Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

Meeting my electricity and magnetism lab students (the second year engineering majors) for the first time yesterday, I just used the same notes on the whiteboard David used in mechanics lab earlier. He didn’t include the oral report, which was one of the things we talked about in the workshop to expose the students to as much opportunity as possible to speak formally in English. I only had two activities listed, one of which is the VOM familiarization, and the second of which is letting them learn how to scrounge for electrical parts. I guess it will be a very interesting subject for all of us.

Ran into an unexpected problem today at the Recognized Student Organizations meeting to discuss one of their first activities, the Membership Drive a.k.a. Recruitment Week. This actually ties in to the second concern I mentioned yesterday observing the interactions of students, and therefore I’ll leave it for next time (and add up a measure of suspense here, however inappropriate).

As for the faculty workshop, besides the emphasis on requirements for spoken English I mentioned above, I guess the most important part that I want to say about it was the discussion and decision we had about excessive absences.

The administration was asking if the rule passed on from the Commission on Higher Education that students could be failed in a course if they were not present for 20% of the sessions should be strictly adhered. This was set to try and improve the students’ class standing by forcing them to go to class everyday instead of only when they felt like it, which was not even always on exam days.

Maila, more or less playing devil’s advocate, gave the two examples of when this would be unfair. The first was the student who would potentially do well in the subject but for some completely rational but probably unrelated reason, would exceed the limit set during the first four weeks of class. She did not like that the student would then be given a failing mark before he had the chance to prove himself in class.

Her second scenario was a student who attended for most of the class, and performed well in the early exams. But in the latter part of the term, the student started piling up absences until he exceeds the limit. Again, she would rather not fail that student given his achievements.

First of all, the ruling only counts unexcused absences. Given someone as motivated as she mentioned in her second case, that student would probably not stop going to class unless there was a perfectly logical explanation (such as illness), which could easily be excused given the proper documentation from the parents.

Second, she is talking about the one in about a hundred people who would fall through the net we want to cast. The other ninety-nine would on the other hand, benefit from the discipline being instilled in them. We could only hope that there would be other circumstances that would bring the child’s rare situation to the teacher’s attention and give it special consideration. But you do not let the band play whatever they want just because one kid marches to a different drummer.

Third, she was talking about giving the students the choice to attend her class or not. Then she could go further with respecting their decision and let them attend the school that is as lax or as tight with the rules as they want. And they should always know that there are consequences to whatever path they take.

I guess this is a topic that really needs more than one entry. The second part will be left for tomorrow.