Be Consistent!

Be consistent! From my earliest days in undergraduate education studies, these two words were embedded into my classes. Professors were always talking about consistency. Students need you to be consistent. They need you to be consistent with your discipline policies, they need you to be consistent with your routines, they need you to be consistent with your grading system, and they need you to be consistent with your attitudes and personality.

I was taught that many students come from very inconsistent and unstable lives and it was my job to give them some consistency and stability. Students need to know that they can count on what I say and that if it’s due on Monday that means Monday. Student’s need to know that my grading system will be fair and that Susie’s paper will be graded exactly like Johnny’s. So for the last twenty-four years, that is what I have…