next »

[11181967]

Situation: I am proctoring the final exam for my Chem 2 class. The students are finishing and handing in their papers. One student comes up to me to turn in his exam on which he had worked for the full two hours allotted.

Student: Are you Professor X ?
Me: No, I'm Professor Y
Student: Is this the final for Chem 1 ?
Me: No it's the final exam for Chem 2 !
Student: Is this the final for Professor X's class?
Me: No, it is the final exam for my class.
Student: So this wasn't the chem 1 final?
Me:  No, it was the chem 2 final!

It turns out that the student went to the wrong room (my room)which is a story in and of itself.  It was odd enough that he didn't notice the course number and my name in big, bold font on the top page.   The fact that he worked for two hours on material that was unfamiliar to him continued the oddity.  The fact that he did not know what Professor X (his class' professor) looked like made it over the top for me.

[comp_queen]

However, I'd still say that the best response would be "That's up to you," and I maintain that giving a direct rather than an evasive answer to a direct (if dumb) question is less frustrating all around and in no way enabling.

Point taken. However, I do get frustrated when upper level students and particularly graduate students cling to the "I think I should do what you tell me to do" mentality, as described by Alan. This is compounded when its week 12 and I'm sleep-deprived.

As a writing teacher, I largely agree.

Just don't become like certain of my grad profs (one, really) who seemed to make a sport out of deliberately misleading students about what was expected on an assignment.

With this one particular prof, I'd stop by office hours with a draft, chat about the paper, and then prof would say, "The paper would benefit from more XYZ.  Start looking with these particular authors, and incorporate XYZ in the paper here, here, and here."  Even when I disagreed, or felt that these suggestions took the project in a direction other than my interests/goals, I would incorporate the suggestions.  Unlike our snowflakes, I understand that in professional situations, you do what the people in charge of you want, as long as it's not illegal or against your personal morals.  Citing recommended authors violates neither my morals nor any laws I know of.

Predictably, comments on the paper would then be on the order of, "Why did you do XYZ?  What was the rational for including XYZ?  Why did you cite these particular authors?"  Um, okay.  Dear prof, do you not remember the hour you spent last week telling me to do these very things?

It made about as much sense as going to a restaurant, ordering a Caesar salad, and then, when the salad arrived, saying to the server, "Why on earth did you bring me a Caesar salad?"

I found this behavior on the prof's part immature and a waste of my time.  Also, it was game playing and abdicating his responsibility to be an intellectual mentor and guide to his students.

[mystictechgal]

So, how'd he do, 111?

(About as well as he'd have done on Professor X's, I imagine, so it probably didn't matter in the long run.)

[case_insensitive]

Situation: I am proctoring the final exam for my Chem 2 class. The students are finishing and handing in their papers. One student comes up to me to turn in his exam on which he had worked for the full two hours allotted.

Student: Are you Professor X ?
Me: No, I'm Professor Y
Student: Is this the final for Chem 1 ?
Me: No it's the final exam for Chem 2 !
Student: Is this the final for Professor X's class?
Me: No, it is the final exam for my class.
Student: So this wasn't the chem 1 final?
Me:  No, it was the chem 2 final!

It turns out that the student went to the wrong room (my room)which is a story in and of itself.  It was odd enough that he didn't notice the course number and my name in big, bold font on the top page.   The fact that he worked for two hours on material that was unfamiliar to him continued the oddity.  The fact that he did not know what Professor X (his class' professor) looked like made it over the top for me.

Perhaps he was being paid to take someone else's final?

[crowie]

Situation: I am proctoring the final exam for my Chem 2 class. The students are finishing and handing in their papers. One student comes up to me to turn in his exam on which he had worked for the full two hours allotted.

Student: Are you Professor X ?
Me: No, I'm Professor Y
Student: Is this the final for Chem 1 ?
Me: No it's the final exam for Chem 2 !
Student: Is this the final for Professor X's class?
Me: No, it is the final exam for my class.
Student: So this wasn't the chem 1 final?
Me:  No, it was the chem 2 final!

It turns out that the student went to the wrong room (my room)which is a story in and of itself.  It was odd enough that he didn't notice the course number and my name in big, bold font on the top page.   The fact that he worked for two hours on material that was unfamiliar to him continued the oddity.  The fact that he did not know what Professor X (his class' professor) looked like made it over the top for me.

Perhaps he was being paid to take someone else's final?

If that's the case he's going to have one unhappy customer on his hands!

[11181967]

Situation: I am proctoring the final exam for my Chem 2 class. The students are finishing and handing in their papers. One student comes up to me to turn in his exam on which he had worked for the full two hours allotted.

Student: Are you Professor X ?
Me: No, I'm Professor Y
Student: Is this the final for Chem 1 ?
Me: No it's the final exam for Chem 2 !
Student: Is this the final for Professor X's class?
Me: No, it is the final exam for my class.
Student: So this wasn't the chem 1 final?
Me:  No, it was the chem 2 final!

