So off the topic
I currently have the worst class in my entire career -- at least with respect to having turned in material. It is small, only five students, and no one has higher than a D.
This is not due to bad work. It is due to simply not turning work in.
I am going to offer a five day amnesty. Everything was supposed to be turned in electronically and I am going to tell them that for the next five days I will assume that everything I did not receive was swallowed by the Internet. Of course the statistical chances of it all having been swallowed when my other classes have had no trouble at all are pretty slim. Still. For five days I will accept whatever work their sorry little a$$es can turn in.
After that any late work had better be accompanied by tears AND a very large box of very good chocolate. Well, that or a note from an emergency room physician or funeral director.
oohhh I hate those kind of classes. I had a poli sci class that was like that. The first test 90% of the class failed it. It was peppered with such tricky questions like "Who is Condaleeza Rice?" There were five of us who were there to learn and the rest, well I'm not sure.
ReplyDeleteIt makes it tough to learn when other students aren't putting any effort in.
I'm sorry the class is tough. I'd say they should be lucky to have a teacher who would allow them to turn things in on amnesty, and it should be REALLY good chocolate.
If it makes you feel any better, I just had a student in a 4000-level (top undergrad) political science class identify the Speaker of the House as the leader of the Senate on the final exam.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing that they don't get the whole "you must turn in your work to pass" thing, isn't it? My first semester I taught in Texas, one-third of one of my classes flunked because they hadn't turned in work. Now I use that fact to put the fear of god in them at the beginning of the semester. Seems to work--I am often described as "scary", but they are much better about getting the stuff in. Of course, sometimes you just have those classes. . .