i’m not a teacher, but if i was i’d excuse it just because they took the effort to compose such a crazy story. probably learned more than i’d have taught them that day a anyway
Oh, the funniest part of this to me was how certain I was it was true. I used to have to find alternate routes into the building all the time because of the geese. I think they nested in the bushes near all the doors. If it wasn’t, it was a very good lie and I appreciated the effort anyway.
I’m newly a teacher (of adults), and I accept literally any excuse anyone gives me. I suspect that I’ll change that as time goes on, but I don’t even really get excuses.
I’ll generally accept it if you send any excuse prior to the lecture unless it’s becoming a habit - in those rare cases I’ll happily work with them to try and figure out a solution. 80% of the time it’s family medical appointments or childcare scheduling issues (and my gosh I am so happy to accommodate people dealing with that) and the rare cases it’s not we can usually find a way to make up for what they’ve missed. I’ve got a couple colleagues that only accept excuses with a doctor’s note, and the best thing I can say about them is that they’re retiring soon incredibly passionate about teaching.
(none of this applies to freshman courses, though. We’ve learned that being really strict about attendance for freshman year boosts passing rates by like 30%, it’s just crazy.)
One of my biggest pet peeves in college was professors who took attendance. Bitch, I’m paying you to be here, if I don’t want to come to class, that’s on me. It was usually when they knew that most people could skip every class and still pass.
I even once had a class in a lecture hall with at least 100 students, where the teacher took attendance using some stupid “clicker” thing that we had to buy at the school bookstore. Ridiculous. Pisses me off just thinking about it.
While it’s good that you are disciplined enough that you can succeed without it, many students benefit greatly from a rigid structure more in line with the educational environment they experienced up to that point. After freshman year, attendance requirements are usually greatly relaxed since people have gotten into the swing of things (like not having to ask to to go to the bathroom anymore, god what even is the public school system). Personally I don’t care if you show up or not, you’ll learn something important either way and if someone uninterested isn’t there it means I have more time for the other students.
Also I can 100% promise that clicker thing was a contractual obligation from the publisher and not the instructor’s idea. Those things are fuckin’ awful to support on the instructor’s side, and goddamn Pearson managed to tie using their shitfucking software (including those goddamn clickers) to the state and federal grants unis rely on for funding. Fuck pearson.
Oh no, I skipped class all of the time lol I was a terrible student
This was a long time ago, and I think the clickers were like brand new. The professor was really into trying to make it work. They even tried to use them to quiz us during class. It was a living nightmare.
This was for a lab I was teaching, so they had to be there in person. It was a 3 hour block, so I wouldn’t have even asked why they were late. I only even remember 5+ years later because they came rushing in with an explanation and I thought it was hilarious.
Okay setting aside that I’ve never ever seen someone try that and actually succeed, why would someone shell out for a college lecture if they’re going to do that anyways? My syllabus is good, but it’s not all that useful for independent study time. (You also can’t replicate lab or seminar time on your own, so I’m just not sure what you’re basing this on.)
Some classes don’t require labs. A handful of people that I’ve seen will only show up for quizzes and exams and still pass the class. Why they do it? No clue.
In particular, the classes I’ve seen this happen usually provide a semester-long list of what textbook chapters will be covered in which weeks. If the textbook is thorough enough and the course adheres to the text, it’s doable.
You know, I’ve had students attempt this every quarter and I’ve still never seen it actually work. It might be a reflection of how teaching has had to shift as a result of the changes brought on by AI + the pandemic, though. I started professing only a little bit before then, so I never really saw the era where you could get away with such strict adherence to the textbook.
Hi, I have been to lectures fewer than 10 times throughout my entire master’s. No AI, no textbooks, just lecture slides and doing the (ungraded) weekly assignments.
It probably wasn’t a smart idea (incl. for my social life), but it also wasn’t hard to do.
Hmm. If you don’t mind me asking, what field was your masters in? During my grad work, you’d have been thrown out after a week if you did similar, but assignments were very much supplemental to the lecture and didn’t overlap with the lecture material much at all.
This may have worked. I once excused a student for being late because the geese were being aggressive.
i’m not a teacher, but if i was i’d excuse it just because they took the effort to compose such a crazy story. probably learned more than i’d have taught them that day a anyway
Oh, the funniest part of this to me was how certain I was it was true. I used to have to find alternate routes into the building all the time because of the geese. I think they nested in the bushes near all the doors. If it wasn’t, it was a very good lie and I appreciated the effort anyway.
yeah, as a canadian i feel like i criminally neglected that part of your comment
If the class was on Kafka I’d give them top marks
as an etymologyst, it really bugs me when i get n to my work
I’m newly a teacher (of adults), and I accept literally any excuse anyone gives me. I suspect that I’ll change that as time goes on, but I don’t even really get excuses.
