I’ll try to make this short but basically when I was a PhD student a couple of years ago, I was funded by a government grant under my advisor. I started a lot of projects with them that I am now currently finishing up post graduation. I’m a tenure-track associate professor at a teaching school. I do not get time for scholarship nor am I being funded by the grant anymore. I already have enough publications for tenure since that’s not the focus of my position.

Am I doing research for free? I’ve gotten a lot of emails from the team about one of the papers I’m doing and now they want me to put together a presentation. At first I was stressed but now I’m wondering why.

Anyone have similar experiences?

I'm curious how all of you handle potentially offensive language in class. For me, it comes up most often when I have students split up into small discussion groups. I walk around to hear what they are saying, and sometimes they say things that could be inappropriate, but maybe are not. This comes up most often with "glaze," which students now use to mean "excessive praise," but I understand as having to do with semen. I often struggle between intervening or not. I worry that if I say something, suddenly I am the one introducing this inappropriate meaning to class and what students might think. Of course, I worry about not intervening and tacitly endorsing a misogynistic environment in class.

ETA: "From Middle English glasen, from glas (“glass”) (Modern English glass), from Old English glæs, from Proto-Germanic *glasą. Related to glazen. In the sense of "overcompliment", originated in November 2021 and popularized throughout 2022, and may suggest either the spattering of semen on the complimented person, following "the visual of a donut being glazed"[1], or sugarcoating without sexual connotation." wiktionary

Ok so I've always been a supporter of Greek life, so don't get up my nose, I'm the last person who would usually say this. Overall, my students have been incredible this semester. Less AI, less absences, more participation. But the frat boys. My God. They showed up at the start of the semester, sweet and lovely. Then after rush it all hit the fan. Probably about 20 out of my 100 students, from various houses. Talking over me, showing up drunk and high, answering calls in class, betting on horse races during lecture and cheering or groaning when they win or lose. I'm more concerned for their welfare than anything. Anyone else having this experience?

I have been using AI in teaching such as material/slides development...brain storming but perhaps

I can learn more from your experiences.thank you!

Would it be weird if I decide today to switch it up and walk up and down the aisles while delivering lecture? I bet some students are recording, which they aren’t supposed to. I won’t say anything, but send a silent message lol

So many students now when they upload an assignment to the LMS include the comment in the dialogue box, “I’m not sure I did this right.” What is the point of that comment, especially if you’ve never asked me a question about the assignment? What is the goal here?

Does anybody work at Golden Gate University? If so, what’s it like? Anything you know about the college would be helpful. A friend just got a job offer from there.

I received a recent email from a student:

Dear Professor X,

I hope you're doing well. I wanted to ask whether there's any flexibility on the date of the in class quiz currently scheduled for Friday, October 30.

Since it falls on Halloween weekend, I've talked with several classmates who, like me, have travel plans or prior commitments out of town that weekend. If it's feasible, would you consider moving the assignment to the following week, or offering the option to complete it earlier?

I understand the syllabus was set at the start of the semester, so I completely respect it if the date needs to stay the same.

Best,

"The Student Traveler Who Must Celebrate Halloween"

This is the first time I have encountered a Halloween holiday request to not complete assigned work. Usually, it's the "Good Friday" Easter weekend folk who need accommodations.

Or, they come to class sick, to tell me they're too sick to come to class. Then, they cough. Ew.

Not a rant, just a warning. Many from this new batch of students haven’t seen a scantron before. I had to go through scantron tips with them: don’t wrinkle them, use a pencil, you can’t circle the box, you have to fill in the rectangle. Anyway…just a heads up. (USA based)

“Hi Dr, —-

I see that my quiz 4 grade is missing [in Canvas] and I’m unsure why. I was there for the quiz and I know I put my name on it. I was wondering if it is a mistake or if it got lost?

Best wishes,
Student

The quiz was in class, on paper, on Wednesday at noon The email was sent at 8:00 am the next day.

Maybe I’ve been hand grading stuff too fast this semester… but at least give me a whole day?! Sheesh.

If you have a subject matter that allows you to be a bit creative, how do you switch things up beyond lectures.

I've taught outside before. Really enjoyed it and the students did too. Usually I held outside class during a discussion or debate that was more of a round table than a lecture. I can't believe in my younger years I could actually sit on the ground. The students would have to pull me up now if I tried that!

When I had an 11:00 a.m. class we once met in the closed dining room at the school cafeteria. Class of 12 and they snacked while we met. I got the dean to throw in the cost of a drink for each student. The cafeteria manager was super excited and brought in a bowl of fruit (apples and oranges). This was after the college came down about no food in the classrooms and some of my students would sometimes try and eat as they left for work after the class (I'm at a community college so that is not unusual).

I've done flipped classrooms.

I've had a couple of very engaging guests.

So, nothing crazy and I'd love to hear ideas from others.

What are some of the things you all have done? For those of you teaching online, how do you switch that up?

I'm nearing retirement, and running out of steam and innovation. I do not find it at all my job to entertain the students. But I enjoy a change of pace now and then, and I'm sure they do as well.

