It's almost done

Surprise!!!! I still know that this blog exists, I just tend not to have the time or desire to post anything to it. I've found that twitter and facebook have offered adequate ways to vent my frustrations. Until now.

It seems that this semester is determined to suck every last drop of joy and interest I have in teaching. The students have been the most apathetic I have yet encountered and the number of excuses/problems these students have had is unparalleled. Since the story could become far too long to go into in any real depth below is the bullet point version of the crap I've been dealing with:

• Multiple questions about when the labs start, despite numerous emails and class announcements indicating the date.
• Midterm 1 - Three students don't write the exam. Two re-write it, one emails me a week AFTER the exam to be able to make it up.
• Midterm 1 grade range: low = 5%, high = 99%
• Course attendance dropped to about 50% by the end of the semester
• Coincidentally, 50% is also the average grade on both midterms
• Midterm 2 - The day before the exam a student emails me asking to take the exam next week, he's not ready to write it yet.
• Two students forgot to put their names on an assignment/exam
• Three students requesting alternate final exam dates; the most recent request two days before the exam.
• A possible accusation of an attempt to sabotage a student's academic progress - the email was in such broken english I'm not sure if I was being accused or if it was directed towards another prof.

So that is just a sampling of the crap I've had to deal with. On top of that are all the stupid questions; such as the student asking me if they can do a specific calculation, rather than trying it themselves to see if it works. What particularly irks me this semester is how poorly my students are doing in the course. The grade distribution is all over the place, with the usual number of really strong students acing everything, but then there is a huge gap to the rest and the average seems to be right around 50%. This is all in spite of the fact that I have done the following to help them do better in the class:

• All lectures are recorded and distributed as audio and video files in iPod friendly formats.
• All lecture slides are posted in advance of the class with room for note taking.
• Each class has an excess of sample problems pre-written and downloadable and the solutions to all the problems (even those not done during the class) are downloadable following the class.
• That adds up to 150 (often multipart) questions provided for them to learn from and use.
• Only the best 3 out of 5 assignments are counted.
• Sample textbook problems are also provided.
• Sample midterms, final exams and additional sample final problems.
• Open office policy; if a student stops in for help I help, I don't send them away.
• A course syllabus that has apparently made students not in my class envious of the organization of the course.

Yet with all these options the grades suck and I get the general impression that this class is just a bunch of slackers. Of course there are some who are doing fabulously, but it's the large group (close to half the class) that didn't come to the classes for the last half of the semester that I am concerned by. Sure, they may be watching the videos of the lecture and doing just fine, but I have a feeling a bunch of them just realized today that 26 hour and half lectures to listen to doesn't leave them much time to sleep before the exam.

I guess we will see how it goes in a few days. I just hope I don't get such a shitty class again next semester... though there is a good chance that I will have a number of these students again. Crap!