Randomness

[Reanok]

KTR I hope your parents return home safely. I also wish all the stranded travelers a safe journey home. I heard there's anew alert of more for more Volcanic ash clouds headed towards Europe. Yikes!

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

As of now, almost all airspace in Europe is free again. The level of ash has dropped significantly and what remains are now being blown westward towards the northern Atlantic.

I'm hoping my parents will get back home tomorrow. According to the airline there's a flight they can take at around 2.00 PM. It goes directly to their hometown.

[Aquarius]

KTR--I wish your parents luck in getting home in a timely fashion!

Very strange day today. Last day of school for the semester. We didn't have a final for our English 300 class, but we had each broken up into groups and were supposed to lead discussions about a poem. We got to class, and the prof never showed up. Well...I don't know about "never"...University policy says that if an instructor is more than fifteen minutes late, we can assume there's not going to be a class and leave. So at 11:15, we were out the door. If she showed up after that...? Still, people had questions for her about their portfolios, etc... I just checked my campus email, and there was a message from her reminding everyone to turn portfolios in to her mailbox (which is strange, because they were actually due yesterday...but this isn't exactly the first time a deadline or due date has been meaningless to her, so...? ) The odd part: no apology for not coming to class today, no explanation, or no demand for an explanation as to why she was there and we weren't. Nothing. I mean, not like I want to get into anybody's business, but you'd think there'd at least be something like "flat tire on the way to work" or "family emergency" or something like that. Nope. Just "turn your stuff in." I paid for this; don't I deserve at least some kind of explanation for why I got my ass up and came to class for no reason? Any way, I ended up going to lunch with a few of the girls from class since I suddenly had some free time on my hands.

Any way...

I'm exhausted and emotional today. I accidentally got wired on too many energy drinks and diet Cokes yesterday...so much so that I couldn't study effectively. To top it off I woke up early...felt myself coming mentally unraveled, so in all honesty my performance on today's chem test is questionable. On top of it, it was just weird leaving campus today knowing that I wouldn't be coming back for a while. I had an urge to linger; it was beautiful outside, and I just kinda didn't want to go home. But I did...just 'cause I was so tired.

And now...it's just like, "NOW what do I do?"

Grades will be in on Tuesday. Wish me luck.

[Alelou]

It would be perfectly reasonable to let the dept. head know what happened there. (Though you might want to wait for your grade first.)

[Aquarius]

Okay, cool. I was going to ask you or honeybee what the etiquette is on that. Even if there's a perfectly reasonable explanation like she emailed us to tell us class was off and we never got it, they still need to know because there's a technical difficulty that should be looked into. And if it's not a reasonable explanation...well I guess that needs to be looked into.

Grades are in on Tuesday. I shouldn't have to wait long then.

[honeybee]

At my school, there's a formal procedure for canceling class. You call the department secretary, and she posts on the door that the class is canceled.

You are expected to do this - it's assumed people have a cell phone. I've missed class unexpectedly twice in five years. Once because I was stuck behind a fatal accident and another time I was snowed in (although I got word very early).

Then, you are supposed to email you students with instructions at the first opportunity.

No apology. No explanation is very strange. I would let the chair know. You can wait until grades are due to be safe, but honestly, the chair should keep such complaints in confidence.

[Aquarius]

Okay, cool. I'm too exhausted and mental to do it tonight, but maybe I'll do it tomorrow.

[justTripn]

I wish you luck, Aquarius! *crosses fingers*

[Alelou]

At my school, there's a formal procedure for canceling class. You call the department secretary, and she posts on the door that the class is canceled.

You are expected to do this - it's assumed people have a cell phone. I've missed class unexpectedly twice in five years. Once because I was stuck behind a fatal accident and another time I was snowed in (although I got word very early).

Then, you are supposed to email you students with instructions at the first opportunity.

No apology. No explanation is very strange. I would let the chair know. You can wait until grades are due to be safe, but honestly, the chair should keep such complaints in confidence.

Yep, same here. Hell, we're not even supposed to take them to a lecture or the library without letting the dept. know class is meeting in a different location. So what your teacher did there was really unprofessional. (And judging from your comments, the dept. head might be interested in some of the other weirdnesses you experienced in that class as well.)

[Aquarius]

It doesn't seem to be just me. I checked her out at ratemyprofessor.com, and she had a couple of favorable reviews, but most were negative and were reflective of my experience. I emailed a classmate who complained when the prof tried to change our midterm from the Wednesday after spring break to the Monday we got back--he cc'd the department head about that, because it wasn't fair to the people who went on vacation and had no idea and wouldn't have spent the time preparing. So I think they already know she's kinda crunked, but he also mentioned that our prof is tenured so he's not sure what exactly can be done about it. My main concern is this better not affect my grade negatively.

[Aquarius]

Update: Just checked my campus email. Seems our prof is back in the hospital. Probably related to some eye surgery she had a couple weeks ago. though the classmate who informed me of this didn't give details. So this particular instance would appear to have been nobody's fault, just maybe a communication lapse in getting word to us that there'd be no class. Probably just a string of rotten luck; the building that houses the English, History, Math, and Computer departments (among others) and therefore where most of these classes are taught is being renovated, starting in a couple of weeks, so these departments are also in the process of moving to their temporary digs...things probably got so crazy that the message or the action to be taken on it got missed somehow.

I don't have ill will toward my prof, but you can understand that with all the other crazy stuff we've put up with all semester, it was easy to think that she flaked or we got screwed over somehow.

[honeybee]

Sometimes tenured professors in particular, because they sort of can, flake out. It sounds like this woman has gradually gone off the rails over a few years. She probably does need a talking to by the chair. If she got tenure, at one time she was likely a good responsible teacher. The only person who didn't get tenure in my department since I've worked there (besides those who were fired for really good reasons) did so because she constantly flaked on stuff.

Since you can't really get rid of a tenured prof for flaking, it's best if you just go to the chair and let him or her know what your complaints are - that you don't want the prof fired and you know she's had eye problems and such - because chairs and other professors do care about quality teaching. So, they can bring some gentle pressure on her to get her rear-end in gear. It's for the best for both her and the department.


Off topic: I was behind a woman in the grocery store today who was purchasing nothing but 8 boxes of Captain Crunch. Does anyone know why anyone would need 8 boxes of Captain Crunch? I mean, if it was Rice Krispies, she's preparing for a bake sale and already has her marshmallows.

[Alelou]

Maybe it was on sale? I sure stock up on the cereal we eat when it's cheap. For us cereal is often not just breakfast, but also dessert or snack, so we go through it at a ridiculous pace. I keep a shelf in the basement just for the extra cereal stock.

[honeybee]

That's probably it - sealed in a bag, it keeps for a long time, doesn't it?

[Alelou]

Years, usually, unless you buy it at Big Lots when it's already expired... (and even then it's usually fine).