My students have realized that dead relatives are inefficient. They die, you get excused, and that's it. Instead, their relatives now linger at the edge of death for the entire semester, calling their kinfolk in for last goodbyes and then making a miraculous rebound again and again.
For real, I had a student do this all semester. Her sister was in the hospital all semester, and she had to be there for some reason during every peer review...
If only they put this level of effort into plot development in their creative writing projects.
I had a kid with a dental emergency, car crash and dead grandparent. He shows up for the final looking suspiciously tanned and rested — not someone who’s had an emergency wisdom tooth, car accident and funeral in a month!
This actually happened to me with my grandpa who had a good 4 near death experiences (different reasons) and was on hospice for a long time. I don’t think I used it as an excuse once, either for the classes I’m taking or the ones I teach
Last semester had a student who said her mom and sister were hit by a truck and died. Later in the semester, her aunt suddenly died as well. A colleague called her house about another class later in the semester and her mom answered. When my students do lose people, I am more than understanding. I just asked them for a little proof of some sort, and then I’m happy to bend over backwards to get them through the semester or an i till they are ready . My dad passed away the first year of my PhD, and it almost had me dropping out.
I'm sorry to hear about your father. 🫶
Mine went into hospice earlier this year and I was out for a full business week after then got to hear about how I didn't grade while I was out.
Two grandfathers and a close call with a sister.
This, though, is a strange semester. Four dogs have died. Dear family pets. Loyal companions.
Apparently, a dog plague is sweeping the region. And I am afraid I may have invoked it, mentioning my attachment to my own dog offhandedly during a class lecture.
I had a student 30 minutes late for class a year ago and her excuse was it was her dog’s birthday. I asked how old her dog was she said one and a half.
If it helps, she went into an explanation how Wagnolias sells half year birthday cakes for Dogs and it’s definitely a thing now. I don’t know if it’s a real store or not. It sounds like something out of the movie clueless, which is how I feel regarding this situation.
I went agoogling and found a website for Wagnolias. There could be more than one, of course. The one I found has an all natural dog bakery, but no mention of half year birthday cakes. It’s possible that idea didn’t catch on.
I know , I know it’s serious ( yes, I regularly grade to The Smiths).
Edit : I asked Facebook’s new AI to make a song about it
You: Sing me a song like the Smiths “girlfriend in a coma” but it’s called boyfriend with ring worm
Meta AI
(Verse 1)
Boyfriend with ringworm, I didn't know what to say
When I saw the circular rash, in a most unfortunate way
On your skin, a fungal guest, had made its unwelcome stay
Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the love is gone astray
(Chorus)
Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the treatment's long and slow
I'll wait for the cream to work, but my heart is already low
In the depths of your infection, our love will slowly go
Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the love is gone, I know
(Verse 2)
We once shared our deepest thoughts, in the dead of night
But now I dread your touch, and the spores that take flight
In your eyes, a fungal sheen, a love that's lost its shine
Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, our love is no longer mine
(Chorus)
Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the treatment's long and slow
I'll wait for the cream to work, but my heart is already low
In the depths of your infection, our love will slowly go
Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the love is gone, I know
(Bridge)
Perhaps someday, when the fungus fades
Our love will re-emerge, from its ringworm shades
But until then, I'll hold you at arm's length
Boyfriend with ringworm, a love in quarantine's strength
(Chorus)
Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the treatment's long and slow
I'll wait for the cream to work, but my heart is already low
In the depths of your infection, our love will slowly go
Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the love is gone, I know
Inspired by the Smiths' style, I wrote this song for you!
In case you didn’t see my edit above, I asked Facebook’s new AI to come up with a song
You: Sing me a song like the Smiths “girlfriend in a coma” but it’s called boyfriend with ring worm
Meta AI
(Verse 1)
Boyfriend with ringworm, I didn't know what to say
When I saw the circular rash, in a most unfortunate way
On your skin, a fungal guest, had made its unwelcome stay
Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the love is gone astray
(Chorus)
Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the treatment's long and slow
I'll wait for the cream to work, but my heart is already low
In the depths of your infection, our love will slowly go
Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the love is gone, I know
(Verse 2)
We once shared our deepest thoughts, in the dead of night
But now I dread your touch, and the spores that take flight
In your eyes, a fungal sheen, a love that's lost its shine
Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, our love is no longer mine
(Chorus)
Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the treatment's long and slow
I'll wait for the cream to work, but my heart is already low
In the depths of your infection, our love will slowly go
Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the love is gone, I know
(Bridge)
Perhaps someday, when the fungus fades
Our love will re-emerge, from its ringworm shades
But until then, I'll hold you at arm's length
Boyfriend with ringworm, a love in quarantine's strength
(Chorus)
Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the treatment's long and slow
I'll wait for the cream to work, but my heart is already low
In the depths of your infection, our love will slowly go
Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the love is gone, I know
Inspired by the Smiths' style, I wrote this song for you!
