Contraindications

This week has been a short work week because of the Thanksgiving holiday.  I started my week with the usual full Monday: I have three classes that day plus office hours, so I'm working from 9:45-3:45, pretty much non-stop.  This past Monday, I had asked a student to come by my office hours to chat.  Here's why:

A couple of weeks ago, two technical writing students (I'll call them Mo and Jeff) stopped by my office to express themselves, wondering where their most recent assignment was because they "needed feedback" so that they "wouldn't mess up" the next assignment.  Never mind that I had devoted half a class period to providing feedback to the whole class based on what I noticed on all their assignments.  On the board, I'd listed the things that had been done well and things that needed to be improved.  I had given individual feedback to about half the class, but not yet personally to Mo and Jeff.

Jeff also complained that I "didn't lecture enough" and so he didn't ever know what to do in class: if I talked individually to another student during workshop (after giving the whole class a task), he didn't know what he was supposed to do.  So the next class period, I "lectured" and then gave the students an exercise to apply that lecture.  Unfortunately, Jeff spent most of the lecture browsing through his grades on our course website instead of listening.

The biggest shock came that evening: my dean called me at home to say that Mo and Jeff had come by her office to complain that I didn't get their work back to them in time.  Mo in particular said that she thought I had "too much to do" and couldn't get my work done.  (I guess I should be impressed that Mo would take this strategy: it shows she's listened when I've talked about audience analysis and technical writing.  When my students have asked whether or not they have to remind me what projects they're working on, I answer with the fact that I am teaching 120 students this semester, and it's entirely possible that I would not remember their exact project.  Mo took this information and concluded that I had "too much to do.")

Anyway, the call from the dean was a shock.  I asked about contacting the students individually to say that I'd talked with the dean; she said okay.  I asked Mo to come to my office because I must have misunderstood something since our face-to-face conversation in my office the previous week had seemed to have ended well.

This Monday, Mo came by and said, "We talked with the dean because after we talked with you, nothing changed."  (Timeline update: they talked in my office on a Wednesday after class; the next class meeting was Monday, the day they expected to see some type of change.)

When I mentioned about the class "lecture" that Monday, she responded that she gets nothing out of class and it doesn't matter to her what happens in class.  When I mentioned that I also had returned her assignment *and* given her extra time to turn in the next assignment, she said that I should have done that for everyone because "probably other people have the same issue" (they don't).  She then spent quite a bit of time saying that 1) she was a bad writer 2) she was only taking the class because it was required and 3) she didn't get anything out of coming to class - it was a waste.

Hmmm.  So I flat-out said something like "You'll have to help me understand what seems to be a contradiction here: you say that you are a bad writer, you don't get anything out of class, yet you seem to want a good grade: how do you think that is going to happen?"  She didn't know.  She didn't think I could do anything in class, and she didn't think she could do anything.

I'm extremely puzzled: did she just want to vent?  Who, exactly, would she be mad at, and why?   She's told me that she's already earned her nursing certificate (but she can't find a job - I wonder why).  So I'm not sure why she's saying that this course is required for her program.  Maybe she just needs to get a B and sees that it might not be possible?

She also complained to the dean that she was active military and that I didn't give her the accommodations required.  First time I heard she was active military is when the dean told me.

So I'm a bit pissed off at Mo and Jeff: they're team.  He makes fun of her every chance he gets - he fancies himself the class clown - and she seems to need his large bulk as protection somehow.  The two of them will get through the course, but I can't imagine a grade higher than a C for either of them, given how they write and how they contribute to class discussion (two primary ways of earning grades in our class).

It's that time of the semester

This week, my tech writers have been unhappy with their workload (even though they have chosen their tasks and their timelines) and thus with me.

Two came into my office last week to tell me how to teach the class: you should lecture more to the whole class; don't talk to people individually in the classroom because "then I don't know what to do: should I start reading something else?"

This comment came after I had given students an activity (to support that day's "educational objective," which I had written on the board and which I had introduced with some talking to the class that evidently the student did not find sufficient as a "lecture").  While students were doing the activity, I circulated around the classroom, commenting on their work, asking if anyone had questions.  A couple of students had questions, so I stopped to talk and answer.

The fellow with this complaint is someone whose only contributions to class discussion come in the form of jokes, often at the expense of his friend, the woman who came into the office with him to "discuss" my teaching.  This young man also spends less than 30 minutes composing his most recent assignments (I ask all students to complete a "cover sheet" with assignments, recording what they did to complete the writing task; most students spend two to four hours creating these current memos.)

So I understand this guy as a lazy, below-average student (he's in law enforcement), and I recognize the type (blame someone else for my own faults).  The young woman, on the other hand, she's a puzzle to me.  After a call from the dean yesterday (yes, after the students talked to me, evidently they were still pissed enough to talk with the dean), I found out that the student is active-duty military.  She's never mentioned that to me before (except in my office to tell me that I had "not given her" extra time to complete a quiz about a month ago when she was at Camp Ripley).

This student is mad at me because she hasn't received a grade for a September assignment: that's true - only two students have received grades because these assignments came in the same time as my grandma's death and funeral, and I had computer problems with the assignments, so I got behind.  I've been up-to-speed with other assignments instead of going back to those -- a problem, to be sure, but one I've explained to students and asked for their patience, something I would appreciate as I continually tweak the course to meet their needs: moving due dates, moving online class dates, adding another hour of "chat" even though it's a huge struggle for me to attend, giving them more chances to do open-book online quizzes.

*Sigh*.  I'm just so tired of trying to teach students to write -- it means I have to read and comment on what they write, such a time-consuming activity.  I have at least one colleague who assigns two papers in a 16-week semester (I have many, many more), the first of which is due week 9 of the semester.  These students are not learning to write: they are just writing anything (I worked with two of them in the writing center, and their "research papers" consisted of a pastiche from Wikipedia and other sources, a cut-and-paste that would cause an F in my course).

I am struggling with knowing how to be a good, ethical teacher in an environment that doesn't support those kinds of teachers.  What do I sacrifice?  How do I compromise?

The Serial Comma

So using the Oxford Commas (as it's also known) is really important, I tell my students. Click on this news clipping to make it bigger (and to see the joke).

Thanks, Dave Beard.