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Brian Caulfield · Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Posts: 1247 Location: China

I don't know about this taking attendance. I never had a professor take attendance. I actually don't have or ever had a problem and usually I have others in my class (teachers and friends) who want to watch. I let anyone in but they must participate. So you call roll and you lose 5 minutes or 10. I think the biggest problem English teachers both foreign and native have is they make their work too complicated. The most common error here and back home with English teachers is they can't count and have exams where the marks add up to more than 100.
Learn their names and don't give them ENglish names. This is hilarious to me because when you go to another student to ask something about the person with English name they have no idea about who you are talking about. Only English do this because they are lazy. I lived mostly in a French country in my life and French people call you by your name and refuse to let you use a French name. Japanese will never allow you to call them an English name. A name is important.
My problem here is that the students write their names in Pinyin differently so when I go to type them up in Chinese I must go to my Chinese dictionary to find the correct name.

7969 · Joined: 26 Mar 2003 Posts: 5782 Location: Coastal Guangdong

Brian Caulfield · Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Posts: 1247 Location: China

My job here is too help Chinese with their English. I can not force anyone to learn English. The Japanese tried to force their language on the Chinese 60 years ago and it failed. I have yet to have a class under fifty students and I have taught over four thousands students here in four years. I said I keep track by having things come in and by having them do jigsaw activities where it is easy to spot a group missing people. I keep track but not at the students expense of losing class time. Taking roll is featherbedding.
In South Korea before the cellular phone was popular. I would change classrooms when the students came late. This stopped the problem. But today they would just call their friends and tell them where I was.

arioch36 · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 3589

brian

TreKidation · Joined: 02 Jul 2007 Posts: 108

Attendance rules are simple. First day of class, first set of rules:

-- Class attendance if required

-- One absence is allowed - with permission

-- I am the only person who can allow an absence

-- Subsequent absences are "punished" by the following standard

- Doctor/Medical Records showing care - 2 points from final class score
- Absence with prior approval by me - 4 points from final class score
- Absence with no prior approval - 5 points from final class score
- Absence with excuse, prove to be fraudulent - based on reason for absence - Failure for the class - "I was sick" or "I was in the hospital" and student found to be outside playing bball, snuggling with b-g/f, etc.

-- Being late is equal to an absence

-- Maximum number of absences - excused or not = 4 in total

I have failed more than 20 people for attendance issues and all have been forced to repeat the course - as opposed to students I failed based on their actual final score from coursework and the school simply changed their submitted final score !

arioch36 · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 3589

Brian Caulfield · Joined: 14 Sep 2004 Posts: 1247 Location: China

Arioch Go to Japan or Korea and see if it works there. I have many Chinese friends here and Taiwan who have English names I have nothing against this I am just trying to make things easier for teachers. When you do your grades it is a good idea to know who is who and the administration doesn't give a dam about their English names. I learn their Chinese names because they appreciate it , both the students and the people who pay me. I can look at attendance sheets and know who everyone is.
I taught a class in Vancouver where I had four Amys and two Franks and a young girl named Banana. I don't assign English names, but if they want me to call them by an English name I do, but I learn their Chinese name too.
Here in China I am known as Bai Lin for the reason that everything goes much smoother. When you must sign your name on documents a Chinese name in characters fits better in the space they give you to write it in . If I was in Canada I let them have an English name for the same reason but I am in China and I want my students to know I respect them.
I am not making these postings about wasting time doing attendance
because I have problems with my students. I have done it because I don't have problems. I know my students. The schools here have told me
I only need to test my students once at the end of the term. I test them three times. Once at the beginning to get a needs analysis. I give them a midterm to let them know where they stand and I give them a final test.
At my university if a professor did a read roll with over fifty students they would have no students signing up for their course. It's a waste of time where ever you are. It is just a meaningless act of subservience.
In high schools in Japan now attendance is not required. This puts tremendous pressure on Japanese teacher. When the director of the school sees an empty classroom they reproach the teacher for not being interesting.

arioch36 · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 3589

jeffinflorida · Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2008 3:40 pm Post subject:

With the new semester I will make sure to make the students fully understand the rules.

