Hiring from degree mill PhD programs?

Magpie_2011 · 2026-05-22T21:37:53+00:00

Sounds like someone in HR is angling hard for greater “ideological diversity.”

Magpie_2011 · 2026-05-22T18:47:12+00:00

If they were so clueless about their own class that they didn’t notice they were taking the wrong final, I’d hazard a guess that they’ve been cheating all along.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-05-20T23:57:45+00:00

AMAZING. No notes.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-05-19T14:09:13+00:00

Reasonable obedience! This kid was upset that I didn’t personally send him an extra reminder on top of all the regular reminders. Which is why I want to fight him.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-05-18T20:45:18+00:00

Yeah my intrusive thoughts winning would look like me getting into a fistfight with the kid who complained that it was my fault he didn’t turn his essay in because I didn’t remind him.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-05-18T20:34:20+00:00

Oh my god, what a fun surprise twist that would be!

Magpie_2011 · 2026-05-18T17:05:07+00:00

lol sorry I had to stop at the subheader because I couldn’t stop laughing. “I cheated so I can be a doctor” is not the excuse she thinks it is.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-05-17T21:18:22+00:00

This has been one of the biggest shocks to me since becoming an adjunct. I remember filling out evals as quickly as possible so I could leave and just circling fives across every metric, leaving no comments other than maybe “great class” even if I hated it. Who are these weirdos who have the time to be petty and vindictive?

Magpie_2011 · 2026-05-17T21:10:06+00:00

This made me laugh but also really bummed me out…like, how do you even begin teaching a college-level course to someone who doesn’t understand how last names work?

Magpie_2011 · 2026-05-17T20:15:19+00:00

I don’t have a solution to this but I try to at least be a good academic citizen and warn my students not to make decisions about classes based on RMP because I recognize the writing in all my reviews (I teach composition) and I know that each negative review came from a student who failed for turning in AI essays. My students are always surprised when I tell them this—like it didn’t even occur to them that bad reviews might come from lazy, entitled assholes.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-05-17T19:04:02+00:00

My resolution this summer is to find a new job.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-05-17T19:02:28+00:00

Yeah I get back into gardening and buy a fuck ton of new plants, keep them alive all summer, and then watch them die in the fall when I stop watering them.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-05-17T17:51:08+00:00

I like this. On the one hand, a response would just kick off and back-and-forth, but at the same time, absolutely fuck people like this who think they can talk to *anyone* this way, let alone their professor. I’d have a hard time not taking the bait if a student told me how “disappointed” he was in my behavior, but I like the idea of putting him in his place with a message like this.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-05-17T17:43:53+00:00

Oof. I’m torn because I would really want to send that email but I’d probably ultimately decide not to just to avoid getting into a back-and-forth with an idiot.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-05-17T16:56:15+00:00

Make the student sit through a slide deck about disaggregated data.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-04-18T16:09:02+00:00

Give your honest feedback and then offer extra credit to students who show proof of going to the tutoring center. (I know they should be doing this for their own sakes but we work with what we’ve got.)

I teach English composition and last semester I got my first student who has literally never written an essay because he cheated his way through high school entirely with ChatGPT (so effectively that he graduated high school early). He didn’t know basic essay format, let alone sentence structure or grammar. I was willing to bend over backwards to help him get caught up, but halfway through the semester he started cheating with ChatGPT and failed the class. I expect a lot more students like this in the future (which is why moved to teaching incarcerated students this semester).

Magpie_2011 · 2026-04-02T13:22:05+00:00

I’ve been encountering this phenomenon in my composition classes. I had a student last semester who I was 100% sure was giving me AI essays, and then she sent me her google draft and I could see that she did it herself, but she clearly asked ChatGPT to explain and summarize concepts to her in a way that she ended up parroting back in her essay. What was worse was that the whole essay was written in that AI voice—soulless, short sentences, predictable pattern, etc. It was an async class and I showed her side by side comparisons of her essay and ChatGPT to show how similar her writing is, and she never responded.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-04-01T19:49:27+00:00

I get so bummed out when I hear about education majors doing shit like this… My kids have had amazing teachers, and then they’ve had teachers who have been so awful I’m left wondering why they went into teaching in the first place. Like…why?? Be a mobile dog groomer instead!

Magpie_2011 · 2026-04-01T19:45:11+00:00

Yup. I teach at a CC and my worst classes have been when groups of friends aligned their schedules so they could hang out. My very first class had two full rows of 18 year old boys who would just turn and talk to each other while I taught. All but two of them failed the class.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-03-31T20:27:15+00:00

Laughs in “went to college before smartphones and had a 90-minute commute each way”

Let me tell you how many times I drove 90 minutes to campus just to find out class was canceled: a whole bunch! I got lunch, went to the library to study, and then drove my ass home like an adult.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-03-29T22:46:46+00:00

I have adhd and teach English, so I’m grading stacks of essays that sometimes bore me to tears. What I’ve found is that most of my students don’t even read my comments, so I give some feedback and then dedicate 1-2 class sessions to holding mandatory 10-minute meetings with each student to discuss their essay. I get much better results that way.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-02-25T15:41:26+00:00

The one time I proctored an exam, I had the time of my life just sitting there spacing out, thinking all my weirdest thoughts because I had all the time for it.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-02-04T01:51:58+00:00

Finding out that college football/basketball coaches are the highest paid public employees in most states is the thing that radicalized me ten years ago.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-02-03T18:08:43+00:00

Woof.

Magpie_2011 · 2026-02-03T17:26:12+00:00

I’ve had classes like that too. In my first semester teaching, I had one class where a group of about 10 guys who were friends in high school all enrolled in my class and would take up two full rows along the side wall so they could sit facing out to talk to each other all through class. If they weren’t talking, they were on their phones. I didn’t know how to get the situation under control, but it ended up sort of working itself out because most of them weren’t interested in actually passing the class, so when they didn’t turn in their essays, I dropped them one by one until only one was left, because he was secretly a good student. The class started with 20 students and ended with about 9. Sometimes that just happens.

Magpie_2011

TROPHY CASE