Minor victory thread

Dirona

Dirona

At the risk of breaking the joke, I have 2 wins today!

1 - I finished a shawl I've been crocheting off and on for years. Yay!

2 - I'm currently sitting in the largest local concert venue, awaiting a whiskey delivery from Eriol and my favourite singer to take the stage later tonight! Woo!
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Not sure how to categorize this, so we'll call it a minor victory.

Last year, I'd joined a tabletop RPG group playing Palladium's Heroes Unlimited/Ninja Turtles. I got to play Dill. It was a blast.

But depression set in last fall and I hadn't heard back from the DM nor did I message him. Months went on and I felt like it was too long to bother messaging back, since it's been 6 months since our last texts.

Well, I finally drummed up the courage to message him tonight. And he responded positively. They stopped playing HU/TMNT when I didn't respond to his last text. The group eventually started up again, now playing Call of Cthulu. He invited me to join. At first, I wasn't interested, but then he told me it's a 1920's noir setting...and the group is missing a private detective style character. Obviously, I can't just play Dill, but I could play some kind of scarred, bitter WW1 veteran who became a private eye or something like that.

Sooooo...I'm joining the group next Saturday. :D

Maybe I can convince them to hop back on the HU/TMNT train later, but for now, I'll give this a whirl.
 
IronBrig4

IronBrig4

I kicked my first student out of class yesterday. She just could not stay off her phone and had a terrible attitude about it. This was a student who was habitually late by at least 15 or 20 minutes (in a 50 minute class). When she does come to class, she either sleeps or immediately plays around on her phone. I've never seen her take notes. I guarantee she is able to pass her online work only because some classmates feed the answers to her. She also sits right next to the door so she can bug out early. I keep track of that, and ditching class early is an unexcused absence unless they talk with me beforehand. I've observed that the worst students are usually in that back corner by the door.

So she came stumbling in late as usual and whipped out her phone. She had both earbuds in. I paused my lecture after a few minutes and, in order to avoid embarrassing her, I just made a general announcement for everyone to please remove earbuds and headphones. The handful of students who were still on their devices put them away. Not her. She was transfixed with her phone. She squandered her chance to avoid being called out. I then repeated the request directly to her. She finally took her earbuds out. I resumed the lesson and made sure to linger by her area in the room. Students usually become self-conscious after a few minutes and I don't have any issues with them after. I figured it was okay to get back to the projector and switch to the next slide. I turned around and her earbuds were in again. She was trying to hide them behind her hair and her hoodie was up. She wasted her opportunity to avoid a confrontation.

That's when I finally had enough. I said, "I find it very annoying that I have to ask the same person twice." All I got was an irritated snort from her. That really got my dander up. I continued with, "if you can't stay off your goddamn phone for ten minutes then this is not the class for you."

She still kept staring at her phone. I pointed to the door. All she could say was, "I gotta talk with my mama." I almost blew up at her then and there. That's what I used to hear from my lowest-performing high schoolers. Instead I just pointed at the door again and told her to leave. She stomped out and class proceeded smoothly after that.

This was one of the few times I seriously considered writing a student misconduct report. If she has a history of this misbehavior then she might be suspended. My department chair told me that students like her usually save us the trouble of filing paperwork by failing their other classes. Given her demeanor I think she's suited to working at Waffle House or Dollar General for the rest of her life.

I am counting this as a victory because I didn't think I could ever kick anyone out. I am becoming a more seasoned professor.
 
Bones

Bones

IronBrig4 said:
She also sits right next to the door so she can bug out early. I keep track of that, and ditching class early is an unexcused absence.
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my god has university etc become this bad you all have to keep track of fucking attendance!? my advisor when I was in grad school would just tell the freshman, its your money, you dont want to be here, dont be here. as long as you are not disruptive I have better things to do than keep track of how often you show up.
 
IronBrig4

IronBrig4

Bones said:
my god has university etc become this bad you all have to keep track of fucking attendance!? my advisor when I was in grad school would just tell the freshman, its your money, you dont want to be here, dont be here. as long as you are not disruptive I have better things to do than keep track of how often you show up.
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Yes, because chronic absenteeism has become a major problem since the pandemic. It used to be that there might be two or three students in every class who didn't show up for the entire semester. Now it's not unusual for half the class to suddenly disappear after midterms. Most college students were in high school when Covid hit and a lot of them just didn't think it was important to go to school after lockdowns lifted. That attitude persisted into college.

Also, attendance reporting is required for scholarships, athletics, etc.
 
blotsfan

blotsfan

It obviously depends on the nature of the class, but “it’s your money” still seems reasonable for large lectures. My motivation for going to classes was that learning the stuff on my own was significantly more time and effort than just going to the class.
 
MindDetective

MindDetective

Bones said:
my god has university etc become this bad you all have to keep track of fucking attendance!? my advisor when I was in grad school would just tell the freshman, its your money, you dont want to be here, dont be here. as long as you are not disruptive I have better things to do than keep track of how often you show up.
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I do not, except when required for funding reasons (usually the first week of class.)
 
