Dear Instructor...
Due to other multiple assignments I had due this week (including an exam), I had only heard about your latest weekly assignment faux pas yesterday afternoon from a classmate, and was able to confirm it this morning. Let me explain something to you - a syllabus is a mutual contract, and while there should be some room for pliancy for all parties involved, you have really gone out of your way to be disorganized and inconsistent this semester, which is contrary to reports I've received from other students who had you previous semesters. If this were a different kind of interpersonal relationship, I'd ask for a timeout until you got your act together.
Allow me to address one issue in particular at this time; you said that there would be a specific number of assignments, including our research paper, accompanied by weekly chat forums. Requesting for us to write a response paper to a reading that is submitted to you directly and then additionally attached to a forum post does not necessarily conform to idea of a "chat", and therefore should be considered an "assignment", which you did not delineate either on the syllabus or on our class calendar. Additionally, having the work assigned be solely categorized as a "participation grade" adds even more insult to injury.
Perhaps you're just unaware, or mistakenly think that your students are all young and carefree, with no jobs, families, or alternate responsibilities (such as other classes). But please, let me slip you a ticket to the clue bus: WHEN YOU PUT ITEMS ON A SYLLABUS AND/OR THE CLASS CALENDAR, MOST STUDENTS ARRANGE THEIR FRACKING SCHEDULES TO ACCOMMODATE IT. And when you seemingly just breezily go, "Oh and by the way..." it makes me and multiple others want to rummage through our backpacks for some black leather gloves and duct tape. Why? Because, while many of us do not expect to be mollycoddled and normally enjoy an invigorating, skills-amplifying educational challenge - we have to scramble, juggle, cancel, rearrange and disrupt our sleeping patterns just to shoehorn-in your literally last-minute request. Also, as has I've unfortunately experienced multiple times in the past, you'll take for granted all this flexibility from your students regarding this and other inevitable upcoming matters, but will not see fit to return our compliant courtesy in any form or fashion.
Sure, go ahead and play the martyr card; whining about how you don't necessarily want to grade more papers (Which please, don't you really mean in all likelihood that you'll be casually dumping even more work onto your already-beleaguered TA?), and that it is meant to serve a deep and meaningful didactic purpose. Spare me. How about giving us our grades from previously turned-in assignments instead, so that we can see how we are progressing in your class and can therefore ask for some guidance?
I wish I could apologize for my outburst, but I can't and I won't. This semester and the last have been a showcase for unfettered student and faculty dysfunctionality; including a lack of unrequited regard, reciprocal cooperation and quite frankly, good old-fashioned honesty. This sort of inconsiderate conduct has finally happened one too many times, and yes, I'm exhausted and cranky from it. However, as fed up as I am, I must proceed and go along with your quirky request because the other options available to me at this juncture are even more potentially odious. By the way, I'm fairly certain the bulk of my classmates are also grappling with this same sense of frustration and helplessness.
Yours in Academic Servitude,
Flaming_Mo
Allow me to address one issue in particular at this time; you said that there would be a specific number of assignments, including our research paper, accompanied by weekly chat forums. Requesting for us to write a response paper to a reading that is submitted to you directly and then additionally attached to a forum post does not necessarily conform to idea of a "chat", and therefore should be considered an "assignment", which you did not delineate either on the syllabus or on our class calendar. Additionally, having the work assigned be solely categorized as a "participation grade" adds even more insult to injury.
Perhaps you're just unaware, or mistakenly think that your students are all young and carefree, with no jobs, families, or alternate responsibilities (such as other classes). But please, let me slip you a ticket to the clue bus: WHEN YOU PUT ITEMS ON A SYLLABUS AND/OR THE CLASS CALENDAR, MOST STUDENTS ARRANGE THEIR FRACKING SCHEDULES TO ACCOMMODATE IT. And when you seemingly just breezily go, "Oh and by the way..." it makes me and multiple others want to rummage through our backpacks for some black leather gloves and duct tape. Why? Because, while many of us do not expect to be mollycoddled and normally enjoy an invigorating, skills-amplifying educational challenge - we have to scramble, juggle, cancel, rearrange and disrupt our sleeping patterns just to shoehorn-in your literally last-minute request. Also, as has I've unfortunately experienced multiple times in the past, you'll take for granted all this flexibility from your students regarding this and other inevitable upcoming matters, but will not see fit to return our compliant courtesy in any form or fashion.
Sure, go ahead and play the martyr card; whining about how you don't necessarily want to grade more papers (Which please, don't you really mean in all likelihood that you'll be casually dumping even more work onto your already-beleaguered TA?), and that it is meant to serve a deep and meaningful didactic purpose. Spare me. How about giving us our grades from previously turned-in assignments instead, so that we can see how we are progressing in your class and can therefore ask for some guidance?
I wish I could apologize for my outburst, but I can't and I won't. This semester and the last have been a showcase for unfettered student and faculty dysfunctionality; including a lack of unrequited regard, reciprocal cooperation and quite frankly, good old-fashioned honesty. This sort of inconsiderate conduct has finally happened one too many times, and yes, I'm exhausted and cranky from it. However, as fed up as I am, I must proceed and go along with your quirky request because the other options available to me at this juncture are even more potentially odious. By the way, I'm fairly certain the bulk of my classmates are also grappling with this same sense of frustration and helplessness.
Yours in Academic Servitude,
Flaming_Mo