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[rowan1]

warning - bit of a rant

I have had it with my senior level history class - 1/2 of them don't manage to make it on Fridays.  Really - the class is at 10 am so they don't have the excuse that it is too early.

The attendance policy is "miss 25% of class you get an F"  about a fourth of them are past the halfway point on that and we are not even at the midterm.

I have sent the class an email regarding attendance, I have discussed it in class.  I am now done - if they fail they fail.

Revenge will lie in the fact that on Fridays I often do the preview to the next chapter where I discuss the philosophical, social, artistic, and political events that lay the foundation for the theatre work.  I think that a good number of test questions will be drawn from those lectures.

I think I am especially irritated today because I was at rehearsal till after 11:30 last night working with the lighting crew and tech crew - actors left at 10:30.  I got to my office at 7:30 am to finish my prep for today's brilliant  lecture (Marx and Darwin and Queen Victoria) - I would have loved to sleep in. 

Grumble grumble, damn kids, mutter mutter, wanders off to find coffee.

[missemily]

My freshman level class is pulling the same stunt, and our class meets shortly after noon. Plenty of time to pull oneself together for class after a late night out.

In this class I give an unspecified number of quizzes. The easy quizzes (sometimes "invisible quizzes") are now given on Fridays. Extra help on upcoming assignments is provided then, too. Too bad for those who aren't there.

It's one thing for freshmen and sophomores to behave this way, but seniors? Geez.

[qrypt]

Uh-oh -- does this mean I should have gone to my office today?

[_touchedbyanoodle_]

Mondays are the days that my 8am composition students aren't showing. I had 3 one morning, out of 15. It's frustrating, yes, but I keep telling myself that having less to grade is always a good thing.

I just wish I were cynical enough to believe it. Why must I care?!

Anyway, I get it.

[john_proctor]

This looks like a job for In-Class-Reading-Quiz-Every-Friday Man!

[cc_alan]

I'm here!

<whine>

Can I have extra credit since I showed up? Can I borrow a pencil so I can write notes? Can I "borrow" some paper so I can write the notes on something?

And... wait a minute... my cell rang...

<texts for the rest of class>

lol

Alan

[goldenapple]

When I was an undergrad, I had a class which you failed if you were absent 4 times or more. I still remember the day the instructor went through the roll and said, "Allison? Is Allison here? No? Allison just failed the class." That sort of thing makes an impression.

[lousia]

I'm jealous that other people have more than 50% attendance on days other than Friday.

"But it was snowing and cold!"  You chose to attend school in a place that has 8 months of winter, an annual snowfall of more than six feet, and has a name that is the opposite of Warmville.  Didn't any of that tip you off that we are hardy people who laugh at such foolishness of a windchill of 0 F with a mere two inches of snow that stopped falling *hours* ago.

Those who showed up today saw half the answers to Monday's test (they don't know it yet, but they did).  I can't wait to hear the whining and smackdown that will occur on Wednesday.

[scotia]

I had a graduate student suggest that the reason for his/her (the forms are anonymous) poor attendance last semester was that my required 9.30 am class was "too early in the morning". Poor little thing. Given s/he is studying for a 'professional' qualification I fear the real world will come as a bit of a nasty shock, always assuming s/he passed (many didn't).

I also had two other students say that they could not get to class because of jobs, which flouts regulations that stipulate that students are only allowed to work a limited number of hours on the condition that it does not affect attendance at classes. But doubtless they thought the rules did not apply to them. My colleague has just taught a Friday afternoon class to the same cohort of students and had poor attendance. Plainly rowan1's students are practicing to become our graduate students. (It has been a bad day, warmed only by the discovery that some of the good, hardworking students have passed their degrees and others are well on the way to doing so. Unfortunately, it is the other students who currently take a disproportionate amount of my time).

[yellowtractor]

Sure, they're optional!  They're always optional.

Just make sure your syllabus makes clear the means by which passing is optional, too.

I lie awake at night agonizing over many student situations, but not those which involve absences from class or failures to turn in assignments.  Those are easy.

[bibliologos]

Just make sure your syllabus makes clear the means by which passing is optional, too.

Oooh. Can I use this as my sig line?

[yellowtractor]

Just make sure your syllabus makes clear the means by which passing is optional, too.

Oooh. Can I use this as my sig line?

Sure.  But I'm being serious.  If there's one thing I hammer into my students, procedurally, it's that they are adults.  At the college level, it's about choice.  You chose this class, or you chose this degree program that requires this class.  Here is the syllabus, here are the requirements.  You can choose to complete them, or you can choose not to.

[airball]

Did I write this?

I'm going to bring the hammer down starting next week. I usually don't track attendance, but they've earned it.

airball

[cc_alan]

Just make sure your syllabus makes clear the means by which passing is optional, too.

Oooh. Can I use this as my sig line?

Sure.  But I'm being serious.  If there's one thing I hammer into my students, procedurally, it's that they are adults.  At the college level, it's about choice.  You chose this class, or you chose this degree program that requires this class.  Here is the syllabus, here are the requirements.  You can choose to complete them, or you can choose not to.

Effin' A. Sing that personal responsibility!

You don't want to do it? Then don't do it. Do something else that you want to do.

Alan

[bibliologos]

Yeah, one of the things I struggle with is the culture of my place that says: these are adults, adults have complicated lives, faculty should be understanding of these complications.  OK.  I get it, my life is complicated too.  But there's a line, and I'm not sure it's a fine line, between being understanding and being taken advantage of....