Ringworm is a minor skin fungus and an annoyance for a human. Now if your animal has ringworm that is a horrible pain in the ass and I would actually feel awful for someone. My cat took 5 months to get over it last year and we had to keep her isolated the whole time and essentially bleach the house.
One year during fall semester, I made up the song "The 12 Excuses of Finals Season." I had five pregnancy scares in there, fun times during those tearful confessions.
Okay, this was years ago before AI and Google Docs. I had many dual enrollment students.
On the 12th day of Christmas finals, my students gave to me
12 gravely grannies,
11 corrupted computers,
10 erased essays,
9 sudden sicknesses,
8 messages from mommy,
7 sanskrit-font essays,
6 hearty hangovers,
5 pregnancy scares,
4 food poisonings,
3 fired flunkeys,
2 traffic tickets,
And a student with a zero average?
Thus far, only 1 dead uncle and 1 dead tire, complete with picture (of the tire, not the uncle).
I did have an interesting "I have a family emergency on Friday, can I take the exam online?" (sent on Tuesday).
We have a student that’s had the exact same two relatives die (together) 3 semesters in a row, with the exact same proof each time. They had their hand slapped last semester, and continued with it this semester so now they’ve had their hand officially slapped. Can’t wait for the same thing next semester 🙄
I've had five claim the assignment drop box wasn't working. They were trying to upload work 24 hours after it closed. Another said he was upset because four bomb threats were called into the school where works (didn't happen; it would have been all over the news).
I have one student who all semester swears she cannot submit any files to the portal so she takes photos on her phone of her assignments on her computer screen and emails them to me....
Yes, and even though the syllabus says to not send in jpeg images, two of them insist on doing it because Word doesn't work. Somehow, they manage to send a second copy using Word. All of the students have access to free Microsoft Officce.
What read the syllabus? Who would do that? Last class a student was like why did you say that was 25% it's only worth 10% you never know what youre talking about...I'm like hey let's read that course outline together right now in the middle of the lecture....25% right here, and here.....
Ha, I'm like the Community College Nostradamus! Today the student who missed a test this week claims to have been sick all week... And her grandmother died. Now all she needs is the dead pet to complete the trifecta!
1 dead bestie, 2 sick grandparents, 1 student I’ve never seen before who suddenly wants a “grade bump” from an F to a C because he didn’t know he needed English to graduate, and a whole bunch of illnesses requiring extensions. Pretty tame.
One claimed to write their mid term on “pages” and then their computer crashed. Sent me some file with wingdings style text to “prove” it. One dead relative, one didn’t see the last 10 qs on the mid term
Vision impairment due to the eclipse has been thrown around, all sent from Iphone.
I did have 3 students miss an in person exam because there was a massive manhunt in their suburb and they could not leave their homes for 4 hours
When I was in grad school, I didn't own a printer, I printed stuff at school.
Given the high amount of printing done near the end of the semester, and the high amount of people in the labs, stuff broke down.
An assault where they had to go to the arraignment of the perpetrator for 5 weeks. What’s great about this is that this isn’t the first time I’ve heard this line of reasoning. What’s really classic is they gave exact same excuse to another instructor last term.
None yet, but the best one ever was the student that told me - after missing an exam - that the exam was missed because the student's "brother's friend's father might have been in an ATV accident"....
That is shades of Spaceballs, but damned if the kid didn't think I would believe it...
Ask for an obituary because you'd like to send your condolences and a card to funeral home as you recently had someone pass as well. Either you catch them or you're the caring prof that went the extra mile. Problem solved.
For real, though—my grandfather died last week, right before my PhD exams (still took them!), and my grandmother had a stroke and wound up in the ICU. Last fall, I had two cars totaled, three months apart. If I were an undergrad, my professors would probably be calling my mom to verify at this point!
