adsii1970

This week is the last week of course instruction for all my classes except one. That one still has another two weeks left. I've almost finished grading all the paper drafts. Next week, after Wednesday, I will be grading final exams. I decided to do something new this semester. I played around with my grade book and with the help of Excel, took an average of every students' last three exams. I then used that to set an expected grade for the final. Any student who would fail the course even if they made an A on the final, I've notified them it would be in their best interests to drop the class.

Students who would remain unchanged and are going to earn an A in the course anyway, I am going to exempt them from the final. No need to beat a dead horse, right?

This week is the last week of course instruction for all my classes except one. That one still has another two weeks left. I've almost finished grading all the paper drafts. Next week, after Wednesday, I will be grading final exams. I decided to do something new this semester. I played around with my grade book and with the help of Excel, took an average of every students' last three exams. I then used that to set an expected grade for the final. Any student who would fail the course even if they made an A on the final, I've notified them it would be in their best interests to drop the class.

Students who would remain unchanged and are going to earn an A in the course anyway, I am going to exempt them from the final. No need to beat a dead horse, right?

Ok, comments?

Ok, comments?

Ok, comments?

Ok, comments?

This week is the last week of course instruction for all my classes except one. That one still has another two weeks left. I've almost finished grading all the paper drafts. Next week, after Wednesday, I will be grading final exams. I decided to do something new this semester. I played around with my grade book and with the help of Excel, took an average of every students' last three exams. I then used that to set an expected grade for the final. Any student who would fail the course even if they made an A on the final, I've notified them it would be in their best interests to drop the class.

Students who would remain unchanged and are going to earn an A in the course anyway, I am going to exempt them from the final. No need to beat a dead horse, right?

I've seen several comments today asking for some sort of "defined" objectives for KSP. Do you folks think it could deserve a thread or should I just throw some mission ideas in a profile status post? I'm curious and would like to know.

Continuing to grade, I came across this gem in a student's term paper. The course is World Civilization to 1500:

Quote

People from various religions would and still to this day travel to teach others about there religion. They are never forcing others to believe in what they tell them they are just telling their beliefs and practices to others in hopes people see the importance they see.

There is so much wrong with this statement. So much wrong...

Continuing to grade, I came across this gem in a student's term paper. The course is World Civilization to 1500:

Quote

People from various religions would and still to this day travel to teach others about there religion. They are never forcing others to believe in what they tell them they are just telling their beliefs and practices to others in hopes people see the importance they see.

There is so much wrong with this statement. So much wrong...

The level of conspiracy theories and nuts never seem to know no end at all.

On an exam for an on-line class I teach about the U.S. in World War II, a short essay question simply asked what were some of the factors for U.S. involvement in World War II... and unfortunately I am not teasing you.

I had a student actually submit this response:

Quote

Roosevelt and the Republicans in Congress saw the war for a way for the United States to steal more land and resources from both Europe and Asia. So Roosevelt ordered an attack on Pearl Harbor, very similar to the Japanese Mukden incident in 1931 to gain support for his and the Republican war effort. This class may teach the fake facts that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, but the intelligent should be able to see through the lies. It was Republican propaganda put in place by a republican congress, and at the order of a republican president.

Yeah, um, ok...

The level of conspiracy theories and nuts never seem to know no end at all.

On an exam for an on-line class I teach about the U.S. in World War II, a short essay question simply asked what were some of the factors for U.S. involvement in World War II... and unfortunately I am not teasing you.

I had a student actually submit this response:

Quote

Roosevelt and the Republicans in Congress saw the war for a way for the United States to steal more land and resources from both Europe and Asia. So Roosevelt ordered an attack on Pearl Harbor, very similar to the Japanese Mukden incident in 1931 to gain support for his and the Republican war effort. This class may teach the fake facts that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, but the intelligent should be able to see through the lies. It was Republican propaganda put in place by a republican congress, and at the order of a republican president.

Yeah, um, ok...

Folks, I am here, on-line, but am grading papers...

Today's tools of choice:

Lingua Latina mortua est
Mortuus est esse.
Primo Romanos interfecit
Num occidere me, et nunc est.

Lingua Latina mortua est
Mortuus est esse.
Primo Romanos interfecit
Num occidere me, et nunc est.

Lingua Latina mortua est
Mortuus est esse.
Primo Romanos interfecit
Num occidere me, et nunc est.

Lingua Latina mortua est
Mortuus est esse.
Primo Romanos interfecit
Num occidere me, et nunc est.

