Last week I had a very enlightening and depressing visit with our new success coach. We have a new system called AVISO that allows us to flag students who are at-risk for failure. Unfortunately I waited too long to pull the trigger this semester, so many of them are too far gone to do anything except withdraw from the course. Natalie was very candid about the students she sees. The majority of them don't seem interested at all about putting in the effort to practice outside of class. It doesn't take long for Natalie to surmise who is serious and who is not. After they blow off an appointment or two, she gets the message, and puts them on the back burner.
I found a great word from Shakespeare for describing intrusive advising; "foot-forward." Rusty, a former chemistry instructor we had years ago, used to teach at Troy University. He told me of a colleague of his who would tell students who bombed the first test that they would not be allowed back in the class until they got some tutoring from him. That is what I envision foot-forward being.
Wednesday, I watched one of my weak students during the group quiz. One problem with her group is that two male students take over. One is a very academically strong student and he runs the show. She sits across the bench from them and one good female student and watches them take the group quiz. The part that gets me is when I hand the quiz back, she watches them go through the quiz to see what they missed but she never bothers to check herself. She never even touches the quiz. No feedback whatsoever.
I have a serious phone addict who sits in the front of the class. Every semester I have a few students who just can't seem to stay off their phone. She's looking at it during lectures. She takes it to the lab bench with her. I had to take her solo quiz away from her Wednesday because she had her phone on hidden between her legs. During the quiz, I kept seeing her looking down at her seat. I have no idea that she was cheating or not, but she knows that cell phone use is verboten during quizzes. I let her take the group quiz.
Wednesday is quiz day during lab in my A&P II course. The problem is that I often see a sea of phones out during lecture. They are cramming for the quiz. It is a problem I have faced for years. The only solution I have is a testing center where they can take their assessments outside of class. That would require campus space and since we have none and our budget keeps getting slashed by Republicans, a testing center will never become a reality.
I did have a few successes this week though. Against probability, I had two weak students improve their performance on a quiz (20-30 points above normal). This almost never happens. I was so proud of them. I got goosebumps seeing their scores and their faces. I hope they can keep it up.
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