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We Care About Our Students

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“Thank beautiful-hands-heart-5390you for taking the time to talk to me outside of class.”

A student recently said this to me and I was shocked that he was thanking me for this. Talking to students is what I love to do, and it is so ingrained in my practice that I don’t think of it as any sort of extra effort. I think there is a prevailing notion among college students that professors are there simply to impart knowledge and collect a paycheck.

For me, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

I can’t speak for all professors, but I do feel strongly that the vast majority of us genuinely care about our students. We care about you not only as learners, but as people.

When I walk into a classroom I do not see a room full of faceless strangers. I see a group of individuals all with unique identities, backgrounds, experiences, and dreams. When we make small talk at the beginning of class I am genuinely interested in how your job interview went, or how your cat is feeling after a recent illness, or what concert you went to last weekend. When you are hurting, I want to help comfort you. When you are successful, I want to cheer you on. When something funny happened to you recently, I want to hear the story in all its glorious detail.

Not long ago I lost a former student to suicide. Although we only spent about four months together in class, I was shattered. The week that I found out I went to each of my classes and tearfully told them what had happened and gave them the contact information for our school’s counseling services, distraught at the thought of that happening to any more of my students.

I know sometimes it might seem like we don’t care. You might have gotten a bad grade from one of us. We get overwhelmed by the demands of our jobs and seem detached. Our schedules don’t afford us as much time to meet with you as we would like. In these moments it can feel like we are not invested in you and your future, but we are.

To any student who reads this, I encourage you to reach out to your professors and talk to us as humans. You may be surprised by how many of us do want to take the time to talk to you outside of class. We want to hear about your progress, your concerns, your trials, your triumphs. We want to read the funny meme you came across this weekend. We want to offer words of encouragement when you have a big exam coming up. We want to share words of comfort when you lose a loved one.

We do care, and we want you to know that.

Don’t Wait Until the End of the Semester to Care about Your Grade

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“I’lpen-162124_1280l do anything to pass this class!” proclaims the desperate failing student at the end of the semester. Unfortunately, the only option this student has to pass the class is to build a time machine, travel to the beginning of the semester, and actually do all of the assignments they failed to turn in.

This is a common problem facing students and faculty members alike. Despite the multitude of assignments given and grades assigned, college students often wait until the last few weeks of the semester to start paying attention to their grades.

Don’t let this be you.

In order to set yourself up for success, you should care about your grade from day one of the semester. Here are a few things you can do to stay on top of your grades:

  1. Any good professor will keep grades updated throughout the term so you always know where you stand in the course. You should check your grades frequently and contact your professor if you have any concerns about earning the grade you desire in the class. For example, if you do poorly on the first test you should talk to your professor immediately after you receive your grade to find out what you can do to score higher on the next test. If you wait until after you have failed all of your tests to ask for help, it will be too late to salvage your grade.
  2. Ask for a second chance. This one depends entirely on the teaching philosophy of your professor, but if you request a meeting and ask for an opportunity to revise an assignment for additional points, you may be able to raise your grade. Some professors will even give back some points simply because you took the initiative to meet with them. Just remember to ask politely and respect their decision if they say no.
  3. If you haven’t gotten any grades or have numerous assignments without grades, contact your professor. We often fall behind on grading because of our busy schedules, but requests from students sometimes light that fire we need in order to get the grading done.
  4. Read your syllabus so you know what the grading scale is for the course. Know how many points you need to earn to achieve your desired grade and track your progress as you go. The last thing you want is a surprise at the end of the semester because you didn’t understand the grading scale.
  5. Don’t rely on extra credit to save you. Your class may or may not include extra credit opportunities, but these opportunities are typically not enough to make up for numerous missed assignments or failing grades. Concentrate on the regular assignments, because that is where you will earn most of your points.
  6. Don’t beg when it is too little too late. You can’t go back in time and turn in assignments you missed or study for tests you didn’t study for. In the last few weeks of the semester there are typically only a few assignments remaining, and they will not be enough to save your grade. Your professor has given you plenty of opportunities to be successful in the class and it is not their fault if you didn’t take advantage of these opportunities when you had the chance.

In short, you should care about your success in the class from the first day and continue to care about it throughout the semester. Don’t wait until final grades are looming to suddenly pay attention or you may find that it is too late to save your GPA.