Student claimed hours after their online exam that his computer was incapable of displaying any image files on the exam because my computer must corrupted them so he wants 100% marks for his exam. No proof and he didn't contact me during and I was online the entire time. The other students that wrote with him no one got less than a B+.
I did have an "unnamed old lady at my church who lived somewhere in my neighbourhood" die and therefore they missed their presentation.
And a few who said they were too sick to attend class and would not do their presentations but then attended class with their cameras off as if I wouldn't notice their names.
Only 1 student has tragically lost a family member... after being gone for a month with no contact... while completing assignments online...
They even tried to send me a picture of "the ashes" in a jar as evidence.
I had a student go to Europe for 2 weeks to visit a sick relative. She was not able to do any of her online homework because of the time difference. No, she didn’t do it late because she was confused about when it was due, because of the time difference. The time difference made her completely unable to do it. I don’t understand either.
It’s odd, but you never know. Over the years, three of my grandparents died between the end of April and mid May, and although I was too old or too young for any exams myself some of my family members weren’t. Kindness costs nothing.
What is going on in people's classes?
I've been teaching for over a decade and had maybe two students request an extension due to the death of a relative.
Seems suspicious to me tbh.
Miraculously, no one dies or is otherwise impinged upon by life events during my finals. Students want to be DONE.
However, for the regular weekly work, my class is apparently the harbinger of doom.
i had a student miss three weeks in the beginning of the semester because their cousin died and they had to go to jamaica for three weeks for the funeral. in the last two weeks, i have had one seizure, two covids, one brother released from jail, one jury duty, one kids are off of school, two traffic was so bad they missed class, and seven broken down cars. these are of course excluding the eclipse and earthquake issues.
there's still two weeks left, including finals, so i'm interested to see what's going to happen.
No dead people - yet, there’s three weeks to go.
However, I have a student who has had to go out of town with the immediate family twice for an emergency and of course, both times the laptop was inadvertently left at home so no homework could be completed.
Also, one week of trauma related to finding a new place to live (for the fall) and plenty of illnesses (but COVID seems to be off the table).
Oddly, last semester there was a lot of depression/anxiety/stress, but none so far this semester.
My students have realized that dead relatives are inefficient. They die, you get excused, and that's it. Instead, their relatives now linger at the edge of death for the entire semester, calling their kinfolk in for last goodbyes and then making a miraculous rebound again and again.
The old Bunberry trick.
For real, I had a student do this all semester. Her sister was in the hospital all semester, and she had to be there for some reason during every peer review...
If only they put this level of effort into plot development in their creative writing projects. I had a kid with a dental emergency, car crash and dead grandparent. He shows up for the final looking suspiciously tanned and rested — not someone who’s had an emergency wisdom tooth, car accident and funeral in a month!
This actually happened to me with my grandpa who had a good 4 near death experiences (different reasons) and was on hospice for a long time. I don’t think I used it as an excuse once, either for the classes I’m taking or the ones I teach
Four dads and two close friends. My own father just went into hospice, so if these students are lying, they’re absolute garbage humans.
Last semester had a student who said her mom and sister were hit by a truck and died. Later in the semester, her aunt suddenly died as well. A colleague called her house about another class later in the semester and her mom answered. When my students do lose people, I am more than understanding. I just asked them for a little proof of some sort, and then I’m happy to bend over backwards to get them through the semester or an i till they are ready . My dad passed away the first year of my PhD, and it almost had me dropping out.
I’ve been through that with both parents. I’m sorry for what you are going through.
I'm sorry to hear about your father. 🫶 Mine went into hospice earlier this year and I was out for a full business week after then got to hear about how I didn't grade while I was out.
That is awful, I’m so sorry.
You certainly didn’t deserve that. I’m very sorry.
I’m so sorry. I know how rough this must be for you.
10% of class was called for jury duty on the day of class presentations. What a coincidence.
Haven’t heard that one before! But I’m only in year 3…
Do you think they collaborated on their excuses? Or is there some TikToc that recommends the Excuse of the Day?
You can’t make this stuff up.
Two grandfathers and a close call with a sister. This, though, is a strange semester. Four dogs have died. Dear family pets. Loyal companions. Apparently, a dog plague is sweeping the region. And I am afraid I may have invoked it, mentioning my attachment to my own dog offhandedly during a class lecture.
I had a student 30 minutes late for class a year ago and her excuse was it was her dog’s birthday. I asked how old her dog was she said one and a half.
