Wow, I thought my students were bad when I did the TA thing...most of mine showed up, and most did the work, but the work itself in some cases wasn't that great. You could tell who was putting in the effort, and I definitely saw improvement over the semester(s), but there were a few who just couldn't be bothered past the barest response to the assigned work. Also, I was astounded at the sheer lack or disregard of language abilities--I had to go through the fundamentals of writing a paragraph with a few of them, and those were the few who actually cared...

My biggest nuisance in terms of having to be the "attendance officer" was this one guy who would leave the room, ostensibly to use the facilities or smoke, and disappear for the remainder of class. I pulled him aside and asked him if he cared at all about his education, and he said: "Yeah, but this class is only a requirement. It's not what I'm here for." I told him I understood, but did he want to take it (or something similar) again? Just 'cause you show up for the first twenty minutes doesn't mean you were here for the full two hours. He said: "I thought no one noticed when I left." He was over six feet tall, sat at the back of the room nearest the door during every class, and let the door slam whenever he walked out. I told him it was his choice--take the class or take the F. It worked. He stopped disappearing, or at least made shorter "bathroom runs" than he had before.

When I think about it, there were other reasons the students' work suffered. The prof for that class was not a good lecturer, and her material was too advanced for them (way too much theory for what was advertised as an intro class--she never gave them an overview or any fundamentals). She had an annoying habit of telling them to google stuff instead of answering their questions or providing good source material. I would have wanted to leave had I been one of those students, to tell the truth.

salukigirl, your students are majorly inconsiderate to the point of being obnoxious, but you know that already. Is it possible the prof is accommodating them so he still has a job next semester, i.e. fewer D's and F's doled out to students? Is he new at his job? Is he of the same approach to one's obligations as the students...?

It's unfair this all falls to you, salukigirl. I would ask the prof if he feels your time isn't valuable to the point it could be wasted administering a make-up test to one student. Better still, do you have limits on the hours you work as a TA? We were only supposed to do x hours per week so it wouldn't interfere with our studies. Of course, my first prof, the one described above, didn't seem to care about that either.

Good luck!