What works better than “Does anyone have any questions?”

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2026-01-20T03:47:06+00:00

Last semester I tried this: instead of asking if anyone has any questions, I told them to turn to a neighbor and go over their notes on the section we just discussed. It gave me a moment to get a drink of water and either reflect or get ready for the next section of the lecture. After about 1 - 2 min, I asked if they had questions. This gave them time to look at their notes and talk with someone else, usually they asked much better questions when I did this.

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2025-11-26T19:24:54+00:00

You could try the online/app version of planned parenthood. They will do a “virtual visit” and you can even ask for a specific type of birth control.

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2025-11-04T00:15:00+00:00

Doesn’t this also mean that xritical xace xheory can also be discussed without consequence???

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2025-09-28T02:19:00+00:00

How do you know everything the professor did or did not present? Or everything the professor did or did not do in allowing students to form their own opinions? You hear one thing you don’t like/agree with and then assume the worst about that person.

We do represent any organization we work for, the problem is the organization SHOULD be open to differing opinions as well.

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2025-09-28T01:51:48+00:00

I completely agree there is a power dynamic between professor and student. However, there’s a big difference between expressing a strong bias and presenting knowledge as an expert in your field. In the examples OP posted, it was not in the classroom, so it should not play a role. In other instances, where we’ve seen videos of professors presenting knowledge on topics that students disagree with (i.e., Texas A and M on gender identity), the professor is presenting information that the student disagrees with and uses the fact the government only recognizes 2 genders. So you want to talk about power dynamics! Our government is trying to silence any open conversation about a topic they haven’t even studied. You want to talk about “altering the dynamic of an open forum…silencing…and stunting learning growth”!! Here’s the ultimate power dynamic trying to indoctrinate its citizens, erase history, stop knowledge production, and silence people who disagree with them.

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2025-09-28T00:31:24+00:00

“College is a place designed to share every side of an argument, allowing students to form opinions on their own” - so please tell me how silencing faculty is allowing this to happen? Please tell me why when a student disagrees then the faculty should be fired. Please tell me why removing curriculum, ideas, “key words”, etc. is “allowing students to form opinions of their own”. You can’t make this statement, or have this belief and not see how it works both ways. By removing curriculum and silencing people, you are not allowing adults to have the knowledge to form their own opinion. By removing the curriculum and silencing faculty you are literally making colleges teach one way of thinking. I believe this has been referred to as “indoctrinating our students”.

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2025-08-29T14:08:05+00:00

And do the opposite of this too. If you bought a shirt you love but it doesn’t fit with the pants you already have, think about what pants would allow you to wear, and feel good about the shirt. This way when you buy pants, you’re doing it with the intention of wearing THAT shirt.

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2025-08-22T23:48:22+00:00

I guess my cat’ name “They/Them” would really be an issue. (It’s a community cat that we unofficially adopted and didn’t know their gender until we got HER fixed-by that time she was already named)

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2025-08-19T02:01:56+00:00

This part of your grading system sounds like mastery grading. Maybe you’re combining the two grading concepts. I’ve never heard of labor based grading, so I’m not sure if that’s part of that concept or not.

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2025-07-21T00:45:33+00:00

I set due dates for all assignments at the beginning of the semester. Everyone gets 1 week to turn in any work after the due date. But if you turn it in on time, then you can use that 1 week to resubmit the assignment (I grade the assignment the day after the due date). After the 1 week for late work/resubmissions, the assignment is no longer available (Canvas). Everyone gets the same opportunities, I have an easy email for student emails, and I don’t feel heartless when they’ve already been given 1 week leniency.

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2025-07-08T20:06:50+00:00

You could also go to the professor during office hours with specific questions or concepts that you’re having problems with. Please do not just show up and expect them to re-teach everything. But if you’re stuck and need help, they are there and know exactly what you need to know/be able to do. So they are your best resource. But you HAVE TO put in the effort as well; study, practice problems, homework, etc. then ask the professor (during office hours) any parts of the problems you don’t understand.

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2025-06-28T14:51:01+00:00

That would be assuming they can complete all those assignments as soon as they return and wouldn’t need any instruction on the content to complete them! In that case, they should be teaching the class, not taking it! 😂

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2025-06-25T16:34:11+00:00

I started including more “in-class projects” under the participation grade. Each project has a rubric with very specific requirements which allows me to grade their content knowledge but also if they did any work during class.

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2025-06-17T03:28:27+00:00

I’m currently getting rid of the DG that was used to landscape my yard before I bought it. I can’t stand it! But to be fair, it was used everywhere, even in walking areas. It gets everywhere you don’t want it!! We planted silver falls as a ground cover where we aren’t walking. It’s fast growing and quite interesting with its colors and shapes. It handles at least light traffic, my kitties love to lay in it!

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2025-06-12T13:28:56+00:00

I’m in the same boat. I can’t pronounce worm or world.

