I think I'm figuring out what the issue with the 8AM crowd is going to be. I mentioned that they seemed like a nicer group than last semester and I'm sticking with that. I do have two boys who are starting to whisper when I'm talking - so if I hear that tomorrow I'll be putting an end to it. Other than that - really they're pretty tame. I will chalk this up to the fact that they're really not all that awake for an 8AM class.
What I am seeing though, is a huge trend of lateness and as of yesterday, just absences in general. Yesterday I had 6 missing (that's 1/3 of my class). For them what does that mean? Homework that is considered late (at a penalty of 10% off of their grade), a missed quiz, missed next assignments (which means they run the risk of having late homework again) and a missed lab (so writing up that lab report will be kind of difficult). And those are just the grade-related things they missed. My class is 2.5 hours long. A missed class means a lot of missed lecture. I suspect the gravity of missing an entire class won't quite hit them until after the first exam when they do poorly on the sections I covered when they weren't there.......
Missing a class is just bizarre to me. I remember having serious panic attacks at the thought of not being able to go to a class based on how far behind I would feel and I have a hard time relating to people who (apparently) don't have as much of a reaction to skipping a class.
I realize that of my 6 yesterday, some of them were truly sick. But I also suspect that some of them didn't love the idea of getting going for an 8AM Monday class. Well, guess what? I don't love to get going for the 8AM Monday class either - but I'm there because it's my responsibility. Issues with an early class? Don't sign up for that time. Seems simple to me - but maybe I'm just mean.
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