Snark/rant

[anthrobabe]

I really want to rant about people who ask questions after they have already been answered
<snip>
I want to throw stuff at her- like my shoe or something.

We had the same thing in one of my classes last year (and I fear this year as well). Arrives half an hour late for an hour's session, and we spend the second half hour with her managing to waste time getting filled in on the first half hour. Of course, really the "teacher" should stop this. So I fume double. Then I do this stupid thing where I make patience a virtue and challenge myself not to say anything about it instead of speaking up about it. This leaves me even more gruntled. Maybe if this person is in my group and does the same this year I will speak up.

Or the people who come in for the first time on the 3rd or 4th day of class and are oblivious.
Or the ones who ask every time class meets about the grading for the class.

It is that feeling of
"i must not strangle my professor/teacher-- but do something please or I will!"
I've had this happen in online classes.
People are entitled to their opinions and beliefs
but it can be take too far
once in an online Geology class
we had a hardcore fundie
she would post massive blocks-- pages and pages from the Bible prefaced  by
"Now here is what the book says, then she'd "quote from the text." then say
"However, I do not agree and am grateful to my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for the true word of God and how the divine created our Earth."
Then pages and pages
A couple of us tried to encourage her to express herself in the student chat room- she is entitled to her beliefs and entitled to express them- and to keep the classroom clear so we could discuss the topics and do our work
but nooooooo
and the professor did nothing- probably could do nothing about it
Oh I was in a tizzy by the time it was over.

[Opsa]

I would hope that it inspired him to make up some new rules about going off-topic. 

[Griffin NoName]

(Internet) Teachers need their own servers so they can pull the plug on time wasters

Hey, wait a mo, when we have our own server..............

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

I really want to rant about people who ask questions after they have already been answered
ie: last night in class the prof is going over the chapter(you know the ones laid out in the syllabus- that says all chapters assigned should be read by that class meeting. Also the prof says "I lecture from the text so if you've read it then you should be able to follow me pretty well."
anyway- woman in the front row-comes in late and leaves early-every class and we've only had 3 so far (yet another snark)
prof says now lets talk about the chart on work flow in chapter 6 for a few minutes(chapter 6 right there on the syllabus folks)
she's quiet for a few minutes
raises hand
and says
"Where are you getting this information?"

I want to throw stuff at her- like my shoe or something.

Let me add to this--people who ask really obvious questions. Things that if, heaven forfend, you think about for a heartbeat, it'll come to you. Really basic things that suck up time.
Shoes sounds pretty good. Not heavy enough to actually hurt, but enough to get their attention.

[Alpaca]

After 12 years of "education," I've accepted that some people can't think quite so well, and might need a little extra pushing along. Okay, even though sometimes it's funny.

What annoys the hell out of me is when they choose not to do things, like, say, the assigned reading, that would OBVIOUSLY answer their questions before they're asked. Indignantly expecting an answer then is like insulting the teacher and the rest of the class.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

Exactly. I hate that stuff.
Or the people that expect everyone else to provide the answers for them. I had kids in my senior year that were like that, "Kiiiiiiiiiit, what's the answer to number five?"

[Sibling Chatty]

The crux of my refusing to continue to teach...entitled to be hand-fed students, and their demands.

I assign work. Class is to READ the chapters, and come prepared to discuss them. There is a clear-cut responsibility on their part to prepare the assignment so that we CAN discuss what they don't understand.

Me: OK, how many of you read the assignment?

Class: *birds chirp, we hear the sound of grass growing, but nothing moves*

Me: OK, we're supposed to discuss this, it's 11 pages of BIG type, and nobody could read it in 7 days, 3 of which we didn't have school?

Class: *several eyelids flutter, but no real brain function is discernable*

Me: It's 3 week reports to Sister Agnes time, tomorrow. Am I to understand that NOBODY in this class wants a 3 week report that has a passing grade?

One student: MizzzEvvinzz?? I read it but I don' unnerstan it.

Me: That's OK. You were all supposed to READ it, and then we'd all work together to try to understand it.

Another student: My Mom said that if I didn't unnerstan it, to not read it until you explained it so's I could unnerstan it when I read it.

ME: All right. let's go over what's on the assignment sheet AGAIN. Read the selected passage. Even if you do not understand it, read through it and familiarize yourself with the names of the people in the story. So, what does it say about not understanding?

Class: Crickets chirp, bees buzz past the windows as the Ice Age approaches faster than these goobers can think.
==============

These were SENIOR English students at one of the more expensive Catholic schools in Houston.

