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[burnie]

I have but please address the part about not being notified.  If you are trying to teach and we are trying to learn, it is not going to happen if we can't work together. It is one thing if you don't respond to your teacher or try to communicate but it is another if you drop a student out and disallow them access to the class alltogether without any communication. Yes I already emailed the instructor - and I explained to him everything - I have no reason to believe he should think I am 'sand bagging' him in any way shape or form. I have been very honest to the point where I have tried my best to get his help without going into my own personnal issues.  

But he did communicate with you, and re-enrolled you against his best judgement and experience, after the first time.  Your take away from that communication was, "He just kept going on about how is is very strict and how I am not following directions etc.," which you obviously did not take to heart when you failed to meet the requirements of the very next assignment.

You confirmed for him the rule of thumb that a problematic student at the beginning of the semester remains a problematic student.

Book and tuition, $175; life lesson learned, priceless.

I think professors who are accustomed to over-entitled 19-year-olds forget that there are other students out there.

So, you're suggesting that we hold 19 year olds to stricter standards than seasoned professionals? At least a 19 year old can claim to not know any better. What's the OP's excuse? Expecting professors to apply the rules of the classroom differently to one's self than to the rest of the class is the very definition of entitlement.

Yes.  19 year olds haven't had a break in schooling.  After spending time away from school and working in an environment where deadlines are as firm as "hey, when you get a chance can you send me X - email's fine, but go ahead and fax it if that's easier," dealing with a strict assignment schedule and strict rules for submission takes some getting used to.  Which isn't to say that the assignment shouldn't be penalized - give it a zero! - but kicking him out of the class under the circumstances seems severe. 

[prof_smartypants]

I have but please address the part about not being notified.  If you are trying to teach and we are trying to learn, it is not going to happen if we can't work together. It is one thing if you don't respond to your teacher or try to communicate but it is another if you drop a student out and disallow them access to the class alltogether without any communication. Yes I already emailed the instructor - and I explained to him everything - I have no reason to believe he should think I am 'sand bagging' him in any way shape or form. I have been very honest to the point where I have tried my best to get his help without going into my own personnal issues.  

But he did communicate with you, and re-enrolled you against his best judgement and experience, after the first time.  Your take away from that communication was, "He just kept going on about how is is very strict and how I am not following directions etc.," which you obviously did not take to heart when you failed to meet the requirements of the very next assignment.

You confirmed for him the rule of thumb that a problematic student at the beginning of the semester remains a problematic student.

Book and tuition, $175; life lesson learned, priceless.

I think professors who are accustomed to over-entitled 19-year-olds forget that there are other students out there.

So, you're suggesting that we hold 19 year olds to stricter standards than seasoned professionals? At least a 19 year old can claim to not know any better. What's the OP's excuse? Expecting professors to apply the rules of the classroom differently to one's self than to the rest of the class is the very definition of entitlement.

Yes.  19 year olds haven't had a break in schooling.  After spending time away from school and working in an environment where deadlines are as firm as "hey, when you get a chance can you send me X - email's fine, but go ahead and fax it if that's easier," dealing with a strict assignment schedule and strict rules for submission takes some getting used to.  Which isn't to say that the assignment shouldn't be penalized - give it a zero! - but kicking him out of the class under the circumstances seems severe. 

I don't know what kind of business world you worked in, but this is not how deadlines worked in any of the fields I worked in prior to grad school (publishing; law; architecture).

[burnie]

I have but please address the part about not being notified.  If you are trying to teach and we are trying to learn, it is not going to happen if we can't work together. It is one thing if you don't respond to your teacher or try to communicate but it is another if you drop a student out and disallow them access to the class alltogether without any communication. Yes I already emailed the instructor - and I explained to him everything - I have no reason to believe he should think I am 'sand bagging' him in any way shape or form. I have been very honest to the point where I have tried my best to get his help without going into my own personnal issues.  

