(At scaring off students, that is?)
SO good, apparently, that only two hours after my Brit Lit survey ended, two students--both of them English majors--had already gone into the online registration system to drop my class.
I eagerly await the number who will have dropped by Thursday morning.
UPDATE: two more dropped before our second meeting. . . but then we had to go and have FUN in class today, which I suspect will keep the number stuck at 36 for a while.
8 comments:
They fear your brilliance - did anyone add the class?? It's good to do a little weeding...
I agree about weeding. That's two less papers to grade! :-)
Plus, if they are the type who get scared off on the first day, then they are not the type that you'll want to have infusing negative energy into the classroom all term long.
Here's the other thing: you may have had absolutely nothing to do with the dropping. Students drop for all kinds of reasons after going to one class meeting - including that they sign up with the intention of dropping one class after they see what the material/workload will be like, regardless of the instructor.
A lot depends on institution, too. If yours is the sort of university where shopping around in the first week is the norm, then you'll get a lot of this. Has nothing to do with how good you are (which of course, you are great!).
Institutional culture is HUGE. I studied at a community college where (a faculty member told me when I was asking her about some class stuff), about one third of students dropped from any given class during the semester. If your students are working, have kids, non-trads, etc, expect lots of drops. Or if you're at a school where you can easily add classes into the third week, expect to see lots of movement.
And, /cheers for all the good office vibes, writing and such!
Wow, what's your secret? I thought for sure throwing a 65 page boring middle english poem at them would do the trick, but it just maintained the status quo.
It's good to know there are other folks out there who have also already started teaching. I've got a hypothesis that we're all south of the mason dixon line.
If it helps you feel any better, I teach a 3 hr undergrad seminar and I had a student drop during the break on the first day of class. That's a new record for me. But hey--it just means our classes are not for the faint of heart right?
Dr. Mon, Now THAT'S good! I think that's a record we all need to strive for. My own personal trick is to write a hard ass syllabus and then announce on the syllabus the last day to withdraw for the semester. Always a nice touch. An old colleague used to bring add/drop slips on the deadline, announce their presence, and then leave them on her desk. Nice, eh?
My mind is still in July. I'm having a time-warp continuum thingy going on.
I have to admit to resorting to something I have not done before. I teach a service course that all first-years have to take; obviously each professor puts her stamp on the course based on her own interests and training. This semester, I told them outright what my slant was and if they imagined my choices (readings and approach) would hinder their pleasure and learning, by all means, drop. There are many sections; go find one you like. This is a democracy. I had at least 3 drop in one of the sections.
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