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Thursday's Essay Preview

The first paragraph of the essay, "Dealing with excuses“ reads as follows: 
"Two university students had a week of exams coming up. However, they decided to party instead. So, when they went to the exam, they decided to tell the professor that their car had broken down the night before due to a very flat tire and they needed a bit more time to study."
    

Thursday's Essay Excerpt - from the last paragraph of the essay

You may wonder why the issue of dealing with excuses is even a concern for teachers.  I agree with Sandra Goss Lucas and Douglas A. Bernstein, in their book, Teaching Psychology: A Step by Step Guide (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2005) when they talk about dealing with excuses.  They point out: “The way you handle excuses conveys a message to your students about your teaching philosophy, and most particularly about whether you view students as partners or adversaries, the degree to which you trust them, and how you care about them” (p. 137).  It can set the tone for an entire term, determine how effective you will be, and, most important of all, govern (or at least influence) how much students are likely to learn.                                  



And Then Some News