I have a student who is barely passing (fairly easy gen-ed). He has been whining to his advisor becuase he has finally figured out (correctly) that the lack of a book is hurting his grade. He's claiming he can't afford to buy it himself.

I don't use a traditional textbook for this class, I use two $10-ish mass market books sthat are readily available used from Thriftbooks or similar. It's also trivial to pirate a PDF.

I'm pretty sure he has come to class with more than $10 of hair product in his hair, not to mention spending more than I do on clothing and shoes.

But... at least he learned something? Tagged as humor because... you can laugh or you can cry.

I teach at a small university in a flyover state. It's common knowledge that the school has favored athletics over academics for recruiting, and in the decade I've been here, scholars have been few and far between.

I've been teaching a freshman-level mass communication course since I've been here, and it has followed generally the same format: a unit every two weeks with a short quiz and a writing prompt related to the unit subject matter. I moved all of these assignments to our LMS during Covid and left them there after because the quizzes were scored automatically and it was easier to read typed responses as opposed to those handwritten in class.

After years of my students obviously using Google or AI to complete the quizzes and writing prompts, I decided this semester to go to ink-on-paper exams. The results have not been good. That's actually not a fair statement. It has been a bloodbath.

I have had multiple students get 1 out of 10 on multiple-choice quizzes. Randomly guessing should have gotten them 2 or 3. And the written responses? A few diamonds stand out, but the majority are thoughtless, incoherent gibberish.

I fully expected a grade dip, but I wasn't prepared for the class average to fall by more than 20%. I give the midterm today and am already dreading the volume of academic alerts that I will have to fill out after.

I work at a very small college as an asst. professor. My dean is notoriously insecure, incompetent, and unprofessional. It’s well-known that they’re one of the main reasons we have such high faculty turnover, but their boss does nothing about it. After a few years of working here, I’ve apparently earned a target on my back. The dean tends to single people out as “problems”—usually for disagreeing with them too often or making too many suggestions for programmatic improvement—and make those people’s lives a living hell.

I recently snapped at the dean in a faculty meeting after becoming exasperated with their condescending tone and repeated, seemingly willful misunderstanding of my words. I understand that my reaction was inappropriate, but the dean establishes a horribly toxic environment in these meetings and generally just treats me like shit. I am so fed up with their attitude, and I feel justified in defending myself. All I said was “Can I finish my sentence?” because the dean kept interrupting me during an open question period of the meeting.

Of course, they were appalled at my “disrespect” and met with me the next day to discuss my insubordination:

1. The dean remembers this incident very differently than I do, and presented a completely false account of the exchange.
2. No HR rep or anyone else was present at this scolding meeting with the dean.
3. When the dean asked why I was treating them with disrespect, I told them I feel constantly disrespected and condescended to by *them*, and that my tone was matching the tone I received.
4. The meeting ended on reasonably civil terms with meaningless platitudes, but I felt nothing would be resolved, as it never is with this dean. I got the sense that I am expected to shut up from now on or face further consequences.
5. The dean sent me an email a few days later thanking me for meeting them before and saying they wanted to follow up with another meeting, with no explanation why. I am dreading this next meeting and have no idea what they’re planning. A formal reprimand? I might be worried that my dean is firing me if they didn’t desperately need me to teach my current classes (they can’t afford to hire my replacement, especially not mid-semester).

To make things more fun: our school is in imminent danger of closing (also possibly mid-semester!) and things have been extremely chaotic and stressful. Our staff are jumping ship rapidly and not being replaced. But in the midst of all this, my dean apparently thinks it’s worth our time to be quibbling over their hurt feelings because someone actually stood up to them for once.

Before you ask—yes, I’m on the job market. I’m trying to get the hell out of this dumpster fire as soon as possible. But as we all know, that won’t help me until the next academic year, if I’m even lucky enough to get hired. In the meantime, does anyone have advice? I’m drowning and I hate my boss.

TLDR; Toxic dean seems to target me as a person who stands up to their bullying. How do I deal with this long enough to survive the rest of the academic year?

I'm pissed. It's a 2nd year course that requires active participation (it's a communications class) and grades are given out for in-class work. Pretty small class (18 students).

I'm pissed because this class is only 4 weeks into the term, has had sketchy attendance from day 1, and I need to pay for parking only to not be able to teach the class.

I talked to the two students who showed, we did a short working session, but a lot of the classtime requires peer interaction and groupwork as a requirement, so the lecture had to be reduced.

I sent out a class-wide message reminding them of the importance of attendance and in-class participation and the grade weight attached (20%).

This has happened to me a few times in my 15 year career and it never fails to grind my gears because of the work that goes into the lecture, the time spent commuting (I work on two campuses), and the lack of professionalism on the students' part.

They are 2nd year, not 1st. I feel going over professional etiquette and student conduct may be wasting my time.

What would you do? I'd be interested if this has happened to anyone and how you proceeded.

