College Life
Hello everyone: Today’s blog is on extra credit. Some teachers give it, while others look askance at the very thought of it. I give it for some undergraduate course where I am allowed by my college to do so. It is never given in graduate school. When can you get it in my classes, I offer undergraduates the chance to improve their grades throughout the...
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College Life / Writing & Grammar
Hello everyone: Here I am, almost at the semester. My students at one college turned in papers on Wednesday that were, for the most part, pretty awful. It has taken me 45 minutes to plow through 6 of them, there are so many mistakes. Here’s my dilemma: do I post an announcement, inviting the students to re-write their papers, knowing that the ones who need...
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Writing & Grammar
Hello everyone: Two of the best ways to improve your grade is to read announcements and read the feedback from your instructor. Two of the colleges where I currently teach make instructor announcements mandatory, telling me I must post something twice a week. So I do. Every week. Since this is a requirement, I try to be brief but I also try to include something...
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College Life
Hello everyone: This may not come as a surprise but following the directions on an assignment really does lead to better grades. Here is a case in point: My students at an unnamed college had a assignment worth 100 points. Some of the students really applied themselves and did a super job of addressing all of the questions the essay was supposed to respond to....
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College Life
Hello everyone: Each semester, I run into students who just barely get by. If I ask for two-five sentence paragraphs, they give me one five-sentence paragraph, or less. Sometimes they write three sentences, if you include “great post,” which I don’t. My question for them is: why did you even bother? If I ask that all posting be completed by Sunday night at 11:30 pm...
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College Life
Hello everyone: Today’s blog is about how not to get a higher grade. I had a student recently who asked me to curve her grade by a half letter grade, so she could graduate “somma latte.” After I figured out that she meant “summa cum laude,” we were in better shape. She still didn’t get her 1/2 grade level curve, but at least I understood...
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College Life
Hello everyone: As an instructor, I offer undergraduates the opportunity to earn extra credit throughout the semester. However, that opportunity is dried up two weeks before the end of the term. Why? Because I am a grading machine at that point in time and I don’t have the time or desire to take a student who has goofed off all semester and add to my...
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College Life
Hello everyone: Sometimes you find that you have worked SO hard all term long and here you are at the end with a grade that is SO close to the next higher grade. What do you do? Well, if you have taken every extra credit opportunity all semester long, you might talk to the professor about his or her willingness to curve your grade. You...
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College Life
Hello everyone: Every once in a while, it is difficult or impossible to post an assignment to your online course. What are you to do? The first thing is to email the professor a copy of your assignment BEFORE the due date, even if it is just a few minutes before the due date. That way, the instructor will know that your assignment is ready...
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College Life
Hello everyone: A former student of mine needed to pass her math course in order to graduate from college. She had a job all lined up, the family was preparing to move across the country so that she could start the job, but ….she was apparently failing her math class….or so it seemed. No degree would equal no job…… She wrote a very impassioned letter...
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