I’ll generally accept it if you send any excuse prior to the lecture unless it’s becoming a habit - in those rare cases I’ll happily work with them to try and figure out a solution. 80% of the time it’s family medical appointments or childcare scheduling issues (and my gosh I am so happy to accommodate people dealing with that) and the rare cases it’s not we can usually find a way to make up for what they’ve missed. I’ve got a couple colleagues that only accept excuses with a doctor’s note, and the best thing I can say about them is that they’re
retiring soonincredibly passionate about teaching.(none of this applies to freshman courses, though. We’ve learned that being really strict about attendance for freshman year boosts passing rates by like 30%, it’s just crazy.)
who cares about collage attendance?
in my uni no one cared, of you’re late, it’s just a bit rude, of you don’t show up, no one cares.
what matters are the graded assignments and exams. if a student aces those but never stepped in a lecture hall, does that matter?
One of my biggest pet peeves in college was professors who took attendance. Bitch, I’m paying you to be here, if I don’t want to come to class, that’s on me. It was usually when they knew that most people could skip every class and still pass.
I even once had a class in a lecture hall with at least 100 students, where the teacher took attendance using some stupid “clicker” thing that we had to buy at the school bookstore. Ridiculous. Pisses me off just thinking about it.
While it’s good that you are disciplined enough that you can succeed without it, many students benefit greatly from a rigid structure more in line with the educational environment they experienced up to that point. After freshman year, attendance requirements are usually greatly relaxed since people have gotten into the swing of things (like not having to ask to to go to the bathroom anymore, god what even is the public school system). Personally I don’t care if you show up or not, you’ll learn something important either way and if someone uninterested isn’t there it means I have more time for the other students.
Also I can 100% promise that clicker thing was a contractual obligation from the publisher and not the instructor’s idea. Those things are fuckin’ awful to support on the instructor’s side, and goddamn Pearson managed to tie using their shitfucking software (including those goddamn clickers) to the state and federal grants unis rely on for funding. Fuck pearson.
Oh no, I skipped class all of the time lol I was a terrible student
This was a long time ago, and I think the clickers were like brand new. The professor was really into trying to make it work. They even tried to use them to quiz us during class. It was a living nightmare.
This was for a lab I was teaching, so they had to be there in person. It was a 3 hour block, so I wouldn’t have even asked why they were late. I only even remember 5+ years later because they came rushing in with an explanation and I thought it was hilarious.
If you can pass my class without attending lecture, why wouldn’t you just ask to test out of the class???
I scream, into the uncaring void.Because following at home and teaching yourself the material throughout the semester is different from knowing it all already.
Okay setting aside that I’ve never ever seen someone try that and actually succeed, why would someone shell out for a college lecture if they’re going to do that anyways? My syllabus is good, but it’s not all that useful for independent study time. (You also can’t replicate lab or seminar time on your own, so I’m just not sure what you’re basing this on.)
Some classes don’t require labs. A handful of people that I’ve seen will only show up for quizzes and exams and still pass the class. Why they do it? No clue.
In particular, the classes I’ve seen this happen usually provide a semester-long list of what textbook chapters will be covered in which weeks. If the textbook is thorough enough and the course adheres to the text, it’s doable.
You know, I’ve had students attempt this every quarter and I’ve still never seen it actually work. It might be a reflection of how teaching has had to shift as a result of the changes brought on by AI + the pandemic, though. I started professing only a little bit before then, so I never really saw the era where you could get away with such strict adherence to the textbook.
Hi, I have been to lectures fewer than 10 times throughout my entire master’s. No AI, no textbooks, just lecture slides and doing the (ungraded) weekly assignments.
It probably wasn’t a smart idea (incl. for my social life), but it also wasn’t hard to do.
Hmm. If you don’t mind me asking, what field was your masters in? During my grad work, you’d have been thrown out after a week if you did similar, but assignments were very much supplemental to the lecture and didn’t overlap with the lecture material much at all.
I accepted “I’m sorry, it was just too nice a day to spend it sitting in a basement with no windows” once because man, they had a point.
Immediate failure for not being academia levels of brain-broken. You’ll sit in your cube and like it!
Damn cobra chickens getting all hissy and angry just because I don’t have bread for them. Entitled bastards.