@Momofmrb #19: Depends on the professor. If it’s unclear (I have an intro section to my schedule of readings and assignments that explains it, so there might be that), then that’s the kind of thing that it’s good to ask about.
Every professor gets to set their syllabus up the way they like it (within some institutional constraints, of course). You shouldn’t ever assume that every schedule looks exactly the same.
@dfbdfb Useful information, good to know. Thank you.
@Momofmrb --that’s how my syllabus is set up, with the assignments listed for the day they are due. I’ve seen syllabi models where the assignment is what to do before the next class, and I think that’s confusing. But like @dfbdfb says, they aren’t all the same. But each should clearly label how they are set up.
Thank you @garland. Going to have to hammer this into my kid’s head (I’ve already started hammering the importance of the syllabus in, once I realized he made it all the way to senior year HS without really internalizing the importance of reading it and referring to it often.)
And speaking on behalf of my entire profession here, we’re all utterly grateful to you, @Momofmrb, for doing so!
^Seconding that! 
College/grad students need reminders to do assignments listed in the syllabus?!! Really??
Most HS teachers and a few old-school-ish Profs I’ve had wouldn’t have bothered with quizzes or other means to keep students on task as if they were still in K-12. They’d just let them fail and when they come complain, remind them that unlike K-12 or K-8 with my HS teachers, the lion’s share of responsibility for learning/keeping up is on the student…not the teacher/Prof or anyone else.
Here’s the thing about just letting them fail–this is a discussion based class. It is deadly to teach if students haven’t done the reading. For my own sake, I want them to read–never mind them, lol.
Great tips, but I take exception to this:
If she doesn’t like the kid, or he or she is annoying, she gives them a lower grade on a test or essay? I have a problem with this.
Not sure I love her attitude, but I totally understand where it must come from…
I prefer trying to be more productive when dealing with new employees, or even old ones who still don’t get it. Each person responds to something different. Some are just find with a “my way ir the highway” boss. Others need a sympathetic ear, or to rant, or to admit they don’t get it and to show them like a 5 year old. Some respond to praise, to encouragement. A few respond the threat. It is your job to reach ppl. And God has yet to start making them all alike:)
It can be time consuming. But I see it as a vital part of my job. Their access or failure reflects on me.
I forwarded the article to my son in hope that it would spur him to GO TO OFFICE HOURS. Throughout the year I’ve asked him if he’s gone and the answer is always “not yet”.
My dean recently suggested that our professors install a reminder app similar to what my dentist uses to let me know that my appointment is coming up and use it to nag students to get their homework in on time.
Maybe this belongs on the Just Smile and Nod thread, which is what I do quite a bit when the dean is talking.
The best class I took in college was a seminar that met once a week and we wrote a 3-5 page paper for every class based on the reading. It was an art history class, BTW. Even at Harvard, there were often students who didn’t do the reading or just skimmed it. We’d really had to give it some thought.
I could never figure out what I was supposed to do in office hours, so I rarely went unless there was a requirement to discuss your paper topic ahead of time or some similar requirement.
Well, there is only so much a professor can do. It amazes me that folks pay big $$ for the privilege to learn the material and then don’t use the tools available to them. Including, but not limited to, the professor’s office hours!
Our local public high school doesn’t coddle students. It is literally sink or swim.
Our kids have not graduated from HS yet, but for years I have heard that nobody from our HS struggles at college, regardless of whether the college is an Ivy or the state flagship. I just realized a key reason is that everyone learned to be responsible with assignments starting at 9th grade.
Ditto kiddo’s schools. I have no idea if it was because they were in IB programs… No coddling. Baby kiddo had some online portal to upload her homework in her last years of school.
Not all of us work at colleges where we can presume even basic high school preparation—the vast majority of colleges out there are open-admissions, after all.
I didn’t get that from it at all—I saw it more as saying that if the guidelines say to use MLA style and the student uses APA style, that will affect the grade, or that if a student doesn’t participate in class discussions in ways that result in them understanding course information at the expected level, then a lower grade is the likely natural result.
I hope that’s what she meant @dfbdfb, but she said:
Right—like I said, if they don’t participate in class in ways that lead them to understanding, they’re going to do badly.