Wednesday, March 21, 2007

I Know I've Got Grading On the Horizon When...

  • Students who generally skip class are in attendance, but pay attention only when I'm giving instructions about the assignment. (Do they really think that I don't notice??)
  • I am ambushed by my students as soon as I enter the college building. Their inquiries are solely focused on the assignment. (Whatever happened to the question, "How are you?"?)
  • My Inbox is overflowing with emails requesting extensions. (When I grow up and become a Scholar-in-Actuality, I'm only going to give extensions for requests accompanied by a doctor's note.)

3 comments:

busterwife said...

the sad truth... i think many students regard "scholars" (wannabe or otherwise) as somewhat non-human. depressing, isn't it?! i recall having this small epiphany when i was about 18 or 19; i realized that my profs actually had lives outside of school, and that they even had feelings and stuff like that. that would have been the year i came back to God... those events are probably related somehow. :-)

good luck dealing with your drones, er, i mean students... ;-)

Lonely Dissertator-No-More said...

people don't go to doctors these days even if they are sick. what doctor is going to give you a note for a cold without charging you $20 for it?

as i cough away, i sympathize with your students. here's a suggestion if you haven't already thought of it: make it clear in your grading syllabus how many marks/points get deducted for how many days of lateness. then, the responsibility is simply up to them.

Scholar Wannabe said...

B.W.: Thanks for the reminder that they're my drones, I mean, students. =)

W.O.: If only the policy was mine to make!!! I would absolutely state my policy in the syllabus.

The problem is my lack of power: the prof for whom I'm TAing refuses to set the policy and college doesn't have one.

What's a powerless TA to do?