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kateausten

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  1. That was my thought exactly. The "quizzes" consist of questions about their participation during the past week (attendance, preparation, did they play with their phones, etc) and I told the students that I have the power to override the scores they give themselves and would do so if they lied and inflated their scores - not that my own observations would make up 50% of the grade. I don't even feel comfortable giving a subjetive grade at this point because I haven't been paying close attention and taking objective notes and my memories would be unintentionally biased by my opinion of each student. As long as the students are honest - and they usually are - the quizzes are a more objective assessment of participation than my own observations would be (because those would depend on how stealthily students can play on their phones, have off-task conversations, etc). I also told them on the first day that I have had A students make Bs and B students make Cs in the class because they skipped some of these quizzes, so those that listened knew the consequences. (I'm not that surprised that this student did not, as he doesn't seem to hear most of what I say in class unless it's directly to him, but as everyone has pointed out, that's his own issue until he has a documented disability pass stating that he has a legit reason.)
  2. Thank you! I'm kind of afraid to refer him to the accessibility center with the implication that it might help him with this grade. I technically am only on contract for 3 more days. Apparently it's a HUGE hassle to deal with contested grades here, and I don't want to spend time on it myself without even being paid for my services, or to hand it off to some already-overworked colleague to deal with. I also feel like it's very awkward to reply to a "We are graded on this?" email with "You may want to visit the disability center" - it's a little intense of a topic to bring up over email, after the end of the semester, when the student hasn't even shown any recognition of the problem, you know? I like the idea of bringing up the topic and inspiring him to get checked out (my ADHD wasn't diagnosed until age 20), it just seems inappropriate in this specific context. I don't believe the syllabus explicitly states "The participation grade will be comprised entirely of the scores from these quizzes" because the syllabus is a generic one given to all the different sections with different teachers and we have the authority to incorporate other things into the grade if we wish. But the quizzes are definitely mentioned in the syllabus and I said on the first day (not that they listen/remember) that their participation grade would be based on them. There is also a place for those grades in the giant table of class grades that they can see on the course website if they want. (I imagine he didn't look at that table until today, hence the email.) I'm confident that it's not my fault that he was unaware, though. I didn't have the most motivated class and would definitely have had other students skipping or at least asking "Do we HAVE to do this?" if it weren't clear. Regarding the "Are the quizzes graded?" question, I agree that it sounds a bit ridiculous, but this guy asks a lot of questions that seem, well, dumb. He will ask equally obvious questions about classwork sometimes. I don't know if he's just one of those people who asks questions before even attempting to think about them or if he is just unable to reason very well. Not that this changes my obligations towards him at all, of course -- just giving some context.
  3. I see little for the OP to gain by reporting or lose by not reporting, so I too am on the side of "don't." If you A) did not witness the cheating and are aware that another student reported it to the professor, your butt is covered. To your knowledge, the supervising professor was made aware of the situation by someone with more personal knowledge of the incident than yourself, and your responsibility ends there - you have "plausible deniability" here and won't be held responsible for ensuring that the professor does his job ethically. If you do go above the professor's head with your suspicions, you'll likely be seen as untrustworthy, someone who will throw colleagues under the bus before even approaching them about your concerns. If it's really killing you, and you have to do something, ask the supervising professor what came of it, but I don't see any reason to do that. This sounds like a situation that literally can't be resolved in a way that's fair to everyone. In a way, handling it as quietly as possible is the only clear choice for the department, because if word got out about it there would be many angry students and no fair way to appease them. Yes, it's unfair to the other students that these students got higher grades because of an advantage they didn't have. However, they shouldn't be punished for trusting their instructor - by getting Fs or by being forced to repeat the class. Nothing he did is inherently dishonest, it's only considered "cheating" here because the other TAs were not allowed to do the same thing, which the students didn't necessarily even know. A lot of instructors give reviews that are very similar to the test. The test answer system would be weird but not "dishonest" if it were available to every student in the class. Students shouldn't be punished for 1) not knowing the difference between a TA being particularly nice/"easy" and a TA cheating, or 2) being afraid to report someone who has power over them for something they can't concretely prove.
