Tuesday, September 30, 2014
How nice is too nice?
One of the the things that I worry about as a teacher is being too nice. I think I have a tendency to be a little too sympathetic with my students. If they had a "problem" printing it or were really struggling with the material, I'll usually give them until the end of the day to email me a copy. I've pushed back deadlines for the class or let students turn it in a day or two late. I know that I should probably be a more strict (stricter?) with these things. But here's the thing, I really don't care. If they get the work in and it's complete I'm fine. Sometimes things come up. Sometimes the printer really wasn't working. I was one of those students that did things last minute, so I occasionally ran into those types of problems and I'd feel like a hypocrite if I was hard on students that did the same. Granted, I don't think that I'm crazy lenient. I haven't just thrown out all the rules. But if a student acts like their trying I'm probably going to cut them a little slack. I guess the problem then is in being fair to the other students that turn things in late because they just didn't do it. Is it unfair to let one student turn it in late, but not the other? Also, being lenient usually means that at least one student will try to take advantage. Maybe I need to be firmer with students. I don't know. I like being understanding. I like not being super strict. I don't really have a strict personality, which is why it feels a little off. And now I'm rambling. Okay, I'm done. Have a nice day. Bye.
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I think that being understanding is important also. At the same time I've learned that it is important to know when to say no to students, being nice but also firm at the same time. I've learned that undergraduates sometimes test the limits, and an adult figure in those situations is important to encourage them to stay on track. And when they do stumble, to not be patronizing in any way but expect them to take responsibility for getting back. When I was younger the people who helped me grow the most were the ones who expected me to take responsibility for myself and were also interested in what I had to say. I would like to bring that same approach to the classroom
ReplyDeleteI also feel like I am torn between holding up my policies (specifically my late work policy) and being nice. Generally, I begin the semester with firm expectations. I tell my students to come to me with problems that arise so they know that exceptions for acceptance of late work can be made on a case by case basis. I find that at the beginning of the semester I have to set the expectation that while I will be more lenient during the first semester than I will be during the last have of the semester. I have found that students with genuine issues will e-mail me as soon as the issue occurs, while those who are trying to take advantage find me after class with a poor excuse. For me it's pretty easy to tell who has faced a real issue and who has not. I think it's unfair to excuse someone of something with a poor excuse when others who are taking the grade reduction (or something similar) are just taking the consequences and not approaching me.
ReplyDeleteI think your best friend in this case is a strong syllabus. Make the paper be the strict one. If you don't have an authoritative, strict personality to begin with, students will likely see right through it and take advantage of you anyway if you try to put one on. Having clear objectives, rules, assignments and an open door policy are good ways to assert authority in a syllabus. I always respected teachers more right off the bat if they had clear, authoritative syllabi. Even if she was the sweetest woman in the world in person, her written information made it clear who was in charge.
ReplyDeleteBeing a nice teacher during most of time in class and out of class, but assignment due date.
ReplyDeleteI had a similar experiences. She was a very good attitude student. (always participated in class discussion, good attendance...
However she did not show up the first assignment due date, even she did not emailed to me. In the next class, she said she was under the weather.
I really hesitated to say that it is not ok.
But rule is rule. Syllabus is the rule. So I said that you can not be free of the rule.
And printers? Tell them. There are a number of printers on campus, such as students center, computer lab. Bracken library has over 10 printers.The printers normally pretty much easy during a day, but in midterm/final week, all printers are KIND OF busy around every hour on the hour. So students have many option to avoid busy printers situations. It can not be the reason why......
I'm nice, too. (Uh, oh, don't take advantage of that ID601 students!) I think the biggest thing to look out for is yourself. I have a policy that I do not accept papers that are turned in after I had back papers, and I hold firm to that one. It's just not fair to me and my time to ask me to grade something after I'm done with that work. But if they didn't print or staple it, I agree, so what? I will take it not stapled. I will give them an extra hour to run and print it after class and put it in my box. But if it's the next day, I'll take the points off.
ReplyDeleteAlso, one of my mentors said something interesting to me, that I still debate. She said don't have overly strict policies on the syllabus that will "paint you into a corner." She said, there are always extraneous circumstances and you want room to deal with those as you see fit. If you do have strict policies, then stick to them.