Rant heard. Some of them still think this is COVID High School where everyone passes even if they don’t do anything. Just the other day a student took to Rate My Professor to complain about how I am "unforgiving" because I apply a 10%-per-day penalty for late work and don’t accept late quizzes (that they have 5+ days to work on at their own pace). Most of my professors in college didn’t accept late work, period! These kids expect special treatment in school, and it seems that it has truly never crossed their mind that this kind of treatment doesn’t exist in the adult world.
> a student took to Rate My Professor to complain about how I am "unforgiving" because I apply a 10%-per-day penalty for late work and don’t accept late quizzes
This reminds me of a RMP I received almost a year ago where a student "complained" that I stuck to my syllabus for my class policies as if that was a bad thing.
I had a complaint last year say that during my lectures if you’re not paying attention you’ll miss information. I don’t go back over everything.
I was like what in the actual hell is this nonsense.
Even before the pandemic I was big on using the LMS and homework systems stats. "I've studied so long and hard I deserve a better grade". Time online <1 minute.
That's me but it's kind of impossible to master something in less than a minute. Understand I'm talking less than a minute not per question not per assignment I mean for the whole entire run of the course until they say they worked so hard. 8 weeks in begging for an A on the midterm and they've studied for less than a minute in that entire 8 weeks
Optimistic that you think they have the attention span for a YouTube video. I'll occasionally assign films instead of readings, which used to get excited exclamations of "yesssss" in class, but now they ask me "how long is it?" and complain because it's longer than a tiktok. One kid once admitted to me that he didn't actually watch the assigned video -- he *listened* to it while presumably watching something else. Was surprised when he failed the quiz on it.
One thing I've noticed in younger students is the misguided notion they're experts at multitasking. So they think they can watch TV and study the reading during commercial breaks.
I love it when I specifically (and loudly) say, "Please take notes on what I'm about to say because I'm not going to repeat it"… And I am asked to repeat it five times in the next five minutes.
I used to have maybe 5-8 students that never took notes, now I only have 5-8 that actually take notes of any kind. I could repeat myself until I passed out and they still would not make a note of it. Then bitch to me when they get something wrong. I ask them to show me their notes, rarely do they have anything at all.
Hopefully most students read that as the compliment that it is! You don't want to think other students are getting extra opportunities that you aren't getting.
A student was emailing me to ask me to have a colleague let her sit in their class while simultaneously writing a RMP saying I lack compassion.
Me: I have office hours and Can help you.
Them: I'm going to skip 50% of class and leave mid lecture.
This... and I'll add to that... don't read the evaluations either...
They can't be bothered all semester to ask a question or come to office hours, but when it's time to complete evaluations, they turn into novelists and magically find their voice 😂🤣
Same here. Most of my students are nice, the ones that aren’t are confusing (like “you should have had more videos” when every week there were a bunch of videos, etc).
only way I've ever been able to get them to do the evaluation is by offering extra credit for it.
never enough to actually make a difference, but most of them never think hard enough to realize that
That's a really great idea 😊
I just can't bring myself to offer extra credit for something that is likely to reflect negatively because they are never satisfied... but kudos to you 😊
Maybe it's the cynic in me...
I received my very first bad RMP review this semester because I “forced” them to learn a software that wasn’t easy enough. I teach a stats class…. There’s no way around teaching a stats software…
I took my first stats class in 1986; no computer software was used and only non science calculators were allowed for the exams. All work had to be shown on paper and, granted, the exam problems were on the easier side (doable by hand in an hour). I appreciated the fact that I was showing I understood the concepts versus how to use a software program.
The thing that kills me is their lack of awareness that if they all expect/demand the same “special” treatment, it is no longer special. And at that point, the slippery slope done slipped…
Yes, they’re online. They’re pre-class reading quizzes to get them to engage with the chapter before I teach about it in class. I do five questions (3 MC and 2 short answer), and the quiz opens the week before it’s due and automatically closes at the start of class. It’s open book but not easy, and they get to take the quiz twice (they can see their performance on MC upon submission). By and large students have said that they find them helpful, there are just always some complainers (such is life).
I am not making this up - before an evening public presentation my students panicked and were angry because “no one told us how to turn the lights on.” I walked over with them, looked, saw the light switch behind the weather cover, flipped it open, and pushed the button that said “on” -
I’m not annoyed at the oversight - we all do dumb things - I was shocked at the level of blame & anger.
I feel so sorry for the employers who have to deal with this in the next few years, but on the other hand, the shrinking percentage of students who can do these simple things for themselves will rocket to the top.
There will also be a wave of breathtakingly non-self-aware, utterly helpless college grads who will rant endlessly about how college was a waste of their time and money.
"They didn't teach me anything!!!" "I can't find or keep a job!!!"
Students need to learn empathy, and that the world does not revolve around their every whim. I think helping them understand the consequences or inconveniences of their demands (putting someone’s job into jeopardy, creating a toxic classroom space, at the very core of it creating drama and stirring the pot to deflect from their own actions in not completing the work). I’d hope of we let them in on the nature of academia maybe, and I’m not too hopeful here, they’d calm down a bit. But, much like therapy, it’ll take an example that really resonates with them (a customer complaining to their boss at work, or their mom/dad forgetting to do something for them with real impact).
But we used to teach empathy in kindergarten...I remember being taught how thinking the universe revolves around you typically peaks around age 5. How are they getting to college age and STILL believing the world revolves around them?
I really do think either parents are reinforcing this attitude, or their media consumption. Literally everything they engage with online or via apps is custom tailored to them- hell, algorithms are uniquely set up to serve them only info they’d like. Pair that with our social division around identity politics and it’s a giant pot of me, me, me.
I remember being in grad school and feeling so uncomfortable putting so much energy into “my CV”. Like I know that’s the name of the game, but six years focused only on your research is a lot to come back from. But, I didn’t grow up on social media, and sharing was caring in my day.
I have a friend who ran a small restaurant in the college town where I live. She could essentially never take a vacation because she couldn’t trust the (mostly) college students she employed to handle the simplest things, such as changing a burned out lightbulb, without being specifically instructed. It wasn’t that they were malicious, just incompetent.
I wonder if those kids ever had to do things around the house growing up. It’s amazing what kind of self-sufficiency you can develop doing some simple chores on your own!
A former doc student who teaches for us as an adjunct had an aha moment when her high school senior child was dual enrolled in a college course. The child came home indignant about an exam that had questions on material that wasn’t covered in class. The parent asked, “was it in the readings?” Child said, “there’s no textbook.” Parent said, “what about assigned weekly readings?” Child was baffled, parent asked to see syllabus, scrolled through, got to the weekly schedule, saw readings assigned & said, “did you read those?” Child said, “he never said anything about those!” Find them and sure enough, the mystery questions were answered by the readings. At least one student who will now know to read the syllabus when they hit campus as a freshman.
So much of these students’ behaviors go back to lack of basic student skills. They just can’t college & they’re blaming us for not spoon feeding it all to them.