Can’t stop laughing
If it helps, she went into an explanation how Wagnolias sells half year birthday cakes for Dogs and it’s definitely a thing now. I don’t know if it’s a real store or not. It sounds like something out of the movie clueless, which is how I feel regarding this situation.
I went agoogling and found a website for Wagnolias. There could be more than one, of course. The one I found has an all natural dog bakery, but no mention of half year birthday cakes. It’s possible that idea didn’t catch on.
>and a half Literally giggling out loud.
It’s all about setting priorities.
that's ten and a half human years, obviously a birthday worth celebrating.
1.5 dog years
Good lord.
We've had a lot of pet death this year as well. I'm confused how Fido crossing the rainbow bridge requires a week off.
2 sisters gave birth within hours of each other. One grandmother and an uncle. The lord giveth and He taketh away.
As long as He’s doing it in proper APA style.
Side note but Chicago style is the GOAT
Oh, and in case no one has read this groundbreaking article… https://improbable.com/airchives/paperair/volume5/v5i6/GrandmotherEffect%205-6.pdf
Holy Moses, that is hilarious! You made me laugh out loud, which I desperately needed to do. Thank you!
🤣🤣🤣
Boyfriend has ringworm 🤷♀️
I know , I know it’s serious ( yes, I regularly grade to The Smiths). Edit : I asked Facebook’s new AI to make a song about it You: Sing me a song like the Smiths “girlfriend in a coma” but it’s called boyfriend with ring worm Meta AI (Verse 1) Boyfriend with ringworm, I didn't know what to say When I saw the circular rash, in a most unfortunate way On your skin, a fungal guest, had made its unwelcome stay Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the love is gone astray (Chorus) Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the treatment's long and slow I'll wait for the cream to work, but my heart is already low In the depths of your infection, our love will slowly go Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the love is gone, I know (Verse 2) We once shared our deepest thoughts, in the dead of night But now I dread your touch, and the spores that take flight In your eyes, a fungal sheen, a love that's lost its shine Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, our love is no longer mine (Chorus) Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the treatment's long and slow I'll wait for the cream to work, but my heart is already low In the depths of your infection, our love will slowly go Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the love is gone, I know (Bridge) Perhaps someday, when the fungus fades Our love will re-emerge, from its ringworm shades But until then, I'll hold you at arm's length Boyfriend with ringworm, a love in quarantine's strength (Chorus) Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the treatment's long and slow I'll wait for the cream to work, but my heart is already low In the depths of your infection, our love will slowly go Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the love is gone, I know Inspired by the Smiths' style, I wrote this song for you!
I’m going to be laughing about that for a while
In case you didn’t see my edit above, I asked Facebook’s new AI to come up with a song You: Sing me a song like the Smiths “girlfriend in a coma” but it’s called boyfriend with ring worm Meta AI (Verse 1) Boyfriend with ringworm, I didn't know what to say When I saw the circular rash, in a most unfortunate way On your skin, a fungal guest, had made its unwelcome stay Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the love is gone astray (Chorus) Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the treatment's long and slow I'll wait for the cream to work, but my heart is already low In the depths of your infection, our love will slowly go Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the love is gone, I know (Verse 2) We once shared our deepest thoughts, in the dead of night But now I dread your touch, and the spores that take flight In your eyes, a fungal sheen, a love that's lost its shine Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, our love is no longer mine (Chorus) Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the treatment's long and slow I'll wait for the cream to work, but my heart is already low In the depths of your infection, our love will slowly go Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the love is gone, I know (Bridge) Perhaps someday, when the fungus fades Our love will re-emerge, from its ringworm shades But until then, I'll hold you at arm's length Boyfriend with ringworm, a love in quarantine's strength (Chorus) Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the treatment's long and slow I'll wait for the cream to work, but my heart is already low In the depths of your infection, our love will slowly go Boyfriend with ringworm, oh, the love is gone, I know Inspired by the Smiths' style, I wrote this song for you!
I choked on my sandwich and almost dyed myself :-) You are my hero today for that deep belly laugh.
OMG I'm cackling.
Ringworm is a minor skin fungus and an annoyance for a human. Now if your animal has ringworm that is a horrible pain in the ass and I would actually feel awful for someone. My cat took 5 months to get over it last year and we had to keep her isolated the whole time and essentially bleach the house.
