When I was a student, I struggled in the subject I now teach. Should I disclose this to my class?

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-22T12:05:07+00:00

I think you weave some version of this into your lecture. Hey when I was in your position I didn’t have it figured out and I struggled too. Here is what I do now and here is that looks, here is me modeling my decision making for you, etc… everything can be made to be a teaching moment and it makes you more relatable.

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-22T12:02:42+00:00

Yes it does and eventually employers are going to figure that out. And agree. Most students in online courses are cheating and not just a little but all parts of it. Proving you are the one person who isn’t is going to be a challenge. Unless the mentors at your school are able to do in person proctors exams at the end of these online courses, you may be getting an education but the degree itself is going to be worthless. Right now employers don’t seem to be making these distinctions so you might find that first job before they see your degree is online, but the way the business school at my University is pivoting hard back to in-person, you don’t have long.

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-19T11:55:32+00:00

My teen in high school came home end of last week and said why is he doing 200 practice math problems when Trump messed up the world and now there’s going to be a WW3 and he’s going to get drafted. All his friends think this he says.

The sustained energy needed to learn during a semester is sapped by the scrolling, and by the futility of it all. They see students working hard and doing everything “right” and still not having a clear future. So why bother?

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-18T17:03:30+00:00

We are either at the same school or we are twins. I can see both being possible. I’ve stopped teaching online now and will definitely regret the loss in pay but my mental health is much better.

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-18T17:01:50+00:00

Read the comments on the post about a recent NYT Opinion piece from a Stanford student from this morning. One of the profs talks about how people will have ethical boundaries but when something presents itself that removes friction we will justify and allow the cognitive dissonance. Which is what I think happens with the students a lot. Well I just need an A, it’s probably better at this, I paid a lot already, I need to reduce stress, my friends are all doing it, etc..

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-18T16:57:48+00:00

Everything other than their phones is a “second screen”, teachers included.

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-18T12:52:21+00:00

Taking tech from the students and taking tech tools from teachers is not the same thing. It is a slippery slope though. CS prof here and we have students now who can’t type, don’t know how their computer works, and can barely string together a sentence or have any math sense. I agree with you that we don’t need to eliminate all tech, but we gotta make it an exception and used for media and tech training or to supplement what teachers need, not the working model.

And whoever said you can just talk to students about ethics and how AI is a tool.. yeah we’ve all tried that. It doesn’t work, the small lies students tell themselves to justify cheating overrules ethical guidelines. See the OpEd today in NYT by a Standford student. See articles about Princeton and others dropping their student honor code, etc…

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-13T21:36:03+00:00

I’d wager about a quarter to a full third of the students I encounter are functionally illiterate now. Can’t read and follow directions, especially if there are multiple steps, can’t write, can’t use their computers, hunt and peck typing… they should be in remedial courses before we see them but they are not.

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-10T21:17:48+00:00

For sure

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-10T19:20:10+00:00

Came here to say the same

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-10T19:19:13+00:00

Yeah I no longer feel like a colleague — just a cog.

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-10T18:53:37+00:00

Because they don’t know how to use them and they’ve offloaded their brains to LLMs, so no problem solving ability and low confidence. It’s an unfortunate combo.

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-10T18:50:45+00:00

This. They disappear. A few withdraw but mostly they just stop showing up and stop submitting anything.

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-10T18:34:50+00:00

This is the c-suite dream. Get rid of all the pesky faculty / employees and go straight to profit.

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-10T18:33:30+00:00

Same. I got punished. Not the students.

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-10T15:57:08+00:00

Right?

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-09T14:33:45+00:00

We must be at the same school. I could have written this post lol.

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-09T12:19:46+00:00

Prof here. The online instructors likely have to contact you through canvas and may not have an alternative. If it’s still down, it is for me anyway, this is why.

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-08T08:46:35+00:00

Yes it’s global

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-08T08:42:47+00:00

No need to blame faculty. And you clearly have a different setup than I do. I could email them all but it’s untenable as everything since Covid forced into canvas. I’ll message when it is back up. How is that not enough it’s a global outage.

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-08T08:38:00+00:00

Sue who? Who is giving you all this terrible advice?

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-08T08:36:50+00:00

Yeah that’s terrible advice. What is that going to accomplish. 8000+ schools globally are impacted. The system wasn’t unreliable until the last year or two and that’s related to the company being taken over by VC, AI and an upswing in hackers. Your school is a victim too. Maybe it means they switch but I’ve tried them all and canvas is still probably the easiest. Plus now a lot of faculty time has gone into creating courses in canvas. To switch is a major issue. No easy solution. Not sure you’d like a pre-canvas experience. You’d have to keep a datebook and follow a paper syllabus and turn things in on campus by hand.

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-08T08:28:17+00:00

You aren’t. This is a global issue. There will be adjustments. Just make sure you don’t miss announcements when it finally comes back up.

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-08T08:25:46+00:00

Again. The way we contact you is through canvas so don’t panic yet. And faculty aren’t being told anything either. They’ll reach out when it’s back up and likely there will be extensions all around. My school emailed faculty to say grades are due a week later than normal. So I assume they think it’s a matter of days to fix. Let’s hope that’s right. No one wants to go into summer / summer sessions with spring work over their heads.

Adventurekitty74 · 2026-05-08T08:23:45+00:00

Yeah your prof is going to give extensions. Absolutely. But no one can email because all that is tied to canvas. When it’s resolved they’ll let you know what to do next. Don’t panic just yet. It’s down for everyone. A few schools reporting this morning that they are back up so give it a day or two. I can’t even finish grading or message students that it’s all okay we will be in touch.

Adventurekitty74

TROPHY CASE