In just 3 semesters of adjuncting,
I've toughened up on the issue of those who do no work. I reach out to
them consistently, but really pin my hopes on the ones who work
diligently -- even if some of them have less innate skills -- and draw
my inspiration only from them.
After trying to accommodate the
non-workers again and again (numerous personal, upbeat communications;
extra, fun assignments; referral to special services), usually to
absolutely no avail, I realized that it would be doing them no favor
whatsoever to shield them from the reality of the world: that those who
do nothing, often get nothing. They'll either change on their own,
after a bit of nudging from teacher, or they won't.
The workers seem to far exceed the
non-workers anyway -- and some are super-hard workers!
Sarah Murray
WPUNJ
-----
Original Message -----
Sent:
Friday, January 13, 2006 7:13 AM
Subject:
TEACHSOC: Help: the emotions of teaching
Folks: Another request for help.
My graduate assistant just made up her first quiz, and did a fabulous
job. In fact, by agreement it was very easy, and really there was not
much excuse for getting less than 9 out of 10 (especially since there
were 11 questions with a maximum score possible of 10). She was pretty
proud of both the quiz, and conning me into letting her give a first
quiz that guarantees a high score to anyone who does the work.
But, of course, in a class of 100 there were a great many people who
didn't do the work, and scores ranged down to a low of 3. If an
infinite number of monkeys ...... She is feeling bad about how really
hard we are working this term (I am too old for this), and that so many
students didn't do any work (can you guess that SHE graduated with a
3.9??).
So, the Sociology of Teaching Emotions. Does anyone have any
advice/experiences to share/ etc. on this issue? How do you deal with
feeling bad that students aren't doing the work? I have a meeting of
teaching interns, and I have promised them that we will have a full
session on this topic, incorporating your views.
Thanks for helping out.
Marty
Martin D. Schwartz
Professor of Sociology
Ohio University
119 Bentley Annex
740.593.1366 (voice)
740.593.1365 (fax)