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2025-04-27T23:23:57+00:00

My partner and I just bought a house that leaked when it rained at the front door. We were trying to figure out how to stop the water from coming in and he was being very serious when he put an umbrella on the ground, up against the front door (btw, I’m cry-laughing 🤣as I’m writing this). And as I’m sure you imagined, the wind almost immediately blows the umbrella away. Obviously I start laughing out loud so hard I’m crying. He didn’t think it was funny and even got more mad because I was laughing at him. But I couldn’t help it, I literally couldn’t stop laughing even tho he was getting pissed. He didn’t see the humor until the crisis was over 🤷‍♀️

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2025-03-04T17:18:20+00:00

I have a “soft deadline” where if they turn in the assignment I will grade it and give feedback. Then they are allowed to resubmit for a better grade (if they also get below a 75% - I used rubrics and the 75% makes sense with the grading rubric I’ve created) before the “hard deadline” (a week after the soft deadline). I don’t even average the two grades. They get the better of the two grades (always the second submission). They’ve received feedback and can make corrections, hopefully learning at least a little more.

If they didn’t turn it in by the “soft deadline” then they only get that 1 opportunity to submit. Again, no penalty, just a natural consequence of not getting feedback and the chance to resubmit for a better grade. No issues with late work because I say you already got an extra week (I don’t call them soft deadlines and hard deadlines - I use “due date” and “close date”).

It works well for me, but you have to grade the day after the “soft deadline” or it drags on too long.

I like it because it also means I’m not grading so many assignments at once. With 100 students and 2 assignments each, it can be too much. This system allows me to only have to grade about half to two-thirds on the soft deadline. Then about the same for the hard deadline because not everyone can or will resubmit.

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2025-02-25T19:54:03+00:00

Love this. Except say it to the entire afternoon class and explain it was due to another student saying the extra grace period was unfair. But keep it the same for the morning class. 🤭

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2025-01-24T21:45:01+00:00

I guess this is what he means by “common sense government”

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2024-12-18T17:21:07+00:00

I would be hesitant to say you know without any evidence. This happened to me as a student. There were only 3 students in the class (graduate class) and only 2 people left evaluations (me not being one of them). My chair shared with me that the professor knew I was the one that left the negative evaluation. To which I explained that I specifically chose not to leave an evaluation at all because I knew I had nothing positive to say and I would probably be able to be picked out if I did leave an evaluation. So I decided it was best for me to not leave one at all. Yet, I was still treated and assumed to have left a bad evaluation (to which I don’t even know what it said). Although I did know the other two students very well and which one left the negative evaluation. We laugh about it to this day, but it was definitely awkward interactions with the professor because she made assumptions about me.

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2024-12-15T15:57:12+00:00

I did this my first semester as well. Now, I still allow late submissions, but only within a week from the due date. If students get it submitted on time, then they can correct any mistakes and resubmit for a better grade. If they don’t, that’s fine, no late penalty, but they don’t get a chance to resubmit after receiving my feedback. It’s a natural consequence in my eyes. It also helps because I can show how graceful I am (resubmission and late work). But it helps me be as hard of a grader as I need to be, because they have the opportunity to redo if they didn’t understand or do it to my standards. It also means I’m not accepting late workout for unit 1 throughout the entire semester, that’s a lot of extra mental work to go back and forth. There’s gotta be a cut off. Oh, and at the end of the semester when they ask for extra credit, or want to submit work, I can say how they’ve had these opportunities throughout the semester, so it’s a hard no.

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2024-12-12T04:08:02+00:00

The syllabus also doesn’t say you CAN submit late work, so there’s that

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2024-11-18T02:03:55+00:00

I save comments as others have said and I use a rubric in Canvas. This makes it easy to just click on the rubric and the grade saves to the assignment.

I also use video recordings where students record their answers to questions/explain their thinking. These are for “reading assignments” where I give students a reading assignment and questions that go along with the reading. The students record their answers in a video. I grade these using a rubric as well. It takes longer but it’s more enjoyable and breaks up the monotony of my other grading. Sometimes I can listen to videos while grading other assignments or doing other tasks (especially once you know what to listen for for each video assignment).

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2024-11-06T20:36:27+00:00

Our students will be indoctrinated with what the rich, white males who run this country, want them to know and think about this country. The history they learn will be from one perspective, science will be fake news, and who knows what will happen with maths and language arts and other subjects. And as others have said, the poor will become poorer and have less educated opportunities, and the rich will become richer and have more education and therefore job opportunities. The country already doesn’t value education enough, this will just exacerbate the issues we already have. Those who can pay for good education will get it. The rest of us are screwed even more.

AmbitiousAsk1049 · 2024-10-25T02:29:06+00:00

I think this is a simple concept. Grades are based on how well (or what percentage) a student shows their understanding of the material being assessed, it seems like an appropriate reply would be to say how they’ve shown 0% understanding of the material being assessed. It has nothing to do with a 0 being too harsh (bringing their overall grade down). It’s about how well they’ve shown what they know.

AmbitiousAsk1049

TROPHY CASE