request".

[conjugate]

It's nice to be in that season where few if any student e-mails come in.  I just have a few of the "please e-mail me the minute you know my Test 2 grade" and a "Hi you don't know me but I'm going to be in your class in two months and I want a copy of the syllabus when you have time and please use this e-mail instead of my official school e-mail address" for a class that I haven't even written the syllabus for yet.

And I reported the spam from the post that you won't see after early Monday (I suspect).

[octoprof]

Not even advanced enough to begin the email with "Hey

Not even advanced enough to come up with an original way to spam the forums.