Sunday, November 15, 2009

More Whining

  • It's hot here.  Mid-November and we still have days reaching to the 70's.  I do not like.
  • Thanks to our techno-friendly campus, students can demand to be advised 24/7!  I don't exactly know that I must comply, but I seem to be complying.  Advised a kid at eleven-thirty last night.  Yes.  Saturday night.  Am I a loser or what?
  • I'm revising Martin's War, which is supposed to come out in December or January.  Assiduously.  This is, I'm hoping, the final revision.  It's slow going.
  • I've submitted two stories and a novel to three different journals, on various continents of the planet.  Now I am waiting to be rejected.  This is my least favorite part of being a writer.
  • We got a stern email from the kid's teacher about how the kid did not do a presentation which was due this past Friday -- a book report, of all things.  She had read the book, but it had to have props and a written component.  She hadn't done that.  So we're spending the weekend on remedial sturm und drang. (The kid hates homework.)
  • Did I mention it was hot?  

4 comments:

sugaredharpy said...

Loser, I'm your friend named Also Loser. I actually had a kid go to the Dean because I didn't respond to him in a timely manner.

He emailed me at 2am the day before the test. The test was at 8am in the morning. So...no, I didn't get back to him between those six hours. The Dean told me that we are committed to responding to our students as soon as possible, never quite understand the 2am to 8am thing.

I will not read the next email like that, I'm sure of it.

But YES, I mistakenly answer emails all the fucking time, night, weekend, etc. I need to get harder and say sorry, if it's past Friday at 7pm and before 8am on Monday, I won't see it.

delagar said...

What happened to backing your faculty? Did that *used* to be SOP? Now it's like we're guilty if a student so much as whimpers. Jeez.

sugaredharpy said...

Lady, get this: A student who has NEVER attended class from the beginning in mid-August waltzed in and said he's had a cold (SINCE AUGUST) and thus would like to make up the tests and papers he's missed, when can he schedule them. Oh, and where can he buy the book, the bookstore doesn't have it anymore.

I responded: What? WHAT?

Yes, he's a mighty cold and sadly missed some (ALL) class but his adviser told him that without a passing grade in this class he'd lose his scholarship, so he needs to pass.

Me: You are joking, correct?

Eventually he realized that I was in no way receptive to this "cold" he had for 12 weeks, so then I got the dead grandma that he was really close to and the sadness, so can he please just make up the two tests, three papers, every day of discussion, four library trips, and one museum trip that he's missed? And then turn in the term paper and final exam on time?

No.

He freaking cried. CRIED.

He said he had no idea that he wouldn't be able to miss class and not just make it up, that other teachers are totally working him, and he felt I was being unreasonable.

I told him in no uncertain terms, that I'm terribly sorry you are now concerned about your grade, but you realize that all these other students had a death in the family, surgery, H1N1 flu, etc. and still made it here most of the last 12 weeks. They've read, discussed, asked questions, they've emailed and talked to me after class, they've done the written work and studied for exams. It is not fair to give you a pass. You couldn't pass the tests for paintings you've never seen, because you don't have the book nor came to class. You have far exceeded that late policy for papers. You have long since exhausted the number of allowed absences by the department (only four). You have an automatic F for that reason alone. But the problem is, it is not fair to the majority of the class to just pass you because you want to work for the last two weeks.

I'm now waiting for the Dean's call to tell me to allow him to make up the work.

GRRRRR. Sorry for hijacking your comment thread!

delagar said...

Oh, hijack away. I think I have that student's cousin in my class, btw. He missed the first 2 weeks of class, showed up with a sad, sad story about a mama being sent to prison (here in Pork Smith, we get really creative excuses) so I told if he didn't miss ONE MORE SINGLE day I would work with him.

Didn't see him again AT ALL until after I turned in midterm grades. Then he shows up b/c WAAAH, he's failing, and he CAN'T fail, he'll (you guessed it) lose his scholarship. So what can we do?

Yeah, that's what he asked me. What can "we" do about this?

Dude.