But he did communicate with you, and re-enrolled you against his best judgement and experience, after the first time.  Your take away from that communication was, "He just kept going on about how is is very strict and how I am not following directions etc.," which you obviously did not take to heart when you failed to meet the requirements of the very next assignment.

You confirmed for him the rule of thumb that a problematic student at the beginning of the semester remains a problematic student.

Book and tuition, $175; life lesson learned, priceless.

I think professors who are accustomed to over-entitled 19-year-olds forget that there are other students out there.

So, you're suggesting that we hold 19 year olds to stricter standards than seasoned professionals? At least a 19 year old can claim to not know any better. What's the OP's excuse? Expecting professors to apply the rules of the classroom differently to one's self than to the rest of the class is the very definition of entitlement.

Yes.  19 year olds haven't had a break in schooling.  After spending time away from school and working in an environment where deadlines are as firm as "hey, when you get a chance can you send me X - email's fine, but go ahead and fax it if that's easier," dealing with a strict assignment schedule and strict rules for submission takes some getting used to.  Which isn't to say that the assignment shouldn't be penalized - give it a zero! - but kicking him out of the class under the circumstances seems severe. 

I don't know what kind of business world you worked in, but this is not how deadlines worked in any of the fields I worked in prior to grad school (publishing; law; architecture).

Every field I've worked in has deadlines and DEADLINES.  If your house burns down, most deadlines are negotiable and most people would be understanding.  Goodness knows, I've watched our department come to a screeching halt with no complaints because someone had a baby. 

When there are DEADLINES (the paper won't go to press, the court is ruling on this date) and your house burns down you find a way to get it done, but usually have colleagues who can step in and help while you deal with work while you take care of the burned down house (and even judges can allow continuances if situations merit them)

For a non-trad, a 5 point assignment the second week of class probably doesn't feel like a DEADLINE.  We treat them as such because we have schedules to keep, but understanding their comparative experience and not kicking them out of the class for missing a small assignment because they were dealing with a house fire feels like a no-brainer to me. 

[polly_mer]

Burnie,

I appreciate your restraint, so I will likewise try to be restrained.

I agree that a house fire is a major thing and a legitimate reason to miss an assignment.  I agree that everyone sometimes messes up and misses a deadline.  However, my experience with students who have a string of any-one-of-these-things-could-have-happened-to-anyone occurences leads me to be pretty quick on the go-do-something-else-this-term-and-try-again-at-a-later-date advice.  I agree that two things isn't necessarily always the limit.  Heaven knows that I have needed fifth and even tenth chances at some points in my life.  However, I also have spent enough time with good rationalizers (including myself) to have very little truck with "Oh, that mess-up didn't count because ... just like this one doesn't count because ... so really, I haven't used up any of my N chances".

However, let's look at this from an instructor view to see if the penalty was too harsh.  How many assignments are in the course?  I purposely structure my courses that are entry-level to have approximately eleventy-zillion chances because I know that adjustment to college and my courses can be difficult.  If students need twenty chances, then the students can have them with no difficulty to me because I've structured my courses that way since the goal of those classes is learning through trial-and-error.  I absolutely can enter that string of zeros for the low-stakes assignments and hope that the student steps up for the high-stakes assignments.

However, that's not the only legitimate way to structure a course.  For example, I structure other courses to have only a handful of higher-stake assessments (10% of the grade or more for each one) and the assessments are scaffolded.  Missing two of those assessments means with, very high probability, that the student cannot earn a passing grade.  While I am sympathetic to people who have complicated lives, the structure of those classes and what has to be accomplished means that the students have to have done those assessments at the given time in the given manner or the student cannot earn a passing grade.  Sure, I can let the student stay in the class and fully earn that F, but is that in anyone's best interest?  I get an F against my evaluations for someone who cannot pass because that person missed a big chunk of work.  The student might learn something, but will have to repeat the class anyway because the grade cannot be passing.

