Does this qualify me for hazard pay?
As some of you may be aware, I'm currently in my first quarter as a TA. It's not bad, particularly since the assignment I've drawn this quarter, U.S. military history, isn't much of a demand on my time. I don't have to lead discussion sections, I hold two office hours a week that no one has yet attended, there's a single 600-page textbook (the sum total of reading for the entire course), and just a single midterm plus a final exam, as listed on the syllabus. (More on that in a moment.)
The one major drawback, or at least it would like more of one if I wasn't already taking a course in my own field that meets at 9:30 a.m. daily, is that the lectures are at 8:30 a.m., Monday through Friday.
Now, I'm not totally unsympathetic to the students. I mean, it wasn't so many years ago that I was an undergrad and the thought of any course before 11 made me think twice (since I'd have to get up before 10 and there was some psychological aversion to waking up at a single-digit hour not appended by p.m.). Sure, I took a few courses that met before 10. Two to be exact. Both my senior year. One a required course not offered at any other time. (Plus there was the course that met at 8:30 twice a week my junior year, though I dropped that midway through the term once I decided to drop my journalism major altogether.) And I distinctly remember how I mentally discounted any classes in the course catalog that met at 9. Once I even consciously decided not to take a class I wanted and would've otherwise taken, French history from 1789-1815, for the singular reason that I didn't want to get up at 9 a.m. three times a week.
So, I look at these undergrads and have to admire them for braving an 8:30 class. The professor who teaches this class is also sympathetic. I think 8:30 is a bit earlier than he'd prefer to have it if he had his druthers, but the time was assigned.
And I also recall from being an undergraduate the easy temptation to skip class and sleep in. Particularly in large lecture courses where attendance wasn't taken, where there was no participation component, where the course grade was based solely on two exams. I mean, I had an art history class not unlike that at the beginning of my freshman year that met twice a week in the afternoon, but I took to skipping it roughly midway through once I decided 1) I was getting absolutely nothing out of going to lecture other than dozing off and 2) I'd rather sleep in my own bed if I was going to be unconscious those three hours a week. Actually, about half the time I just went to work earlier, reasoning that I was better off earning about $9, or whatever it worked out to after taxes for the hour and a half spent on the job.
Anyway, the point of that long and rambling introduction is to say that I sympathize fully with students not making it to lecture regularly. I think I'd have a much harder time summoning the motivation myself if I didn't have a class right after taught by my adviser that's really crucial. A couple of weeks ago when my adviser cancelled two classes after the midterm since he went to a conference, I wound up skipping my TA lecture one day. It happens.
But being on the other side now, this doesn't mean that undergrad attendance patterns don't provide me a certain amusement.
To wit, I received the following e-mail this afternoon from a student:
Hey Scott,
I was curious when our 2nd midterm is. Honestly, I come to class sporadically and I haven't heard a single mention about it, is this because we are only having a midterm and a final? Also, I was curious how I could find out about my grade on the last midterm, do I have to come to your office hours???
Sincerely,
[name omitted]
A few remarks. First, I'm just glad the student in question didn't call me by the other TA's name, as an earlier e-mail from a different student did. It's good to know that the students have half a clue as to who I am, though my interaction with students is admittedly low. (Of course, if any of them bothered to come to office hours, that might change.)
Second, can't you just hear the student pleading wistfully, "Please don't make me come to class at 8:30 in the morning!"
Third, as anyone who bothered to read the syllabus can tell, there's only one midterm and one final. Now, there might be some confusion created by the home page for the course, which has a syllabus from a previous year when the class was structured slighly differently and had two midterms and a final. But, one would hope that the student in question had looked at the actual hardcopy syllabus received on Day 1.
Still, it's fun to see students betray how little they've come to class or done on their own. Our prof actually moved back the date of the midterm, which was listed all along as "tentative" on the syllabus. The date change had been announced daily for at least the week prior to the exam. Nonetheless, we still had one student come up at the end of class the day before the original exam date, asking questions about test content, and then finally he asked the prof whether it was still tomorrow, which prompted a rather incredulous sound from the prof, who informed him that it was Friday and then inquired as to when the last time was the student came to class.
And you get more of that on the actual day listed for the midterm on the syllabus. Attendance spikes, and a few people look perplexed when they don't see other people reaching for bluebooks.
So, I guess the only sporting thing to do in regard to this particular inquiry is to promise to bring the student's exam to tomorrow's class. I mean, that would be the obvious time to return an assignment ... although I think I'd be more embarrassed that it's now been nearly two weeks since we first returned exams, and we even announced at the midterm the day when we would return them, and still this student has clearly not been to class once in that period.