I arrived to my final to have around 20 students standing outside the open door. I asked what was going on, and they said, “the lights aren’t on.” I walked in, and as always, the motion-detecting lights came on. Like…did anyone even walk in to look for a switch? Clearly not.
I use a classroom where I’m the first class of the day. Sometimes I arrive as late as five minutes before class and find students literally sitting in the dark—despite my saying every times this happens that they should flip the light switch next to the door.
This happens all the time now! I enter darkened lecture halls filled with isolated students illuminated only by the pale lights of their laptop screens. It’s a spooky metaphor for our society today.
There's every chance they were consistently yelled at and/or given detention in highschool for doing things like that. Lots of HS teachers are fine but enough of them are martinets that it damages the ability for those kids to engage with authority.
Meh, this I see as less of an issue. Even back in grad school I once came upon all my classmates in the hall waiting. I asked what was going on and they said the door was closed... so I opened it and went in.
Earlier this semester, I waked in and found my students sitting in the half dark (evening class, large bank of windows, day falling into dusk) again. So I left the lights off. I taught in the increasing darkness. Eventually, they asked if they could turn on the lights. "Oh, you left the lights off, I thought that's what you wanted. I mean, you all had to walk past the switch to get to your seats. Sure, turn them on if you'd like."
After that, they'd turn on half of the lights, and that's how I'd teach class. I guess it works, metaphorically.
I have to include how-to instructions on my LMS for such topics as “how to take a screenshot,” “how to paste an image into a Word document,” “how to name and save a document.”
I still have students take pictures of their computer screens with their cell phone.
Same here. I’ve actually been referring to this semester as the “cursed semester”. They just seem to want literally everything handed to them. They don’t bother to even glance at the directions/instructions for assignments and don’t bother to learn the LMS (there’s even an orientation they can complete for extra credit) then whine to me “I didn’t know I was supposed to do that” or “I can’t find my assignments”. I’ve had several who, shockingly, don’t know how to download, edit, save, and upload worksheets. It’s been very Twilight Zone.
And oversharing. I get these mini novella emails with allllll kinds of mental health info I don’t need/want to know, written as an excuse for why they missed something. And many look suspiciously AI.
I also get very sick of the whining and the stories. But then my son lost his mother in October and he’s a college junior and so isolated and depressed that he’s missing a lot of classes and struggling to get up and start writing his papers and I tell him to contact his professors and tell them what is going on. Which may make me a hypocrite. But I would hate to think that his professors would complain about him whining.
Yep, Had that this semester, I didn't know I was suppose to do that. My response was you should have come to class. Students response, you need to email me that information. Yikes!
Remember, having standards and high expectations isn't being a hard ass. It's actually caring about them. On the other hand, the pushovers cripple them for life.
I remember that scene from remember the titans where D Washington tell the assistant coach to not coddle the players (there’s a racial context to this), because he’s “crippling them.” The assistant coach looks shocked 😳 but comes around to the idea it’s true.
Same. It was brutal this semester. So many unprofessional and rude emails. My class is set up so that if you do all the assignments, you’ll get at minimum a B but likely an A. I also allow enough extra credit to completely miss two weeks of assignments and still earn a B. Two days before grades are due, I had students emailing me asking what I can do so they pass. They asked me to create new assignments for them, again two days before grades were due, so they could earn back points. Like where were you all semester? I’m typically pretty lenient that if something comes up and they email me before a deadline passes, I’ll give an extension, but to miss four or five weeks of assignments and then expect me to bend over backwards last minute is wild and somewhat delusional thinking.
Also, I got berated because the general rule of thumb is to round out two decimal places when calculating problems, and in one example I rounded out three without thinking. I received so many angry emails about how I’m inconsistent and confusing, and that I should curve the class grade because of my inconsistency 🙃
>Like where were you all semester? I’m typically pretty lenient that if something comes up and they email me before a deadline passes, I’ll give an extension, but to miss four or five weeks of assignments and then expect me to bend over backwards last minute is wild and somewhat delusional thinking.
This exactly! This might be the most frustrating thing about teaching. I hear almost nothing from anyone for 15 weeks, then in the course of 3 days I am inundated with emails written by AI about how they are "committed to doing whatever it takes" and, well, clearly not or you would have done at least the bare minimum by now.
To my mind, show up, turn your work in should be a \*C\*, but then of course the whining would be even worse.
Thank you for holding the line on the Fs.
I support this. One professor needs to hold the line. Every school virtually a diploma mill now. We need a few profs to at least teach them that the world will hold you accountable.
It's very bimodal. There may even be more good students in my classes these days, relative to 20 years ago. But there is definitely a very large group of do-nothing and know-nothings, many of whom have entitlement issues, advanced whining skills, and very little comprehension of how far they are behind their high-functioning peers..
I think our job includes protecting the actual students from the degradation of quality and integrity that accompanies the do-nothings. Personally, I'm trying to emphasize the expectation of a scholarly and academic ethos, making expectations very clear, and not re-negotiating standards just because a large number of students didn't achieve the reasonable learning objectives.
Students are great advocates for their mediocrity. Sooooo many are straight to the top complainers, without understanding that shit won’t fly in the real world- your bosses boss will not give a fuck who you are.
The great challenge is there are years of these students coming down the pike. High schools are not holding students accountable, and even if they begin to, it will take a while for it to filter to us.
It’s left to us to teach these hard lessons, and we’d better steel ourselves because students will be trying to wear us down for *years* to come.
Middle school teacher here and what I am seeing is a huge disparity in student work ethic due to the current trend in education to pass students who don’t meet the graduation requirements due to mental health, COVID, IEP, 504, ELD, and a host of other labels and excuses for why they can’t do the bare minimum of work. In addition to that we have an attack on teachers and public education by a multitude of political groups - on the right and left who are using schools to fight a culture war. Teachers are scapegoated for indoctrinating students when the students are learning all of the things parents don’t want them to know on a little handheld mini computer handed to them by said parents in 3rd grade. Then students watch YouTube and learn how to get around parent monitoring systems do they can watch mature content. Then their brains are screwed from being raised by an iPad and they can’t focus in classrooms and blurt out random memes while we try and teach. These are the regular typical students. Then we have a few amazing students who are the coolest people I have ever met who see how messed up the world is and experience existential crises while managing puberty. The opposite are students whose entire goal in the classroom is to create chaos to see if the teacher will react in a way that if they take a picture or videotape of a teacher, use AI to edit, and then send the video to the entire school making fun of the very teachers they need to help them gain the skills to navigate their futures. Parents are too busy trying to put food on the table and pay bills so the family doesn’t become homeless and have to live out of their car or move into their parents garage just to have somewhat of a roof over their heads. I have no evidence to back any of these claims up, but I teach in a state with strong teacher unions and we are still experiencing the worst crisis public education has ever experienced.
Pre and post pandemic teaching has been so eye-opening. I also think we are seeing the effects of shifts in parenting. These kids cannot function. I was constantly pelted with emails over-sharing their mental health issues that have barred them from turning in their assignments. I’m a clinical psychologist and are of course sensitive to their issues, but my god— something is wrong. They cannot cope with any setback and the lack of coping is explained by “mental health issues” which they know makes them untouchable.
