bump for updates.

SoloAJ, those are great stories. Keep away from that girl, even in ridiculously innocent ways; that's nothing but trouble. From what you say about her actions, she's looking for trouble.

Take her seriously. She is a threat.

While you are obviously correct about most of this post, I don't think she is "looking for trouble." In fact, most of this week she hasn't talked to me hardly at all. So I'm not worried about anything threatening going on.

Maybe she's got me right where she wants me?!

Further updates tomorrow.

I just spent four hours editing a three page entrance essay for a business associate's college kid. I dunno how you do it, Solo. Kids starting from so close to ground zero when they're supposed to be considerably further along makes for frustrating reading. When they're proud, it's even worse. If I had to do 15 of these a day I'd be climbing the walls.

I haven't been too active over here recently, so I'm just catching up with the thread. I teach at a liberal arts college, so my experiences are a bit different, but are still remarkably similar in a lot of ways, particularly in the lack of subject matter retention, and the complete lack of any writing or research skills even at the junior and senior levels. I love swapping teaching stories as well, and some of my colleagues and I have a stupid student e-mail forwarding list.

But I do have a story regarding this post by NHL, which I will censor a bit without sacrificing too many details. My apologies for thread-jacking a bit.

On the first day of my first job as a Visiting Assistant Professor (read: 1-year contract) at a flagship state university I received a phone call while playing omaha online at 11:30 PM (I give the students my cell and tell them they have no excuse not to find me if they need me, though I never meant this late). The voice on the other end of the line asks me if I knew "where [she] could buy the textbook?"

My response was something along the lines of 'why'd you really call'? She said she figured that since I'd mentioned I was new to the university and city that I didn't have anyone to do anything with. I attempted to brush it off, but she then asked me to visit her at the bar she worked at.

When I asked which one, she replied one of the strip clubs in town.

The long and short of it: I was a good boy, since it was my first job and I had 0 clue what I could get away with. But she did make regular use of sitting in the front row of the tiered-level classroom, wearing a lot of short skirts, without much underneath. After leaving that university, I did return to the town once, and went to the club, but she had moved on.

So, yeah... this can be a tough thing.

/threadjack

Admirable and a bit funny. Would you have gone if it were not a strip club?

Probably. I ran into students from my courses around town quite frequently while at that school. I was 26-27 years old, and my classes were quite large (some were 100-150 students) so I would wind up doing whatever shots or having whatever drinks would wind up in my face with them. I've never bought a student a drink though.

lol
I would have just answered "the bookstore, or amazon. Anything else?"

doc,
more stories please.
Solo is just the thread host imo

I'm not even really the thread host. 3d and the rest of you are hosting.

I definitely don't have any awesome stories like that, which I'm going to say is a very good thing. "Do you know where I can buy a textbook" is a hilarious question. What's easier to see through than transparent?

Hour and a half before I go watch my students paint a sheet and eat some brownies. Exciting times!


And yes, I hope others will take over here, too. I have so very few stories, and the ones I have aren't that good yet. Post more!

It's definitely hard. I have freshmen, so in some ways, they don't realize how far behind they are. It drives me nuts some days, and I honestly don't know how long I will be able to put up with it at this level.

I said I always figured I wanted to teach college, and these freshmen are sooooo limited. It's very similar to teaching the 5 year olds I taught one summer at a day care. The maturity level is so low.

I do realize, however, that part of this is my fault. They aren't nearly as talkative or annoying for the math/science teachers as they are for me. So, obviously, part of the issue is my classroom management. I just don't know what to do differently. I've been a prick, and I've given detentions. It's not like I'm just without discipline and empty threats. They just don't care.


I hate how a "they don't know anything" post turned into a "lack of ability to be quiet" post. Maybe that makes sense though?

I teach Political Science, and I once gave an exam that covered US culture, the Constitution, and political participation. The average grade for this class was 62. I saved some of their short answer quotes. Here's some for this question: Should hate speech be banned in America? Why/Why not?

“I believe hate speech should be banned… If you feel the need to say something bad about another person write it down in a journal.”

“The banning of hate speech keeps peace among America. If hate speech were to be legalized the repercussions could be disastrous.”

“If the government were to allow this type of activity, there would be more people with health problems. I say this because in our society today, almost everything we do causes stress.”

“There is no legal answer to this issue.” (This was his entire answer)

“I do not agree with hate speech, but you cannot make it illegal without dampening the right to freedom of speech… I do believe there should be a limit to what people can say… The gays and African American unions can say all they want but people who have that opinion against them and stand up for it is a hater! Whatever.”

