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Whenever you are in the education field the question continually comes up as to whether or not you are going to finish your doctorate. It’s a valid question, it really is. I mean, in any field you should want to get to the top of you field and in education, that’s a doctorate. It’s just not as easy as it may seem though. First, finding a program that is in your field. Second, finding that program geographically close is generally a good thing. Lastly, trying to find any
program that is affordable at the same time with enough rigar to ensure the degree is worth obtaining can be almost impossible. Now take all of those issues and combine them and you’ll know what I’ve went through.I originally started a program at a popular state college that was not really what I wanted but it was A. geographically close and B. economical (free for me). What I found out was that even though A + B was there, it wasn’t the program I wanted and thus it became more tedious than it was really worth for me. In years past, doctorates in IT of any kind were few and far between. Now they are becoming a lot more common, but at the same time they are not necessarily affordable even if they are online with some rigor and in my program.
In other words, for me, my doctorate represents a three-headed monster that seems impossible to find. At some point, it won’t be feasible as I won’t have the willpower to complete it.
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I commute three and a half hours back and forth to work during the Fall and Spring semesters. People think I am crazy, sometimes I believe them. I had a student ask me during the first day of class why do I do that? Wouldn’t it be easier working from where you live or doing something different? My quick answer… and one that I truly believe, is that I truly love doing what I do. I enjoy teaching. I was once told that if you do what you enjoy doing, you’ll never work a day in your life. I hold this to be true. HOWEVER, this commute makes sure that I know I am working.
You see, the older I get, the more I feel this drive. Seven hours in a car for a day is a lot. The day after my drive, I feel it in my hips, my legs, my arms, my eyes and everywhere else for that matter. I call the next day a recovery day because it doesn’t’ truly feel like I get anything done until some time after noon at the very earliest, and even then it still hurts. Yet, I still can’t see myself doing anything different.
It’s true that I could do something different, go back “into industry” and work with computers in some other way. If I were to get a job closer to home, I’d still end up driving quite a bit, just instead of all in two days, it would take five days for the same 14-15 hours of drive time. Unfortunately, my heart just isn’t in it. I still do work on the side, I keep my skill set current; but going back to punching a 9-5 time clock…. I don’t think I could do it. I don’t get the satisfaction of seeing the next generation smile when they finally get it. I don’t have people telling me that they’re Team Professor Brown. These moments help remind me why I do what I do.
So, tomorrow, or actually in a few hours, I get to hit the long road with Audible playing “Storm World” by B. V. Larson. I’ll make some phone calls, make my stops and have office hours when I finally get to where I’m going.
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I always love the first day of classes! It’s a time where everyone is on a level playing field, everyone is prepared and ready to begin the semester, high hopes are everywhere and I get to see previous students! What more could someone ask for? Today, was everything I wanted it to be. I’m teaching ten classes this semester, of which, three are in person. The first two are security classes and the last was a Linux II course, each of them a favorite to teach.
With new students, it is always interesting as you don’t know them, and they don’t know you. I give a spiel of who I am and why I do what I do, they often question my motives of teaching… I love it is why I do it, but they can’t understand how a person could drive as far as I do or give up as much money as I did before. For me, it simply comes down to doing something I love.
Interesting fact I learned today… a certain student was stating how hard a class was and that he was not allowed to finish a project last semester, I wasn’t fair, blah, blah, blah… (For the record, the class new of the final project for four weeks, they were reminded that when the deadline passed the link would
disappear, the student didn’t believe I would do it…. I did.) The group of students in class telling me of this event, all said, “Yeah, he didn’t know that we were Team Professor Brown! We love him and know you are lying because we got the same messages you did!”It made my heart happy to hear I have a Team!
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What could have been a bloody nightmare has finally completed and in record time. At this point, I have spoken with my program liaison, who also happen to be the Online Coordinator for the Business Programs (this was new to me, it just happened!) and was able to discuss everything in the email sent. I sent it to her first, before forwarding to the Dean, to ensure that it was written appropriately and substantiated the grade given. In short, after about an hour, it was discussed and she agreed it was good. She would forward this to the Dean and we began our wait.
