Re: [Phys-l] Unit Conversions (was Mass and Energy)

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

I believe the law states you must make reasonable accommodations for
students who have disabilities, not for students who prefer to engage in
athletics.  As I see it you could either give an equivalent quiz separately,
or just drop the quiz grades for the excused absences.  Does the university
have a policy that students may be excused from class activities?

Actually the same problem happens in HS regularly.  Students are absent for
all kinds of excused reasons.  Then the teacher is expected to do extra to
catch them up.  The state should have a law making this illegal.  Athletic
contests, student council meetings... should all be scheduled outside of
regular class time, no exceptions.

As I see it you could copyright you quizzes, and then claim that this is a
violation of your copyright.  But make sure you create them at home.  I see
this as an unwarranted interference in the classroom.  I wonder what the
AAUP would say about this.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

> This is slightly OT. However, I am still seething about it so I'm going to
> vent. Throughout the past 20 years I have started all of my classes with a
> short 5 minute conceptual quiz that I use to keep the students occupied
> while I pass back the graded homework from the previous class. I require
> the
> students to read the day's lecture material before coming to class and the
> quiz simply checks that they have read it.
>
> In all this time I have never had a learning disabled student ask for any
> accommodation on the quiz - lucky for me because I still haven't figured
> out
> what I would do if they wanted extra time to complete the quiz.
>
> This year, the lacrosse coach started demanding that I allow the team
> members that I have in my conceptual physics course take the quiz when
> they
> return to campus when they had to miss class because of an exam. I balked
> at
> this because the only purpose of the quiz (5 percent of the class grade)
> is
> to ensure that the material was read so that students could engage in
> class
> discussion and better understand the brief lecture presented each class.
> Specifically, the coach wanted me to email the quizzes to the students so
> they could return them on the next class they attended. I didn't want to
> have copies of the quiz on file at the athletic department, so I refused
> to
> provide them - I don't want to make a whole new set of daily quizzes each
> semester. I was recently informed by the Dean's office that I must make
> special accommodation for the athletes or else stop giving the quizzes.
>
> Thank goodness I'm getting close to retirement.  :-)
>
> Bob at PC
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu
> [mailto:phys-l-bounces@carnot.physics.buffalo.edu] On Behalf Of John
> Clement
> Sent: Monday, May 29, 2006 11:53 AM
> To: 'Forum for Physics Educators'
> Subject: Re: [Phys-l] Unit Conversions (was Mass and Energy)
>
> I had totally missed one point.  By giving them accommodations, you also
> took away some learning opportunities.  According to the law this is not
> giving them accommodations, and is illegal.  You are not allowed to make
> them miss important class time to get accommodations.  If this is
> challenged, and there is a law suit, it might be lost.
>
> The extra time must indeed be extra.  You are not required to be present
> to
> proctor the exam, or quiz.  That can be done by the learning support
> people.
> The alternative would be to go over the quiz the next class period, and
> then
> give extra time separately.
>
> John M. Clement
> Houston, TX
>
> > > For the LD students, they
> > > must make a choice.  They
> > > can have extra time by starting the quiz (in another
> > > room) at the start of
> > > the period, then turn it in and join the class, or
> > > they can sit through the
> > > Q&A session and take the quiz in the normal time
> > > frame.
>
>
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