OK, I'm surprising myself here - two posts in two days - but this one is worth my time.
In my creative writing course, I assigned a scaffolding task. Students were to take a poem and use each line as an inspiration for a similar line of their own. This is a good way to get someone to write a first poem or to inspire a more advanced writer to try something a little different. The responses I received were quite good, and some students really enjoyed the assignment, but then there was the student I will call Dennis.
On the bottom of Dennis's response was the following "This was a stupid assignment. I picked the shortest poem just to get it over with. I do not nor have I ever liked poetry. I would appreciate it if you would refrain from giving us poetry assignments in this course."
Of course, I immediately replied to Dennis that the name of the course was CREATIVE WRITING and that the course did include poetry writing as well as short story writing. I pointed out that we did offer a course in creative non-fiction if that was more to his liking and that he could drop my course if he didn't like the contents.
What I really wanted to say was:
Dear Dennis,
Thank you for giving me a direction in which to take this course. I do so want to accommodate you as an individual, and I'm sure you know that every course here at _________ College offers the student the chance to design it as s/he sees fit. It is certainly a waste of time to attempt to present you with material in which you are not interested, and no students should have to do stupid assignments. Obviously, you have some better suggestions for assignments, and I can't wait to hear them.
I also want to thank you for reminding me that my graduate work and the student loans I incurred were all for nothing, since you, as a student, can see right through me as a teacher and have me pegged as just another stupid idiot trying to rob you of your precrious video game playing time. Please forgive me.
As a thank you, I'm awarding you the big fat A you probably want. No need to come to class; I can see that you are far too intelligent for that. Good luck. You are the student we all dream about.
OK, it's out of my systerm. I think I'll add some more poetry assignments and see what "Dennis" puts down on his evaluation. (see previous post).
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Saturday, February 6, 2010
Student Evaluations
Which administrative idiot thought up the concept of student evaluations? OK, the general idea is fine - give the students a chance to say a few words about the classes they are taking and the professors who teach them. After all, there are (sad to say) some professors out there who are dull and boring because, frankly, they are dull people who are bored to death with what they teach.
But hasn't administration caught on to the fact that students now see evaluations as ways to "punish" professors? At the end of the last semester, I heard one girl comment as she passed my desk. "He (referring to some poor unnamed prof) shouldn't have told me I couldn't do the assignment over. Now I'm going to give him a crappy evaluation." Her friend replied, "I'll write a bad one too." I felt sorry for the guy (whoever it was) because I know students have done to to a lot of professors - including me.
Students see themselves as consumers. They don't hesitate to tell you what they want when they want it, and if you don't give it to them.....well, you'll know it when the evaluations come back to you. For the full-time tenured professor, bad evaluations are probably just lunch laughs, but for the adjunct, it can mean the difference between teaching that course again, or never teaching it as long as you live. And there's nothing you can do.
Ignore the bad evaluations, and your department head thinks you don't care. Bring it up, and you look guilty as hell. You can't get out of this gracefully. Try to explain that the students ganged up on you because you gave them all bad grades on a group project, and you look like the bully throwing the poor hard-working students under the big, bad bus. When those innocent looking students didn't just throw YOU under the bus, they got in and drove it themselves. You can feel the bruises from the tires, but your department head doesn't see them.
Student evaluations are playing right into grade inflation. Be a buddy; cut the students all sorts of slack; laugh off late, shoddy, and missing assignments and give them nothing lower than a B, and you've got them writing a glowing (maybe) evaluation. But when you read those evaluations, you know you sold out to a system that values the students' input over your ethics, education, and integrity. It's sad, isn't it?
But hasn't administration caught on to the fact that students now see evaluations as ways to "punish" professors? At the end of the last semester, I heard one girl comment as she passed my desk. "He (referring to some poor unnamed prof) shouldn't have told me I couldn't do the assignment over. Now I'm going to give him a crappy evaluation." Her friend replied, "I'll write a bad one too." I felt sorry for the guy (whoever it was) because I know students have done to to a lot of professors - including me.
Students see themselves as consumers. They don't hesitate to tell you what they want when they want it, and if you don't give it to them.....well, you'll know it when the evaluations come back to you. For the full-time tenured professor, bad evaluations are probably just lunch laughs, but for the adjunct, it can mean the difference between teaching that course again, or never teaching it as long as you live. And there's nothing you can do.
Ignore the bad evaluations, and your department head thinks you don't care. Bring it up, and you look guilty as hell. You can't get out of this gracefully. Try to explain that the students ganged up on you because you gave them all bad grades on a group project, and you look like the bully throwing the poor hard-working students under the big, bad bus. When those innocent looking students didn't just throw YOU under the bus, they got in and drove it themselves. You can feel the bruises from the tires, but your department head doesn't see them.
Student evaluations are playing right into grade inflation. Be a buddy; cut the students all sorts of slack; laugh off late, shoddy, and missing assignments and give them nothing lower than a B, and you've got them writing a glowing (maybe) evaluation. But when you read those evaluations, you know you sold out to a system that values the students' input over your ethics, education, and integrity. It's sad, isn't it?
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