This is supposed to be the quiet before the storm of spring semester, the time when we professors reflect on all that we have done, tried to do and failed to do the previous semester, and make resolutions about how to reach the more than 50 percent of the class we clearly failed to reach the previous semester. We make promises to ourselves that we can inspire them this year. Really, we can.
Then we get e-mails like this from students who missed nearly half the class periods and did not turn in the final portfolio (which is more than half the final grade):
"It has come to my attention that my final grade is recorded as an F. I was wondering as to why it is recorded as thus."
And it all comes crashing down.