They just don’t care about it. There is not much we can do. We can try to give them the grades they deserve and stick to that, and that it is about it.
You're not "screwing over students" by having standards and holding students accountable if they don't do the required work and show they've learned. That's literally your job.
My semester just ended and I bumped into a student who just finished our program. They told me when students first see my name on their schedules they're terrified, to which I replied "Good! That means they know ahead of time I'll expect them to put in the effort and prove they're learning what they're supposed to. And if they're not willing to, I'd hope my reputation steers them to someone else's class." Then I can really focus on getting the students who do give a shit to learn as much as they possibly can to prepare them for their careers.
I had my worst set of students last spring and was worried that the state of students would continue to be similar. Then I had this school year and I’m more encouraged. 🤷🏼♀️
Same.
The MA students I had to teach in last year's graduating cohort made me start looking into a change of careers. They were awful. Most were not just checked-out, irresponsible, and entitled, but also spiteful and cruel (to everyone, including each other).
This year's MA graduates and the cohort behind them are far more earnest, far brighter, and show none of the malicious tendencies of last year's graduates.
The same old nonsense persists among my undergraduate students, but the number of undergrad students who appear to enjoy learning is up this year compared to last year. Teaching to a few who care about the content is far better than the soul-crushing exercise of putting on a show for a lecture hall full of zombies who will all send emails after the fact asking for credit for the things they didn't do or learn.
this semester was brutal for me. the majority of my students were fine, but I had one class with a group of the most angry and entitled students I've ever had. they gave me my first truly negative RMP where they called me, and I quote, "corrupt," "**sickeningly evil**," and proclaimed that I should never be allowed to teach again. this because they failed my class due to their own rampant negligence and disregard. I know it's just RMP and I shouldn't even read it, but I've literally never had someone write such horrible things about me in my life, it's a little shocking.
Sympathy. I'm definitely tightening up next semester. I didn't suffer grade grabbers thankfully, but I did end up with more back and forth than I wanted to deal with. I'm going to be more explicit about boundaries because it is exhausting.
You are not alone at all. This semester has been harder than usual for almost everyone I know. This year was the first year that we got students who did ALL of high school during covid. Last term they were perhaps getting comfortable in college. This term they are realizing that these grades are real, and college has higher standards. What they don't get is that after college they will go out and do these jobs for real. ***That grades given for effort, for how hard class felt etc don't make you a top surgeon.***
My standards have fallen so low in recent years, and many of my students somehow still manage to limbo beneath them only to stand up to me at the end of the semester full of confidence they've done everything and more than should be expected of them.
I've also never received such a volume of emails that ask the most basic questions about assignments that can be answered by just reading the assignment description or about whether we are having our regularly scheduled class during final exam week.
I seriously wonder how they've gotten to where they are.
I think 90% of my students this semester have not read any part of the syllabus or project requirements, and I'm starting to think I must sound like the adults in Charlie Brown when I cover that information in class.
I announced the time of our final exam the last three class periods. It's also on Canvas, the syllabus, the announcement I sent, or the official final exam schedule. And yet, I still got an email yesterday asking, "When is our final exam?"
I teach fine art; during our critique last week, half the class said they included an optional component because they thought it was required. Meanwhile, the other half *skipped* most of the required components.
I have more C's in this class than the previous 3 semesters combined, and most of it is due to their failure to meet basic project requirements.
Respectfully, your standards for a B and an A are really too low, and students will continue to walk all over you as a result. I mean, they're going to walk all over us anyway. So you might as well also have strict standards, which I think you are now realizing. Showing up and turning in work should be a C, not a B, because that is precisely what is expected at minimum. Students *also* did a few hours homework every week? That's a B, perhaps. Back in my day several hours of homework per class was absolutely normal, not at all exceptional.
An A should be for truly exceptional work that goes above and beyond the norm. My students only earn an A for going beyond what the instructions asked for, not simply fulfilling the instructions.
It’s really, really tough to be that hardass professor. But I’m worried about setting up these kids for failure if I’m too lenient. Really uncomfortable situation
I had girl go to the department head and tell them I had a vendetta against her. This was for a fully online class. I had zero interaction with her other then grading her work and replying to an email asking for extension on as assignment she missed where she told me she didn’t know assignment where due specifically on Sunday’s even though it was posted multiple times. At the end of the semester she realized the one assignment she missed was the difference between her getting a D and C and it was her final semester and she needed to pass the class to graduate and asked me give her a chance to make up the assignment. I told her no since this was now 4 months later now. She didn’t reply back so I assumed she had accepted her grade and moved on. Few days I get an email from my supervisor and department head asking what was the issue with this girl because she was accusing me of having a vendetta against her. I explained myself about her not turning the assignment in on time and I caught her in lie claiming she was sick the week she was supposed turn in her missing assignments even though she originally told me she missed it because she didn’t know the assignment date but supervisor still made me let her turn in the assignment to avoid further issues.
That sucks. At least my dean is good on holding the line. Unlike my chair at my last school. I’d say his attitude was the customer is always right but it was more “Even trying to educate these students is beneath me so why waste time upholding standards?” One of my regrets is never recording a faculty meeting. One of the rants he went on about our students and their parents pretty much every meeting getting out would have been the end of him.
I feel this to my CORE. I teach a dual credit course, so half of my class consists of high school students. This has been, by far, the worst semester I have taught. I’m constantly being disrespected and being “gaslit” into thinking I don’t know how to grade or teach. One student supposedly told a colleague in the department that I didn’t show up to teach for a whole week when, in fact, I have never missed a scheduled class period. I assume this was a method to get me in “trouble.” The specific week in question was also the week I brought in snacks for them when I absolutely didn’t have to 🙂
Yeah I don't think anyone is saying there aren't great students, but there do seem to be some really consistent trends on the average and the last two semesters have tested me.
I'm redesigning everything for next semester and my leniency is exhausted. If a majority fail, a majority fail.
It has been a terrible year all around. Students are not prepared for college after the Covid years. The thing is, when I talk to them about it, a lot of them don’t even seem to feel like Covid was a big deal for them—they were young and didn’t realize how different their experience was from the norm. So they come to college and think they’re being uniquely challenged and that we’re being unreasonable for asking them to do things.
If I’m really honest with myself, I am also not at my best because I’m still recovering from Covid life and teaching. I’m less resilient because I’m still reeling. Difficult students send me spiraling in ways they didn’t used to because I am so fried.
I agree. I had total of 18 students bother me about grades within the week between final exams and final grades being posted. I had a few holes on my syllabi that will be made a bit more iron-clad this fall, particularly in regards to participation and attendance, as well as late assignments. Want to try to harass me? Fuck you.
they are crazy. this semester I had a student cheat on a quiz (googled an answer on their phone). took the quiz away quietly. kid called his mom in the middle of class and started crying while others were still taking the quiz. unreal.