It turns out that the student went to the wrong room (my room)which is a story in and of itself.  It was odd enough that he didn't notice the course number and my name in big, bold font on the top page.   The fact that he worked for two hours on material that was unfamiliar to him continued the oddity.  The fact that he did not know what Professor X (his class' professor) looked like made it over the top for me.

Perhaps he was being paid to take someone else's final?

He really was a student in the chem 1 class who obviously never went to class.  Why he bothered to even try to take the final is still a mystery.

[anthroid]

Background:  As chair, I'm backup advisor for all majors in the department (about 500).  Mainly my backup role comes into play over the summer--I can access all majors' transcripts, academic plans, and so forth on the University website and do emergency advising for them (over and above my own 30 or so advisees).

Today:

*ring ring*

Me:  Hello, Dr. Anthroid.
Clueless student:  Hello, I'm Clueless Student.  I've been trying to get in touch with Prof. Wonderful to make an advising appointment, but she hasn't called me back at all and I need to get advisement.  I'm transferring to you all in the spring and I really have to see my advisor.
Me:  Hmmm...that's odd.  Prof. Wonderful adores working with students; I am very surprised she's not being responsive.  What's your name?  I know she's here today; I can make sure she calls you back.
Clueless Student:  I'm Clueless Student.  I really need to see someone soon.
Me:  Sure, I understand.  How long have you been trying to get in touch with Prof. Wonderful?  How many days, I mean?
Clueless Student:  *silence*  ... Oh, about an hour or so.
Me:  *silence*  (incredulously)  An hour????  Look, she's here almost every day, and she's in class right now.  It isn't entirely reasonable to expect her to call you right away.  Why don't you send her an email?  I'm sure she'll respond today.  But giving her an hour isn't exactly....
Clueless Student:  (defensively)  Well, that's what Admissions told me to do when I told them she wouldn't call me back.  They said to call you.
Me:  (with some irritation)  You said she wouldn't call you back after waiting for an hour?  Email her.  I'll email her too.  I'm sure she'll be in touch by the end of the day.  Good luck.

My head hurt for a while after that one.

[profesoracr]

Background:  As chair, I'm backup advisor for all majors in the department (about 500).  Mainly my backup role comes into play over the summer--I can access all majors' transcripts, academic plans, and so forth on the University website and do emergency advising for them (over and above my own 30 or so advisees).

Today:

*ring ring*

Me:  Hello, Dr. Anthroid.
Clueless student:  Hello, I'm Clueless Student.  I've been trying to get in touch with Prof. Wonderful to make an advising appointment, but she hasn't called me back at all and I need to get advisement.  I'm transferring to you all in the spring and I really have to see my advisor.
Me:  Hmmm...that's odd.  Prof. Wonderful adores working with students; I am very surprised she's not being responsive.  What's your name?  I know she's here today; I can make sure she calls you back.
Clueless Student:  I'm Clueless Student.  I really need to see someone soon.
Me:  Sure, I understand.  How long have you been trying to get in touch with Prof. Wonderful?  How many days, I mean?
Clueless Student:  *silence*  ... Oh, about an hour or so.
Me:  *silence*  (incredulously)  An hour????  Look, she's here almost every day, and she's in class right now.  It isn't entirely reasonable to expect her to call you right away.  Why don't you send her an email?  I'm sure she'll respond today.  But giving her an hour isn't exactly....
Clueless Student:  (defensively)  Well, that's what Admissions told me to do when I told them she wouldn't call me back.  They said to call you.
Me:  (with some irritation)  You said she wouldn't call you back after waiting for an hour?  Email her.  I'll email her too.  I'm sure she'll be in touch by the end of the day.  Good luck.

My head hurt for a while after that one.

Wow.  Just, wow.   I'm sure you're thrilled that such a wonderful student is transferring to your school/department. Heh.

[alex51324]

Me, at the beginning of class:  "So we're having the quiz on parallel structure.  Are there any questions before I hand it out?"

Entitled student who was not in class last time: "Yes, I wasn't here, so tell me what I need to know for the quiz."

Me:  "I talked about it for about twenty minutes last time.  I'm not going over it all again right now."

Student:  "No, just tell me what I need to know for the quiz.  Like, what is parallel structure?"

Me:  "Parallel structure is what I talked about last time." 

Student:  "Thanks so much, Alex51324." 

After the

[alex51324]

Whoops, posted that before I was done, and if we have post editing here, I can't find it.

Anyway, student said, "Thanks, Alex51324," in a sarcastic way.

Oddly enough, it didn't occur to the four or five other students who had missed that day (for some reason--attendance has been good otherwise, so I don't know what the problem was) that they could make up for their absence by simply expecting me to re-teach the material that the syllabus made clear would be taught last time and tested this time.  I guess they just aren't quite as clever as Entitled Student. 

Note 1: After the quiz, I did give copies of the parallel structure handouts to all of the absentees, including Entitled Student.

Note 2:  There is other very good evidence Entitled Student is Entitled, not just this one incident. 

[oseph]

This is where you ask a rhetorical question...