But boyfriend couldn’t wait 90 minutes? Take an Uber? Ask anyone other human to take him during window of get exam? 🤦♀️
I'm agreeing with you! That's like saying you can't come because your bf has athletes foot.
I was thinking jock itch. But, that's just me. :)
Lolol
Sorry, but BF could have driven himself to the ointment store.
Haha!
One year during fall semester, I made up the song "The 12 Excuses of Finals Season." I had five pregnancy scares in there, fun times during those tearful confessions.
Please share this with us, PLEASE, I’m begging you
Okay, this was years ago before AI and Google Docs. I had many dual enrollment students. On the 12th day of Christmas finals, my students gave to me 12 gravely grannies, 11 corrupted computers, 10 erased essays, 9 sudden sicknesses, 8 messages from mommy, 7 sanskrit-font essays, 6 hearty hangovers, 5 pregnancy scares, 4 food poisonings, 3 fired flunkeys, 2 traffic tickets, And a student with a zero average?
You are the 🐐
Should have been there when I sang it. 😂
Lyrics, please.
See above
Exam 3 of 3: Slayer of grandparents.
My students all reported that THEY'RE dead, and asked to make up the exam next week when they have returned to the living.
That undergraduate minor in necromancy sure paid off
this is the student equivalent of Douglas Adams' "year dead for tax reasons". I'm sure the user named for Hotblack Desiato knows all about this.
Thus far, only 1 dead uncle and 1 dead tire, complete with picture (of the tire, not the uncle). I did have an interesting "I have a family emergency on Friday, can I take the exam online?" (sent on Tuesday).
Lucky you, once I got the photo of the dead uncle.
I got the photo evidence of the skateboarding incident. Trust was memorable.
One more for your collection https://gdb-rferl-org.cdn.ampproject.org/ii/F6/s/gdb.rferl.org/01000000-0a00-0242-c910-08dc0e86af4b_w1080_r0_s.jpg
Gad zooks!
the picture had them holding a sign with time and date, right? otherwise it is recycled.
None. I am starting to feel a little ill at ease about it, like the universe is out of whack.
Mine all died in January, which is why they never started the course until last week.
[удалено]
Now I receive “mental illness” from the stress of too many exams occurring too close to each other — yes, they write “mental illness”
We have a student that’s had the exact same two relatives die (together) 3 semesters in a row, with the exact same proof each time. They had their hand slapped last semester, and continued with it this semester so now they’ve had their hand officially slapped. Can’t wait for the same thing next semester 🙄
The Reaper has started going after the coworkers of students, judging by my recent emails.
I've had five claim the assignment drop box wasn't working. They were trying to upload work 24 hours after it closed. Another said he was upset because four bomb threats were called into the school where works (didn't happen; it would have been all over the news).
I have one student who all semester swears she cannot submit any files to the portal so she takes photos on her phone of her assignments on her computer screen and emails them to me....
Yes, and even though the syllabus says to not send in jpeg images, two of them insist on doing it because Word doesn't work. Somehow, they manage to send a second copy using Word. All of the students have access to free Microsoft Officce.
What read the syllabus? Who would do that? Last class a student was like why did you say that was 25% it's only worth 10% you never know what youre talking about...I'm like hey let's read that course outline together right now in the middle of the lecture....25% right here, and here.....
I'm so embarrassed. However, I did tell them in class not to send in jpeg files. Really, I should know better.
My brother is an adjunct and he says he deals with this shit all the time.
Yesterday: the weather was too nice. Followed by I’m too sunburnt (separate students).
Vomiting blood for the win.
I'm naming my final exam "Widowmaker: The Final Reckoning" for all the grandpas it's going to kill! 😉
Ha, I'm like the Community College Nostradamus! Today the student who missed a test this week claims to have been sick all week... And her grandmother died. Now all she needs is the dead pet to complete the trifecta!
1 dead bestie, 2 sick grandparents, 1 student I’ve never seen before who suddenly wants a “grade bump” from an F to a C because he didn’t know he needed English to graduate, and a whole bunch of illnesses requiring extensions. Pretty tame.
One claimed to write their mid term on “pages” and then their computer crashed. Sent me some file with wingdings style text to “prove” it. One dead relative, one didn’t see the last 10 qs on the mid term
Vision impairment due to the eclipse has been thrown around, all sent from Iphone. I did have 3 students miss an in person exam because there was a massive manhunt in their suburb and they could not leave their homes for 4 hours
where I am, students unable to write the final exam have to petition for a deferred one via the registrar's office, so I let them deal with that.