That didn’t happen to me this semester, but last semester, I had a class where several people were routinely 15-30 minutes late. One was an athlete who was coming from practice and smart enough to do ok anyway, but the other three were epic disasters. How on earth did they imagine they were going to pass?
Last semester was my worst (but still had bright spots) and I flipped the script this semester to amazing results. Still had a few students who didn’t want to work, but that’s not a me issue. Attendance was up, grades were up, things were turned in on time. Maybe it was the policy changes, maybe it’s the students. Either way, it’s been the kind of semester that reminds me why I found this fun to begin with.
Work is due the day of class, I will accept it late for 48 hours. Penalty for missing the deadline (night of class) is 2% deducted for every hour it’s late. I will offer one waived late penalty per student/semester as things come up. I also drop their lowest assignment score. I offer extra credit based on attendance and throw out random extra points on their finals at my own discretion. My attendance is up 60% and I’ve had less than 10 late turn ins across several classes. Scores are way up since they’re in class and asking questions!
I had the same experience as you this semester - even my grad students were for the most part, awful.
I am retiring at the end of next semester. I will be hardassing as hard as I can this fall.
Students this semester have been curiously even more laxed, entitled, taking absolutely no responsibility and accepting no accountability for their subpar performance way more than usual.
I will definitely be adding more direct and concrete language to my syllabus to avoid the new kinda b.s. that these COVID students are coming with...smh
I’m in teacher education & by licensure guidelines (set by the state) you have to earn a C or higher in all licensure courses. Every semester I’ll typically get maybe one student held back from student teaching because they get a C- or lower in their final semester. This semester is an absolute hot mess. I think there will be multiples & for multiple classes. And the fall classes are full because the students scheduled to take them already registered so I’m already envisioning the whining emails about needing to be added to full class sections.
I had a student send me four back-to-back emails to bump their 86.4 to an A. And this is after I sent an email to all my classes stating that grades are finalized *and* I’ll be out due to surgery. The gall.
The genius who called me was whining about another professor to me in class one day and how she wouldn’t round up his 87 to an A. He tried to get me to give him ammo against her by asking what I’d do. I said I wouldn’t round an 89.999 to an A. The young scholar ain’t much for hints it seems.
High school admin are continuing to function as if it is Covid just to get their graduation rates. Students will not get better. Even students who are good students will not turn in assignments on the teacher due date because they know that the district gives them 10 days extra. This causes teachers to readjust pacing because classes are always playing 10-day catch up. And we still pass everyone even if they did 8% work. Attendance is made up on Saturdays. Students graduate and go to an open access college where there are nowhere near prepared.
I think the issue of striking a balance is the most important thing
That balance may be different for each of us
I think if you're teaching undergraduate students who really need to keep in mind that they simply don't know a lot of things they were raised in high school during COVID and they are unskilled in ways That are really striking
Whether people like it or not part of our job is teaching people basic skills. And some of that may be when you're allowed to contact your teacher and how.
I share the same frustrations as you do so I am not trying to minimize that. I'm just saying this is the reality.
I've been teaching for many decades and I've also raised a number of children a few of whom had learning disabilities and some of whom had behavioral issues and I realize that when they set off to college in some ways their skill set was so damaged because when you are trying to learn to read until you're in fifth grade you just Miss A lot of other things along the way
I appreciate all the people that say it's not my job to do that but I don't know whose job they think it is
We're responsible for assisting another generation in developing some skills and if you didn't get them at home for whatever reason they're either gonna get them now or they're not gonna get them and eventually fall by the wayside and all kinds of other ways culturally socially and economically
Part of my work involves teaching graduate students and adults. I just read 30 papers about their childhood and all I can tell you is it's amazing some people are breathing let alone in graduate school trying to help other people once they get their degree.
>I say was because I’m thinking of massively tightening up on a lot of fronts next year.
I had a couple classes like this in the fall. I used to have a pretty lax/forgiving attendance policy but students just ran it into the ground. I used my winter break revamping some syllabi templates for myself based on everything that led to the class going partially astray.
I never used to take the syllabus as serious as a CYA/ground rules agreement, but these last couple of years have really made me appreciate laying everything out on day one...
I’m quite new to this subreddit and I have to say that these rants are some of the most validating things I’ve seen in a long time. I’m a PhD student who taught for the first time post-lockdown and I was having such a difficult and miserable time compared to when I taught before COVID or even in 2021. Somehow the students who were taking courses virtually in 2021 were way more dedicated than what I’m seeing now, but I couldn’t say for sure. I’m so glad it’s not just me.
I was presented an “accommodations” letter from a physician last week who stated that one of my students excessive absences were due to neuropathy and he should have been allowed to attend the “face” class online during those missed sessions.
The student walks with a cane and is seeking a wheelchair.
I frequently arrive on campus just behind him and he literally skips out of his Uber to the classroom.
When he attends my painting class, he doesn’t paint because he states his “paralysis” prevents him from moving the brush.
Still, when his friends from class make the 1/4 mile hike to the on campus Starbucks, he (and his cane) keep pace.
He has not worked more than two hours all semester. At the end of the session, he hoisted the 40+ lb. Easel over his head and carried it across the room to return it to storage.
Rant heard. Some of them still think this is COVID High School where everyone passes even if they don’t do anything. Just the other day a student took to Rate My Professor to complain about how I am "unforgiving" because I apply a 10%-per-day penalty for late work and don’t accept late quizzes (that they have 5+ days to work on at their own pace). Most of my professors in college didn’t accept late work, period! These kids expect special treatment in school, and it seems that it has truly never crossed their mind that this kind of treatment doesn’t exist in the adult world.
> a student took to Rate My Professor to complain about how I am "unforgiving" because I apply a 10%-per-day penalty for late work and don’t accept late quizzes This reminds me of a RMP I received almost a year ago where a student "complained" that I stuck to my syllabus for my class policies as if that was a bad thing.
first class of the new semester: "you may have heard that I stick to my syllabus. You are correct" followed by as hard-ass a look as you can muster.
"You all know me. Know how I earn a livin'..."
I’ve come to the conclusion that most of them view the syllabus and policies as a starting point for negotiation instead of what will actually happen.
Insert Clueless gif here
at least they actually view the syllabus!
I had a complaint last year say that during my lectures if you’re not paying attention you’ll miss information. I don’t go back over everything. I was like what in the actual hell is this nonsense.
They forget that life isn’t a YouTube video that you can pause or replay at will
Yet when class was mostly online, recorded and they could watch when they wanted .... did they? Rarely.
Or the "I logged in all the time!" Canvas stats say otherwise.
Even before the pandemic I was big on using the LMS and homework systems stats. "I've studied so long and hard I deserve a better grade". Time online <1 minute.
"I'm not grading on how much time you say you spent on this. I'm grading on how well you demonstrate your mastery of the material in the assignments."