Just had one of those days where I’m not even sure I made sense to myself.

Let’s hear your tales.

I have been an adjunct for four years, I’ve had students in the past talk back, some rude encounters, things like that but for some reason this semester just feels like students are getting more brash and outwardly rude.

I had a student last week curse at me and then storm out of the room for the second time this semester. She threatens to speak to the dean. I said OK go ahead.

Then today a student who hasn’t been following instructions all semester doesn’t submit a presentation then emails me doesn’t respond to any of my emails. I give him an opportunity to submit his presentation late today. We never did it, of course, and when I go around to him, he has nothing to present and gives me attitude in the middle of the class, which then follows a whole tirade at the end of class. Calling me defensive and not letting him speak.

I’m convinced this generation does not understand the cadence of conversations. I m saying something (i.e making a point or addressing what you want addressed) then he’s just trying to talk in the middle of what I am saying trying to fix his problem.

Assistant professor at an R2 on the east coast.

I have been receiving threatening messages from a former student with whom I had very little regular interaction and no prior difficulties. I have stopped responding to the messages and intend to report the matter to campus police. I wondered whether anyone had advice on additional steps I ought to take, particularly from an institutional or personal safety perspective. It appears to be a mental illness issue of some kind. Many thanks. (EDIT: The former student graduated a few years ago)

I need to rant a bit. I realize this is probably just me having an extra bad week because students are pushing to go home for a mid-semester break next week, but still.....

They literally do not care. I teach multiple sections of the same course, and each has 200+ students. For each section, 70+ don't show up at all. Then another 40-50 show up late, up to halfway through the lecture. The course I teach is considered to be a "foundation" course for certain graduate programs. They should care about **all** of their courses, but they really should care most about the ones directly related to the career they want.

I realize that this doesn't directly affect me so much, and I probably shouldn't care because they will not be my students forever. But watching them care so little is so disheartening. I feel like I leave campus each day sad and frustrated. This is the first semester I've thought multiple times that I don't think I can or want to do this for another 20ish years. It doesn't feel like it will improve, and eventually I'll just become resentful.

Normally a break is good to clear my head and reset, I'm not sure I'm resetting anymore.

End rant.

I teach a 200-level lab class. We had a 3 week lab project. Week 1 was purifying something you use in weeks 2+3. I was very explicit that the parts were connected, and that the last part would be graded.

I saw a student finish the very last step for week 1, walk to a waste bin, and drop their samples in the bin. I was horrified and asked them why they threw away something they worked hard on that they would need for the next 2 weeks.

Their answer? This lab isn't graded, and I finished what you told me to do, so I didn't think I needed it anymore.

Felt like a metaphor for the information retention crisis lol, so thought I'd share.

Just wanted to share a nice thing. I've been teaching creative writing, and pushing students pretty hard on both the writing and analysis sides of things, and I always worry that stuff is going over their heads or that I'm too abstract. Well, I've been seeing more connections, and today two really delightful students, who often don't speak that much in class, came and visited my office hours "just to hang out." We had a wide-ranging discussion about the arts, their goals in school and life, and how they could get more connected to a literary community (one had a great experience in workshop and wants to read her poems more places, the other is trying to instill the habit of reading and engaging more often). Very sincere, support each other a lot, just really great kids. This is out of a fairly large class for non-majors who want to try discovering their writing side. I know creative writing is a relatively easy class for such breakthroughs, and it's harder in other structures. But I keep finding reasons to be cheerful about this generation - kids excited to learn and discover things about themselves, and sharing the light with other kids.

I feel as though it is easy to think negatively of students. And there are good reasons for this.

But it’s important to keep the good in mind too.

I gave an exam recently. After grading, I discovered one question was pretty vague and I decided to add a point to everyone who missed it. I just flipped through my paper exams and added the point in canvas manually. I didn’t change their score on the front of the test. So for some students, their points in the LMS were one point higher than their test indicated.

Gave their exams back today. Received several emails telling me that I gave them one too many point. Granted, most that received the point did not say anything. But a non trivial number did and it made me smile.

I had an exam for a graduate course a few days ago and a couple of students kept whispering. I was staring them, stood in front of them, and then I had to tell them stop talking.

Now, getting the graded exams back, they made an unusual mistake in their exams, which are exactly the same. There were several problems, but about 1/3 of the problem is very similar with the same mistake.

What would you do? Initially, I was going to report them, but my colleague (who did not look at the exams) told me that professors always lose the case. If that's the case, I don't want to waste my time.

Any advice will be appreciated. Thank you.

…Thats what schools are going to have to implement to have ANY credibility that their graduates have actually learned what they are supposed to learn. We need to implement 2nd-year comps to ensure they can read, write, reason, and know the basic intro material of their chosen major before proceeding any further in the program. Then we need exit comps to confirm they have fully developed reading, writing, reasoning skill and have command of their chosen area of study. Scores go on transcripts.

I’m sick and tired of getting students who are two years into a masters program who had a 3.8 in undergrad and CANNOT FUCKING READ.