Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Just a small early-morning rant

So today in my Social Issues Class, 1/2 of the students have a big group project that is worth 35% of their final mark.  Last week in class, I randomly picked which students would go this week and which students would go next week (it's a big class, and there is only time for 1/2 the class in one period).  One student told me he had MT (membership training) this week, so I made sure his group could go next week.  No other students mentioned any issues with dates.

Today (Wednesday) at 8am (the day of the project, which is at 2:10), I was out jogging around campus and I saw one of the students in that class.  He told me he had a problem, since one of his group members has a physical test for ROTC (army officer training).

My response: why didn't you tell me in class last week?

His response: we found out Monday morning.

And why didn't you tell me then?

We tried!

How exactly?  You have my Twitter, email, phone number, all of which I check multiple times each day.  And, I was in my office almost all of Monday morning.

Soooo...what can we do?!

(big sigh), you can go today.  It's far too late.

(back to Jackie again): Anyway, what if he randomly didn't see me out jogging?  Were they just going to tell me at the beginning of class? I like group projects and presentations, I just don't like the stress that goes along with them.  How do other people deal with it?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

In the bali, bali, everything is scheduled last minute mentality of Korea- I have found it's best to leave everything to the last minute. It never fails, when I schedule student conferences, special meeting times outside of my office hour, or practically any class assignment- they are always late or don't show at all. And yeah, they have my twitter, my email and my kakao so it's not like they can't get a hold of me either.
I like presentations also, so I usually devote class time to work on them and have them present the project at the end of class, or have them polish it at the start of the next class and get going.
I used to be big on scheduling things far in advance, but since I have starting letting things happen as they may the results have been better and less stressful for me when students aren't there at the assigned time.
Good luck! I feel your pain.

Cteve said...

I call the MT: Maekgolli Training