This is a total bitch session so if you're not in the mood I encourage you to move it along.
One of the most annoying parts of my job is those last minute, last ditch efforts for a grade improvement. Like today, DAYS after the semester has ended and my grades have been submit, I get one of those inevitable e-mails... "dog ate my homework", "my life is so hard", "I didn't know" and a bunch more blah, blah, blah. The thing that irks me the most is that I am not a hard-a$$ teacher. I give extra credit. I give a lot of leeway to students who keep me informed of their situations and what is going on. I have a fair amount of returning adult students who work full time, parents, even military personnel that have crazy locations and situations. I am willing to cut slack. So when the person who has screwed around all semester long, never come to me about their situation and they start asking me for a favor I am hard pressed to then give one out.
Luckily in this situation there was nothing I could do. So no moral dilemma involved. It just rubs me the wrong way. Seriously if you give some people an inch they want a full mile.
Posts
3 comments:
I teach online too, and get unbelievable messages. EVERY class I teach has at least one student who is involved in surgery and hospital visits. Now I am not trying to say this doens't happen, but what are the chances that in every class of ten to 15 students I have a least one who sends me the "I was in the hospital for a week" message.
How I handle it: I reply "XXX School has an iron-clad late work policy (or grade policy, etc) that i am not able to change it. I understand your frustration...blah blah...good luck with your academic endeavors....
--anon because the internet can be a very small world and I don't want to alert my university that i am writing about them!
Anon - Omg... I get those "I was in the hospital" messages too! Every single semester. Unbelievable. Glad to know it isn't just me.
I also get lots of "lost my internet connection for a week." I have had several students who say they have had a miscarriage. And this is SO hard for me. I treat them all like they are telling the truth and give them wide berth for a while because I have had several myself. But I know SOME are lying about it and that pisses me off to no end.
I also had a student tell me in her bio essay that she believes in werewolves and, she repeated several times, she is not kidding!
-Anon J again!
Post a Comment