Students

Getting ready for next semester: Writing a successful discussion board posting

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Discussion board postings can be worth up to 20% of your final grade or more, so how do you ace this part of the grade?  Let me tell you how!

First, read the instructions carefully. Then take a moment to check what the instructor may have posted as an announcement to clarify his or her instructions on the assignment. Take those comments seriously.

Second, read the questions you are being asked to answer so that you can look for these issues as you are reading (that’s step three). The instructor thinks these ideas are so valuable that she or he is putting them into a discussion board, so you may see these questions again (like on a test or quiz).

Next, do the assigned reading from the textbook. Do not assume that you know it all and don’t need to read about it. I have run into very few students who are Subject Matter Experts (SMEs); I would say the number of SMEs I see is less than 1%. You probably are not in that 1%.

Now, look at the questions again, and answer them. Use direct quotes from the textbook, citing them properly, and then ALSO incorporate what you personally think about the issues you are discussing. (Please note that I am NOT looking for a bunch of direct quotes and no analysis. Instead, show me that you understand what you wrote by telling me how you would apply the reading from our book into real life.)

Finally, go back through your answers and make sure that you don’t have any typos or incorrect grammar. You are in college, my friend; spelling and grammar really does count! Have you answered everything that was asked? Have you exceeded the minimum word or sentence count? (Note: If an assignment has a three sentence minimum and that’s all you write, I will assume that you do just enough to get by and I will make a note of it in my records. I label you “lazy” and it is very hard for that label to ever be changed.)

I hope that this blog has been helpful. Let me know if you have any specific questions and I will be happy to reply.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Using holidays effectively

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

My topic for today is how to use your holidays to get ahead on your schoolwork.  Let’s say that you have Thanksgiving off. Oh, my, you do! What do you do with those four days of not being in school? I suggest you work ahead. Here’s how you do it:

Take your syllabi for each class and figure out what is due in the next three weeks of classes. Do your reading and research for any upcoming projects. As you do the research, make sure to mark down every where you got the information and bookmark the site if that is possible.

Lay out your research in piles according to topic and then begin to go through the piles and organize the piles within the piles. For example, let’s say that you have three research papers due in three different classes. Try to do the research in one fell swoop. I always email the articles I have found to myself, requesting a style format such as APA and MLA. The online library will send you the document with a cover page with the correct formatting that you need, which will save you a lot of time.

I always printed the articles out, marked them up so that I could see what I needed from each article, and then separate them into piles according to class. As you write the essays, you have the sources at your fingertips, with all of the information you want to use right there. (I made notes of which page numbers would have the most helpful information on those cover pages, so that I didn’t have to flip through the article as I wrote.)

Get as much done over the four day break, so that you have less stress at finals time. How do you make good use of the four-day weekend?

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Dead Face Divas Don’t Do Well

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Have you ever heard of a Dead Face Diva? Well, I have met a couple. They sit in class, obviously bored to tears, not participating ….ever…, and always with the same responses whenever I ask a question: “What he (or she) said” or “I don’t know….” (Note that a whine accompanies the second response.)

What do you think a professor thinks about that? I think that D. F. Diva is hopped up on drugs or is not the one paying for college. Or both. I think Mom and Dad are making huge sacrifices for a grown child who does not appreciate it and resents being in school.

What is my recommendation for the parents of such a student? Pull her out of college immediately so she doesn’t infect the other students with her horrid attitude and make her get a real job for the next couple of years. Perhaps a couple of years experience slinging hash will make her appreciate being in school and give her the maturity to actually apply herself when she gets back.

I have had several young men in my classes who learned the hard way that only having a high school education will not get you a very good job.  They leave college at the bottom of their class, work a job for a couple of years turning the “slow” or “stop” sign on the side of the road, and then come running back to college.

They usually come up to me with apologies for how they acted in my class the first time and with promises for a much better work ethic this time. The amazing thing is that the couple of years they were gone and the life they had while out of college leads them to apply themselves and end up at the top of the class. It is a maturing experience some students simply need.

So, to my Dead Face Divas, I leave this message: straighten up or join the real world for a while and then come back as an adult. Ladies, you aren’t there yet.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

The first day of school is tomorrow-what do I do now?

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Watching school buses pick up their children this morning, I began wondering what my students in college are planning for their first day of fall semester tomorrow.

Have they visited our class webpage and read my first announcements, including the one that tells them to bring a copy of the syllabus to class with them, or do they figure that I printed it out and will hand it to them when they show up?

