pet peeve

[kismet09]

One of the things that annoys me most about working with students is their inability to ask the question to which they really want an answer. A student asked me "when can I see my advisor?" I said, "anytime." Student was confused. I said, "well, you can make an appointment to meet If you say "can I meet with an advisor anytime?" then I will probably say yes. Closed ended question, easy answer, check. If, in fact, your transfer credits aren't being reported correctly on your transcript and you want to find out why that is, then why not just ask me that, and I can direct you to the right place? I'm not a mind reader, and I don't feel like asking probing questions to figure out what it really is that you want all the time. Students need to take more responsibility for asking questions that will get useful answers, so that I don't spend all of my time randomly answering the questions I think they might be trying to ask.

That, plus the fact that I sat at a Majors Fair for an hour and counted about 20 students who attended (only one of whom wanted to talk to me), and I'm a little grumpy about work right now. At least i got outside for a few minutes.

Comments

[sharkycharming.livejournal.com]

And soon we get to leave for Scrabble!!!!
(4:15 by the way, if you forgot again.)

[kismet09.livejournal.com]

i am counting down the minutes. i have reading and listening materials for you!

[strrretch.livejournal.com]

This university would be so much better without all the students, don't you think? ;)

[kismet09.livejournal.com]

shorter lines for snacks, that's for sure!

questions

[mthgeek.livejournal.com]

asking the right question is a really hard thing to do. for one, because it requires that you have the guts to actually do it, but also because it's difficult to put into language all of the meaning that you want.

that's one of the things that mathematicians are always going on about, how bad students are about asking the right question and students are always going on about how mathematicians don't answer their questions.

maybe that's just in my little world though.

Re: questions

[kismet09.livejournal.com]

yes, but saying "i would like to find out whether my transfer credits have been evaluated" is much more useful than "i need to see my advisor"