Friday, March 6, 2020

"Is it summer yet?" asks Wombat of the Copier.

The day before spring break I received the following e-mail from an adjunct I supervise:

Hi, Wombat, 
     I don't know what to do with my Science101 class.  They are horrible and won't participate and they sit with their arms crossed staring at me.  What should I do?
--Adjunct XYZ



Today I received another, unrelated, e-mail from this same adjunct:

Hi, Wombat, 
     I just received this e-mail from the [administrator] about school closures related to COVID-19.  Will we be having class next week?
--Adjunct XYZ


Here is the opening sentence of the e-mail from the [administrator].  Literally from the beginning, nothing has been left out:

As you know, classes will resume without interruption Monday March 9....


I strongly suspect I know why her class is disengaged.
--Wombat of the Copier

4 comments:

  1. Wow. We may often complain about our students, but this is a high level of incompetence on the part of the adjunct here. Good luck supervising this one, WotC. Something tells me you won't have to do this next semester.

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  2. I agree. It looks like a self-limiting problem to me. Although I do feel for the students—there are always a few in every class—who aren't getting the instruction they expected and are basically wasting their science class through no fault of their own.

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  3. I suppose at least the first mail shows she notices and cares...the second one is a bit of a concern, though.

    And the title - can't wait for the summer to come. Having said that, there is a possibility I will need to teach right though it to compensate for coronavirus cancellations / delays / unforeseen problems.

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  4. Yes - I actually felt bad for her when I got that and thought "I wonder how many of the other teachers I supervise feel this way and just ignore it?" and I gave her some help.

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