Dreaming Paris

I put this note on the door so that students who came early could be prepared (class starts at 11:00): SLS 1501 Ms. J's class, If you do not have them GO PRINT YOUR ADVISING GUIDE AND EDUCATIONAL PLANS NOW if you can be back by 11:05. Background: I have talked to them at least 3 times about the advising guides and educational plans which are part of their final project. I have told them where to find them, having demonstrated our online system that allows me to post announcements, upload files, give them their grades, etc. which they know is part of how we conduct our class. It is their lifeline to information that they need. We are in week 10 of the course. If they don't know this by now, WHERE HAVE THEY BEEN? I posted an announcement Sunday night telling them to have their advising guides and plans printed and brought to class on Tuesday, AND I told them the same thing before we broke for spring break. I told them an advisor would be coming to class to help them do this portion of their final project. Problem: my note confused them Is my note confusing? I can see how starting it the way I did can be confusing, but once having read it all the way through, was I wrong to assume they would understand it? One of my students said he saw the sign early, but didn't read it until it was time to come into class because he didn't want the reading of it to interfere with his break. Another one came in and said, what do we have to print out? What is "them"? Another one said, "Where are we meeting?" And so it went. Sigh. Some days it requires a tremendous amount of patience to deal with people. Today I didn't have that patience. Thankfully, I also didn't have to teach much as the class time was taken up by the advisor's presentation.