Dustin Kidd

A few years ago, in one class, I tried not grading for attendance but found the result to be that students skipped class at high levels, paid for it on assignments, and the resulting average was so low that I looked more like a bad teacher than a tough one. I also paid a price in emails and office hours spent re-hashing what I'd covered in class and I was embarrassed that my final evals indicated that very few of the enrolled students filled them out because attendance was low. So I do grade for attendance and I struggle through how to do it. My current system keeps attendance and participation separate. For attendance, I assign a fraction of a point based on the overall number of class meetings in the semester. This fall for instance, my class meets a total of 28 times, so each class is assigned 1/4th of a point. For every class attended, the student earns .25 points, up to the total of 7 points. Easy enough. The problem is, some students are going to miss sometimes, and de...

Increasingly, I find that some students use email as a way to get my approval for all creative decisions they have to make for their assignments. Obviously, we didn't have email when I was in college, so I have taken the emails for granted as a logical technological development. But now I'm paying more attention and putting my foot down at this abuse of emails. Students need to think for themselves, make their own decisions, and be prepared to face consequences. I don't think this warrants any new policy on the syllabus, but rather a deliberateness in my response. Instead of approving particular decisions, I'm going to respond to these questions with one of my own: What decision are leaning towards and why? Also, why are you hesitating? I can then focus on whether or not they are thinking about the subject on the right terms, but still require them to come to their own conclusions.