The semester has begun

So the semester is officially in full swing, despite the number of snow days we've had. Well, technically, no full day of classes have been cancelled, only delayed openings and early closings. Luckily my class is at 11:30am, so it has never been cancelled, much to my students' chagrin. Since I'm in walking distance (unlike the rest of the department who all live in the 'burbs), I have no need to cancel class, and I never will. In fact, a student said to me, "Yes you will, at some point." I responded with, "Only when the university cancels the class, will I do so." The big issue I think is that the students are used to classes being cancelled by the other faculty because they live so far, and thus don't want to risk driving in.

And of course there are the usual issues with the freshmen. I think they mean well, and they honestly don't think that the things they do are their fault, but I don't think I'll ever "have heard everything." Although I will say this about my students in the lab I'm teaching this semester. I was very clear that absolutely no late lab reports will be accepted, so if they don't turn it in when it is due, they will have to redo the lab at the end of the semester during the make-up lab session.

Student X, upon arriving to lab yesterday, told me there was a printer problem (sadly, this is a standard excuse but from my experience with printers, I usually buy it), and as such just planned to make-up the lab at the end of the semester. I asked X if the lab was available, and X responded, "Well, in my email." So I brought X to my office to print out the report, because well, I must say that I was impressed that the student didn't try to beg me to "please please please let me turn it in tomorrow, I promise!"

Good times.