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?