Not happy

 This is the week in which we conclude with classroom instruction. The only thing is, we have not been meeting in classrooms, we have been holding classes online ever since mid March. It will continue for at least one more semester. But, this is the last week of class Zoom meetings, and then, we procede next week to administer final exams for my students.

I am not happy with the attitudes displayed by my students. They are becoming much more confrontational and angry, and some have lashed out at me. There was one who sent me a nasty email after dropping my class, accusing me of not helping her to connect to the Zoom sessions. I sent out the links well in advance, I published them on Blackboard, and I tried to direct students to resources, as well as always posting my Powerpoint presentations, but still, I was the most incompetent professor ever because she was never able to connect to Zoom. Since the overwhelming majority of my students did connect and were with me during the sessions, I strongly suspect it was a problem on her end, she was using a platform (maybe a cellphone or tablet) with an outdated operating system and it did not allow here to connect. But of course, we professors are on the front lines, so it is all, automatically, my fault, and they lash out at me. 

This week, I have already held two Zoom sessions, and I am noticing that they are trading nasty messages in the chat rooms during our sessions. I know this because I saw them, and I took screen grabs. I didn't bring them up to them, I let them pass, but I noticed that they were carping about how I didn't review this or wasn't specific enough about that, but when I pause during the class Zoom sessions to ask if they have questions, all I hear are crickets chirping. Not one speaks up, but they carp and complain behind my back, and in a way which reveals their own audacity (or ignorance), they "forget" that I can see their carping complaints in the chat room. I feel fed up with them.

And, of course, I received a few more messages with people complaining that I had not assigned grades for homework assignments that they had turned in. On Blackboard, it shows that they didn't turn anything in. If Blackboard says it is not there, I am to blame because they didn't show up? How do I know they are not faking outrage to escape responsibility for homework assignments they didn't turn in? But they are confrontational and rude to me, and I feel I have no one to turn to to complain about this, especially in this period in which I will be soliciting a raise (called a "range elevation"). 

So, I just have to swallow everything and try to be polite, even though I am upset each time I see this. I fell that I have students who lash out at me for things that are not in my purview, such as problems with technology, or because I am flexible with due dates (because I see students wait until the last minute to turn in assignments, or don't turn them in at all), and then, they said I was never specific nor did I stick to a timetable. You can't please them, even when you are trying to be flexible (as we were told we should be). Also, the attitudes, the confrontation when they receive a bad score. It is as if they feel that I failed when I give them a grade of a "B" or lower. It is not their fault because they don't study, it is my fault because I am not holding their hands and giving them automatic "A"s. 

And I can't complain by sharing these experiences with other professors, because they all brag about being wondrous entities in front of the classroom, and holding them in thrall. Of course, I have taught in classrooms next to theirs, when we were still meeting in classrooms, pre-pandemic, and I remember passing by the open doors and seeing students shopping online while the professor was droning about Shakespeare, or hearing the professors (one female professor specifically) yelling at her students so loudly that we all laughed about it in my classroom. Yes, they are all perfect exemplars of Academe, but when I want to complain about my students, I can't. 

I really need a break.