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Any other teachers here?

RW81233RW81233 Posts: 2,393
edited May 2010 in All Encompassing Trip
It's graduation season here and one of the worst things I have to do is assign failing grades to student who are hoping to walk. I was wondering if anyone else has awesome stories of students begging to graduate with explanations such as:
"I handed in all the papers on time and have no idea how I could have failed."
"Can I see the rubric because I worked for 10 hours on this paper, and have never worked harder on anything in my life." This clearly was not the case BTW.

Mind you I hate failing students, because it feels like I failed as a teacher. How does anyone else respond to things like this?
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • justamjustam Posts: 21,408
    I'm a teacher too. I teach at a university.

    I had the unpleasant task of lowering some students grades because their attendance was very poor. It was hard for me to do that because they still managed to do the work required, but my supervisor (the person who designed the course and oversees all the sections) has the policy of lowering the grades for the number of absences logged.

    It was surprising to the students, and it was painful to me to see how much lower their grades were. :?

    Luckily I only had to do that to two students. :geek:
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  • RW81233RW81233 Posts: 2,393
    I hated being the TA at UMD, because as you pointed out it's required to follow through with the professors rules. I, personally, have no attendance policy, but that hurts students who decide not to ever show up because of it. Still it's nice only to have them attend when they want to.
  • 8181 Posts: 58,276
    turn in F work, get an F. The student knows damn well what they did to earn said grade. i would have no remorse, but i'm not a teacher.
    81 is now off the air

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  • RW81233RW81233 Posts: 2,393
    I agree, but it's tough when you work up a mentoring relationship with someone for 3 months or a year. It's a lot easier when they don't attend class for sure.
  • mermelada_alucinogenamermelada_alucinogena Posts: 59
    RW81233 wrote:
    It's graduation season here and one of the worst things I have to do is assign failing grades to student who are hoping to walk. I was wondering if anyone else has awesome stories of students begging to graduate with explanations such as:
    "I handed in all the papers on time and have no idea how I could have failed."
    "Can I see the rubric because I worked for 10 hours on this paper, and have never worked harder on anything in my life." This clearly was not the case BTW.

    Mind you I hate failing students, because it feels like I failed as a teacher. How does anyone else respond to things like this?


    same "explanations" as my students here in Mexico...and i could add others like..."there was no internet", "when i was about to print it/save it the computer just turned off"....

    anyway i have the same feeling as you when i have to put a low grade
    Love ain't Love until you give it up!
  • dcfaithfuldcfaithful Posts: 13,076
    81 wrote:
    turn in F work, get an F. The student knows damn well what they did to earn said grade. i would have no remorse, but i'm not a teacher.


    Ditto. You get out as much as you put in. Why would a student get a failing grade if they truly worked hard for a passing one? I'm a student (community college) and I know damn well that I won't get a passing grade if I don't give a passing effort.

    It's common sense.
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