Consider also that we may or may not be getting the full story from the OP.  Suppose the OP is correct that the OP didn't get an email at the email that the OP was checking.  Suppose, however, that the instructor communicated in some other way with the OP.  In my experience with teaching classes that rely on electronic communications, students may or may not be checking whatever the instructor is using to communicate, despite being told what the communication path will be or even having multiple communication paths.  Perhaps the OP was supposed to be checking the message box in the CMS itself.  Perhaps the OP was supposed to be checking the university email, but only checked a gmail account.  Perhaps the OP was supposed to check announcements on the CMS daily and didn't log in for several days to see the "Anyone who has a zero on the assignment and doesn't do X by Y will be dropped from the class" announcement.  That means the OP didn't just have one mess-up, but messed up in multiple counts by still not doing what the OP was supposed to be doing.

Yes, adjustment is hard, but, yes, some people do get fired or non-renewed from jobs during the probation period. 
<on preview>
People also get fired from jobs for not doing their jobs on a daily basis even if no one writes in big red letters DROP DEAD DEADLINE on the job requirements.  How fast would a secretary be fired for saving up all the faxes to be sent on Friday because faxing is a pain?  Pretty fast, in my experience.

[burnie]

<on preview>
People also get fired from jobs for not doing their jobs on a daily basis even if no one writes in big red letters DROP DEAD DEADLINE on the job requirements.  How fast would a secretary be fired for saving up all the faxes to be sent on Friday because faxing is a pain?  Pretty fast, in my experience.

I have worked with that secretary, and the powers that be chose to educate her rather than fire her.  She's still there and actually does a great job now (or did the last time I was there).  

I also have scaffolded assignments, and I also have students make excuse after excuse only to be told, "sorry you can't do the speech because you haven't done assignments X,Y,Z."  I have also had students (trad and non trad) who couldn't get it together the first couple of weeks but took their lumps and went on to finish the semester well - and felt like heroes for bouncing back and conquering their work.

As you point out we still have no idea what is in that syllabus, or whether the student is leaving out key elements of the story.

But as an educator I take issue with cutting off the opportunity altogether.  Someone upthread said "the P in PhD doesn't stand for psychic."  While funny, and meant to remind the student to communicate with the instructor, I think it's also fair to point that statement in the other direction and say that despite years of experience and a good instinct as to how this situation will play out, there are always outliers, and we're not psychic.  

When this happens in my online courses I tell the student in question, "based on missing assignments X and Y you now need to get __% on all the other course material to get a C, __% to get a B and 110% to get an A.  You can drop now and get a partial refund or continue on and take your chances.  What do you want to do?"  Most students drop, a few soldier on and pull their B/C.  I've never had a student earn lower than a C after that message (although I've only been teaching online for seven years - I guess there's still time!).  However, they take on the responsibility for the situation, and I'm not blamed for kicking them out before they had a chance to improve, as is happening here.

[polly_mer]

How many classes/students do you teach at a go, Burnie?  Do you teach a range of levels or just intro classes?

Yes, low-level classes that no one should fail should go the way that you mention.  However, I've also been an instructor who had to deal with students where the intro classes were all taught with the "no bad students exist, just students who haven't yet succeeded" vibe and had students fail spectacularly because they never got their act together in my class where I happily worked with students who occasionally stumbled, but let students who did nothing fail of their own accord.  The students who were used to insane levels of support and rejiggering the system so that being a carbon-based lifeform was all that was necessary for a passing grade didn't learn the right lesson from the very kind people who gave a bazillion opportunities.  Consequently, I will never encourage anyone to do that level of support.

I also teach upper-level classes where the only way to succeed is to hit the ground grounding and keep running.  Stumble on the first hurdle and your redo is next term.  If someone is returning to school, then that person either better be ready to hit the ground running or take a practice class to get back into the swing of being a student again.  My job in low-level classes is to teach students to be students; that's not my job in upper-level classes.

Since we cannot know which is the case in this situation, but we do know that the student had two chances and posted here saying the things that correlate strongly with my students who fail repeatedly even with eleventy-zillion chances, my sympathies are with the instructor to manage the instructor's workload, not the student who can enroll again next term and do better with a learned lesson.