Damn Fire Alarms

There has been a rash of fire alarms going off this year. One of them went off while I was teaching, and I had to let the class go. I mean, I'm pretty sure it wasn't for real, but you can't keep a class in on that basis. Another went off during office hours. And another went off while one of my friends was teaching. I've never seen it this bad: 3 fire alarms in about a 2-week period. And most people give exams around this time, which is probably why the alarms got pulled in the first place. I guess they don't realize that pulling an alarm without a reason is actually a crime. I'm not sure how big a crime, but I'm fairly certain it is a crime. I guess that's better than when I got my undergraduate degree. That was pre-9/11, and during exam week it was fairly common to get bomb threats called in. I always thought that was exceptionally stupid - even in those days they could trace phone calls. And that is a crime.

Dropping Attendance!

Yes, it is dropping! I'm starting to average about 30 students in my first section and 35 in my 2nd section. I won't be giving out any more bonus points, though, unless attendance gets *really* low. The second test is in a few weeks, and we'll see how that goes.

Dropping Attendance?

I actually gave out bonus points the day after my test. I had about 17 students in one class and 30 in the other. I guess there's no point showing up the first period after a test, right? The kids are also getting bad about skipping if the weather is the least bit bad. We'll see how the grades go for the next test if they're missing a lot of class. Of course, we're also being decimated by the flu, which doesn't help things.

Who Knew?

Well color me astonished. I gave my first test the other day. Usually the average runs about 72-75% This time it was 82%! I was astounded. There are only 2 things that have changed. First of all, I'm not taking attendance. Secondly, I changed my study guide. My old study guide was just a list of terms/topics, etc. This time I sorted them into topics, vocabulary, and people. I'm not sure what happened, but it sure is interesting.

Don't Go to School with the Flu!

I recently received the following e-mail (this may out me, but it's too good to pass up):

One-quarter of the patients we are seeing at the Health Center have the flu. In addition, students are calling in for triage nurse advice with flu symptoms and are staying at home to recover. In order to stem the tide, faculty and instructors are asked to please adjust your class requirements for increased absenteeism over the next few weeks to assure that students with the flu do not attend class and continue the spread of the flu. We are seeing students who are diagnosed with the flu who are still going to class to meet a class requirement that the instructor will not change. For your own health and the health of the community at large, please consider an adjustment to assure that students with infectious disease do not attend class.

I'm not making this up, that's an actual e-mail. The flu is decimating campus, but apparently there are a bunch of students who are going to class sick because they don't want to lose attendance points. Frankly, I'm shocked they're doing it. Since the e-mail, a number of professors have made announcements about it. This will help keep the sick people at home, but it does create another problem - if you want to get out of class for a while, just say you had the flu. Who's going to know?

Still a Good Turnout

Well, it's the fourth week of the semester, and attendance has dropped. I'm averaging around 40-45 people in each of my classes (out of a total of 60 registered). That's not bad at all! And I will remind you that this is without taking roll every day. I'm still not sure why they're all coming to class, but I'll take it!

Snow Days

I have to admit, I love Snow Days just as much as the students. Unfortunately, there are those days that are borderline and confusing. Days that shouldn't be Snow Days, but half the class doesn't show up because it's drizzly and cold. And days when the university should cancel class, but doesn't, and you end up with a handful of people in class. It really messes up the flow of the course. Especially if you're covering something important and almost no one is there. Do you cancel at that point - when people have gone out of their way to make it to class? Or do you give the important lecture and hope the absent students get the notes from someone? In the future, I think I'm going to cancel class ahead of time, even if the university doesn't. Most of the professors did cancel for today.