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He does not want to be disturbed during his limited lunch break!
I am sure he has office hours posted somewhere.
If you have a question, stop by then.
If not, don't waste his time.
It's not a waste of time if people come to office hours for any reason. Nearly all teachers are sitting alone with nothing to do during office hours. We love visitors for any reason, and will reward this initiative.
When your professor says that he wants to talk to you, he is not talking about socializing in the cafeteria or chatting in the hall. He is talking about office hours. I encourage all of my students, particularly my first year students, to stop by my office hours or make an appointment whether or not they are struggling in my class. I don't have enough class time to treat every student like I am their personal tutor, but I can during office hours. I have students that come into office hours in small groups for several hours a week, and they generally end up being top students.
Only a handful of my introductory level students are chemistry majors, but I do expect the chemistry majors to come to office hours fairly frequently. If you are passionate enough about a subject that you want to dedicate your early career to its study (majoring) you should seize the opportunity that office hour use represents.
I would like to do the office hours but it's not easy for me as I work from home and then my children come home. I don't usually feel I have that extra hour. I get to campus and get off again quickly when my class is done.
I see a few comments either hinting or outright stating that higher grades can be had by going to see the professor, but I feel I may have to take the lower grade in that case, since once home (and with the kids) I spend literally hours per night on my homework but I do not have the freedom to stay around on campus.
I do respect the professor's time and his schedule...when I made the comment about passing this professor at the cafeteria I was literally referring to a nod hello while passing, not monopolizing his time. The professors have their schedules but so too do I have my schedule.
So if it's down to "if you REALLY want an A you'll come hang out in the professor's office during his scheduled hours in addition to class time," I'll have to take the B and be satisfied with it.
I did actually send him an email about a book he's written...I'm going to read it as it's about teaching in general, it sounds interesting and he's a great speaker, so I'm imagining he will express himself well in writing too. But come hang out to try to get an A...no...I can't do it.
If I get my degree then I'll have my degree and that's that, I am doing the best I can.
You're right, OP. Most profs don't grade by office visits, they grade by participation in class (which you are acing), and performance on assignments and exams. You cannot schmooze your way to a better grade. However, students who are having trouble with some aspect of the material or assignments can get valuable help that will help their grade if they take the advice. But if you don't need help, what would be the point of going? What would someone say in that circumstance? What would the topic of conversation be? The profs don't hold office hours just to shoot the breeze.
He does not want to be disturbed during his limited lunch break!
I am sure he has office hours posted somewhere.
If you have a question, stop by then.
If not, don't waste his time.
This. Contact him during office hours, or via e-mail if he's encouraged students to do so. But only if you have an actual reason. Not because you think you're supposed to be contacting him outside of class and think you're the only one not messaging him, or something.
I wouldn't say that "higher grades can be had by utilizing office hours." I will say that if you are struggling, a professor is more likely to respect a student who does seek them out for additional clarification, and who evidences a desire to put extra time into understanding whatever he or she is struggling with. But it's not a "Drop in and shoot the breeze and kiss some butt to get an A" thing.
You're right, OP. Most profs don't grade by office visits, they grade by participation in class (which you are acing), and performance on assignments and exams. You cannot schmooze your way to a better grade. However, students who are having trouble with some aspect of the material or assignments can get valuable help that will help their grade if they take the advice. But if you don't need help, what would be the point of going? What would someone say in that circumstance? What would the topic of conversation be? The profs don't hold office hours just to shoot the breeze.
You know, my husband just said almost exactly this to me and it makes perfect sense. I may be "missing something" in this thought process but I'm thinking: Why would I go hang out with the professor if I'm not having any problems/don't need more explanation? I'm not trying to be the man's BFF, LOL, I'm trying to get an education. I'm paying for that and I'm working (very very hard) toward it and it doesn't make sense to me to go schmooze with the prof beyond that.
I ask a lot of questions during class discussion and I give a lot of input. I even said "it's me again" in a half-embarrassed way when he called on me for the bazillionth time last class. I figure: it's class time...I have a question...elementary stuff: I ask the question NOW.
That only makes sense to me. If I were having problems while doing the homework I'd try to grab the prof in that case (during the hours he designates or by email), but I'm not. When I have trouble with a specific word because it's archaic/basically retired in today's common English I Google it. I can't see driving over to school and knocking on the man's office door to find out that "fond" means "foolish" in a certain usage.
So it's only small technicalities that I'm able to figure out on my own and then clarify during the lecture.
I've known very few profs who respond to butt-kissing in any meaningful way. Most are pretty scornful of blatant butt kissing (they've seen it all), in fact.
I've known very few profs who respond to butt-kissing in any meaningful way. Most are pretty scornful of blatant butt kissing (they've seen it all), in fact.
Yup. It's a bit delusional on a student's part to think that someone twice their age with years of experience dealing with students can't see through their blatant attempts to butter someone up. That kind of behavior can do more harm than good.
There was a new grad student in the academic dept. where I worked, who tended to relate to people, including the faculty, with manipulating behavior. He could change personalities depending on what he thought people wanted to see/hear, and what he wanted to get out of them. He really angered the faculty members he tried this with. He commented to me once, that people either really like him, or hate him, there's no middle ground. (Translation: people either fall for his act, or resent the implication that they're dumb enough to fall for it.) He ended up dropping out of the program and transferring to a different department. He wore out his welcome pretty fast.
This is good news, because I'm too old to coquettishly schmooze and too impatient to play Guess What the Teacher Secretly Wants.
I will just keep working hard as I have been so far.
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