Do they have the book for the class, or will they make a quick scramble to the bookstore tomorrow, along with half of the student population (only to discover that the book is sold out and they can’t get it for the first three weeks of class)?

Will they have paper and pen, ready to take notes, or will they think that nothing important will be done tomorrow and blow off the idea of even showing up?

Will they prepare their backpack today, making sure that they have all the supplies they need for their classes, or will they run around first thing in the morning, trying to pull everything together at the last minute?

Will they lay out their outfit tonight, making sure that it is in good repair, or will they show up in their pajamas?

Will they make sure that their car is gassed up, their laptop is charged up, and their eyes are opened up, or will they run out of gas halfway there, string the cord for their charger across the room (which becomes a tripping hazard for everyone in the room), and sit in their chairs, barely awake because they stayed awake playing computer games half the night?

Well, I guess you can tell which route a successful student will take. The second choices, all the way through, are for students whose success is doubtful. See you tomorrow!

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Before you fail read the instructions

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:
I received an email from a student today. Her note made it very clear that she had not read the announcements or the syllabus before posting her first assignment.

While I am the first to agree that a syllabus will probably never make the Best Seller list with Amazon, there is important information in it that could dramatically affect your grade.

First, she did not know any deadlines. (They are in both the syllabus and in the first announcement for the class, which I have repeatedly asked students to read.) Key: Read it before you write an assignment.

Second, she was unaware that there were any length requirements on discussion board postings. (Those instructions are at the end of the question, so she obviously did not scroll down one more line, where she would have located it.) Key: If you do not meet the minimum length requirements, you might not get credit for doing anything. Key: If you always post brief postings, your teacher gets very annoyed for your wasting her time. You obviously wanted credit; you just felt like doing a poor job. She notices and makes note that you are lazy. Guess what happens to lazy students if they need a curve at the end of the semester because they are “that close” to the next grade?

Finally, she did not want to participate in the Free Feedback Thursday where she would receive free (what a surprise) feedback that she could use to improve her paper and end up with a better grade. She didn’t want to work that hard. (One student told me “I never do re-writes.” His final grade reflected that attitude.)

The take-away here is…well, you are in college, what do you think?

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Extra Credit Woes

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

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 own burden when things are winding down.

When is it good to seek extra credit? From the very start of the course, not two days before final grades are due. If I see a student who has worked hard all term, has done every bit of extra credit all semester, I am more likely (but not guaranteed) to look kindly on that individual at final grades time.

When can you get extra credit in graduate school? Never. End of sentence.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Excuseitis and other diseases of college students

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

I recently had a student who had inflammatory excuseitis. She gave excuses, and I became inflamed towards her.

This lady had every excuse in the book to not come to class.  The key here is to remember we are talking about an eight week course.

Week one to week one and a half: She had the flu (Hey, it’s an online course. It’s not like she’s contagious or something. Come to class long enough to let us know that you are still among the living and then do your homework in the bathroom, if need be. We promise not to look.)

Week one and a half to week two and a half: Her kids had the flu and she had to take care of them. (But you told me your kids were in their late teens- can’t they kinda take care of themselves?)

Week two and a half through week three: She had a lot of housework to catch up on. (She and her kids had been sick, as you know, and she had laundry to do.)

Week four: She and her hubby had this cruise planned forever. You can’t expect her to miss it, can you? The tickets were non-refundable. “Non-refundable” means we can’t get our money back, in case you have never been on a cruise.  (You know those kids from week one and a half through week two? Apparently they were okay to leave home alone. And, no, I haven’t ever been on a cruise, but I know what “non-refundable”means.)

Week five: Whew, she was so tired from the cruise and there was laundry to do (because the kids didn’t do it. It’s not going to do itself, you know.) Okay, I will be in class later this week…..maybe.

Week six: Okay, it’s time to get a handle on things here. Dr. Parmelee, I need to make up some work. You know I’ve had some problems this semester, so it would be great if you could waive the late assignment penalty for the last six weeks. I’m still able to make an A in this class, right? My funding requires that I make at least an B or I have to pay them back. That would be a financial hardship for me, would destroy my credit, and would really mess up my life if you don’t cut me a break……

Week seven: I don’t have ANY IDEA how to do the first five assignments. Your instructions are the pits. Oh, by the way, I don’t have my textbook yet because I seem to have forgotten to order it, but it will be here by the end of next week. That’s okay, right?

Week eight: I don’t know how the time slipped away from me but I am ALMOST ready to turn in the second assignment, so you can cut me a break here, right? Is there any extra credit I can do to bring up my GPA? I mean, there’s this really cool paper I wrote for another class and got an A on so I could just turn it in to you. My other professor already marked it up and everything, so you would just need to post the grade. It’s an A, if I didn’t mention it…..