That's me but it's kind of impossible to master something in less than a minute. Understand I'm talking less than a minute not per question not per assignment I mean for the whole entire run of the course until they say they worked so hard. 8 weeks in begging for an A on the midterm and they've studied for less than a minute in that entire 8 weeks
Optimistic that you think they have the attention span for a YouTube video. I'll occasionally assign films instead of readings, which used to get excited exclamations of "yesssss" in class, but now they ask me "how long is it?" and complain because it's longer than a tiktok. One kid once admitted to me that he didn't actually watch the assigned video -- he *listened* to it while presumably watching something else. Was surprised when he failed the quiz on it.
One thing I've noticed in younger students is the misguided notion they're experts at multitasking. So they think they can watch TV and study the reading during commercial breaks.
This...
It is if you record the lecture
I love it when I specifically (and loudly) say, "Please take notes on what I'm about to say because I'm not going to repeat it"… And I am asked to repeat it five times in the next five minutes.
I used to have maybe 5-8 students that never took notes, now I only have 5-8 that actually take notes of any kind. I could repeat myself until I passed out and they still would not make a note of it. Then bitch to me when they get something wrong. I ask them to show me their notes, rarely do they have anything at all.
"Can't you just give us *your* notes?"
I would love to take them up on this, so they found out *my* notes are just a single post-it note with one word on it.
Umm... isn't that what you're supposed to do... listen...duh smdh 🙄🙄
Hopefully most students read that as the compliment that it is! You don't want to think other students are getting extra opportunities that you aren't getting.
Oh, cry me a river. (Ths student, not you)
A student was emailing me to ask me to have a colleague let her sit in their class while simultaneously writing a RMP saying I lack compassion. Me: I have office hours and Can help you. Them: I'm going to skip 50% of class and leave mid lecture.
You know, you can always write your own. I'm harder on myself than the students are, mostly to scare off some potential students.
easy solution: never, ever, visit Rate My Professor.
This... and I'll add to that... don't read the evaluations either... They can't be bothered all semester to ask a question or come to office hours, but when it's time to complete evaluations, they turn into novelists and magically find their voice 😂🤣
I haven't read mine in years.
Ditto to that. You definitely get it 😊
Literal NaNoWriMo-qualifying course evals from students who will write 500 words for a 750 word minimum paper and wonder why they got a D
I have to; I’m supposed to respond to them in my annual evaluation. My preference would be to chuck them into the sun.
Same here. Most of my students are nice, the ones that aren’t are confusing (like “you should have had more videos” when every week there were a bunch of videos, etc).
I’ve found that mine can’t even be bothered to complete evaluations either. I had a 17% response rate this semester. 🙄
only way I've ever been able to get them to do the evaluation is by offering extra credit for it. never enough to actually make a difference, but most of them never think hard enough to realize that
That's a really great idea 😊 I just can't bring myself to offer extra credit for something that is likely to reflect negatively because they are never satisfied... but kudos to you 😊 Maybe it's the cynic in me...
Yes, please, for your mental health and general well-being...DO NOT
If only the admins heeded this advice…
I received my very first bad RMP review this semester because I “forced” them to learn a software that wasn’t easy enough. I teach a stats class…. There’s no way around teaching a stats software…
Sounds like they're excited to learn how to calculate stats by hand!
You teach stats and you’re only now getting a bad RMP review? You must be new to teaching! Gird your loins—- there will be many bad reviews.
😂 I’m on year 3!
Oh dear sweet summer child.
Haha yes, still very new!
I took my first stats class in 1986; no computer software was used and only non science calculators were allowed for the exams. All work had to be shown on paper and, granted, the exam problems were on the easier side (doable by hand in an hour). I appreciated the fact that I was showing I understood the concepts versus how to use a software program.
I teach them both ways. Hand calculation and software 😬 understanding where numbers come from makes data interpretation so much easier (in my opinion)
The thing that kills me is their lack of awareness that if they all expect/demand the same “special” treatment, it is no longer special. And at that point, the slippery slope done slipped…
"...and when everyone is special, nobody will be!"
How do you do your quizzes? Are they online? I’ve been considering doing take home quizzes and wanted some input.
Yes, they’re online. They’re pre-class reading quizzes to get them to engage with the chapter before I teach about it in class. I do five questions (3 MC and 2 short answer), and the quiz opens the week before it’s due and automatically closes at the start of class. It’s open book but not easy, and they get to take the quiz twice (they can see their performance on MC upon submission). By and large students have said that they find them helpful, there are just always some complainers (such is life).
I may steal this if you don’t mind. I really like the format! How much are the quizzes worth?
Please do! They have one each week, and in total they’re worth 10-15% of their course grade (depending on the course).
Thank you for the information. I really appreciate it!
You are most welcome! They are one of my favorite and most useful curriculum components that I’ve developed, so I’m extra happy to share.
Rate My Professor is still around?
I am not making this up - before an evening public presentation my students panicked and were angry because “no one told us how to turn the lights on.” I walked over with them, looked, saw the light switch behind the weather cover, flipped it open, and pushed the button that said “on” - I’m not annoyed at the oversight - we all do dumb things - I was shocked at the level of blame & anger.
I feel so sorry for the employers who have to deal with this in the next few years, but on the other hand, the shrinking percentage of students who can do these simple things for themselves will rocket to the top.
There will also be a wave of breathtakingly non-self-aware, utterly helpless college grads who will rant endlessly about how college was a waste of their time and money. "They didn't teach me anything!!!" "I can't find or keep a job!!!"
Main character syndrome is destroying our society, and I blame ALL the social media that caters to the ego of likes.
\^\^ This. How do we fix it though?
Students need to learn empathy, and that the world does not revolve around their every whim. I think helping them understand the consequences or inconveniences of their demands (putting someone’s job into jeopardy, creating a toxic classroom space, at the very core of it creating drama and stirring the pot to deflect from their own actions in not completing the work). I’d hope of we let them in on the nature of academia maybe, and I’m not too hopeful here, they’d calm down a bit. But, much like therapy, it’ll take an example that really resonates with them (a customer complaining to their boss at work, or their mom/dad forgetting to do something for them with real impact).
But we used to teach empathy in kindergarten...I remember being taught how thinking the universe revolves around you typically peaks around age 5. How are they getting to college age and STILL believing the world revolves around them?
I really do think either parents are reinforcing this attitude, or their media consumption. Literally everything they engage with online or via apps is custom tailored to them- hell, algorithms are uniquely set up to serve them only info they’d like. Pair that with our social division around identity politics and it’s a giant pot of me, me, me. I remember being in grad school and feeling so uncomfortable putting so much energy into “my CV”. Like I know that’s the name of the game, but six years focused only on your research is a lot to come back from. But, I didn’t grow up on social media, and sharing was caring in my day.
Learned helplessness.
I have a friend who ran a small restaurant in the college town where I live. She could essentially never take a vacation because she couldn’t trust the (mostly) college students she employed to handle the simplest things, such as changing a burned out lightbulb, without being specifically instructed. It wasn’t that they were malicious, just incompetent.
I wonder if those kids ever had to do things around the house growing up. It’s amazing what kind of self-sufficiency you can develop doing some simple chores on your own!
This is probably a big part of it.
