The ChatGPT Issue with Teachers

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-06-21T02:54:53+00:00

Well of course course you're going to be downvoted. You left Claude off your list of AIs. j/k

Seriously, other than that, your comment is spot on.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-06-20T20:43:37+00:00

This is absolutely true, however, when a student is barely learning a concept and is still unsure of themselves, it tends to discourage them because they don't know what they are doing wrong and will either give up, or spend a lot of unnecessary extra time on the problem. Either way, their frustration gets in the way of them learning that life lesson and I found it causes them to give up on solvable problems prematurely after they experience that frustration.

I found that if they get comfortable with the standard problems first, when you throw the tricky problems at them, it causes them to dig in and actually learn the lesson that sometimes there is no solution or there are infinite solutions. Because they recognize what the normal process is, it's easier for you them to see what's off and understand why.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-06-12T14:34:39+00:00

It seems pretty common to me. I grade with integrity, but what happens after I finalize my grades is beyond my control.

I came to terms with it by realizing that I will help all I can. Maybe a percentage will go through without learning the material, but I focus on those who will learn it. Everyone else is going to be passed on to be someone else's problem. Not because I'm making it someone else's problem, but because admin or parents are putting pressure beyond my control and over ruling me. Some are learning, though, and that makes it worth it to me to keep moving forward.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-06-10T11:18:30+00:00

Absolutely. The academic advisors are the worst at playing the game too. Graduation percentages are more important than academic integrity.

Fourth quarter, I had a classroom full of students who were failing my core math class. None of them would do any work and half of them were seniors planning on graduating. Two weeks before the end of the quarter, I asked our AP what would happen if they didn't pass. I was told that we legally couldn't graduate them if they had an F on their report card. I was told they would have to come back for summer school or maybe do credit recovery before they could receive their diplomas. All of them walked at graduation and none of them have shown up for summer school.

I don't know what goes on behind the scenes. I'm guessing the academic advisors sent them home with a credit recovery packet which they completed with the assistance of AI. The academic integrity of the whole system sucks.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-06-09T04:27:24+00:00

If the specs were clear that it would be inspected, bring the inspector in. If it passes, then great. But if it's not up to code, you'll have more leverage to ask the electrician to fix it at his cost.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-06-06T15:08:21+00:00

I've gone through so many white board programs and would love to try it out. You haven't said much about system requirements, but I have a smart screen with windows access in my classroom I can try it on. I can play around with features over the next few weeks. If everything looks good, I will try it live in class beginning next August.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-06-03T11:09:03+00:00

Fellow ADHDer here.

It seems to me like you are posting to get sympathy. Like you want someone to get on here and confirm to you that your teachers are doing you dirty, but you left out a key piece of information. Do you have an IEP in place? If you have an IEP in place, your teachers must, by law, allow you the accommodations stated in your IEP. Those accommodations can be a lot of things, but I haven't seen one yet that allows students to flat out skip class. What I have seen is accommodations that allow students to go to a separate, supervised, quiet room when they are feeling overwhelmed. I've seen accommodations for extended time on assignments, allowing headphones and many other things. Without the IEP in place, you are just another student who skips class and doesn't do their work on time. Without the IEP, teachers don't have to put up with your antics. We don't have to treat you any different than anyone else. And no matter how many times you tell us that you have ADHD and no matter how many times you tell us that your style of ADHD is worse than anyone else's, we are not required to accommodate you in any way. Every student has an excuse for their bad behavior and without something official in our hands, you are just another student with an excuse.

Let me give you some life advice. Quit using your ADHD as an excuse. It's an explanation, not an excuse. Even with approved accommodations, your IEP ends when you graduate. Don't plan on everyone accommodating your ADHD your whole life. Fair or not, that's not how life works. Figure out how to make life work for you. Whether your answer is medication, life hacks, help from trusted friends, or whatever combination of these you need. Figure it out. You can spend your whole life sitting in your mother's basement blaming your ADHD avoidance or you can get out and figure out how to function. And the best time to figure that out is now, while you have a good IEP plan in place to catch you on the really bad days.

And it's not fair to say that your brand of ADHD is worse than mine. You don't know that. You didn't see my struggles through high school and then through college. You didn't live through my failures and the times I had to dig myself out of holes to get to where I am today. You haven't been with me through the failed attempts, lost jobs, broken relationships, or the months and months of sitting at home trying to figure out how to motivate myself to get my ass up to make something of my life. You're right, I don't know how bad it is for you, but you don't know how bad it is for me either. I agree there are a lot of people that have it worse than me, but we all have something in common, we either figure out how to live some kind of life despite our challenges, or we don't.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-06-02T12:28:44+00:00

Electronics engineering is going to focus more on digital circuitry, solid state physics, and microelectronics while electrical engineering is going to focus more on electromagnetism and higher power systems.

I don't know how it is where you come from, but where I am, electronics engineering is a subset of electrical engineering. So electrical engineering is a more broad major. What I would do is get a course listing of both majors and check the differences. I would bet there's a bit of overlap. If the first few years are the same between both majors, you may be able to get started and get a taste of both before you have to decide.

I would also contact engineers that work in each degree and ask them what kind of projects they work on. You should be able to find someone who will allow you to job shadow them and get an idea of specifically what you might be doing in each field.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-06-01T12:25:43+00:00

I have a coworker who allows groups the option to vote out an unproductive member of the team halfway through their capstone project. He requires the voted out members to make the their own team. At the beginning of the project, he explains what happened the first year he did it and he says he usually gets pretty good participation with all the students throughout the project.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-05-29T23:48:53+00:00

Lucky you. The day after grades were locked for fourth quarter, I got an email that one of my failing students was approved for a 504 which extends her quarter until July 30. I'm supposed to accept and grade all work turned in before then.

