The
3rd week of class at the art school, this freshman shows up who had
been in class the first day…
Earlier,
though I had put a cap on enrollment so I had to give permission to people who
wanted to come in, she somehow showed up on the roster, and didn’t respond to
an email that I sent with the syllabus, asking her to read through it and make
sure the course was a “good fit” with its expectations that students visit a
religious group 3-4 times over the semester.
She
was foreign and the 1st day came up to me after class to ask
questions about what I had written on the blackboard; her notepad showed she
had written down everything I had put up there, and I worried that she didn’t
have a good basis for college-level academics, but instead was used to learning
things rote.
Then,
she didn’t show up to class the 2nd week and there was no email from her about missing the 1st assignment, so I filed an official report kicked through
academic advising, saying that since she didn’t attend class and no assignment
was submitted, I assumed she wasn’t taking the class, and to talk with an
Academic Advisor and remember the add-drop deadline.
No response to that either.
Then,
she shows up at the 3rd class, having done no reading in the class
so far, 2 assignments behind, with another assignment and another week of
reading due the next class period.
I
told her I didn’t think she could take the class b/c so much work had gone by
already, and I was confused b/c I had emailed her and never heard back.
She
said she had been sick a week and had lost the syllabus and didn’t know how to
contact me, and she just cried and said she was sorry she had disappointed me.
I
had a guest coming in that day who was a departmental coordinator who had done
documentary visits to a biker gang, and she showed up then, and together we
navigated the situation, told the student that adjustment to college could be hard but
this happened with a lot with students, and I assured her that if she was upset
about not being able to take the class, I was teaching it next semester and she could take it then as
well, she was more than welcome to do that.
I
also sounded out that she was living off campus, and the departmental
coordinator and I encouraged her to talk with her friends, take “self care”
time and relax, and to talk with her Academic Advisor in the morning.
She
was so upset, she didn’t want to go into the classroom and get her bag she had
left there, so the departmental coordinator went in and got it for her.
I
would have walked her over to Counselling Services right then, but because my
class is in the evening, it had been closed already for an hour.
After
class, though, I wrote Academic Advising right away.
The
next day, I played phonetag with the Academic Advisor, but then spoke with
her…
She
found the situation odd too, esp. how the student hadn’t been reading her email
at all, and she spoke with me for more details of the situation.
At the Academic Advisor's advice, the
student had already dropped my class and was going to focus on her others, and
I encouraged the Academic Advisor to hook her up with tutoring and possibly
counselling services, which she thought was a good idea.
Overall,
what an upsetting situation. I just
hated to see that student cry! Something
just seemed wrong with her, and I felt bad for adding to it, though I'm almost positive she wouldn't have been able to catch up and that would have caused her more stress in the long run.
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