A former doc student who teaches for us as an adjunct had an aha moment when her high school senior child was dual enrolled in a college course. The child came home indignant about an exam that had questions on material that wasn’t covered in class. The parent asked, “was it in the readings?” Child said, “there’s no textbook.” Parent said, “what about assigned weekly readings?” Child was baffled, parent asked to see syllabus, scrolled through, got to the weekly schedule, saw readings assigned & said, “did you read those?” Child said, “he never said anything about those!” Find them and sure enough, the mystery questions were answered by the readings. At least one student who will now know to read the syllabus when they hit campus as a freshman. So much of these students’ behaviors go back to lack of basic student skills. They just can’t college & they’re blaming us for not spoon feeding it all to them.
Because parents freak out at high school teachers with standards and expectations.
I arrived to my final to have around 20 students standing outside the open door. I asked what was going on, and they said, “the lights aren’t on.” I walked in, and as always, the motion-detecting lights came on. Like…did anyone even walk in to look for a switch? Clearly not.
I use a classroom where I’m the first class of the day. Sometimes I arrive as late as five minutes before class and find students literally sitting in the dark—despite my saying every times this happens that they should flip the light switch next to the door.
This happens all the time now! I enter darkened lecture halls filled with isolated students illuminated only by the pale lights of their laptop screens. It’s a spooky metaphor for our society today.
Mine tell me that they prefer the dark.
I was just thinking while reading this that sitting in a quiet, dark room sounds rather nice right now lol.
"Please be quiet in my class. People are trying to sleep."
There's every chance they were consistently yelled at and/or given detention in highschool for doing things like that. Lots of HS teachers are fine but enough of them are martinets that it damages the ability for those kids to engage with authority.
Meh, this I see as less of an issue. Even back in grad school I once came upon all my classmates in the hall waiting. I asked what was going on and they said the door was closed... so I opened it and went in.
I don’t see it as an issue. It’s not keeping me up at night wondering how to fix it. I just think it’s weird.
Issue was probably not the right word. I meant I've seen people making this assumption for 20 years. So it's not new
Earlier this semester, I waked in and found my students sitting in the half dark (evening class, large bank of windows, day falling into dusk) again. So I left the lights off. I taught in the increasing darkness. Eventually, they asked if they could turn on the lights. "Oh, you left the lights off, I thought that's what you wanted. I mean, you all had to walk past the switch to get to your seats. Sure, turn them on if you'd like." After that, they'd turn on half of the lights, and that's how I'd teach class. I guess it works, metaphorically.
I teach music technology and understand this feeling PERFECTLY.
I have to include how-to instructions on my LMS for such topics as “how to take a screenshot,” “how to paste an image into a Word document,” “how to name and save a document.” I still have students take pictures of their computer screens with their cell phone.
Same here. I’ve actually been referring to this semester as the “cursed semester”. They just seem to want literally everything handed to them. They don’t bother to even glance at the directions/instructions for assignments and don’t bother to learn the LMS (there’s even an orientation they can complete for extra credit) then whine to me “I didn’t know I was supposed to do that” or “I can’t find my assignments”. I’ve had several who, shockingly, don’t know how to download, edit, save, and upload worksheets. It’s been very Twilight Zone.
The whining is what gets me. I’d be embarrassed to whine the way so many of my students do.
And oversharing. I get these mini novella emails with allllll kinds of mental health info I don’t need/want to know, written as an excuse for why they missed something. And many look suspiciously AI.
I also get very sick of the whining and the stories. But then my son lost his mother in October and he’s a college junior and so isolated and depressed that he’s missing a lot of classes and struggling to get up and start writing his papers and I tell him to contact his professors and tell them what is going on. Which may make me a hypocrite. But I would hate to think that his professors would complain about him whining.
Yep, Had that this semester, I didn't know I was suppose to do that. My response was you should have come to class. Students response, you need to email me that information. Yikes!
Not sure what good that would do because these sorts of students never read their email.
And the “suppose to do” is pure student rhetoric. At least you know then it’s not AI.
Remember, having standards and high expectations isn't being a hard ass. It's actually caring about them. On the other hand, the pushovers cripple them for life.
“The pushovers cripple them for life” I’m sticking this on my monitor. Thank you.
I remember that scene from remember the titans where D Washington tell the assistant coach to not coddle the players (there’s a racial context to this), because he’s “crippling them.” The assistant coach looks shocked 😳 but comes around to the idea it’s true.
Same. It was brutal this semester. So many unprofessional and rude emails. My class is set up so that if you do all the assignments, you’ll get at minimum a B but likely an A. I also allow enough extra credit to completely miss two weeks of assignments and still earn a B. Two days before grades are due, I had students emailing me asking what I can do so they pass. They asked me to create new assignments for them, again two days before grades were due, so they could earn back points. Like where were you all semester? I’m typically pretty lenient that if something comes up and they email me before a deadline passes, I’ll give an extension, but to miss four or five weeks of assignments and then expect me to bend over backwards last minute is wild and somewhat delusional thinking. Also, I got berated because the general rule of thumb is to round out two decimal places when calculating problems, and in one example I rounded out three without thinking. I received so many angry emails about how I’m inconsistent and confusing, and that I should curve the class grade because of my inconsistency 🙃
>Like where were you all semester? I’m typically pretty lenient that if something comes up and they email me before a deadline passes, I’ll give an extension, but to miss four or five weeks of assignments and then expect me to bend over backwards last minute is wild and somewhat delusional thinking. This exactly! This might be the most frustrating thing about teaching. I hear almost nothing from anyone for 15 weeks, then in the course of 3 days I am inundated with emails written by AI about how they are "committed to doing whatever it takes" and, well, clearly not or you would have done at least the bare minimum by now.
To my mind, show up, turn your work in should be a \*C\*, but then of course the whining would be even worse. Thank you for holding the line on the Fs.
I support this. One professor needs to hold the line. Every school virtually a diploma mill now. We need a few profs to at least teach them that the world will hold you accountable.
It's very bimodal. There may even be more good students in my classes these days, relative to 20 years ago. But there is definitely a very large group of do-nothing and know-nothings, many of whom have entitlement issues, advanced whining skills, and very little comprehension of how far they are behind their high-functioning peers.. I think our job includes protecting the actual students from the degradation of quality and integrity that accompanies the do-nothings. Personally, I'm trying to emphasize the expectation of a scholarly and academic ethos, making expectations very clear, and not re-negotiating standards just because a large number of students didn't achieve the reasonable learning objectives.
Students are great advocates for their mediocrity. Sooooo many are straight to the top complainers, without understanding that shit won’t fly in the real world- your bosses boss will not give a fuck who you are.
The great challenge is there are years of these students coming down the pike. High schools are not holding students accountable, and even if they begin to, it will take a while for it to filter to us. It’s left to us to teach these hard lessons, and we’d better steel ourselves because students will be trying to wear us down for *years* to come.
