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Teaching

Student happiness

  • Make exams worth more than 100 points (e.g. to produce a grade of 80/120 rather than 40/60) in order to decrease frantic distress.
  • Evaluation scores correlate with students’ estimates of their grades. Some students who blow off class all term show up the last week. When they realize that they should have done more work, they give you a bad evaluation. Rumor has it that it is better to start off with mediocre evaluations and improve than the opposite.

Awkward situations

  • to comply with the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act. Instead, post the last 4 digits of the ID #. At UW we are not allowed to send grades to students via e-mail either.
  • In 2007 I had a weird experience: Students noticed that a male grad student was taking notes on a female undergrad. Don’t wait to talk to your chair… call the police. All was OK. Both students were part of an approved research project, but did not inform class instructors as required.
  • If you set up an online threaded discussion, students can make their own announcements online without seeming to be endorsed by you.
  • Incoming students are often confused. For example, can text be shared for lab reports? Will you give a “0” for an exam with cheating? Will you forward all cases to the disciplinary committee? UW has a faculty handbook on grading that addresses to assign grades and how to speak to students who may have cheated ( (External Link) ). If you think a student has copied from another, do not return their exams - make copies. A common cheat is revision of exams before a regrade.Make a pdf of exams before returning them. Or instruct graders to make a line at the end of the student work and on page backs. Regrade requests for new work that appears below the mark have violated rules for cheating.
  • due to extenuating circumstances (e.g. an “incomplete” or a withdrawal). Do not agree to anything. Do not even say “I’ll have to ask” or “I’ll think about it” by e-mail. Talk to someone. There are usually rules about when you can grant these things. At some point, a student with a low grade will e-mail you saying that your grading is unfair. Respond politely that this is an important matter, so you are forwarding correspondence to your chair for undergraduate education.

Talking to your colleagues

  • When your faculty colleagues ask “do you want to have lunch?” say yes whether or not you eat lunch. It is your opportunity to ask questions and bring up concerns. When faculty get busy and forget to drag you out of your office to lunch, invite them instead.
  • It is worth figuring out who will be on your tenure committee, and spending time over lunches to educate them about your research.

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Source:  OpenStax, 2008 nsf advance workshop: negotiating the ideal faculty position. OpenStax CNX. Feb 24, 2010 Download for free at http://cnx.org/content/col10628/1.3
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