I read the assignment to them. I drilled the character names into their heads. I drilled the action of the story into their heads. I even drilled the interpretation that the Bishop had so kindly provided (although it wasn't, I think, what the author meant) into their heads. Welcome to teaching to the Bishop's Exit Test.

That's when I knew i wasn't going to go back and get my education hours and teach public school.

[Alpaca]

Or the people that expect everyone else to provide the answers for them. I had kids in my senior year that were like that, "Kiiiiiiiiiit, what's the answer to number five?"

I'm evil when they do that. "Alex, can you help me with this?" "Sure. Let's find a quiet place to sit down and I'll walk you through how you can do it."

They hate it. They just want answers, not to learn to figure it out for themselves. Thinking hurts, maybe?

Auntie, so sorry you had to go through that. Yesterday - er, wait, it's after midnight now - day before yesterday, in AP Euro, we read actual AP responses. And graded them. Using the AP scale.

I love bell curves. Scores were set only once sample batch of essays had been read and trends established. Ergo, the rubric was pathetic. For the maximum score, all you needed was: a thesis, just three concrete pieces of supporting evidence, which combined needed to address the two parts of the question - so 1.5 specific examples per paragraph, essentially, and then, you just needed to mention the words "exploration" and "trade," because apparently they had been so inept at analyzing and drawing conclusions that any allusion to those two was considered a valid connection between the advance of learning and technology in the 14th & 15th centuries and subsequent exploration and trade.

The sample essays that we read lived up (or down, I guess) to the rubric. They were PAINFUL.

Then, the teacher, who does official AP grading over the summer, shared a few of her favorite phrases from just the essays for that prompt. "Einstein's equation M=C^2P. Gutenberg's three laws of planetary rotation. Gutenberg's steam engine. Railroads." Etc.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

I'm just as bad.  I did the exact same thing, so they quit after a while, and harassed another friend of mine instead.

[anthrobabe]

When I try and explain how to do things to people they often get this sort of
glazed look and then the mouth opens and they try and get me to give the answer again.

I have to handle parking as well where I work and very clearly- right by the window is a sign that says
"Do you have parking questions?"
"Well then check out our handy FAQ guide below"
and below is a double sided page of the most FAQ, so if they don't see the sign I'll say"If you pick up that paper right there and read it you'll probably know how to go from there." , they pick it up and look at it and then
ASK ME THE - sorry ask me the questions that are answered on it.
So I have them hand me the paper and I hold it up and point to the information and read it to them as if they are in kindergarten 
the parking info is also on line at the university web page, on signs all over freaking campus, in the student handbook, in the student/faculty/staff solutions finder booklet, etc and still they are oblivious and clueless.

So yes i do the "give a man a fish and feed him for one day, teach a man to fish and feed him everyday" thing. of course they just tell the chief that the dispatcher is soooooooo ooooogy and mean to them and don't get me started about the ones that call 911 because their classrooms are not unlocked (last year we started to have LR roll code 3 on those calls and it pissed the university president off enough that he did something about it!)

[Bluenose]

I used to be the systems/network administrator for the Australian branch of a large international company.  I was out at one of the main offices one day when I got a help desk call that the toner needed replacement in a laser printer in HR.  I said that I would not replace it as it is and end-user responsiblity but if they wanted I would run a training session to teach them how to do it.

At the appointed time I rocked up to about 4 or 5 "eager" faces.  My first question was, "has anyone got the replacement toner cartrige?"  After a few moments one went over to the stores cupboard and got a cartridge out.

I said, "OK, can anyone see the instructions printed on the top of the box?"

They agreed that they could.

I said, "what does the first instruction say?"

Someone read it out.  I said, "OK, do that."

And so on down the instruction list until they had changed the toner cartrige.

I think they got the point, because I never got asked to change another toner cartrige. 

[anthrobabe]

that is one of the best yet!!!!

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

That glazed look you were talking about, Anthro? That's all of my classmates in half my classes. Hooray for required entry level classes!

Lol, pretty good Blue.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Me: OK, how many of you read the assignment?

Class: *birds chirp, we hear the sound of grass growing, but nothing moves*

Given that I never thought highschoolers (pregrads and postgrads only)  my methods may not have been the same but at the first occurrence I would have given the same reading for the next class and at beggining of such I would have made a written quiz on the subject.

When I was teaching solfeggio or even ear training I had a reputation for being ruthless but none of my students lost the assignment.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

That wouldn't work for teachers in High school.

My coach was a senior english teacher, and she assigned lots of writing (most of which they actually did in class) and no one turned anything in, ever, pretty much.
Then the school forced her to pass the kids. All of them.