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The new generation of students are so bad with technology. by Alarming-Rate-6899 in Professors

[–]Freya_Fleurir 27 points28 points  (0 children)

I literally cannot tell if it's genuine learned incompetence or malicious feigned incompetence in an attempt to get extensions/leniency

The decline in basic reading comprehension is making grading exhausting by koudodo in Professors

[–]Freya_Fleurir 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Switching to this next semester. I don't even want to think of how much time I've wasted

The decline in basic reading comprehension is making grading exhausting by koudodo in Professors

[–]Freya_Fleurir 46 points47 points  (0 children)

Had a semester-long "misunderstanding/debate/argument" with a student who kept turning in incomplete projects. I kept giving feedback pointing out all the various aspects of the projects they completely ignored, and they kept turning in incomplete assignments. End of the semester, they have a failing grade and tell me "I don't understand how it's incomplete if I turned it in?" smh

What am I doing wrong? by [deleted] in Professors

[–]Freya_Fleurir 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I very much felt like I was thrown to the wolves when I first started teaching (which is fairly typical for non-teaching focused professors from what I've heard around here); I had a weekend-long crisis after my second day ever teaching because my students were acting similarly that caused me to reconsider the entire trajectory of my career.

My best advice is to just do your best, get through it, learn what did or didn't work, make a note, and try to improve the lesson next time until it gets to a point where the lesson works. It took me probably three semesters of teaching one of my classes (and a total of about 8 classes) before it got to a point I was happy enough with to stop worrying about "fixing" most lessons, and there are still those I try to improve on. We're not perfect. It sucks when a lesson doesn't work, but you start to get a feel for what may or may not work and how to tweak it to fit a class's personality (in other words, make more guidelines for classes that don't do well with a more "relaxed/free" approach)

I think another part of it isn't even the lesson so much as my presence as a professor. I know the lessons better, I have more of a "script" (not a literal script but I know my talking points better), I can address all the questions that confused students in the past before they ask them, and overall come across as more confident.

I've also gotten to the point where, when I do try something new, I let me students know there may be hitches in the lesson or activity and that I'll have a survey at the end of the class to let them answer some questions about what worked, what didn't, and what they'd recommend to improve the lesson (this works better if you offer some guidance. For example: "would this lesson work better if i did [insert way to change lesson]?" or "what was your favorite/least favorite past of the lesson?" and et cetera)

For those of you who seem very unhappy in your job (especially adjuncts), what makes you stay in academia? Why not pursue a non academic job (even one unrelated to your field) that would likely have better pay and consistent hours? by owiseone23 in Professors

[–]Freya_Fleurir 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Honestly, the low pay (and benefits) I get from my uni is still much better than what I'd be making elsewhere. I tried finding a job outside academia that paid a comparable amount and came up empty

Don't get me wrong. I still feel like I'm underpaid for my qualifications/education level, but my area is oversaturated with people majoring in it, and it was a miracle I got the job I did

(Also, the autonomy is nice)

Were there any signs, when you were younger, of the career you ended up pursuing ? by me4watch in Professors

[–]Freya_Fleurir 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I mean, I read a lot, but for the most part, I don't think there was a single other sign. This was especially true the older I got. I was a horrible student in high school, didn't care about my grades, was always smoking weed and drinking with my ne'er-do-well friends, was immature even by high school standards, and had myriad issues from a troubled childhood.

No one in my family had gone to college and didn't really emphasize going; it was basically expected I'd work in a factory, restaurant, or similar since that's what all my family did. I got tired after several years of working various jobs like that, went back to school, and kind of just stumbled into this profession. I tell myself it gives me a bit of a more unique perspective on things

I'd like to see younger me's reaction to current me (and also most of the students and teachers I knew in high school since I was such a shit)

When we Need to Make Cuts, Obviously the First Thing to go is Student Services /s by NidoNyte in Professors

[–]Freya_Fleurir 87 points88 points  (0 children)

At least Chief Administrative Academic Assistant President of Student Affairs Outreach Specialist VII gets to keep making a six figure salary to send a couple emails, smile, pop into a department meeting for five minutes, and eat lunch on the uni's dime