Lingua Latina mortua est
Mortuus est esse.
Primo Romanos interfecit
Num occidere me, et nunc est.

Lingua Latina mortua est
Mortuus est esse.
Primo Romanos interfecit
Num occidere me, et nunc est.

Lingua Latina mortua est
Mortuus est esse.
Primo Romanos interfecit
Num occidere me, et nunc est.

An helpful suggestion from your friendly forum professor:

The email client used by our campus' on-line portal (Black Board) allows those who are designated as "instructor users" in the system to set a delivery time for emails. Because of the way I chose to set up my courses, I always send bulk emails at 11:59 p.m. This way, the very first thing a student gets in the morning, as they check (or do not check) their email is the bulk email from me.

It is that time of the semester where it is about to get a little crazy in my life. Final projects and final exams will begin to be due over the next 14 day period. And every semester, I have had at least 15% of all students for that semester decide to turn in various assignments, some which were due the third week of the semester. So... with that said, two years ago, I noticed a trend - it now was closer to 25% waiting to the last minute to do everything.

This past fall, in ONE class of 45 students, I had 23 (that's 51%) who decided to wait to the last minute to submit a semester's worth of work. And that totally changed the way I do business in the classroom forever. So, this semester, I have become a major obstacle for the student who has decided to make procrastination their lifestyle.

Here's the email I sent out at 11:59 p.m. last night:

This morning, when I began working through the new round of emails which began around 6:30 this morning, I came across this gem:

Quote

I read you're email this morning and think you are being unfare. I have more than just you're class in my life. It isn't like this is an important class - its' HISTERY!!!!!

I have talked to some of my friends. There professors don't mind late work. There professors are understanding that there are things more important than class. I don't have time to do the work from you're class, algebra, English, and my nursing clases. There's too much work I have to do in the real classes besides you're's.

I don't have time to do everything you want. I will do the final project and you will grade it. I am going to see my adviser today and complain about you're unrealistic expectations.

I will need to take you're final exam early. I will be leaving on a cruise on May 2.

Ok, folks... here's the deal. When you send an email to a professor and you immediately begin accusing them of ruining your life, your chance to remain in college, or any other "student" travesty, you are inviting that professor to not work with you. You're almost begging for them to become the coldest person in the room to you. In fact, I would go as far as saying you've demanded them not to work with you.

Secondly, when you cannot even spell or use the right form of a word, you are highlighting how much of a moron you really are. You are showing the professor a complete lack of professionalism. And again, you are highlighting how little you value education.

And then there's the "my other friend's professors aren't as uncooperative as you are..." garbage, you are trying to cause the professor to second-guess their actions. It does nothing but make us even more mad at you. First, you made the decision to not do the assignment on time. Then you claim we are the ones ruining your life because of the lack of effort you've put into the class. And then you frost that cake with the false comparison to other professors. Professors talk; we may not like each other, but we talk. Sure, your friend's professor that accepts late work probably is a volleyball instructor. But in most real academic fields, late work over a week is normally not tolerated. Ever.

Go to your advisor. Please. In fact, I beg you to. Go to your advisor and complain about my course. Your advisor stuck you in the course for a reason, and part of that is the reputation of the professor teaching the course. For every one student who complains about a professor, you'll normally find seven to ten who will praise the same professor. Besides, your advisor has NO SAY on how your professor runs their course. None.

And then, there's the demand made to accommodate another poor decision. You've booked a cruise that happens during finals week and after blasting your professor, you want to ask for an early exam date? Yeah, hell no. You can take it with everyone else OR you can go ahead on your cruise. But I'm under no obligation to help you at all, especially with your bad attitude towards the course. Nada... no compassion given... In fact, this movie clip reminds me exactly of how I feel about this kind of garbage:

Just looked at your link to the Transport Tycoon forum page. Was one of my favorite games until it quit working with my version of Windows...

Have a lot to do this weekend. Some of the things I've put off for so long that there's now a looming deadline that requires I spend time on them. Here's what's going on:

• I need to grade exams for my HIST 101 (World Civilization to 1500) class. I am not looking forward to this group of exams...
• I need to clean out my closet. I have some clothes that since I've lost 15 pounds, no longer fit. And I refuse to get fat again!
• Grade the course project first stage for HIST 109 (U.S. history since 1865).
• Complete the images needed for the next installment of Kerny's journal.
• Complete the light curves on Nohochacyum. I've almost finished them... until the next Kopernicus update...
• Finish my real-life chores...