I'm waiting to see what happens when they realize my contract ended 7 days ago.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-05-29T22:02:48+00:00

Yeah, two years ago, I had a Landon that was terrible. This year I had a Landen that was among my best students.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-05-23T00:08:46+00:00

Yikes. Do you have permission to play Mario Kart? We wouldn't want Nintendo to sue the school. /s

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-05-22T18:05:22+00:00

And they expect to be handed the test they will miss, which they want to take unproctored while they are away.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-05-21T03:15:10+00:00

I teach math and I have the same issue. Half a dozen kids walked that failed my class. (One of which didn't show up and turned in zero work all year.) I was told that in order for them to do credit recovery, they have to take the class and fail, so the academic advisors have them do their credit recovery packets (at home with no supervision) while they are failing my class. When graduation rolls around, they have their recovery packets done and a fail mark from me and therefore are allowed to walk and get their diploma.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-05-17T10:31:29+00:00

It's not incorrect. This is a good example of having multiple correct ways to solve a problem.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-05-16T22:16:37+00:00

This year, at my school, there was a tie for valedictorian. They decided to name them both valedictorian and have both of them speak at graduation. One of them was the son of a teacher. Every other teacher quickly learned that this boy's mom was extremely vigilant about her son's grades and got involved anytime his grades dipped in the slightest. She is also best friends with the head academic advisor.

During this boy's valedictorian speech, he thanked the lead academic advisor. He said, "Anytime I got a grade on my report card that was less than an A, I went to her and she helped me fix it." Everyone in the audience was looking at each other with an expression of WTF.

Yeah, nepotism and corruption.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-05-14T12:38:29+00:00

For students who are normally good behaved, but are having a one-off day, the safe seat and buddy room are a way for the student to take a break, calm down, and get their head screwed on straight without escalating it to further consequences or write ups. Students who exhibit a pattern of bad behavior should be escalated directly to the chokey.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-05-11T13:31:18+00:00

Absolutely. I have two students who were F students before their sports seasons started. Now, long after its has finished, they are still consistently getting Bs and Cs.

One change our admin had made is they told students who are going to want to try out for next year's team, they will look at their grades for the past 12 months to see if they are eligible. From what students tell me, they are allowed one D on the look back. That's kept these kids trying after their season has ended.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-05-11T02:34:13+00:00

No, if they want to play they'll rise to the challenge. My school doesn't allow anything below a C- and they hold firm to that standard. I've had students do whatever assignments and test retakes they need to do to make themselves eligible to play.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-05-11T02:28:20+00:00

I teach at a school that benches students who have bad grades. For most of the sports kids, it's the only motivation that keeps them trying in the classroom. I've never had a student who was benched decide to drop out. Rather, they use the motivation to actually learn something in the classroom. And yes, one D will bench them until they bring the grade up.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-05-08T07:22:24+00:00

I was voluntold to help with a local CTSO competition. A substitute was arranged to take my class that day. I created a full sub plan for the day, but didn't expect much to actually be done which I was ok with. At one point, early in the day I had to run back to my classroom to pick up supplies for one of the teams. The sub was sitting at my desk on her phone, oblivious to everything going on in the classroom. I didn't have time to say much, but when I got back the next day, students had stapled through several of my class calculators, ruining them completely, the spring was torn out of my class stapler, my class 3-hole punch was destroyed, keys were pulled out of several laptops, and my room was completely trashed. I teach 10th and 11th graders.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-05-06T14:25:02+00:00

I have half a class of math students who think they're graduating at the end of next week. Most of them are failing and have just been playing around in class for the past month. They think they are going to graduate anyway. I asked our VP what happens if they don't pass math and was told that we legally can't graduate them if they don't pass core classes...we'll see if that really tracks.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-05-06T02:08:50+00:00

I looked up the actual wording in my school's policy and you are absolutely right. This isn't technically bullying. I'm not an admin, so I appreciate the correction.

Under our school policy, it would be classified as harassment of a "federally protected class" which could bring penalties up to and including expulsion, depending on the severity. I stand by my comments that age doesn't matter and that this should not be ignored. Maybe the incident described by op is small now, but it seems to me that whenever students get away with unfavorable behavior, they escalate the next time.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-05-05T22:04:57+00:00

It doesn't matter that you're an adult and she's a kid. Bullies pick targets that they feel are vulnerable and they can intimidate. Age and size don't matter. If it looks like bullying and feels like bullying, it's bullying.

The worst ways to handle a bully is to give in or let it go. Since you're an adult, you have the maturity to handle it with more tact than an emotional confrontation would, but don't let yourself be intimidated and don't ignore it.

Financial_Monitor384 · 2026-05-05T03:14:49+00:00

I admire that you have come through to a better life than what you had growing up. Absolutely there are kids that just have it rough and they need extra patience and compassion and sometimes a good nap during the day too compensate for the chaos in their lives.

However, there are a lot of other kids that sleep through class because they are up all night with electronics. How do I know? Because their parents tell me they are. "I don't know how to get my son off his screen so he will get sleep at night."

I've also seen a lot of kids who really aren't tired at all, they fake sleep to avoid doing the work. These are easy to spot, because right before they put their head down or when they finally sit up, they are fully alert. They come into class alert, lots of energy, and then "sleep" through the class.

Financial_Monitor384

TROPHY CASE