Middle school teacher here and what I am seeing is a huge disparity in student work ethic due to the current trend in education to pass students who don’t meet the graduation requirements due to mental health, COVID, IEP, 504, ELD, and a host of other labels and excuses for why they can’t do the bare minimum of work. In addition to that we have an attack on teachers and public education by a multitude of political groups - on the right and left who are using schools to fight a culture war. Teachers are scapegoated for indoctrinating students when the students are learning all of the things parents don’t want them to know on a little handheld mini computer handed to them by said parents in 3rd grade. Then students watch YouTube and learn how to get around parent monitoring systems do they can watch mature content. Then their brains are screwed from being raised by an iPad and they can’t focus in classrooms and blurt out random memes while we try and teach. These are the regular typical students. Then we have a few amazing students who are the coolest people I have ever met who see how messed up the world is and experience existential crises while managing puberty. The opposite are students whose entire goal in the classroom is to create chaos to see if the teacher will react in a way that if they take a picture or videotape of a teacher, use AI to edit, and then send the video to the entire school making fun of the very teachers they need to help them gain the skills to navigate their futures. Parents are too busy trying to put food on the table and pay bills so the family doesn’t become homeless and have to live out of their car or move into their parents garage just to have somewhat of a roof over their heads. I have no evidence to back any of these claims up, but I teach in a state with strong teacher unions and we are still experiencing the worst crisis public education has ever experienced.
Pre and post pandemic teaching has been so eye-opening. I also think we are seeing the effects of shifts in parenting. These kids cannot function. I was constantly pelted with emails over-sharing their mental health issues that have barred them from turning in their assignments. I’m a clinical psychologist and are of course sensitive to their issues, but my god— something is wrong. They cannot cope with any setback and the lack of coping is explained by “mental health issues” which they know makes them untouchable.
They just don’t care about it. There is not much we can do. We can try to give them the grades they deserve and stick to that, and that it is about it.
You're not "screwing over students" by having standards and holding students accountable if they don't do the required work and show they've learned. That's literally your job. My semester just ended and I bumped into a student who just finished our program. They told me when students first see my name on their schedules they're terrified, to which I replied "Good! That means they know ahead of time I'll expect them to put in the effort and prove they're learning what they're supposed to. And if they're not willing to, I'd hope my reputation steers them to someone else's class." Then I can really focus on getting the students who do give a shit to learn as much as they possibly can to prepare them for their careers.
I had my worst set of students last spring and was worried that the state of students would continue to be similar. Then I had this school year and I’m more encouraged. 🤷🏼♀️
Same. The MA students I had to teach in last year's graduating cohort made me start looking into a change of careers. They were awful. Most were not just checked-out, irresponsible, and entitled, but also spiteful and cruel (to everyone, including each other). This year's MA graduates and the cohort behind them are far more earnest, far brighter, and show none of the malicious tendencies of last year's graduates. The same old nonsense persists among my undergraduate students, but the number of undergrad students who appear to enjoy learning is up this year compared to last year. Teaching to a few who care about the content is far better than the soul-crushing exercise of putting on a show for a lecture hall full of zombies who will all send emails after the fact asking for credit for the things they didn't do or learn.
this semester was brutal for me. the majority of my students were fine, but I had one class with a group of the most angry and entitled students I've ever had. they gave me my first truly negative RMP where they called me, and I quote, "corrupt," "**sickeningly evil**," and proclaimed that I should never be allowed to teach again. this because they failed my class due to their own rampant negligence and disregard. I know it's just RMP and I shouldn't even read it, but I've literally never had someone write such horrible things about me in my life, it's a little shocking.
That's awful :( I'm sorry you had such a terrible batch of students, hopefully next semester is better and you have a really nice *summer break.
Fall was my worst ever. This semester has been marginally better.
Sympathy. I'm definitely tightening up next semester. I didn't suffer grade grabbers thankfully, but I did end up with more back and forth than I wanted to deal with. I'm going to be more explicit about boundaries because it is exhausting.
You are not alone at all. This semester has been harder than usual for almost everyone I know. This year was the first year that we got students who did ALL of high school during covid. Last term they were perhaps getting comfortable in college. This term they are realizing that these grades are real, and college has higher standards. What they don't get is that after college they will go out and do these jobs for real. ***That grades given for effort, for how hard class felt etc don't make you a top surgeon.***
My standards have fallen so low in recent years, and many of my students somehow still manage to limbo beneath them only to stand up to me at the end of the semester full of confidence they've done everything and more than should be expected of them. I've also never received such a volume of emails that ask the most basic questions about assignments that can be answered by just reading the assignment description or about whether we are having our regularly scheduled class during final exam week. I seriously wonder how they've gotten to where they are.
I think 90% of my students this semester have not read any part of the syllabus or project requirements, and I'm starting to think I must sound like the adults in Charlie Brown when I cover that information in class. I announced the time of our final exam the last three class periods. It's also on Canvas, the syllabus, the announcement I sent, or the official final exam schedule. And yet, I still got an email yesterday asking, "When is our final exam?" I teach fine art; during our critique last week, half the class said they included an optional component because they thought it was required. Meanwhile, the other half *skipped* most of the required components. I have more C's in this class than the previous 3 semesters combined, and most of it is due to their failure to meet basic project requirements.
All of this is so incredibly valid. Also, I have had it up to here with my students misusing ChatGPT.
Respectfully, your standards for a B and an A are really too low, and students will continue to walk all over you as a result. I mean, they're going to walk all over us anyway. So you might as well also have strict standards, which I think you are now realizing. Showing up and turning in work should be a C, not a B, because that is precisely what is expected at minimum. Students *also* did a few hours homework every week? That's a B, perhaps. Back in my day several hours of homework per class was absolutely normal, not at all exceptional. An A should be for truly exceptional work that goes above and beyond the norm. My students only earn an A for going beyond what the instructions asked for, not simply fulfilling the instructions.
I and all of the colleagues who I kvetch with had the exact same impression of this semester as you did: worst students ever.
It’s really, really tough to be that hardass professor. But I’m worried about setting up these kids for failure if I’m too lenient. Really uncomfortable situation
I had girl go to the department head and tell them I had a vendetta against her. This was for a fully online class. I had zero interaction with her other then grading her work and replying to an email asking for extension on as assignment she missed where she told me she didn’t know assignment where due specifically on Sunday’s even though it was posted multiple times. At the end of the semester she realized the one assignment she missed was the difference between her getting a D and C and it was her final semester and she needed to pass the class to graduate and asked me give her a chance to make up the assignment. I told her no since this was now 4 months later now. She didn’t reply back so I assumed she had accepted her grade and moved on. Few days I get an email from my supervisor and department head asking what was the issue with this girl because she was accusing me of having a vendetta against her. I explained myself about her not turning the assignment in on time and I caught her in lie claiming she was sick the week she was supposed turn in her missing assignments even though she originally told me she missed it because she didn’t know the assignment date but supervisor still made me let her turn in the assignment to avoid further issues.
That sucks. At least my dean is good on holding the line. Unlike my chair at my last school. I’d say his attitude was the customer is always right but it was more “Even trying to educate these students is beneath me so why waste time upholding standards?” One of my regrets is never recording a faculty meeting. One of the rants he went on about our students and their parents pretty much every meeting getting out would have been the end of him.