In fact, on the first day of class I will have each student fill out a PROFILE sheet that gives me their chinese names, students id, English names, telephone number, and email address. At the bottom will be a smalll statement that says "I UNDERSTAND TE TEACHERS ATTENDANCE POLICY and they have to sign there...

My polcicy will stay the same - miss 4 classes lose one letter grade, miss 8 two letter grades, miss 9 or more... SEE YA NEXT TERM>>>

kev7161 · Joined: 06 Feb 2004 Posts: 5880 Location: Suzhou, China

I rarely can contribute to threads like this because most of you are teaching at college level whilst I teach at the elementary level, but here's a little heart-warming story for you:

The first year I taught these kids, a couple of them still had their Chinese names while everyone else had already adopted an English name. I didn't "name" anyone like I would a pet.

Second year, the two girls still had their Chinese names and I addressed them as such. By about mid-year, THEY decided they wanted English names and proceeded to find one with the help of their parents. Now Judy and Anny are right in step with the rest of the class although I never had a problem calling them by their Chinese names.

Third year - - I can't remember their Chinese names.

arioch36 · Joined: 21 Jan 2003 Posts: 3589

Kevin

jeffinflorida · Posted: Mon Jan 14, 2008 12:38 pm Post subject:

Side note, final exam day...

So far caught 4 students cheating out of 192.

I told them outright that I did not care about school policy, anyone caught cheating fails the whole class and gets a zero mark for every exam and will have to take it the class again at a cost of 4000 rmb.

The 2 girls basically pleaded with me and said they really didn't look at the notes in their hand. One with writing in her hand actually came back to the exam after I took her paper away and asked to finish it saying she was almost done with it when I caught her cheating...

So they just not have the concept of cheating is not acceptable?

And no kidding so many of them were cheating but unless I catch them red handed I usually don't make a fuss because they are quicker than me - damn magicians they are.

The boys just accept their fate and leave.

One of the monitors, who's opinion I value, said my attendance policy was abit too much and suggested I not fail anyone because of absence just lower their grades.

Mydnight · Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 1:39 am Post subject:

malu · Joined: 22 Apr 2007 Posts: 1344 Location: Sunny Java

My classes are small so I can easily glance around and see who is missing. To be honest, those that are regularly missing are no great loss to the class and they lose 5% per semester automatically because that's the school rule about attendance, but I don't chase these guys up if they don't come.

The non-attendees will (and do) fail all assessments so in theory a simple Darwinian process should select against them being reincarnated next semester, but hey this is China...

Punctuality is something I'm fussy about because it disrupts the classroom environment.

Cheating in exams isn't such a serious problem because the school (and the IB external moderators) has a zero tolerance policy and enough FT's are watching to ensure it works.

I agree, though, that most Chinese students and teachers don't understand - do not seem to be able to understand - why it is wrong to cheat, but just so long as they know they are not allowed to cheat then it works just fine.

Adeem · Posted: Tue Jan 15, 2008 5:18 am Post subject:

Make them adhere to a seating plan. Taking roll was such a waste of time for me when I did it, and having a seating plan means you can see at all times who is there and who is not.

It is all well and good saying that you will fail the students due to poor attendance, but in practice, the rules of the institution do not always include this kind of punishment.

I scared the pants off my beginner/elementary standard college students this last term by setting a schedule of immediate punishments according to the number of times late/absent from class. One of them managed to hit the jackpot despite repeated warnings and was set a 1000+ word essay for 10x late/absent.

She got out of bed a bit earlier having completed that bit of fun.

When it comes down to it, the advice that Anda usually gives is the most useful. Make the students fully aware of the dire consequences for their future if they don't apply themselves now, as well as the short term consequences of failing their exams.

PS Little Miss lazy, despite being more than competent, failed this first term overall due to her low exam (not enough careful study) and low class (lateness/slack class participation) marks. All of my colleges so far have included a 30% or 40% discretionary component in the final mark, and it is (un)surprising how often the two sets of marks mirror each other. If you make sure your final test reflects closely what was taught in class, rather than setting them some non specific exercises or questions (The Chinese way), then the good in class will often out at the expense of the arrogant and lazy.