Adam

Adam

blotsfan said:
It obviously depends on the nature of the class, but “it’s your money” still seems reasonable for large lectures. My motivation for going to classes was that learning the stuff on my own was significantly more time and effort than just going to the class.
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I lose 5% per class I miss, and then if I miss 3 I fail.

I'll be going to class thank you very much - I need every % possible!
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

I remember a lot of my university classes had a 10% "attendance and participation." I was the nerdly keener at the front of the class, so sometimes that was an easy way to get that B up to an A.
 
Bones

Bones

I totally get the need to make sure people show up for reporting etc requirements. I didnt mean that there should be no oversight, but I just pictured attendance being taken everyday, and was shocked its that bad. in the same breath if you are a responsible adult doing your best etc there should be no punishment for missing classes with cause. I would give my professors a quick email saying "hey x happened, im going to miss class, any chance I can grab the powerpoint for today?" The only professor who ever gave me any shit was because she didnt feel missing a class was acceptable to see an old friend who had just beat cancer. I took that demerit and wore it with pride to see my friend.
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Adam said:
I lose 5% per class I miss, and then if I miss 3 I fail.

I'll be going to class thank you very much - I need every % possible!
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law school?
 
MindDetective

MindDetective

Bones said:
I totally get the need to make sure people show up for reporting etc requirements. I didnt mean that there should be no oversight, but I just pictured attendance being taken everyday, and was shocked its that bad. in the same breath if you are a responsible adult doing your best etc there should be no punishment for missing classes with cause. I would give my professors a quick email saying "hey x happened, im going to miss class, any chance I can grab the powerpoint for today?" The only professor who ever gave me any shit was because she didnt feel missing a class was acceptable to see an old friend who had just beat cancer. I took that demerit and wore it with pride to see my friend.
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law school?
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My philosophy is that I am not training students for the workforce. And even if I were, PTO and flexible scheduling exist there. A strict time/place regimen is actually less like the real world than it ever has been. My job is to teach and to assess. If a student has something interfere with attendance but they can still complete my assessments before I turn in the grades, then my job was successful.
 
IronBrig4

IronBrig4

My rule is that everybody gets one free unexcused absence. For every unexcused absence after that, I take one percentage point off their final grade. It adds up after a while. If somebody misses a class here and there it's not a big deal. The chronically absent get surprised after finals when they realize that missing ten weeks of class torpedoed their grade. I love those meetings because you can see them craft sob stories on the spot. Those malingerers should switch to a fine arts degree because they're master improv artists.

Edit: And excused absences are an entirely different matter. My students know they can fire a quick email to me about being sick or dealing with an emergency and I'll let it go. They're pretty diligent about it. Also, I had a student who missed class because her dog had eaten a bag of Hershey's Kisses and needed to go to the vet. The university says that's not allowed but I didn't give her crap about it. I've been at this for a while now and I can generally sniff out the tall tales.
 
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Bones

Bones

The only weird responses I ever got on emailing to say I wasnt making class was one time in epidemiology when the professor asked how I knew I had H2N5 flu, and I had to explain I had just spent the better part of the last 48 hours in the hospital and I had an actual doctors note stating I was to be in quarantine until it ran its course. I attached it with the response, he was nice enough to send me that weeks notes, and wish me a speedy recovery.

the best unexcused tardy I ever got was one time I walked in late due to having fallen due to icey sidewalks and taking like 10 minutes to slowly hobble to class, it was the only time I was late, and the only time my advisor ever yelled at me in front of the class, mostly because I lifted my shirt to show the entire group my wicked bruise. she never questioned me after that.
 
Adam

Adam

Bones said:
I totally get the need to make sure people show up for reporting etc requirements. I didnt mean that there should be no oversight, but I just pictured attendance being taken everyday, and was shocked its that bad. in the same breath if you are a responsible adult doing your best etc there should be no punishment for missing classes with cause. I would give my professors a quick email saying "hey x happened, im going to miss class, any chance I can grab the powerpoint for today?" The only professor who ever gave me any shit was because she didnt feel missing a class was acceptable to see an old friend who had just beat cancer. I took that demerit and wore it with pride to see my friend.
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law school?
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law school. But honestly, it's such a firehose of information that I can't say I'm surprised that you wouldn't want to miss anything. One of my friendly co-students had to miss one class because of tariffs work he does, and he dropped the course because he didn't think he could catch up.
 
Sparhawk

Sparhawk

Well, got a new router, and able to get about $50 off regular price because I had never used Wal-Mart curbside ever before. Wally World is the only place here that has any networking equipment in stock now. There might be a local place, but last I had checked they were around $75 over the regular Wally World prices. I’m getting good download speed on it, about 428Mbps and what I pay for from Optimum is 300Mbps barebones internet service (no phone/cable just internet).
 
GasBandit

GasBandit

Staff member
Sparhawk said:
Well, got a new router, and able to get about $50 off regular price because I had never used Wal-Mart curbside ever before. Wally World is the only place here that has any networking equipment in stock now. There might be a local place, but last I had checked they were around $75 over the regular Wally World prices. I’m getting good download speed on it, about 428Mbps and what I pay for from Optimum is 300Mbps barebones internet service (no phone/cable just internet).
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... it's not a TPLink, is it?
 
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