Professor Jennifer McStotts’ Blog

[ETA: I posted this on Sunday, and though Wordpress says it's published, it's not showing up or sending my email alert, so here's my second try. Apologies if it double posts.]

I’ll be posting the absences grades tomorrow morning, but I wanted to post this explanation of how I calculated the grades.

Normally, my policy is to count each tardiness as .33 absences, but given how many of my 8 o’clock class had that problem, in sympathy I dropped it to .25.

I take the total number of absences, subtract the number of excused absences for which I received documented excuses, add the total number of tardies (times .25), and subtract four for acceptable absences. I’ve decided to also subtract 1 for a reasonable number of tardies (four). The number that remains is the number that I subtract from your total grade, per the syllabus. This number (times negative 1 to indicate that it will be subtracted) is what I’ll be releasing tomorrow morning.

A couple of you have had such good attendance that you will actually be getting extra credit for this. Your numbers will be positive. This is one of those rare cases where a 0 is an acceptable grade.

I’ll post here again next week when Glossary and second exam grades are done.
Best – Prof. McS

PLE students,
Don’t feel that you need to upload your posters. If you can or already did, great, but I wasn’t expecting to see them until Monday. On Monday, if I really like them, I’ll ask to keep them, but otherwise, they are yours.

All,
Practical #3 is fully posted. Took me longer than expected, obviously. If you think you are missing a file, let me know. Many people with As only got the rubric with typed comments. others got PDFs with comments because that went faster. If you think I got something wrong, just ask.
Happy finals and paper writing, and I’ll see you next week.
Oh, and in response to a couple questions I got after class:
1. Yes, I forgot to say it, but I would like the posters to be 2′ x 3′ or something close. 18″x24″ is not close enough, but you could double that and panel them together.
2. You don’t have to dress fancy, but business casual would be best.
See you Monday!
- Jennie

All,

The Lynch grades are there, but apparently no one can see them. I tried re-revealing them yesterday to no avail, but I have another trick up my sleeve. Unfortunately, I have to wait to get in my office to try it, so just be patient.

As for all the questions I’ve been getting about absences – I’ll post absence grades in a special column on your My Grades WebCT page sometime this week so you can know how much, if any, you’ll be losing for absences greater than four. I don’t post them sooner to give time for all excuses to be processed. I’m not going to reply to individual requests about this except in extenuating circumstances.

That said, I’m not going to WA anyone, though some of you will be facing big deductions. Bear in mind that I look at your before-attendance and after-attendance grades, think about your participation in class, and compare how much of your attendance problem was absence and how much lateness BEFORE I enter final grades.

One last thing – for those of you frustrated by our various WebCT problems, know (1) that I am, too and (2) that the college is replacing WebCT next year with something more reliable and less… clunky. While WebCT worked wonderfully for going paperless last semester, it hasn’t this semester, and I’ve been more sympathetic in grading regarding your own tech problems because of it.

Okay! I’ll post here when Lynch has been reset, then when the glossary grades and exam grades are up respectively.

All the best – happy summer! – Prof. McS

Pres Law folks,
There won’t be a powerpoint today, and depending on the weather, we can go outside if the class wants to. We’ll be talking about the Practical Exercises, both graded and new, which will be up midday. I lost internet last night at home and now have to wait to get into my office to post them.
See you at 2 – Jennie

Thanks for your patience – the grades are up!
Prof. McS
PS We’ll be doing evaluations Friday, so I hope I’ll see you there and at that night’s Meet-and-Greet!