In any event, I won't have any particular sympathy when it comes time for me to grade the student's final, since it's not like the student has made a demonstrative effort to come to class and learn. Though I do admire the candor of confessing regular absence.
The one major drawback, or at least it would like more of one if I wasn't already taking a course in my own field that meets at 9:30 a.m. daily, is that the lectures are at 8:30 a.m., Monday through Friday.
Now, I'm not totally unsympathetic to the students. I mean, it wasn't so many years ago that I was an undergrad and the thought of any course before 11 made me think twice (since I'd have to get up before 10 and there was some psychological aversion to waking up at a single-digit hour not appended by p.m.). Sure, I took a few courses that met before 10. Two to be exact. Both my senior year. One a required course not offered at any other time. (Plus there was the course that met at 8:30 twice a week my junior year, though I dropped that midway through the term once I decided to drop my journalism major altogether.) And I distinctly remember how I mentally discounted any classes in the course catalog that met at 9. Once I even consciously decided not to take a class I wanted and would've otherwise taken, French history from 1789-1815, for the singular reason that I didn't want to get up at 9 a.m. three times a week.
So, I look at these undergrads and have to admire them for braving an 8:30 class. The professor who teaches this class is also sympathetic. I think 8:30 is a bit earlier than he'd prefer to have it if he had his druthers, but the time was assigned.
And I also recall from being an undergraduate the easy temptation to skip class and sleep in. Particularly in large lecture courses where attendance wasn't taken, where there was no participation component, where the course grade was based solely on two exams. I mean, I had an art history class not unlike that at the beginning of my freshman year that met twice a week in the afternoon, but I took to skipping it roughly midway through once I decided 1) I was getting absolutely nothing out of going to lecture other than dozing off and 2) I'd rather sleep in my own bed if I was going to be unconscious those three hours a week. Actually, about half the time I just went to work earlier, reasoning that I was better off earning about $9, or whatever it worked out to after taxes for the hour and a half spent on the job.
Anyway, the point of that long and rambling introduction is to say that I sympathize fully with students not making it to lecture regularly. I think I'd have a much harder time summoning the motivation myself if I didn't have a class right after taught by my adviser that's really crucial. A couple of weeks ago when my adviser cancelled two classes after the midterm since he went to a conference, I wound up skipping my TA lecture one day. It happens.
But being on the other side now, this doesn't mean that undergrad attendance patterns don't provide me a certain amusement.
To wit, I received the following e-mail this afternoon from a student:
Hey Scott,
I was curious when our 2nd midterm is. Honestly, I come to class sporadically and I haven't heard a single mention about it, is this because we are only having a midterm and a final? Also, I was curious how I could find out about my grade on the last midterm, do I have to come to your office hours???
Sincerely,
[name omitted]
A few remarks. First, I'm just glad the student in question didn't call me by the other TA's name, as an earlier e-mail from a different student did. It's good to know that the students have half a clue as to who I am, though my interaction with students is admittedly low. (Of course, if any of them bothered to come to office hours, that might change.)
Second, can't you just hear the student pleading wistfully, "Please don't make me come to class at 8:30 in the morning!"
Third, as anyone who bothered to read the syllabus can tell, there's only one midterm and one final. Now, there might be some confusion created by the home page for the course, which has a syllabus from a previous year when the class was structured slighly differently and had two midterms and a final. But, one would hope that the student in question had looked at the actual hardcopy syllabus received on Day 1.
Still, it's fun to see students betray how little they've come to class or done on their own. Our prof actually moved back the date of the midterm, which was listed all along as "tentative" on the syllabus. The date change had been announced daily for at least the week prior to the exam. Nonetheless, we still had one student come up at the end of class the day before the original exam date, asking questions about test content, and then finally he asked the prof whether it was still tomorrow, which prompted a rather incredulous sound from the prof, who informed him that it was Friday and then inquired as to when the last time was the student came to class.
And you get more of that on the actual day listed for the midterm on the syllabus. Attendance spikes, and a few people look perplexed when they don't see other people reaching for bluebooks.
So, I guess the only sporting thing to do in regard to this particular inquiry is to promise to bring the student's exam to tomorrow's class. I mean, that would be the obvious time to return an assignment ... although I think I'd be more embarrassed that it's now been nearly two weeks since we first returned exams, and we even announced at the midterm the day when we would return them, and still this student has clearly not been to class once in that period.
In any event, I won't have any particular sympathy when it comes time for me to grade the student's final, since it's not like the student has made a demonstrative effort to come to class and learn. Though I do admire the candor of confessing regular absence.
posted by Alexander Dubcek | 19:53
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