Monday, June 27, 2011

Teacher's Pet

The thing I've always loved about teaching college is that I don't have to put up with bad students. High school teachers are stuck with students no matter how uninterested they are in the class. I can tell college students to leave if they are rude or disruptive.
Once the quarter begins, which it did today, students need my permission to join our class. I have one opening in an English Comp class and today I received three emails asking for permission to join.
The fair-minded teacher would allow the first student who asks to join the class. I'm tempted to allow the student who has the best grammar and punctuation because that will make my job easier.
Keontey said: "I would like your permission to be added to your English class." He/she spelled English with a capital E and even included the course number at the end.
The next message from Robert said: "Hi my name is Robert, i am a student going for mechanical engineering and i would like to join your english class on wednesday 12-2:15 if thats ok with you. i really need this english. w/b or give me a call at xxxx. thanks"
Capitalizations and periods are apparently not very important to Robert and the odds of him getting into my class just plummeted.
Paul wrote next: "I wanted to ask if there was a way I could get into your engl 100 hybrid class that starts on wednesday. I tried to register for it and it says that I need your approval to take the course since the quarter has already started."
Now Paul capitalized "I" so he gets credit for that, and he used a period at the end of his sentences, but he didn't capitalize engl or wednesday.
Maybe Keontey is smart enough to write a very short message to avoid mistakes, but his/her message is the closest to being correct. Lucky for me it came first so I can give permission to Keontey to join my class.
What would you do? Would you look for the better students or feel like the poor students needed your help more?

6 comments:

Linda said...

I sort of like the guy who went on a bit about why he needed the class thinking he might be fun in the actual class, maybe more creative?

Paulita said...

Linda, Thanks for reminding me that it's not all about the punctuation. I've got to remember to look for creative content too.

Lucia said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lucia said...

I would pick Robert. I think he needs to take your class more.

Paulita said...

See how generous you are, Lucia.

Just Me said...

You are too funny !

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