“Every American has the right to freedom of speech. Since why that is the first amendment it would be hard to take it back, but hate speech is bad because it is “preaching” prejudice and it often times leads to discrimination (crime vs. the bill of rights).” (This was his entire answer)

“For one I think that hate speech should not be illegal in America because you should always have the opportunity to say or do what you want even though it may be wrong. And it should be done only in certain places where people would be comfortable to have it at and no one would get harmed or upset.” (this was her entire answer)

“Libal [sic] is writing what you feel… I would not want young children to see profanity or other thing of that nature at their school or playgrounds. Slander is speaking negatively of a person. This is fine. A person should watch the language with children around.”

“If it were to become legal, the country would probably turn into a war zone of different racial groups.”

“Slander is a way of expression, even for people on tv. If I want to cuss someone out I should be allowed to as long as its not hurting or threatening someone… if parents are so worried about hearing the word “bitch” or “N-----” then send them outside to play.”

“While I in no way condone such actions, I believe that it should not be illegal. I do, however believe that it should not be used in newspapers, network TV, in public, or anywhere else an innocent bystander could be affected by it.”

Wow Doc, those are some awful answers across the board. I haven't had anything like that from my Freshmen yet, but we haven't really done much writing yet at this point in the semester.

So here is my long blog-like update:

Today was sheet painting. I had seven students show up and it took three hours, but we got it done. It looks pretty awesome if I may say so. It's a little sloppy at parts, but the good parts are really good and I love it. I don't think we'll win the sheet contest, but we're freshmen, so nothing is expected of us. Maybe I'll try to get a pic or something via PM for the regular followers of this thread.

Homecoming week is next week. Wednesday after school is cowpie bingo. They put a fence up in the yard of the school and put a cow in it. Wherever the cow poops first, that's the winning "tile" and whoever "got" that title wins. I have no idea what they win. Country life. Wowza.

Thursday night is the skits. There are the four class skits and faculty skit. We won last year, but I was, as most of you know, not there. I expect we will win this year mostly because we're a pretty funny group overall, and high school students are still trying to find humor mostly. Plus, we have the Kanye bit, which should kill.

This week is dress-up day. Our theme is open season. Each day of the week we dress up. One day is antler day. lol.

I'm also chaperoning homecoming, so that should be interesting. That's a week from today.


As for teaching itself, I'm struggling a little still with classroom management. I have discipline. I have given more detentions than any other freshmen teacher according to my students. I haven't given WAY more, but definitely the most.

I am not kidding when I'm stern with them. They know this. But they continue to talk a little. Obviously, I tend to think this is a result of the fact that I try to have fun as a teacher when I can. It's my personality. I'd go nuts if I had to be dry all the time. I just really need to still find that balance betwee the two.

Of course, I feel like it's only going to get worse this upcoming week with homecoming. They're not going to be able to focus very easily. I'm going to be either overly assertive or just go with the flow, depending on how much teaching I think I can actually accomplish.


I guess this update was small, but I'm just happy to have my sheet painting done, so it's made me giddy. haha. Once Monday rolls around, reality sets in again and I have to deal with the bad stuff. ARGH.

This reminds me a bit of the other type of relationships that it can have something in common with -- that with kids or employees. It sucks to be mean, and having fun with each other isn't impossible, but if you try to be their friends, it opens the door to a lot of trouble. Unless you're a real stiff, you'd probably prefer to be friendly, but without being friends. Not that you always can be. A lot depends on the crowd.

It's tricky because people are so different in terms of their maturity and opportunism. Like, as a boss, some employees have their heads screwed on straight enough that you can have a great time shooting the breeze and cracking jokes when you have the time, or even just maintain a constant good environment. But there in the very same office or work site where everyone else seems to "get it" just fine, there can be one or two employees who think that just because you kid around, or have lunch together sometimes, they don't have to take deadlines seriously or check their work anymore. Worse still, that attitude can spread like wildfire once it gets started.

I think you can never really be quite yourself, but just a version of yourself, when you're in charge. It's just too much human nature for at least some percentage of people given any slack to take it to the limits, bring all kinds of emotions and weird manipulation into it, and generally abuse it. That type of person screws so much up for everyone else.

But then again, it's not like we have carte blanche to be exactly who we are everywhere else in the rest of our lives, either.

If I recall correctly, we did more casual talking in English and History more than Math or Science. I don't know why, but it seems that some classes had a more serious air.

It may also be that the carelessness comes from a combination of poor teaching standards and the kids rebelling against work.