A lot has happened since my last post, like really big shit has happened - major CIHR scholarship, committee meeting, being called a Rockstar on more than one occasion - and here I am bitching about marking.
I've been told a couple of times to ease up on my standards for marking assignments. Honestly, I don't think I was that harsh. Either you get it, or you don't. Either you write down all your work, or you don't. If you don't, no full marks for you. Honestly, I don't give marks for work that isn't there - just like you're not going to get paid for a job that isn't finished. Seriously. Don't expect hand-outs. It's not going to get you anywhere. I will not give you hand-outs. I will help you so you understand, but you have to meet me halfway.
When did kids start growing up with a feeling of entitlement and the need to be catered to? There must be a gap somewhere between the early 90's and the early 00's where elementary teachers lost their spines and the high school teachers gave up and didn't pick up the slack. I understood that if you work hard, and show that you've understood the assignment, you'll get the marks you deserve. You can't get marks for something that you haven't shown. Also, when did they start voicing this opinion.....??
I'm handing in a stack of assignments and standing my ground. I've been more than generous in my marking, but learning new material does not negate the need to forgo the basics. A lot of the cases where students are losing marks is because they're forgetting the basics: write down your equations, mark all your axes, SHOW YOUR UNITS, list your assumptions, solve for ALL your variables, stop and think. Fuck. I thought this was all drilled in their heads 3 years ago when they were in 1st year.
I wish I could have had 10 minutes at the beginning of the year to give them the "suck less and think" talk - mostly on what I expect when I'm marking and what will get you more marks.
Show all your work - get marks
Show all your units - get marks
Write down your assumptions - get marks
Write down the equations - get marks
Write neatly - get marks
Solve for all your variables - get marks
Honestly, I shouldn't have to worry about some students complaining about losing marks for negating the basics. That's why they're called BASICS. They should come naturally. They should be instinctual. Fuck.
The reason I'm drilling this into them is because I want to make their lives (or at least their co-workers lives) easier once they get out into industry. Some of these kids are going to end up in week-in/week-out kinds of jobs, where they'll have some other dude take over their projects on their "weeks-out". The most common complaint I get from friends doing these types of jobs is that they spend the first 2 days of their rotation either fixing what the idiot before them did or trying to figure out what that not-so-idiot did. If you can read and understand what they did, then you can get on with your job sooner, be more productive and maybe move up the ladder a little bit. Honestly as well, if your co-workers notice that your work is organized, chances are pretty good they'll reciprocate and make their work more organized. Even if they don't reciprocate, word gets around the office really quickly about how easy it is to understand your work (trust me on this one - praise moves quicker than you think, even if you don't hear it) and good things come your way.
I wonder if these kids realize that life goes on at the office (or the site) when you're on holiday. Likely not. Shit. It could be a rude awakening. Well, can't say I didn't warn them.
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