You’d think so, but I’ve tried this in the past in smaller classes where I could map the results: 100% of the on-time students got the right answer, and 0% of the latecomers. I imagine in a larger class there will be a few leaks, but students are surprisingly and even scarily vehement about not wanting slackers to be rewarded in any way.
Oh please, please…if that happens, can you YouTube it?
NO, probably not due to potential legal issues. But I can dream can’t I?
This seems to violate some statistical likelihood that at least a few of the latecomers would have enough of a handle on the course material to answer correctly without receiving prior inside information.
It was a very small sample size (< 12), but all I have to do is pull a question from the reading. Most of the students who do the reading also attend class on time. It’s more of a psychological reward, anyway — one question on an exam won’t make or break anyone’s grade, but I want those who are responsible to feel like they’re being rewarded for it, and to know it’s appreciated.
Note: I don’t mind students being late in the first week, or the odd day when someone discreetly comes in five or ten minutes late. But they’re taking the piss, this group.
This has been building up for a while and I have to rant about it now before I torch this whole lot of researcher forms.
When you come to the archives to request material, we ask that you fill out a form with your name, address, and research topic. In order to get that material, you have to fill out a call slip with the number of the collection, the name of the collection, and your name. It’s a lot of forms, I know, but we have to make sure we know who’s pawing through this stuff because it’s all irreplaceable and in some cases very old.
Now what would you think that the biggest problem people have with the forms is? Not filling them out, not the name or numbers of the collection (I can look that up if there’s any confusion). It is with writing down your names. The words that people address you by. The name that you have had your entire life. The name that I’m sure you write down several times in a week. Let’s lay down some guidelines on how to write your name. You should have had this in kindergarten, but sometimes people need a refresher course.
HOW TO WRITE YOUR NAME ON A FORM
- LEGIBLY. If your cursive looks like scrawl, print. If your print looks like scrawl, block letters.
- Make sure the name on the researcher form is the same as the name on the call slip. If you write down John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt on the researcher form, but sign your call slip “Scruffy” I have no way of knowing who the hell you are when time comes to enter your call slip into the database.
- Use the same signature every time. Don’t sign some of your call slips John Schmidt, others JJ Schmidt, others Scruffy, and still others Jingly Joe. Also, in this country we put our given names first and our family names last, so don’t go signing still other slips Schmidt Jingleheimer Jacob.
- Have I mentioned that legible handwriting is a plus?
It is a sad, sad day when the vast majority of college freshmen can’t even write their names correctly. Unfortunately that sad day is today.
Dear Fellow Driver,
Get out of the fast lane. The speed limit here is 65 and you’re doing 50. Maybe you should do those scratch off tickets you bought after you’ve reached your destination. What are you driving with? Your dick?
I suspect I would thoroughly enjoy being in one of your classes.
So long as you’re not teaching something morally reprehensible.
Like sociology or project management.
YES. I hate this with such a passion. Especially if you can look around and see two other people working who are not engaged with customers ignoring the phone. I quit my last job over this, being the countermonkey who was supposed to ignore the line of customers who walked their asses in and were being polite and patient (it was almost eerie how wonderful these customers were) so I could walk through the menu with the person on the phone and wait while they think aloud and repeat the menu to each person in the office and then go through the twenty question ordering process with each person in their office and meanwhile, with the phone line active, no credit cards could go through, so my line came to a screeching halt. I asked that one of the two people doing nothing but food orders be in charge of answering the phone to take the food orders and answer any questions, since they wouldn’t be interrupting/ignoring in-house customers to do so–and they’d be able to tell the person that they were out of some option they wanted, rather than telling me that after I put the ticket up and read it to them (the food prep) and me having to search through the caller ID and call the customer back to go through the whole damn ordering process alternatives again, meanwhile the customers in line become slightly less patient.