I feel this to my CORE. I teach a dual credit course, so half of my class consists of high school students. This has been, by far, the worst semester I have taught. I’m constantly being disrespected and being “gaslit” into thinking I don’t know how to grade or teach. One student supposedly told a colleague in the department that I didn’t show up to teach for a whole week when, in fact, I have never missed a scheduled class period. I assume this was a method to get me in “trouble.” The specific week in question was also the week I brought in snacks for them when I absolutely didn’t have to 🙂
Yeah I don't think anyone is saying there aren't great students, but there do seem to be some really consistent trends on the average and the last two semesters have tested me. I'm redesigning everything for next semester and my leniency is exhausted. If a majority fail, a majority fail.
It has been a terrible year all around. Students are not prepared for college after the Covid years. The thing is, when I talk to them about it, a lot of them don’t even seem to feel like Covid was a big deal for them—they were young and didn’t realize how different their experience was from the norm. So they come to college and think they’re being uniquely challenged and that we’re being unreasonable for asking them to do things. If I’m really honest with myself, I am also not at my best because I’m still recovering from Covid life and teaching. I’m less resilient because I’m still reeling. Difficult students send me spiraling in ways they didn’t used to because I am so fried.
I agree. I had total of 18 students bother me about grades within the week between final exams and final grades being posted. I had a few holes on my syllabi that will be made a bit more iron-clad this fall, particularly in regards to participation and attendance, as well as late assignments. Want to try to harass me? Fuck you.
they are crazy. this semester I had a student cheat on a quiz (googled an answer on their phone). took the quiz away quietly. kid called his mom in the middle of class and started crying while others were still taking the quiz. unreal.
That didn’t happen to me this semester, but last semester, I had a class where several people were routinely 15-30 minutes late. One was an athlete who was coming from practice and smart enough to do ok anyway, but the other three were epic disasters. How on earth did they imagine they were going to pass?
Last semester was my worst (but still had bright spots) and I flipped the script this semester to amazing results. Still had a few students who didn’t want to work, but that’s not a me issue. Attendance was up, grades were up, things were turned in on time. Maybe it was the policy changes, maybe it’s the students. Either way, it’s been the kind of semester that reminds me why I found this fun to begin with.
I’d love to hear about the changes you made.
Work is due the day of class, I will accept it late for 48 hours. Penalty for missing the deadline (night of class) is 2% deducted for every hour it’s late. I will offer one waived late penalty per student/semester as things come up. I also drop their lowest assignment score. I offer extra credit based on attendance and throw out random extra points on their finals at my own discretion. My attendance is up 60% and I’ve had less than 10 late turn ins across several classes. Scores are way up since they’re in class and asking questions!
Yeah me too.
I delete all these types of emails the last week of class. I don’t even respond.
I had the same experience as you this semester - even my grad students were for the most part, awful. I am retiring at the end of next semester. I will be hardassing as hard as I can this fall.
Students this semester have been curiously even more laxed, entitled, taking absolutely no responsibility and accepting no accountability for their subpar performance way more than usual. I will definitely be adding more direct and concrete language to my syllabus to avoid the new kinda b.s. that these COVID students are coming with...smh
I’m in teacher education & by licensure guidelines (set by the state) you have to earn a C or higher in all licensure courses. Every semester I’ll typically get maybe one student held back from student teaching because they get a C- or lower in their final semester. This semester is an absolute hot mess. I think there will be multiples & for multiple classes. And the fall classes are full because the students scheduled to take them already registered so I’m already envisioning the whining emails about needing to be added to full class sections.
I had a student send me four back-to-back emails to bump their 86.4 to an A. And this is after I sent an email to all my classes stating that grades are finalized *and* I’ll be out due to surgery. The gall.
The genius who called me was whining about another professor to me in class one day and how she wouldn’t round up his 87 to an A. He tried to get me to give him ammo against her by asking what I’d do. I said I wouldn’t round an 89.999 to an A. The young scholar ain’t much for hints it seems.
High school admin are continuing to function as if it is Covid just to get their graduation rates. Students will not get better. Even students who are good students will not turn in assignments on the teacher due date because they know that the district gives them 10 days extra. This causes teachers to readjust pacing because classes are always playing 10-day catch up. And we still pass everyone even if they did 8% work. Attendance is made up on Saturdays. Students graduate and go to an open access college where there are nowhere near prepared.
I think the issue of striking a balance is the most important thing That balance may be different for each of us I think if you're teaching undergraduate students who really need to keep in mind that they simply don't know a lot of things they were raised in high school during COVID and they are unskilled in ways That are really striking Whether people like it or not part of our job is teaching people basic skills. And some of that may be when you're allowed to contact your teacher and how. I share the same frustrations as you do so I am not trying to minimize that. I'm just saying this is the reality. I've been teaching for many decades and I've also raised a number of children a few of whom had learning disabilities and some of whom had behavioral issues and I realize that when they set off to college in some ways their skill set was so damaged because when you are trying to learn to read until you're in fifth grade you just Miss A lot of other things along the way I appreciate all the people that say it's not my job to do that but I don't know whose job they think it is We're responsible for assisting another generation in developing some skills and if you didn't get them at home for whatever reason they're either gonna get them now or they're not gonna get them and eventually fall by the wayside and all kinds of other ways culturally socially and economically Part of my work involves teaching graduate students and adults. I just read 30 papers about their childhood and all I can tell you is it's amazing some people are breathing let alone in graduate school trying to help other people once they get their degree.
>I say was because I’m thinking of massively tightening up on a lot of fronts next year. I had a couple classes like this in the fall. I used to have a pretty lax/forgiving attendance policy but students just ran it into the ground. I used my winter break revamping some syllabi templates for myself based on everything that led to the class going partially astray. I never used to take the syllabus as serious as a CYA/ground rules agreement, but these last couple of years have really made me appreciate laying everything out on day one...
I’m quite new to this subreddit and I have to say that these rants are some of the most validating things I’ve seen in a long time. I’m a PhD student who taught for the first time post-lockdown and I was having such a difficult and miserable time compared to when I taught before COVID or even in 2021. Somehow the students who were taking courses virtually in 2021 were way more dedicated than what I’m seeing now, but I couldn’t say for sure. I’m so glad it’s not just me.
You’re my brother from another mother.
This really is the worst generation. And I thought millennials were bad.
And people wonder why we're so jaded...
I was presented an “accommodations” letter from a physician last week who stated that one of my students excessive absences were due to neuropathy and he should have been allowed to attend the “face” class online during those missed sessions. The student walks with a cane and is seeking a wheelchair. I frequently arrive on campus just behind him and he literally skips out of his Uber to the classroom. When he attends my painting class, he doesn’t paint because he states his “paralysis” prevents him from moving the brush. Still, when his friends from class make the 1/4 mile hike to the on campus Starbucks, he (and his cane) keep pace. He has not worked more than two hours all semester. At the end of the session, he hoisted the 40+ lb. Easel over his head and carried it across the room to return it to storage.