Many of you may have noticed that I have not been blogging as much as usual. This is because, as many of you know, I am not teaching this quarter, having earned a short sabbatical for teaching and service over and above the call of duty. I have been relaxed and happy, and have not had many frustrating student encounters to share. This is about to change.
My classes don't begin again until January, but already I am getting emails from students. Will the books be the same? Will I sign them in to the class even though they have a schedule conflict and will be 20 minutes late every day? Will I override the registrar's waitlist and sign them in? Do they have to buy all the books? They have trips planned, will it be okay if they miss two weeks of class in February?
These messages are a real buzz-kill. I can just delete them, right?
Friday, November 03, 2006
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4 comments:
Well, that's easy:
Maybe. No. No. Yes. You are an adult and can decide for yourself, however, you still have to hand in all the work and do it ontime.
Make a standard answer like the last one about being an adult, save it in a file or as a draft, and just use this to answer questions like this. If they respond, just repeat. You might include things like policy, etc.
And use the sabbatical to get your email sorted out - either get a second email address for serious work, or insist that the students tag their E-Mails with the course code in the subject line, so you can automatically filter them into a folder and answer all of them when you are in the mood to do so. Post a notice that emails without tags will be deleted.
I got so *sick* of the special cases (I am the person in my department who alone can give special dispensation to students who have have problems like flunking out or forgot to register for courses they have to take) that I just started saying no: these are the rules, and I won't accept cheap sob stories. They have to be of the magnitude of I-was-on-the-intensive-care-ward or I-have-to-do-my-military-service-in-Albania, and I need real paperwork on letterhead to back this up. This has drastically reduced the number of requests......
Delete away.
I am also tired of the "special" cases of students who just have to miss because a trip to Bermuda or something.
Ooh, I want to say "delete delete delete"
How about a compromise --> once per week spend a set amount of time (20 min?) answering those emails. No more time than that, in the order they came in.
emails? What emails? You never got their emails. What is this "buzz-kill" you speak of?
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