Quote: (03-05-2015 04:12 AM)ElBorrachoInfamoso Wrote:
If you're going to be a tough grader, you need to be friendly and approachable to get good ratings. Either stop giving a fuck, grade less harshly or improve your charisma.
I've taught in several different settings. I tended to grade harshly at the beginning to show the students they had to put in the work, but then slowly ease off as the semester wore on. I also tried to put funny comments when grading lab reports.
I agree with the comment of ElBorrachoInfamoso, also, and I have a pretty decent understanding concerning behaviors of "the powers that be."
Frequently, "the powers that be" are NOT going to provide you specifics concerning the extent to which you have discretion in your dealing with students and your grading, and your day to day interactions with students, etc etc, and they are only going to layout broad and vague parameters, such as: we expect you to be a hard grader, and maybe provide you some examples. In the end, you have some discretion concerning how to apply these parameters because they cannot be with you or oversee you all of the time, and they do NOT want to either be with you or to oversee you and that is why they hired you in order that you can do some of the work that they would have to do if you were NOT there.
In any event, you are going to have discretion, and you will have more and more discretion the longer that you are in the position. "The powers that be" may monitor you more closely in the beginning, but the longer that you are in the position, they are going to allow you more space to customize your approach to your own style(s) - especially, if you show confidence and you seem to be able to handle various aspects of the situation in order to reasonably exercise independent judgement with decent results.
In this regard, you need to have some creativity and some decent abilities to assess the extent to which you have discretion and to take ownership over such space that you do have and to attempt to use such space to your advantage, whether it is dealing with "the powers that be" or dealing with the students. Of course, all of this is a balancing act because you gotta be careful NOT to overstep bounds prematurely, yet you need to be ready, willing and able to take risks in order to take ownership over the space (and discretion) that you have in your position.