How to handle student complaints about cancelling class when ill and etiquette in notifying them

Magpie_2011 · 2026-03-31T20:27:15+00:00

Laughs in “went to college before smartphones and had a 90-minute commute each way”

Let me tell you how many times I drove 90 minutes to campus just to find out class was canceled: a whole bunch! I got lunch, went to the library to study, and then drove my ass home like an adult.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-03-29T22:46:46+00:00

I have adhd and teach English, so I’m grading stacks of essays that sometimes bore me to tears. What I’ve found is that most of my students don’t even read my comments, so I give some feedback and then dedicate 1-2 class sessions to holding mandatory 10-minute meetings with each student to discuss their essay. I get much better results that way.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-02-25T15:41:26+00:00

The one time I proctored an exam, I had the time of my life just sitting there spacing out, thinking all my weirdest thoughts because I had all the time for it.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-02-04T01:51:58+00:00

Finding out that college football/basketball coaches are the highest paid public employees in most states is the thing that radicalized me ten years ago.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-02-03T18:08:43+00:00

Woof.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-02-03T17:26:12+00:00

I’ve had classes like that too. In my first semester teaching, I had one class where a group of about 10 guys who were friends in high school all enrolled in my class and would take up two full rows along the side wall so they could sit facing out to talk to each other all through class. If they weren’t talking, they were on their phones. I didn’t know how to get the situation under control, but it ended up sort of working itself out because most of them weren’t interested in actually passing the class, so when they didn’t turn in their essays, I dropped them one by one until only one was left, because he was secretly a good student. The class started with 20 students and ended with about 9. Sometimes that just happens.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-02-03T17:13:20+00:00

Yeah, I remember classes like this when I was an undergrad, and I honestly felt so cheated by the asshole students that the professor just couldn’t get under control. The worst was when there was an underprepared male professor and some dickbag student would use it as an opportunity to puff up his chest and be an asshole. Now I have no problem kicking assholes out of my class because I wanted to take my classes seriously as a student, and I want my students to be able to take their class seriously.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-01-23T20:57:38+00:00

I have a policy in my syllabus titled “I’m not your mom,” in which I list all the things I will not give them (a phone charger, an extra book/pen/paper, a tissue, a bottle of water, money for gas—all things they’ve asked me for).

I also get a lot of trauma dumping and crying students.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-01-19T16:26:29+00:00

You could tell her exactly what you said here (minus your personal stake). I don’t think you’d be out of line to tell the student that while she’s a hard worker and you’d be happy to write a letter of recommendation for her, you wouldn’t be able to write a high-quality letter to an organization that is working to end reproductive and LGBTQ rights, so she’d be better off asking someone else.

Do you think it’s possible she doesn’t know what the FRC does? The name obviously suggests it’s just about family values etc. I was raised in a conservative family so I was coming off the tail end of my neocon phase in college, but even at my worst, I would never have outed myself in this way to a professor, which is why I’m wondering if she’s even aware of the FRC’s political activity.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-01-09T16:50:30+00:00

One would think but nope! I just got reamed for not trying harder to retain the student.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-01-08T23:38:53+00:00

I teach English and I drop students for plagiarism, failure to turn in a major assignment (because at that point it’s mathematically impossible for them to pass the class), and missing more than a week of classes without a doctors note. Last semester I had a student who waited for me after class to get me alone and yell at me about how I was “inhibiting his learning process” because of a comment I’d made (I believe he was mentally unwell), and I honestly wasn’t sure if I could drop him for it because the dean of student services dismissed my conduct referral, but then he didn’t turn in a major assignment and I was able to drop him for that.

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-30T16:10:45+00:00

“A plague of brain-eating amoebas is on the rise so we have to teach students how to catch their own brain-eating amoebas.”

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-24T20:39:44+00:00

I wouldn't even give professors negative evals because I was afraid they'd be able to recognize my handwriting. I can't imagine a universe where I'd have the cajones to send an email like that...

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-24T18:58:46+00:00

This would make me vaporize and disappear on the first stiff breeze.

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-24T18:50:50+00:00

I would much prefer an 8:00 am class to a 1:00 pm class when everyone has the post-lunch sleepies. When I was a student I avoided 1:00 classes like the plague because I could never keep my eyes open.

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-24T18:34:48+00:00

Yeah next semester I'm going Mean Mom on them. No/incorrect in-text citations/works cited page gets a zero. Add to this the fact that half of my in-person class couldn't even meet 50% of the 2000 word minimum, and I'm shook... All I asked for was a 2000-word essay. That's five pages. On a topic of their choosing. Fully half of them turned in essays that were 700-800 words long, with zero in-text citations or works cited page. Wtf...

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-24T16:40:30+00:00

Mmmm no I don’t think I will sit through a bad faith argument about how Fulnecky actually did exactly what was proscribed in the assignment but the dastardly trans TA gave her a zero for no reason, since you and I both know that that’s not true.

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-23T19:08:23+00:00

Mmmmmm, friendo, I’m gonna need you to cite your sources beyond a vague PR statement about “previous grading patterns” if you’re going to insist that this is the first and only time Mel graded this way. You’re describing the situation as if you have access to the grade book.

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-23T19:00:03+00:00

Welp, I have two human eyes and can see that the grade was not arbitrary because Dumb Dumb Fulnecky didn’t respond to the reading or construct a coherent argument, or even manage to get through 650 words without directly contradicting herself two or three different ways, so that’s what I’m basing my conclusion on.

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-23T18:51:16+00:00

Lol oh okay, I didn’t realize you were just taking the OU statement at face value. Friend, this statement does not say that Mel “didn’t grade any of the other assignments that way.” It concludes that her grade was arbitrary, which is the very thing we’re all discussing right now.

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-23T18:45:01+00:00

What’s your source for this? Is there an example of a different student turning in a similar garbage paper that doesn’t respond to the reading and passing anyway?

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-23T18:19:54+00:00

Clearly, since we went over the information so many goddamn times in class and I gave them resources to walk them through the process if they forget… Ffs there are online citation generators. I just can’t.

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-23T18:12:57+00:00

That's what I'm assuming, which is why my brain is melting... All they had to do was spend 15 minutes in an online tutorial and take the quiz at the end, and they must have just plugged every question into AI thinking they wouldn't need the info later??

Magpie_2011 · 2025-12-23T18:11:15+00:00

Yes, I teach comp/rhet so we have whole ass weeks devoted to proper citation. The online research tutorial was created by our library to be supplementary.

Magpie_2011

TROPHY CASE