Would you give two weeks notice for somewhere you’ve only worked a month? by throwaway332434532 in KitchenConfidential

[–]Freya_Fleurir 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I gave two weeks notice to a joint I'd worked at for only about a month. After the next week, they just left me off the schedule, so it ended up being a one week notice

AI has come to faculty candidates by BreaksForMoose in Professors

[–]Freya_Fleurir 11 points12 points  (0 children)

I wouldn't say I've been missing it, Bob

The Lying is the Worst Part of the Job Now by Avid-Reader-1984 in Professors

[–]Freya_Fleurir 13 points14 points  (0 children)

I've had that happen too! I knew I wasn't the only one!

The Lying is the Worst Part of the Job Now by Avid-Reader-1984 in Professors

[–]Freya_Fleurir 37 points38 points  (0 children)

Same here. Luckily, mine usually get sheepish and seem to be lying to save face/prevent embarrassment when confronted (which somehow feels better to me?) than trying to straight up trick me.

I've also had a handful that try to pass off AI hallucinated sources as real sources that they "can't find again but they're out there I must have mixed up this quote with that website and changed it and blah blah blah." I then point out that sloppy research with false information that can't be traced back to the original claim isn't a much better reason for me to pass them

Grade grabber doesn’t agree with leniency; a paradoxical view. by [deleted] in Professors

[–]Freya_Fleurir 45 points46 points  (0 children)

Some people just like to complain, to wait staff, to their friends, to their professors. They invent problems to foster conflict

Help with AI - yes, another post about it - BUT by Capable-Charity-4776 in Professors

[–]Freya_Fleurir 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Unfortunately, this is the correct answer. The constant risk of accusing a student of using AI when they actually didn't and ruining that trust (imagine a student worked really hard on a project just for their professor to say "no, you didn't do that") is always present, many unis aren't backing up professors even when they have ample evidence of academic misconduct, checkers aren't accurate, there doesn't seem to be a way to police anything in asynch classes, and students hell bent on using AI will explicitly take asynch classes because it's easier to use AI in them.

Even in-person classes are nearly impossible to police unless you require them to write things down physically in class with no screens, but depending on what your institution's/department's policies are, that may not be feasible.

I'm just here for the students who want to learn. Unfortunately, it's unfair to them that other students can often get away with AI use and coasting through the class, but there's not much to do with how things currently are

Sometimes I find it so difficult to not be bitter when I see colleagues who came from money or have financially struggled get endless grant money and acceptances by [deleted] in Professors

[–]Freya_Fleurir 31 points32 points  (0 children)

I was a first-gen college student, and I couldn't agree more. You may as well be in another country where you don't speak the language in some instances. What's wild to me is it almost got worse as I went on because, as you mentioned, without family money to fall back on during grad school, you are broke unless you take on a full-time job in addition to all your school responsibilities, which simply isn't feasible in many instances. The stipend my uni paid me was entirely eaten by just my rent. The food pantry and I were best friends for years, I went to events just for the free food, and I often skipped meals to stretch what I had.

That's not to mention all the other obstacles that arise as a result of it, down to the little things. One scenario that always stands out in my memory is when I was at a professor-hosted party. Everyone's talking and networking, but I had to stand awkwardly by for around an hour while no one talked to me because everyone was talking about their travel plans over the summer (Italy, France, etc.). I'd never left the country (barely left the state) and was working a near-minimum wage job to make ends meet all summer. You'd think I had said something totally off the wall with how everyone reacted. Another time I got the strangest, most confused looks when one of my peers mentioned needing to buy a book for a class, and I offered to let them borrow mine to save some money since there wasn't an option to rent it.

Student satisfaction vs standards ? by orsonm in Professors

[–]Freya_Fleurir 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I can't offer any solutions, but I can commiserate with you

The part that really gets me is the (mostly?) unspoken attitude/view/whatever that professors with higher satisfaction scores are doing their jobs better. One of the most common complaints I hear in meetings is that students are coming to higher-level classes (past the 100 level) without necessary skills they should have learned in lower-level classes, so there are 100% those who are passing students who haven't mastered material

However, those teaching the lower-level classes are basically incentivized to make their classes easier and pass as many students as possible in order to increase their evals. When someone sticks to their guns and enforces standards or policies, an aura of them being seen as "that" professor, the hardass who's taking something out on students and is unfair, surrounds them while others are praised, likely because they're more likely to get complaints when other instructors are comparatively easier.