  4. Have you ever had a student whose misunderstanding or unawareness of something resulted in MAJOR grade ramifications? Do you consider it wrong by any means to allow a student to fail a course they would otherwise make a B or C in because of this? Without going into too much detail, I am in charge of my own section of a class - I give the final grades, not a prof. At-home online quizzes that are automatically graded make up 30% of the grades. I've been overextended this semester and have just been checking to make sure that most of the students were doing them (to make sure that I did make it clear that they're mandatory), not examining the grades in detail, so I just noticed while putting together final grades that a certain student has not done a single one. Today, days after the final and a few days before grades are due, he emailed me to ask "Are we graded on the quizzes?" With zeros on every quiz, the highest he can get is a 70, and I think that he will probably be below 60. This isn't the first time that this student has been the only one in the class unaware of an important instruction. He seems to have a problem following instructions in general, will often raise his hand to ask things that I have already covered a few minutes before and such, and I would not be surprised if some sort of disability were at play, but without a pass from the accessibility center I can't allow that suspicion to factor into my treatment of him. All of the other students did the quizzes regularly enough that I am certain they knew that it was a mandatory part of their grade. Any way that I could help him would have to be extended to the entire class, and while I could open all the quizzes up for another 48 hours, that seems unfair to the students who may not be checking their emails to be aware of such an option because the semester is over, all finals are done, etc. I feel bad because he did attend class regularly and it may not be his fault that he can't follow instructions - the quizzes form a participation grade, so ironically one of my best students attendance-wise will fail because of his participation grade. At the same time, I don't see any fair way to handle this besides just giving him zeroes for all of these quizzes and letting him fail if that's how it works out. Anyone been in a similar situation?
  5. Definitely ask. I got an assistantship after I was already enrolled, so it is possible! I started in a Spring semester so they weren't looking for new TAs at the time, but I spoke to the people involved in hiring TAs and was chosen for the next year.
  6. Does anyone teach in a different department than they are getting their degree from? How did you balance the demands of that department (beyond your teaching hours) with the demands of your own department and other things related more to your studies and career? I'm a terminal MA student on a professional track (language-related, but not teaching-related, and I don't intend to do so at any point after school) and I'm teaching a language. We are strongly urged - at times it feels more like "pressured," and "this is mandatory" is implied - to put a lot of time into learning foreign language pedagogy, including weekend meetings of language teachers (mainly high school teachers) and conferences. We already have to take 4 credits worth of pedagogy-related classes (a formal class and a practicum) to keep our TA-ships. I understand that enough professional development to make us passable teachers is a good thing, but this is beyond what is necessary for that. There is no way I can do all of the things we are being told to do without dropping meetings, conferences, social events, and other duties that are far more relevant to my own studies and career. What is the best way to say "No" to this extra stuff without damaging my relationship with the professors that I TA under, who I do like and respect and want to keep as references if I can? Or should I just make time for these things by factoring them into the number of hours of TA duties in my contract? (That would mean it would be at the expense of time grading, prepping lessons, etc, and counterproductive to the actual quality of my teaching.) The professors seem to pre-empt the objections of people in this situation by saying "Even if you don't plan to continue in teaching or academia, this will be valuable because of X, Y, Z" -- and I agree, there is probably some value in any sort of academic or professional event. But there's also an opportunity cost, and there are other things I could be doing that relate directly to my plans.
  7. I agree, keep everything 100% positive. What might feel like sucking up to you could be seen by some professors, admins, or other students as simply being pleasant. In any case, you really have nothing to gain by challenging anyone unless you can win, and in this case I don't think you can. There's both a power differential and the fact that you can't really prove favoritism. It may also be occuring because of factors above the head of the person doing the scheduling - certain professors requesting certain students for their TAs or RAs, for example - and they aren't going to get themselves into political trouble to make things easier for you. I'm not saying it's fair that people who hate teaching have to teach and people who want to teach don't get to, I just think that there is no way that letting even a whiff of this annoyance into your attitude when dealing with the people involved is going to work in your favor. You won't get rid of the politics, so try to make them work for you. You don't have to think of it as politicking and sucking up - just think of it as networking. Talk to the person who is in charge of deciding who gets to do what, be extremely nice, and say "I really, really want to teach and I wasn't able to this year because of a schedule requirement. When you find out the particulars of the schedule for next year, I would love to talk to you about how I can plan my classes to make sure that I can work teaching into my schedule." With the professors that you "click" with really well, maybe mention the possibility of TA-ing one of their classes. Be gracious with everyone and make sure that you convey that you're passionate about teaching and willing to be flexible in other areas of your degree plan to accommodate it.
  8. I respect that point of view but my own is that TAing is a job, and my department is an employer. I owe it to my employer and those affected to do the job I agreed to do to the best of my ability, but I don't owe the university or my students the limited power I have to pursue my own best interests in tiny ways. I know that many teachers - probably most or all of the best teachers - take the job more personally, fight and make sacrifices for their students, and find this rewarding, but it's not me. I would get burnt out quickly (and so have many of my peers who think they owe their students the world). (I'm on a professional track and never pretended to be interested in teaching as a career -- it's not like I got this job under the guise of being passionate about teaching.) Anyways, I don't need the advice anymore but feel free to continue debating or posting advice in case someone else with a similar dilemma finds the thread. I did add a polite mention of the issue in an email about the spring schedule. Basically "This would be extremelly helpful for my productivity, but I totally understand if it can't work." To me, that is not confusing preferences with needs. I prioritized one preference and dropped all the less important ones, considered it carefully before deciding that it was worth one of my limited "special request" points, and explicitly said that I understand if it can't be accommodated instead of saying that I absolutely CANNOT work a split schedule because of XYZ issues. Since it was mentioned above, I am not required to stay on campus the entire day, but because I have an early afternoon class myself, it winds up being very inefficient for me to go home in between. I do sometimes if I desperately need to do some chores at home, but it winds up being a lot of time spent on transportation just to be home for 2-3 hours.
