from GIANT NIGHTMARE WAR IN IRAQ to whining about college students ... quite the perspective shift, huh? one. thing. at. a. time.
in the span of the last hour (no shit) i received TWO student emails saying "reply ASAP." now, i know i've complained before about how the advent of email (perhaps coupled with today's overly narcissistic youth, depending on who you ask) has wrought a generation of college students who expect they can miss class and then just casually ask you "what did we do in class?"
BUT "reply ASAP"???? who tells a teacher to do this??
are you kidding me, lol? [i am, actually, Laughing Out Loud, at this very moment.] it's too absurd.
what's even more absurd is that I DID REPLY. instead of just ignoring their stupid emails. because i felt bad for them. even though they were rude and so on. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME ENABLING THIS KIND OF THING???
i might have to address this in class. except i don't want to embarrass these two (seriously) very sweet young ladies, who apparently just have no idea that "reply ASAP" is impolite and crazy.
advice, my four dear readers?
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5 comments:
You know what I hate even more than the idea of your students demanding that you reply ASAP??!! I can't stand when people request a "received" message after you read theirs--it's like they're checking up on you! Seriously, someone has got to teach some email etiquette classes to these people!!!!!!!! :)
Before children I taught a developmental writing class to freshman and sophomores in college who weren't quite ready for English 101. They pulled crap like this all the time. At first I thought they were just arrogant a-holes who were accustomed to sliding by and so figured they could do the same in my class. But as time wore on and I got to know the students I started to think that they just didn't know any better.
So one day in class we had a talk about what was and what was not appropriate to say or write to me. I realize that it must have been confusing for them because I was young and mostly we had fun in class. Certainly they didn't see me as they saw doctor-so-and-so who wore tweed jackets everyday and taught the class down the hall.
And the talk helped. A lot. Which is good. And then the next time I taught the class I included a section on classroom and e-mail etiquette in the syllabus.
We reviewed the syllabus together as a class on the first day, and I also made them sign a paper that stated they'd read, reviewed and understood the syllabus. (Honestly, the students needed me to be this overbearing. They just didn't get it quite yet.)
So for the remainder of the semester if someone acted or responded in a manner contradicting the syllabus, I was able to remind them of what we talked about and what they agreed to.
All the while I kept thinking how I would have never, ever, ever written an e-mail to my professors in college with subject lines such as "Reply ASAP!" unless I was dying and in need of one of their kidneys to survive.
I agree with with Anne. I think that for future classes there should be a clause that gives you room to ream these two. I think I would have as a professor replied back to them that emailing me was not an appropriate way to ascertain this information (by the way, what would you have preferred them to do? Had they excluded the "Reply ASAP" would we be sans one blog entry?).
And when you ream them in class, you don't have to name names, but you could create an overhead projection of the email and black out all incriminating evidence, then present it to the class and proceed with the humiliating. I had a professor do this with dumb emails/idiotic answers. She was known, though, as a sassy one.
for what it's worth, when we go over my syllabus the first day of class, there's a special section on email. :) and we talk about email etiquette that very day, and how to write a "grown up" email to a professor/lecturer. SERIOUSLY. they even laugh when i explain with (oral) examples of how NOT to address an email, of how you SHOULD just be friendly but polite and so on ... (AND INCLUDE YOUR SECTION NUMBER FOR CHRIST'S SAKE BECAUSE I HAVE SIX SECTIONS AND 150 OF YOU AND YOU ARE PRACTICALLY IDENTICAL TWINS TO ME UNTIL FOUR WEEKS IN, i always tell them, "not that i don't love you, you're all special ...")
and usually this works. i get pretty decent emails from them for the most part ... but only for so long, i suppose -- we get fairly laid back in my sections by mid-term. and then they just lose all sense of propriety, is my guess (if they ever had one).
i don't generally do course contracts ... although maybe i should consider it. :) i just recall from my own days as a student how much i thought they were ... i don't know, like tough-love. maybe they're a good idea for students who push serious boundaries more. the students i have now would be better served, i bet, by a gentle reminder about what's "cool" than me pulling out a contract and showing them their signature. but if i go teach at a tech school, i might need those course contracts, for real!!!
sounds like something i would do tbh...i just don't think of stuff like that lol
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