Work colleagues

[parsforlife]

14 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

I used to take a register. One year I plotted a graph of grades vs attendance. Clear straight line relationship. I still show it to students today. 

When you have a class of anything over, say, 80 students it becomes a hassle. Getting that many folk to find and sign their names on a sheet of paper takes ages. 

Completely off topic but what are your thoughts on the large sizes for lectures?   I feel it was a large part(certainly not only) of me ending up dropping out, it was quite difficult to transit from being in a small room with 20 odd people(and by the time you hit 6th year some courses barely hitting double figures) to being in a lecture hall for 200+ and being more talked at instead of taught. 

[alta-pete]

3 hours ago, scottsdad said:

First day back at work, and I've gone full Prof. 

He and I had a meeting this morning about his block teaching. As a reminder, for his course he teaches his students for 3 full days (3 x 7 hours = 21 hours face to face time). I teach mine for 2 hours per week for 11 weeks (22 hours face to face time). He was talking about how it gave him weeks on end with no work other than setting online work for the students (I already have loads of that on my course, videos and written notes and quizzes etc).  Time to do other stuff. Time to reflect, think, work on other things. He even took a few days off last year mid-semester. That, and in his full days he sets out far more in-depth work than you can do in a short class. The problem he has is that his course is the only one to do block teaching. So our programme is all disjointed. 

The solution was simple. Someone else will have to do the same. In a moment of either epiphany or madness, I volunteered. 

So the students will show up in a room for a whole day, six times in the semester. Three times they get him, three times they get me. Next year we might get another couple of courses joining so students just have a full day each week, different class each time. 

f**k it. I'm feeling a bit worn out this year and maybe he's on to something. If it all goes wrong I can switch back in future. 

 

[BFTD]

20 minutes ago, scottsdad said:

I used to take a register. One year I plotted a graph of grades vs attendance. Clear straight line relationship. I still show it to students today. 

When you have a class of anything over, say, 80 students it becomes a hassle. Getting that many folk to find and sign their names on a sheet of paper takes ages. 

Aye, I think most lecturers deliver that as their first lesson, and it's a point worth making. Two of the guys I've recently been studying with made it clear from the off that they considered themselves hot shit, and the diploma would be a foregone conclusion for them. Their attendance was abysmal, and they didn't finish all the work needed to complete first year, but were allowed to carry it over to second year. One celebrated by booking a holiday that finished in week four of the new term, and neither turned up any more often, nor bothered trying to catch up with the information they'd missed. Right 'til the end, they were talking about how they'd "get all this stuff knocked out over the weekend".

Both failed. No idea if they'll be allowed to repeat. I saw them recently and one was talking about appealing to the University to carry everything from years 1 & 2 over to third year, which is denial on an astonishing scale. Our lecturers had mentioned that they'd be advising not to allow them to repeat, as they'd just fail again because they don't see what they're doing wrong.

[scottsdad]

24 minutes ago, parsforlife said:

Completely off topic but what are your thoughts on the large sizes for lectures?   I feel it was a large part(certainly not only) of me ending up dropping out, it was quite difficult to transit from being in a small room with 20 odd people(and by the time you hit 6th year some courses barely hitting double figures) to being in a lecture hall for 200+ and being more talked at instead of taught. 

If the lecturer is good, it can be managed well. I use lots of breaks, tasks for them to do in groups and so on. I also have tutors who help go round the room and help anyone when I have given them something to work on. 

In part, this is driving the Prof's plans. The day with him has a bit of lecture, break out rooms, working on a brief, developing something in teams and presenting work. Is that better than showing up for a bog standard lecture every week? Maybe. But it is designed for big classes. 

Biggest class I ever had was 454 students. But that was during covid, and only 50 were with me in person. The rest were watching online. We don't even have a room big enough for all of them. 

[scottsdad]

42 minutes ago, TxRover said:

My question was is there a means to address the odd student that is hit by a bus that morning, not the typical slacker.

Yes, we have things in place for students like this. 

[Cosmic Joe]

18 hours ago, Swarley said:

I'd say most normal people would find somewhere private but yes that sounds fairly standard as offices are full of ârseholes. The ill daughter one will be hoping someone overheard and will now talk about it. 

Particularly seeing as the doctor is the father. 

[Jacksgranda]

20 hours ago, Swarley said:

I'd say most normal people would find somewhere private but yes that sounds fairly standard as offices are full of ârseholes. The ill daughter one will be hoping someone overheard and will now talk about it. 

I'm a cynical b*****d, too...

[philpy]

This lot has been in the sink since yesterday lunchtime. Good to see the bosses instructions being adhered to.

 

[Florentine_Pogen]

^^^ There's one in every village, philpy.

[hk blues]

2 hours ago, philpy said:

This lot has been in the sink since yesterday lunchtime. Good to see the bosses instructions being adhered to.

 

If my wife posted that she'd be dealt with in the time-honoured tradition of P&B.  

[thistledo]

On 25/07/2023 at 09:58, philpy said:

This lot has been in the sink since yesterday lunchtime. Good to see the bosses instructions being adhered to.

 

Get out clause on the final bullet point, only needing emptied if nearly full, so full and overflowing it's stack and run territory. 

Also quite incredible the detail they felt they needed to go into for that final bullet, absolutely getting zero action at home or anywhere. 

[Sarcastic Bairn]

On 25/07/2023 at 09:58, philpy said:

This lot has been in the sink since yesterday lunchtime. Good to see the bosses instructions being adhered to.

 

 

[Miguel Sanchez]

A girl in my work took this week off because it's her dog's birthday.

[TxRover]

4 minutes ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

A girl in my work took this week off because it's her dog's birthday.

If dog years are 7-1 with human years, can she take off six more times in the next year?

[Miguel Sanchez]

20 minutes ago, TxRover said:

If dog years are 7-1 with human years, can she take off six more times in the next year?

Don't be silly, that might sound like she's taking the piss.

[ICTChris]

The guy I used to post about on here got sacked this week.

[tamthebam]

4 hours ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

A girl in my work took this week off because it's her dog's birthday.

Sounds like someone needs to give her a bone

[Swarley]

5 hours ago, Miguel Sanchez said:

A girl in my work took this week off because it's her dog's birthday.

A whole week? FFS.

[TheScarf]

9 hours ago, ICTChris said:

The guy I used to post about on here got sacked this week.

Don't leave us hanging, brother.  What was the incident that made the bosses finally break?

[ICTChris]

3 minutes ago, TheScarf said:

Don't leave us hanging, brother.  What was the incident that made the bosses finally break?

General long term incompetence. I think he was performance managed out of the door after a couple of specific issues that I can’t go into here.