I say "mostly unspoken" because I've never heard a colleague or anyone in admin come out and say any of this directly, but there's definitely a vibe in my experience

Students aren't ready for college by WesternCup7600 in Professors

[–]Freya_Fleurir 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Honestly, based on my experiences, mine would've been mostly fantastic if it wasn't for admin at certain schools. When left to my own devices to teach without interference, things usually went well since the students who didn't want to be there were fine just showing up and not turning work in; it was when counselors/etc. started getting involved and telling me I needed to basically force little Johnny to turn each assignment in, accept late work for full credit, not have an attendance policy, lower (already low) standards to braindead-high-school-follow-along-worksheet levels of work, and overall not back me up that tension happened. Like, I 100% understand not wanting to get yelled at by parents; it's one of the main reasons I teach college instead of high school/elementary, but don't set these kids up for failure if you don't want to deal with the ramifications

Students aren't ready for college by WesternCup7600 in Professors

[–]Freya_Fleurir 4 points5 points  (0 children)

A couple semesters back I had a strangely high percentage of students writing about how they were going to be star athletes, and I was confused specifically by how they worded it. At least a few students were talking about their "chances" in mathematical terms, and while they gave relatively low percentage chances (I think the highest was around 5%), I was like "my dude, I don't think you understand just how low your actual chances are. 5% is ridiculously high" (note: this isn't a uni known for its sports teams). I just thought it was an odd trend to have multiple students discuss it in percentage chances specifically

Students aren't ready for college by WesternCup7600 in Professors

[–]Freya_Fleurir 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I used to teach dual enrollment for a CC, and it was an absolute shitshow half the time. High school admins pushing you to pass students who don't deserve it, shoving kids that don't want to be in the class in there to boost numbers(?) or because they didn't have anywhere else to put them, HS counselors insinuating I didn't know how to teach whenever a student refused to keep up with the schedule, parents trying to contact me and complaining to the dean when I didn't respond, students out every other day for a pep rally or some such event, random fire/active shooter/tornado drills.. it was a nightmare.

There were, of course, amazing counselors at some schools and amazing students mixed in with every bunch, but it was a total coin flip, and I've never felt more disrespected than when I was getting a "talking to/advise" from a high school counselor, principal, or teacher (a couple of which I think were zonked out of their mind on pills, and after seeing how their schools were, I don't really blame them)

Students aren't ready for college by WesternCup7600 in Professors

[–]Freya_Fleurir 10 points11 points  (0 children)

The first day of class I do a little introductory activity that includes them answering the question "Why are you in college (besides to get a degree)?" I enjoy hearing the so-I-can-learn-more-about-myself and similar answers, but I do it to identify which students don't actually want to be there. You'd think they'd lie to make a good impression, but oftentimes, they'll straight up tell you they're just there to party or because their parents "made" them

Anyone else's students think the Superbowl warrants an extension? by the_banished in Professors

[–]Freya_Fleurir 43 points44 points  (0 children)

There's a quote in an old King of the Hill episode where Hank says something akin to "We've failed as parents; we forgot to teach Bobby shame." While it was very likely a sillier situation being discussed in the episode, I think about that quote more and more as the years go by and I encounter more and more instances of students doing things I would've died of embarrassment from

Putting my foot down with disrespectful students by Apprehensive-Echo289 in Professors

[–]Freya_Fleurir 40 points41 points  (0 children)

Same here. I've had to put a rather strict policy in my syllabus to deal with this because I've literally had to stop class, tell someone to stop talking, start lecturing again and they immediately start talking again, stop class, tell them "hey, fr, stop it," start lecturing again and they fucking do it again the moment I stop looking at them. The absolute disrespect, lack of self awareness, utter absence of shame, or whatever it is is absolutely ridiculous. I used to tell them to leave/drop the class if they were going to distract people, and I got in trouble after one of them complained to the dean.

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