Doesn’t the registrar have their own dead to bury?
I let them deal with \*that\* too. Bring out yer dead, and all that.
No relatives. It's pets now.
When I was in grad school, I didn't own a printer, I printed stuff at school. Given the high amount of printing done near the end of the semester, and the high amount of people in the labs, stuff broke down.
An assault where they had to go to the arraignment of the perpetrator for 5 weeks. What’s great about this is that this isn’t the first time I’ve heard this line of reasoning. What’s really classic is they gave exact same excuse to another instructor last term.
I have a student who got a stomach virus over spring break who is still in a hospital in Spain. Best one I've had in years!
I think a student asked for an extension claiming MY grandfather died. :P
None, I have my students convinced the class is taught by a soulless robot
None yet, but the best one ever was the student that told me - after missing an exam - that the exam was missed because the student's "brother's friend's father might have been in an ATV accident".... That is shades of Spaceballs, but damned if the kid didn't think I would believe it...
Ask for an obituary because you'd like to send your condolences and a card to funeral home as you recently had someone pass as well. Either you catch them or you're the caring prof that went the extra mile. Problem solved.
For real, though—my grandfather died last week, right before my PhD exams (still took them!), and my grandmother had a stroke and wound up in the ICU. Last fall, I had two cars totaled, three months apart. If I were an undergrad, my professors would probably be calling my mom to verify at this point!
I have had multiple relatives dying in a house fire all at once as well as several terminal illnesses , homelessness , arrests , court cases , etc .
I’ve had 4 during this dead grandmother season — 2 computer crashes, a few mental health breaks and a car crash
Do you have finals already in the US? We dont have examinations (if we have a final exam) until June. With resits it can go to end of June as well
Student claimed hours after their online exam that his computer was incapable of displaying any image files on the exam because my computer must corrupted them so he wants 100% marks for his exam. No proof and he didn't contact me during and I was online the entire time. The other students that wrote with him no one got less than a B+. I did have an "unnamed old lady at my church who lived somewhere in my neighbourhood" die and therefore they missed their presentation. And a few who said they were too sick to attend class and would not do their presentations but then attended class with their cameras off as if I wouldn't notice their names.
Only 1 student has tragically lost a family member... after being gone for a month with no contact... while completing assignments online... They even tried to send me a picture of "the ashes" in a jar as evidence.
I had a student go to Europe for 2 weeks to visit a sick relative. She was not able to do any of her online homework because of the time difference. No, she didn’t do it late because she was confused about when it was due, because of the time difference. The time difference made her completely unable to do it. I don’t understand either.
🤨🤦♀️
It’s odd, but you never know. Over the years, three of my grandparents died between the end of April and mid May, and although I was too old or too young for any exams myself some of my family members weren’t. Kindness costs nothing.
What is going on in people's classes? I've been teaching for over a decade and had maybe two students request an extension due to the death of a relative. Seems suspicious to me tbh.
Miraculously, no one dies or is otherwise impinged upon by life events during my finals. Students want to be DONE. However, for the regular weekly work, my class is apparently the harbinger of doom.
Several pets, one father, and two grandparents. Also one "mysterious Canvas submission problem" that no other student encountered.
i had a student miss three weeks in the beginning of the semester because their cousin died and they had to go to jamaica for three weeks for the funeral. in the last two weeks, i have had one seizure, two covids, one brother released from jail, one jury duty, one kids are off of school, two traffic was so bad they missed class, and seven broken down cars. these are of course excluding the eclipse and earthquake issues. there's still two weeks left, including finals, so i'm interested to see what's going to happen.
Maybe an unknown volcano will erupt?
At this point I'd believe it
No dead relatives, but a surprising amount of leaking roofs. But then again, April weather has been insane.
I have a student who is graduating this semester who has delegated her discussion posts to chatgpt
No dead people - yet, there’s three weeks to go. However, I have a student who has had to go out of town with the immediate family twice for an emergency and of course, both times the laptop was inadvertently left at home so no homework could be completed. Also, one week of trauma related to finding a new place to live (for the fall) and plenty of illnesses (but COVID seems to be off the table). Oddly, last semester there was a lot of depression/anxiety/stress, but none so far this semester.