Posting from home

I dashed off campus immediately after class, so I could pick my little cat up from the vet. She's now sleeping near me, and I'm going to blow off a little steam.

In the later of the two 102 classes, one of the students is a young man who will only respond when called on and the rest of the time seems functionally comatose. This is a familiar type. Earlier in the semester he turned in his homework in red pen; I told him not to do that in the future, that red is reserved for me, and he needs to use dark blue or black. He said it was the only pen he had. Well, get yourself another pen, I suggested--very pleasantly. About two weeks ago, maybe less, he turned in another assignment in red pen. I wrote a more forceful note, telling him that I would not accept homework in red pen after this. Monday, he turned in more homework in red pen. Today, I handed it back to him and said, "I won't accept homework in red pen"--and he got very angry, saying it was the only pen he had. I said, "So, get a new pen." "I have one now," he said, and again tried to give me the homework. When I still refused to accept it, this went back and forth a few times: he kept repeating that the red pen was the only pen he'd had, and that he had a different pen now. Finally I said, "Well, now won't help you" (meaning it doesn't change the fact that the previous assignment was in red), and when he continued, I said, "Honestly, this is the most lame excuse I've ever heard"--and then I tuned him out. He left in a huff--and honestly, I hope he turns up next class with a withdrawal slip. I'd be delighted to have him gone. He isn't actively a detriment to the learning experience of the other students, but he is an annoyance to me, and I'm fresh out of patience with truculence.

And with the attitude that just explaining to me why one has been absent is enough. A student who has missed class six times came to me before class and wanted to explain why he had been absent. I didn't let him tell me the sob story. I just pointed out the number of absences, and I said, "It sounds like you were dealing with a situation beyond your control, and that happens sometimes; sometimes life gets in the way of school. It's unfortunate, but it happens." And I told him his options are withdraw or fail. He went off to get the withdrawal form. I hope he turns up with it and gets it signed, but if he doesn't, that's an unofficial withdrawal--and counts in his GPA as an F.

In the other class, a student wanted to talk to me after class about whether he had any chance of getting a B or an A. Well, since the highest grade he's gotten to date is a C+, and several of his assignments have been below 59, the answer is no. I said it was too bad he hadn't talked to me about this earlier in the semester, come to get extra help. He said, "I'm just not good at writing papers." OK, I said: so that means you have to put in more than the usual effort, time, and energy so that you get good results. I won't go into all the back and forth, but he told me--quite sincerely--that he thought I was a great professor, because I won't let the students slide, won't let them get away with crap. But he'll probably end up withdrawing. It would be a shame. He hasn't been exactly a huge contribution to the energy or intelligence of the conversations, but I think he could have gotten a lot more out of the class if he'd started working on it earlier. He thinks so, too--and I said that that in itself is a good lesson to learn.

I feel good about that conversation, more so than about the other two. I think that young man is actually learning something--maybe not how to write, but something about how to approach hard work.

But now, I can barely see, I'm so tired. I've been almost unable to speak lately (lots of garbled words and use of the wrong word), and it's carrying over into the writing. So enough for tonight. I may not post anything tomorrow: I'm going to want to get home to make sure my cat is doing OK. And so it goes.