Today, only a day later, the Dean sent his letter… he agreed with the Online Coordinator and myself that the grade given was indeed earned. Now, if you are not in education, you may think this is normal. Believe me it is not. It could have gone several ways, and in many cases, could have dragged on further. In today’s budget-poor climate, many administrators might side with the student for fear of that student leaving, taking with them their tuition dollars. I could have been “asked” to change the grade, give more time to accept another attempt, re-grade the papers, and who knows what else.
Now that it is over, I need to inform the student (who never informed me!) of the Dean’s decision of denying the appeal. I’m interested to see what the student may say, but that’s for another day. For now, I’ll be happy that it is mostly over.
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Well, the initial email sent has now been replied to. Amazingly, it only took an hour and a half to two hours of my life, mind you, time I am not paid for. Additionally, the Appeal process should have been completed six weeks after the end of the semester which means it should have been completed before the end of November. In other words, this should not even be “a thing” right now as the deadline for grade appeal has passed per rules and procedures. Ever wonder what the process is? Here is a basic timeline of the process:
- Within two weeks of the end of the course, the student should provide a grade appeal in writing to the faculty member who assigned the grade and attempt to resolve the issue.
- If no resolution of the grade dispute is achieved after Step 1; the student should discuss the matter with the department chairperson. In this case, the function of the chairperson will be to attempt to determine the relevant facts and mediate the disagreement.
- If no resolution is achieved at Step 2; the student or the faculty member may refer the whole matter to the Dean of the School, whose function it will be to mediate the disagreement. The Dean will confer privately with the faculty member and with the student, and may call additional witnesses if this is deemed important. Following this process, the Dean will communicate a decision to the faculty member, who will communicate that decision to the student. This step is the final step in the appeal process.
- It is expected that a final decision will generally be made within the first six weeks of the following semester or the first three weeks of the following session. The instructor and the student should resolve grading conflicts regarding individual assignments during a semester.
So far, I have now sent my initial reply to my program liaison, so that it can be reviewed, revised and then sent on to the next layer of Administration. Long story short, the work was not completed correctly when done and some not done at all. It’s a shame really. Want to add more to it? The student through in a side comment in which I was also accused of not liking military students. I am former military, so that line was slightly humorous, but probably more “how dare you” than anything else in my mind.
There was a time when students received a grade they earned and earned the grade they received. Hopefully this will play out as I hope and there won’t be any consequences for dealing with this. Afterall, an adjunct is never guaranteed a future contract.
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Well, it was bound to happen. After working in education for more than twelve years I finally had my first student formally ask for a grade appeal from administration. Granted, it’s not my full-time gig, but instead one of the places where I adjunct at. I’m anxious to see how administration will handle the situation considering the deadline to submit an appeal has already passed to begin with. Anyhow, a quick run down of the situation….
This class has a lot of writing involved and students are expected to use APA format. In fact, students should already know how to use it and have passed classes in the past writing papers at this college. Most of the students in this class are getting ready to graduate as it is a JR-SR level class so I would expect decent work. This past semester, that expectation was not met. In fact, it was so bad, I had to seek assistance from my program contact, the librarian and the student services (read as tutoring service) to assist in the various issues going on as in many cases it would be considered an academic integrity issue.
Examples of this include:
- Improperly formatted citation(s) within a document
- Improper in-text citation
- Partial paraphrase, makes an attempt but lacks understanding
Now, after the initial issues, if it happened again, it moves from a minor infraction to a standard infraction which comes with an automatic failure for the course. So, how do you think I handled it to begin with? Nicely, I would think. Instead of reporting, I chose to allow students to work with tutoring, librarians, etc. They were then informed if they did it again, they would receive zeroes on their papers. Any guesses what happened? Yep, you’ve got it right. Same issues repeated, paper received a zero, student complains.
So, here we go on the roller coaster. So far, the division chair has sent an email with an initial look at the situation. However, the details were not looked at. (I always leave comments as to why zeroes are given, these weren’t seen nor referenced…) Tomorrow will be a phone call with my program coordinator so we shall see. My hope is that administration will back up even the lowly adjunct as the student did not earn a different grade.
