Virginia Rud

Discussion Comment

In the section on the "Blaming others" students, one of the strategies suggested deals with penalties for lateness. While I agree that there should be consequences for lateness, I disagree with the other suggestion of offering bonus points for turning in assignments early for students "who are in need of course points but can't seem to get things in on time." I am happy to work with a student to figure out what barriers they have to getting assignments in on time, but I don't believe that allowing them to "make up" points serves to reinforce the message that, in… >>>

Virginia Rud

Discussion Comment

Late or Missed assignments

My class policy is "no late assignments", for any reason. I find that this is more fair to everyone then trying to decide which excuse merits exceptions. My students know that they can fax, email or have another student hand in their work, but if I don't have it by the beginning of class, it won't be accepted. My grades are also weighted so that missing one assignment won't have a huge affect on the student's grade, but multiple missed assignments will.

Virginia Rud

Discussion Comment

Test Banks

The texts for several of the courses I teach provide test banks and I see them as both good and bad. I often find errors, not only in the answer keys, but in the grammar and spelling as well. Frequently I find typographical mistakes too. I usually rewrite some of the choices on the multiple choice test banks because there are too many "all of the above"s or "both A & B" type answers. On the other hand, the test banks save me time and also give me ideas for questions to ask the students during lecture. I have also… >>>

Virginia Rud

Discussion Comment

Suggestions for addressing learning styles

I've been taught that, as a teacher, I should switch activities about every 20 minutes. My subject (anatomy & physiology) requires learning new, and sometimes words, some complicated processes and a rather large amount of plain old memorization. I use powerpoints for lecture, but need some suggestions on some different activities. Also, if anyone has any ideas on how to limit the time loss that occurs with activity changes, I would appreciate that too.

Virginia Rud

Discussion Comment

Generational Rules

I have done the "if the phone rings" thing (usually I have them bring cookies) but that doesn't bother me that much. In fact, the ringing rarely happens. It's the students that have their phones in their pockets on vibrate and are taking them out every 10 minutes to check who is calling them and, frequently, texting them back...Does this generation really not see an issue with this? I'm thinking about starting to do the same thing just to see what they think. Like stopping and taking my phone out during a lecture or class activity, pretend to read a… >>>

Virginia Rud

Discussion Comment

Generational Rules

One of my biggest frustrations as an instructor deals mainly with the difference in what I think of as "generational rules". In the syllabus addendum for every class I teach, I specifically state that cell phones are not to be used during class time, including texting. I don't think that this is an unreasonable rule, yet every quarter I've had to reprimand at least one student, typically of the 18-25 age group, for violating this rule. While my non-traditional students tend to be shocked by this blatant disregard for the rules, the other, younger students don't see an issue at… >>>

Virginia Rud

Discussion Comment

Time Management

When preparing a lesson plan, I often have difficulties with under- or overestimating the amount of material that I can cover in a class period. Is there any kind of "rule of thumb" for deciding how much time to assign for a particular activity or type of activity?