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At my last job, I was relieved late several times a month. Sometimes, my relief didn't show up at all. If it weren't for online classes, I probably wouldn't have finished my degree taking courses where attendance counted toward my grade. Thank goodness for online courses.
If I were a student and I knew that I might be late due to work or other circumstance, I'd make sure my boss (teacher) knew ahead of time that it could be an issue and I'd apologize ahead for any disruption that it might cause. I'd try to enter the class with the least amount of disruption, hopefully entering the class in the back and sitting in the back.
Take attendance 5 minutes after class starts and then give a short quiz. I had a law professor many years ago who only took attendance sporadically, but if he called your name and you weren't there, he said that as far as he was concerned, you did not attend any of his classes. Everyone showed up.
Take attendance 5 minutes after class starts and then give a short quiz. I had a law professor many years ago who only took attendance sporadically, but if he called your name and you weren't there, he said that as far as he was concerned, you did not attend any of his classes. Everyone showed up.
In law school?
Ridiculous. If people don't care about showing up to class, doing well, and their class rank, that's their problem.
Many of my programs (mostly Masters program) had a huge chunk of class participation as part of a grade. If you're not in class for the entire duration, how can you participate?
Many of my programs (mostly Masters program) had a huge chunk of class participation as part of a grade. If you're not in class for the entire duration, how can you participate?
Yea. That's another thing I'm not so crazy about. Sometimes in grad school, I'd raise my hand just to ask a stupid question so I could get my 'one question of the day' in.
But yes. It's not enough in grad school to just show up, they expect you to participate too. Then again mostly everybody in grad school shows up because they want to be there. Grad school is a completely different animal.
Maybe the undergrad classes are more one-way lectures, while in the Masters programs, the instructor serves more as a facilitator to discussion along w/ lectures. Anyway, I feel for the OP and have respect for him/her along w/ teachers at every level of education. It isn't something that I could do.....
I can't picture being a college or high school instructor who talks to students who are texting, playing with their laptops and coming in and out all during the class. If I am speaking in an official capacity, I need people to listen.
Ridiculous. If people don't care about showing up to class, doing well, and their class rank, that's their problem.
I kind of agree with this.
As a student, someone coming in late but doing so very quietly didn't distract or bother me as long as the instructor did not point it out or acknowledge it in some way.
What bothers me MORE, as a student, is having classmates who are talking to each other during a lecture, giggling over a YouTube video, or getting up four times during a lecture to answer their phone. I expect the instructor to say something to keep the environment appropriately quiet during a lecture or ask those who are noisy to leave.
My observation from taking community college classes vs taking classes at a university has been surprising. I have observed MUCH more of this obnoxious talking/texting/watching videos during class at the university level. Of course I am sure there are some who are just inconsiderate but generally speaking, it seemed that lateness at the CC was because someone's sitter didn't show up or their one vehicle got a flat on the way to school. At the university, while I'm sure there are plenty of people who don't fit this stereotype, I've seen students who literally stumbled out of bed in their dorm and then stumbled across campus in their pajamas and are late because they just overslept. Then they proceed to text or sleep through class. It annoyed me when I was busting my butt to drive over an hour one way, leaving my house 2 hours before class started to make it on time, and then find and pay for parking, etc.
I don't think you should be trying to manage the class like you would a high school class though. I've had professors who do this; last semester I had a huge lecture hall class where quizzes were given every single day. Class started at 3:30. At 3:33 the doors were locked and the quiz started. Those quizzes made up 20% of the grade. He also had "no leaving" policy. If you took the quiz and left, he'd pull it and give you a zero. If you got up and left to go to the bathroom, no point in returning, you'd get a zero on the quiz. He also had a no computers policy, no "hoodies", no this, no that. I think that was a bit overly controlling and extreme. Need to find some middle ground.
Another professor (again, huge lecture hall) did not lock the doors or care if you were late but he posted questions on the board at the beginning of class and we used an auto-responder "clicker" to answer, and that counted towards our attendance grade. All total it was 10% of the grade. If you showed up halfway through the questions, you could still get a few points.
Finally, another wasn't quite as punitive; he gave out extra credit questions during the first part of class. They were worth quite a bit of points on the exams, and if you weren't there too bad. His exams were pretty hard so this was a good incentive for people to not be late and not skip. Sometimes he'd give out extra questions at the end of class too, and if you had left early you'd miss out. It was all tied to extra credit points.
I would NOT take time to fill students in who were late though. I've always assumed it is my responsibility to get with another student to find out what I missed if I've been late or absent, I wouldn't dream of bugging the instructor about it. This should be clearly stated in the syllabus.
Well, part of a college teacher's job is also to provide a good learning environment for the students (the 'good' students). Late students walking in & out, chatting off topic, cell phones, etc. create a disturbance for them. As much as they may try, it can be hard to watch your teacher when the idiot in front of you can't get off Facebook.
Earlier this year I started a part time evening job at a local Community College where I teach as an Adjunct Instructor in Business Management. It has been quite an experience.
The one thing that bugs me more than anything is students who show up late. I am talking about 30-45 minutes late on a regular basis. (These are 3 hour classes) At 10 minutes after the official class start time I shut the door thinking that would send a message to the students that they are late and the class is already under way but they walk in like they own the place and expect me to stop the class and tell them what they missed.
When I ask them why they were late they usually go mute, or just say something like: "got held up, traffic, or I had other things I had to do."
I try to lecture them about the importance of punctuality but they just look at me like I am crazy and the rest of the class students freeze up and look embarrassed. I see them thinking, "just leave him alone, what's the big thing about being late!"
Are you a college instructor or student? What do you think about students who show up late all the time?
And how do you react when they express this expectation? Normally late students would have to get missed material from fellow students outside of class. If late entrants are a chronic problem, make an announcement that they'll be responsible for their own material and that points will be taken off their grade for chronic lateness. Or ask them if they registered for the wrong class, being as the one they're in starts at a time they're not able to attend.
Where do you live? The only time I've seen students chronically arrive late was in a class where the instructor did not have the students' respect, and they showed it by arriving late en masse. It was an exceptional case. But that was at a university, not a CC.
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