  9. Thanks everyone! I'll add a polite note about it when I send her my class schedule for next semester. The need for this is partly medical, which I was not planning to bring up but maybe I should? I have ADHD (which I recently went through testing for and found out is more severe than I thought) so it's vital that I work according to my energy levels and I cannot concentrate if I'm tired (it's really bad - I get so spacey that I'm positive my students notice and I even avoid driving as best I can). The ADHD makes teaching more mentally draining for me than it is for many. I also have a crappy respiratory system and get colds and infections easily when sleep deprived, even just 7-hours-instead-of-my-usual-9 sleep deprived, and I have had to have surgery for sinus infections in the past. I know it's not typical for an American adult to sleep 9 hours a night but I've given up a lot in my personal life to make it work, like a social life and several career options. I'd rather a part time job like TA-ing not derail that! Regarding the needs of the department being more important than my own, if it were absolutely unavoidable then I would understand and continue teaching this schedule. I just don't think that it is - based on knowing my colleagues' schedules, I think the fact that I'm teaching the absolute latest and second-earliest class is a result of the coordinator either not realizing or not caring how inconvenient it would be. There are tons of afternoon classes and tons of people who have no morning classes at all who could do the later ones. (And I know that 10AM is not that early and 9PM is not that late, so I don't blame the coordinator for not realizing it -- if I could just wake up in time for my class and then be productive all day afterward I wouldn't care.) Even with that said I don't think it's ideal to truly care more about your employer's needs than your own, it pretty much guarantees that you'll be taken advantage of and my colleagues that feel that way about the department and their students seem to get burnt out very quickly when they realize that it is not at all reciprocal.
  10. For your own sanity, tell them to look it up themselves from the start - set a precedent that they are expected to do their own research. Otherwise, some night when you have a deadline for one of your own classes and can't answer 15 silly emails the night before their project is due, they're going to complain (maybe to your boss or maybe just to everyone who will listen around them) that they got a bad grade because you wouldn't answer their question. Also, as much as I hate to fall into cane-shaking "kids these days" cliche, I find that most of my students really, really need to improve their independent research skills, so you'll be doing them a favor. (I don't even mean academic research, I mean logging onto the course website to look at their syllabus to check when something is due.)
  11. Can anyone tell me whether it is terribly uncouth to make some (minor) requests to the coordinator in charge of assigning TAs to courses in my department? I would mainly like to request not to have both an early and a night class. This semester I teach one of the earliest classes that we have (10AM 5 days a week and we have nothing earlier than 9), and I am also the person responsible for the class that lasts the latest into the night. I am far more productive before I teach than after I teach, so I try to wake up really early to get some work done, and not getting home until 9pm on the nights I teach the other class a) messes with my own sleep schedule and isn't ideal for the students who have me at an hour when I'd normally be about to go to bed. (I know it sounds laughable for a grad student to complain about 9pm, but am literally in bed by that time most nights - it helps me get in some productive time before I'm brain fried from teaching.) I'd like to request to avoid this situation next semester, but I've never even heard of anyone voicing preferences or making requests to the coordinator. I don't consider it out-of-line myself, seems totally rational to take our preferences into consideration, but the important question is will I be seen as demanding, complaining, etc if I say something? She has never asked for our preferences whatsoever, only our class schedules.
  12. Different diets affect people in different ways. I absolutely cannot maintain a low carb diet. Even when I tried (vegetarian south beach, nothing extreme) I felt progressively worse until I was so cranky that I had trouble functioning at work, instead of feeling crappy for a few days and then much better. I lose my energy and eventually lose the will to eat and have to force food down. Most people I know that tried low carb diets felt fine after a week, but I have encountered a couple of people who had the same experience as me. It could be that you are one of us who cannot function without starchy carbs. Try eating more of them, like potatoes, legumes, whole grains, etc and you may not need anything as intense as cake to get your energy up.
