Wednesday, October 31, 2007

an Excuse for Everything!

Happy Halloween, fellow bloggers and blog-lurkers!

CRASH UPDATE: I have good news and bad news. The good news is that my first followup xray, 12 days post crash, showed complete healing of the broken bone. The fracture line was not visible on the xray, and things look exactly like they're supposed to! Yippeee!!! However, the bad news is I'm still looking at a LONG rehab, as all I'm supposed to be doing now is the simplest of ROM exercises, and still nothing coming even CLOSE to riding outside! However, my cross training plan seems to be working, and a combination of walking/hiking, riding the TT bike on the trainer, and going to the gym seems to be tiring me out at least as much as riding outside used to...so hopefully I won't be too behind the game! I'm getting really sick of the sling, though. I'm such a bad patient!

However, life goes on, and there are still things happening to keep me entertained. Especially last night...when sometime between the time I went to sleep (11pm) and woke up (5am), I got some interesting emails. You see, in my Design course, homework is due on Thursday. Last week, I gave them a bit of a break, and gave them an extra 5 days to do the homework. However, being undergraduates, this didn't mean a thing..many of them waited until yesterday to begin it, at which time they realized it was a tad time consuming! So I got these emails "excerpts only":

"..There is a lot going on this week: with a couple of midterms in other ME classes, Halloween, and the fires. Even for the people that do not go out for Halloween, they still suffer from a lack of sleep from the loud people partying in the apartment next door. I know that other people have also been affected by the fires, as one of my family's properties in Ramona burnt down last week. For me specifically, I am sending in my applications for medical school this week, and I am really swamped. An extension would be infinitely helpful. Please let me know if you could do this. Thank you for your time, ..."


"...Most of us have at least three homework assignments due at the end of this week and we all have a midterm on Friday. Is there any possible way you can maybe cut the assignment down a bit and have some of it due on monday? Also the h.w. is still not posted on the web so a bunch of students that don't have the notes are in even hotter water than me. Also, this is not a plee to make halloween night less hectic. I don't care about that I just need to focus on my midterm and getting my resume ready...."

and

"..Me and a few of my fellow engineering friends strongly feel that this homework assignment should be due at a later time due to the fact that we also have hw and a midterm in ME 155A Controls Design on thursay. I know that you had already given us a couple more days to finish the assignment, but halloween weekend didnt really help that much..."

So, am I being unreasonable? Halloween is a big party scene down here in SB, but last weekend was the 'halloween party weekend', too (as i heard from my windows every night), which is why i gave them an extra weekend on the front end to work on the assignment! :-) I was thinking ahead...but alas they were not. I don't understand why they complain about homework in MY class (where HW is always due on thursdays--it is not like this is new to them), vs. on of the other ones mentioned in the emails. A no win situation. However, I have to hold a hard line. I've decided to devote part of class tomorrow to homework time, and the rest to exam review (they have a midterm next Tuesday). I feel that's pretty nice of me, and about all I can do to appease them and still 'hold a hard line.' Wow...

I guess I'm just in a complainy mood...there are, of course, many students in the class who began the homework last week, and are finished by this point. I don't want to penalize them for being on top of things!

It is a fine line--that line between friendly and helpful, and them walking all over you! The game is on...

Ciao!!

8 comments:

Itinerant Rick said...

kim - I am always a bad patient, too. There is not a cast made that I cannot cut down to a size when I need more 'ROM' :-)

And hold the line on homework due dates; the diligent students will appreciate it. I hated it when profs gave in to the complainers after I had busted my hump to finish on time.

Unknown said...

All I have to say, it that I am down here where the fires are and last week when the power was going on and off throughout the week and finally went off closing the school library on Thursday night when an assignment was due Friday, it that they didn't give us any extention. Instead we got a lecture about needing to be better prepared. There are no expections many of times in life expect for family...look at you having to teach the day after your accident

Kimberly (aka. DrKim) said...

excellent points, carissa and rick!!

Unknown said...

Speaking as a former slacker turned hard working studious scholar... If I had to close my eyes and picture a scenario that would resemble somthing like Christmas it would look like this: students who had it done on time get an extra point or two, those who didnt can turn in at a later time with no penalty.

Remember... thats pretty much the best situation I could ever imagine.

All being said these are students at the university level. They need to be turning in work when its due or not at all. There are no excuses. Period.

Stick to your guns and glad to hear about the fracture healing so well

Unknown said...

I just had to write a prof to ask for an extension on a paper b/c i'll be out of town for the county ride this weekend...
I'll let you know what she says

Kimberly (aka. DrKim) said...

chester--funny! :-) do let me know what she says...
I won't let you know what my students said when I nixed the homework extensions AND the cheat sheet requests on the upcoming exam...

dr-nitro said...

Clearly, you are not attuned to the cultural importance of Halloween in Ila Vista. I mean heck, I drove down there for the celebrations when I was young.

But, I'm not young anymore. And even if I was, I don't think that I would be so stupid to complain about an extension to a homework assignment (which is really what you did). They could have done it sooner, as I'm sure that other students did. The response back is simply "would you tell an employer that you did not get a project done because you got dressed up and drunk the night before?"

Kimberly (aka. DrKim) said...

oh how true...thats essentially what I told them :-). You should have seen the emails last night when those that hadn't been in class didn't know where the homework solutions had been posted!!! I guess I am getting old and cynical :-).