"Do you really want me to ask all of your classmates, who were here last time and sat through the entire explanation, to sit through it all over again for your benefit alone?  Do you think that is a good use of their time and money?"

The important thing, however, is not to get in a debate with the entitled student.

[case_insensitive]

This is where you ask a rhetorical question...

"Do you really want me to ask all of your classmates, who were here last time and sat through the entire explanation, to sit through it all over again for your benefit alone?  Do you think that is a good use of their time and money?"

The important thing, however, is not to get in a debate with the entitled student.

I wouldn't even ask it (i.e. not use a question, but rather a statement) but I would probably say something very similar to what oseph suggests.

[frog111]

However, I'd still say that the best response would be "That's up to you," and I maintain that giving a direct rather than an evasive answer to a direct (if dumb) question is less frustrating all around and in no way enabling.

Point taken. However, I do get frustrated when upper level students and particularly graduate students cling to the "I think I should do what you tell me to do" mentality, as described by Alan. This is compounded when its week 12 and I'm sleep-deprived.

As a writing teacher, I largely agree.

Just don't become like certain of my grad profs (one, really) who seemed to make a sport out of deliberately misleading students about what was expected on an assignment.

With this one particular prof, I'd stop by office hours with a draft, chat about the paper, and then prof would say, "The paper would benefit from more XYZ.  Start looking with these particular authors, and incorporate XYZ in the paper here, here, and here."  Even when I disagreed, or felt that these suggestions took the project in a direction other than my interests/goals, I would incorporate the suggestions.  Unlike our snowflakes, I understand that in professional situations, you do what the people in charge of you want, as long as it's not illegal or against your personal morals.  Citing recommended authors violates neither my morals nor any laws I know of.

Predictably, comments on the paper would then be on the order of, "Why did you do XYZ?  What was the rational for including XYZ?  Why did you cite these particular authors?"  Um, okay.  Dear prof, do you not remember the hour you spent last week telling me to do these very things?

It made about as much sense as going to a restaurant, ordering a Caesar salad, and then, when the salad arrived, saying to the server, "Why on earth did you bring me a Caesar salad?"

I found this behavior on the prof's part immature and a waste of my time.  Also, it was game playing and abdicating his responsibility to be an intellectual mentor and guide to his students.

My advisor acted in a similar way, but I found that he was absent minded enough that I only would include his odd ideas if he mentioned them twice or three times, or if he wanted a particular section edited, it got edited only if he redlined it twice.

My 'favorite' conversation was when I was tutoring some physics students who were preparing for an exam in an algebra based physics course, typically taken by biology and pre-med students.

Student:  I don't get problems A D and F.

Me:  Well those are all related to the same concept.  Let's see if we can determine which ideas you are having difficulty understanding.

Student:  I don't want to understand, I just want to know how to get the right answer.

Me:  Look at your formula cheat sheet (Sigh).

[canuckois]

As part of a discussion about gender stereotypes in textbook descriptions of human procreation (i.e., sperm are masculine saviors of the passive, helpless, "damsel-in-distress" egg), I was surprised and, frankly, thrilled that a number of my freshmen students expressed outrage that these implicit stereotypes have worked their way into science.  Some of them wished that they had read the article under discussion as high school students, so they could have started thinking about these issues earlier.  Then a student put her hand up.

Student: I don't think students should have to think in high school.

Me: .....  OK.  Why do you think that?

Student: I just don't think it's right. 

Me: What should students be doing in high school, then?

Student: Trying to get into college.

Me: And that doesn't require thought?

Student: ....  No.

Another Student: But.....we were all in high school 6 months ago.  I don't know about you, but I didn't start thinking 13 weeks ago when college started.

Student: [rather defensively]  I just don't think it's fair to make high school students think about this stuff.

Me: ....  OK.  Moving on....

As potentially horrifying as the exchange was, it warmed my heart to see other students take up the cause of THINKING.  Go students!

[sinenomine]

As part of a discussion about gender stereotypes in textbook descriptions of human procreation (i.e., sperm are masculine saviors of the passive, helpless, "damsel-in-distress" egg), I was surprised and, frankly, thrilled that a number of my freshmen students expressed outrage that these implicit stereotypes have worked their way into science.  Some of them wished that they had read the article under discussion as high school students, so they could have started thinking about these issues earlier.  Then a student put her hand up.

Student: I don't think students should have to think in high school.

Me: .....  OK.  Why do you think that?

Student: I just don't think it's right. 

Me: What should students be doing in high school, then?

Student: Trying to get into college.

Me: And that doesn't require thought?

Student: ....  No.

Another Student: But.....we were all in high school 6 months ago.  I don't know about you, but I didn't start thinking 13 weeks ago when college started.

Student: [rather defensively]  I just don't think it's fair to make high school students think about this stuff.

Me: ....  OK.  Moving on....

As potentially horrifying as the exchange was, it warmed my heart to see other students take up the cause of THINKING.  Go students!

Oh, my -- this is one of the most frightening things I've read in a long while....