  13. In my department, it is definitely expected to attend some events. This is communicated directly to us (which I think is a good thing, as many grad students have never worked in the "real world" and aren't familiar with the idea of networking and technically-optional-but-not-really socializing). However, no one would be expected to attend every event! And no professor would hold a lack of event-attending against you in terms of grading your performance in their class or anything (I'm sure that there are some narcissists out there who would, but I'm not personally aware of any). Basically, it is noticed whether you are someone who makes an effort to get involved in the university community beyond the bare requirements of your degree. You're free to pick and choose the events which you are most interested in (or which best fit your schedule). But I agree that when you are at an event, you should try to engage and socialize. You are kind of wasting your time if you aren't and if someone does notice you leaving extremely early, they might think that you are bored and take offense. It's better to attend fewer and stay longer.
  14. Compartmentalizing like it's a full-time job (and otherwise living like I'm still a "regular" adult with a full time job) is helpful to me. I try to force myself to work a full 8-10 hours during the day, like it's a regular job. I then have evenings and weekends (minus some reading or grading on saturday afternoon sometimes) totally free as a reward, and the regular downtime is so helpful for sanity! Especially having that buffer of a few hours of relaxation between when I put down my work and when I go to bed. It also helps you avoid feeling like school is your entire identity, which leads to burnout for most of us I think (I know there are rare types that happily live and breathe their subject) -- you can compartmentalize it as your job and be a different person on weekends. It can be difficult when my classmates don't understand why I won't go out at 8pm on a weeknight, or professors in the department want us to go to events on the weekends, but maintaining these boundaries works for me so I try to be assertive about it. A lot of people seem to think studnt life means tons of takeout and not doing many domestic things beyond the bare minimum, but I find it soothing to cook for myself, grocery shop, keep my apartment clean, etc. It is stuff that I do 100% for me to take care of myself. I find it a little odd when people act like it's a charming "student life" thing to not take basic care of yourself or do the bare minimum domestically -- they are quite naive if they think they're going to have any more free time to start doing those things when they're working FT, even if not in academia. (No offense meant to people who are truly happy living on boxed foods in a dirty apartment -- it's just that being a student is no excuse, and it won't get any easier to take care of yourself after graduating.) Also, when you cook, make extra portions and freeze the leftovers -- you'll have plenty of nourishing meals for crunch times, and it's cheaper than buying lean cuisines.
  15. I made it through my first semester without too many issues. I did do a lot of staring at a blank word document for many hours until I had to start panicking to get the paper finished in time -- that was a lot of unnecessary stress but my grades were fine in the end. I took the minimum full courseload and didn't work and was able to get all As without any medication. I've been lucky in that testing and writing are two of the things I actually do well -- it's juggling a ton of classes and homework that I have trouble with. So, grad classes, with the focus on a couple of exams or several papers during the semester and no graded busywork, have worked for me. This semester I may have to do some medication. I am TAing and have my own class, so when I blank out and go on autopilot for a few seconds, my students notice. I've written incorrect things on the board and had students correct me a couple of times or had to trail off into English (I teach a language) because I just couldn't think straight to finish my sentence. Unfortunately teaching isn't one of the areas where you can make up for ADHD by putting extra time in - you are supposed to be present for the whole time you are in front of the class and those 10 second brain freezes can cause problems. (Side note - I have considered telling my students so that they understand that this is not a reflection of my competence or how much I put into their class but refrained thinking that it's not professional to burden them with my medical info. Thoughts on this?) It's helpful having my TA office on campus, but I pretty much can't get work done when I'm not alone in there. I'm also taking a full courseload on top of a 50% appointment, which is absolutely not a choice I'd have made, but because of various factors it worked out that any other way would entail major financial or lifestyle sacrifices. My other major ADHD related concern is how it might be seen by professors that I am not taking on any optional extra responsibility or attending many events right now. I am pretty much at or past my capacity with my courseload and teaching load. My capacity is lower than many others' because I can't function without adequate sleep, time for a healthy lifestyle (like exercise and cooking), and downtime. I know that grad students can be expected to have much more bandwidth and juggle as many responsibilities as they can possibly get, and take the all nighters and lack of personal time as part of the deal, but I can't function that way. I worry that this will reflect in how I'm seen by faculty in the department - I wish that I could just take a manageable courseload/appointment so that I could participate more fully in everything but it wasn't an option. As much as it hurts to concentrate for so many hours in one day, forcing myself to get all my work done on weekdays is something that helps me tremendously. Being able to take full weekends off like I did when I was working keeps me from feeling insanely overwhelmed and overstimulated. Plus, when I go back on Monday and all my classmates are complaining about how they did homework all weekend, it makes the nights I spent going to bed at 9 and rising early to get back in my office when they were out partying (by which I mean going out to a bar at 8pm, lol) feel totally worth it I do my readings on a tablet -- it saves paper versus printing everything out, but I find I'm more focused than when on my laptop. Somehow the temptation to tab over to Pinterest or something is too much, but I can handle the temptation to completely close out of what I'm doing and open something else, like is necessary on a tablet. Plus I can put all my textbooks on it and not have to carry anything heavy.
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