Surely you jest, lady!

Best,

Dr. Parmelee

P.S. I would love to hear your sob story. What’s the best excuse you have ever heard (or told?). Names will be changed to protect the guilty. 🙂

Negotiating a Grade Change

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

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 to me (I teach public speaking at that college), asking me for help. Rather than  correct the letter itself, I suggested that she submit it to the professor as-is because it wasn’t a bad letter and her situation really shone through in the letter exactly it was. I also suggested she contact the department chair and the head of academic affairs, if she could not get satisfaction from the instructor. The good news was that he responded to her plea, realized he had not counted her extra credit that she had done throughout the term, and adjusted her grade to a C.

Keep in mind that most professors do not get joy from flunking a student and teachers sometimes forget to add in extra points. We are human, so write that impassioned letter and you might just get the results that you are seeking. (Or not, if you messed up all term and waited until the last minute to ask for extra credit……..I had a graduate student recently who lazed around the whole term and then asked for an extra assignment on the last day of class. That did not happen, folks!)

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Making sure you meet the assignment’s requirements

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Have you ever worked on an assignment, only to discover at the last minute that you did the wrong assignment? Maybe you wrote a wonderful treatise on the role of tiddly winks in today’s culture. Perhaps you waxed eloquently on the job of belly button lint in the overall scheme of life. Perchance you discussed Shakespeare’s wife’s personality as it related to his writing in a Midsummer’s Night’s Dream.

Then, just as you got ready to hit the “submit” button, you realized it was the wrong assignment. What do you do now? Go ahead and submit the document, hoping against hope that the instructor will not notice????? Bad news, folks, unless we have just been hit by a tidal wave, we will notice that you wrote the wrong document.

I actually had this happen to me once (I wrote the wrong assignment, not that I got hit by a tidal wave!). What did I do? I went back and looked over the instructions and then I took a deep breath and re-wrote my essay so that it fit into what was required. Fortunately, I always prepared my essays with enough time for one more look-see, so I had 24 hours to fix it. It worked about just fine, though I did do some major league scrambling!

Sometimes students write a discussion board posting that does not meet the requirements of the forum. For example, my writing classes  always have to post two five-sentence paragraphs on every single discussion board for the entire semester. This is a MINIMUM requirement that is mentioned in the syllabus and in the individual discussion board instructions. Just today, I had a student who posted two replies: a three-sentence and a five-sentence posting. Does she think I don’t care or that I won’t notice? Hint: I do notice and she got very low grades on those discussion boards.

So, the point here is to always, always look over the instructions more than once and to write the correct document. Do you have any special times when you messed up? What was your solution to the problem? I look forward to hearing from you!

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Avoiding the Freshman Fifteen

Posted on by Sheri Dean Parmelee

Hello everyone:

Today’s blog is on avoiding gaining the weight that you might otherwise pick up in college. They traditionally call it the “freshman fifteen” but I didn’t find it until graduate school.

You know how it goes- you are busy working and studying; shopping and preparing nutritionally-sound food seems out of reach for your hectic schedule. Or perhaps you are busy studying and trying to stay awake, so you reach for the goldfish or Twinkies. Stop right there, my friend! Hold it!

When you go to the store, please buy apples or oranges or something that will give you the immediate gratification of eating, without the calories. Yes, the local food store on campus has shelves and shelves of candy and chips and ice cream treats and a myriad of other delectable goodies, but what will eating them do to your shape?

Instead of indulging while studying and adding on the pounds, take the time to get healthier snacks. It would be ideal to not eat in between meals at all but I know that, when you are reading a particularly dull chapter in a textbook that bores the daylights out of you as you study this lower level core class that you never wanted to take, it can be soothing to eat something, but try to not eat excessive calories. After all, reading is not an active sport! Reading one chapter does not immediately equate to burning the bazillion calories that the treat you are looking at in the school vending machine will add to your diet.

In other blogs, I have talked about using note cards to study. If you have some prepared, take them and go out for a walk rather than reaching for the gummy bears or pizza. I prepared for my qualifying exams for months. During that time, I printed out a 16 point font copy of my notes and taped it to the wall in front of my treadmill. That allowed me to study, stay awake, and burn calories rather than consume them. Food for thought, my friends.

I would love to hear from you as you share your ideas on this topic. Please use my name in your comments, so that I will know you aren’t spam and can pass your wisdom along to others.

Best,

Dr. Sheri