The second time I had this discussion with the owner (who always worked food prep because you didn’t have to anything but food prep, while the countermonkey had to take orders inhouse & call in, ring up, get drinks (fountain and espresso/blender), basically everything but putting the food together) and her response was again dismissive, I submitted my two weeks notice. It was a great little cafe, but her phone policy was a big fuck you to our very nice customers, and part of a little passive-aggressive campaign against them (along with all sorts of little notes about time limits on using the wifi in certain areas, etc.) that I just didn’t want to be a part of anymore.
Guess I’m still a little mad. I liked that job. But the phone thing was the worst. I’m really glad to see other people hate it too.
Worse — folklore.
I’m going to venture that the basis for this would be that the customer standing in front of you has already decided to eat there and will be more patient than the person calling in. The caller can easily hang up and make other arrangements while the person standing there is effectively a captive unless they get really upset at waiting and decide to leave.
Yeah, I think it sucks too.
Provisionally acceptable. It sounds like it would be an enjoyable elective for most degree plans rather than an undefendable requirement.
Ooooh, what kind of folklore? If there weren’t several thousand miles of pesky continent between us, I’d take your class.
I’m going to my hometown to visit for a very short 24 hours tomorrow, and a friend of mine has taken the liberty of inviting to my happy hour another friend of mine, freshly out of jail for beating his wife, who is also my friend from before their marriage.
Apparently people got wind that I was planning on visiting the soon-to-be-ex-wife and decided that I needed to hear his side of the story before I heard hers, and you know what, I don’t fucking care about his side of the story. I’m not ready to see him right now and I’m certainly not ready to sit there at fucking HAPPY HOUR (hello???) and listen to him defend his reasons for putting his hands on a 100-pound woman. I do not fucking CARE if she was cheating on him; I do not CARE if she instigated it. Unless he tells me she came at him with a gun or a knife, nothing he says is going to change the way I feel about this.
God, I’m just so fucking MAD. I don’t even want to go now. Fuck. :mad: :mad: :mad:
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No, it is not fucking miraculous. This is a science class. Check your religion at the door, you twit.
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I don’t know what the fuck is going on but my body needs to remember how to calmly and properly digest food and excrete waste right the fuck now, because whatever the hell is happening needs to fucking stop.
So don’t go. There’s got to be more than one place in your home town that has happy hour. Take the soon-to-be-ex-wife and let the other two pass the time in their own way.
On a related note (and I’m not questioning your feelings nevermore, but your rant brought it to mind):
There have been two major murder/suicides of entire families in our area in the past couple weeks. Consequently, a local radio station is currently running a special on domestic violence. I listened to this special about spouse abuse for about an hour and here’s a sampling of what I heard:
“We’re trying to protect the women of our community…”
“If you’re worried about a woman at risk, you can…”
“If she has to get away from her husband or boyfriend…”
“In the current economy, more men will be stressed and become abusive…”
“Doctors treating men for depression should evaluate their potential to turn violent…”
In this entire hour NOT ONE WORD WAS SPOKEN ABOUT MALE VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE. Not a hint of a breath was wasted on the idea that, y’know, sometimes women hit people, too. And it’s really fucking scary for men when it happens, and the shame of it keeps them from reporting it.
We won’t even get into the physically and mentally abusive lesbian couple across the street from me. Obviously, they don’t exist, and the three times I’ve seen the cops at their house were all in my imagination.
Fuck you, Enterprise, for making me tear up for the last episode of such a craptastic show.
Fuck you, entire bottle of (inexpesive, yet tasty) wine I’ve drunk this evneing for making me think I can type, let alone contribute to the thread.
Since I am sure what ever law of ___ is about to bite me on the ass. There’s a law on the lengeth of eta’s. Who knew?
This one is easy. Tell them. Say “I don’t want X going to happy hour, and if you insist on bringing him, I insist on not joining you. It’s that simple.”
And, yes, it is that simple.
I only get to teach an intro class. There’s a program at Chapel Hill, which might be closer…
More on creeping illiteracy, from today’s L.A. Times: “He says they [letters of Benjamin Franklin] add nuance to the understanding of the founding father’s skill as a negotiator and his role as a milita.” Really? Benjamin Franklin was a militia? Clearly I didn’t pay enough attention in history class.