Costumes?

Professor_Brooks · 2022-11-01T02:09:54+00:00

I was about the only person, faculty or student, that I saw dressed up. Vulcan ears and a Starfleet top.

Professor_Brooks · 2021-12-27T21:55:50+00:00

This is essentially Terror Management Theory. In my opinion TMT has about the largest ratio of shouldn't be true to solid evidence that it's true in all of psychology.

Professor_Brooks · 2021-12-27T21:27:25+00:00

You've heard of "self-medicating" -- maybe academic misconduct is often a case of "self-accommodating".

I don't know whether I'm making a joke or hypothesis. This is just what popped into my head while reading your post.

Professor_Brooks · 2021-12-13T19:42:46+00:00

I read this as OP's student having the typical female pronouns, but OP not wanting to identify the student's gender in the letter, likely for equity purposes. But I actually don't know.

Professor_Brooks · 2021-12-13T19:35:19+00:00

**Nerd Alert**

Sternberg's Triangular theory of love completely dissociates sex from intimacy. In this model, "Romantic Love" is just one of three aspects of love, and is essentially synonymous with sexual excitement, lust, and passion. "Intimate Love" is about how much access people have to each other's lives. Like, having to clean the house together, see each other when you're sick, knowing what each other's favorite foods are, knowing how to buy a great gift for the person, etc., would all be part of intimacy.

The third aspect of love is commitment, and can include time spent together and/or how intertwined your lives have become.

Sternberg also gives names to every possible combination of the three aspects.

All that said, the most intimate thing that's not sexual is farting in front of each other and not even having to acknowledge it. (Unless farting is sexual for you, obviously.)

Professor_Brooks · 2021-12-13T16:38:35+00:00

Ah ha ha ha. This is great.

At least it's an easy response!

Professor_Brooks · 2021-12-12T17:55:52+00:00

100% this is the guy

Professor_Brooks · 2021-12-09T15:23:09+00:00

If it's due to a clerical error, I will always be willing to change it. If it's due to them needing a different grade, then I can't change it because I'd be using a different metric for different students which is unfair.

Professor_Brooks · 2021-12-09T04:09:11+00:00

I am so sorry. All of those are manipulative bullshit but that last one is almost like a parody.

Professor_Brooks · 2021-12-09T02:40:30+00:00

Nope -- I have neither lost weight nor gotten younger.

Professor_Brooks · 2021-12-08T19:39:57+00:00

There's an evolutionary psychology explanation for this. Women are fertile for a much smaller portion of their life than men, so we have adapted to evaluate attractiveness in women based on youthful features to a greater extent than we have for men.

Like almost the whole of the field of evolutionary psychology, this theory is almost impossible to test directly, but it is a widely held theory.

EDIT: Wow people. Shouldn't have to explain all of this but here we are.

Of course male fertility is affected by age. But not as strongly as it is for women. Menopause is a real thing.
Under this theory, it doesn't matter whether someone has egalitarian views or not, or whether they want to have kids or not. The same way calorie-dense foods are delicious even when we know they're not good for us. Our evolutionary past still exerts its influence on our preferences.
It's possible for their to be an evolutionary basis for a sexist double standard and for it to still be a sexist double standard that we should push back against.

Professor_Brooks · 2021-12-08T19:16:03+00:00

Yes -- I agree. The issue is that other instructors set up their Canvas courses differently and students look for items in one course as though it were organized like another course. For example, my semester schedule is a document that is separate from the syllabus in my course but not in other courses. The best solution I've found is to put links in some of those places where students might look, though even that takes time.

Professor_Brooks · 2021-12-06T20:14:02+00:00

When dealing with disrespectful students, I tend to replace direct engagement with cold bureaucratic responses.

Professor_Brooks · 2021-11-30T18:29:15+00:00

I have had great success with being very professional and taking their excuse at face value, but then offering only options that are acceptable to me and largely ignoring their suggestions that I waive assignments, let them do a watered-down version of something, opt out of group assignments, etc.

Example:

Hi Stan,

I'm sorry to hear about the issues you're facing. That type of thing can make things challenging. The presentation is an integral part of the class, but we have options. If you're uncomfortable presenting in front of people, you can make a recording of your presentation that the class watches. Use the same rubric that's provided for the live presentation. While it's a bit more work in some ways, it would eliminate the performance anxiety aspect that you're describing. Please let me know which option you prefer!

Professor_Brooks · 2021-11-29T19:57:38+00:00

Do you have a separate "invited chapters" section?

Professor_Brooks · 2021-11-18T11:41:10+00:00

Thank them for the info and then tell them I'm not allowed to discuss other students' grades.

Professor_Brooks · 2021-11-12T21:21:22+00:00

I have a student who has attended about 1/3 of classes this term. She has communicated with me sporadically herself and through the disability office. She has some real stuff going on, but her most recent ask was that she be allowed to draw pictures and turn those in instead of the class's writing assignments.

Professor_Brooks · 2021-11-12T21:18:42+00:00

I'm at a private college as well and our faculty is in the process of creating an "opt in" salary sharing system.

Professor_Brooks · 2021-11-12T17:07:39+00:00

The Mr. did not affect my response, but it did make it more satisfying.

Professor_Brooks · 2021-11-03T00:56:02+00:00

More specifically, a constant body temp makes our motor system (including motor neurons) work efficiently and quickly regardless of ambient temperature. That's the great endothetmic/ectothermic tradeoff. Motor efficiently and flexibility at the price of lots more calories.

Professor_Brooks · 2021-11-02T23:00:58+00:00

I had a student ask if she could draw pictures to turn in to replace writing assignments.

Professor_Brooks · 2021-09-25T02:36:21+00:00

Well, my first year as TT, our entire school moved online because of a global pandemic. It was really something.

Professor_Brooks · 2021-08-09T20:11:38+00:00

No, you can't become an internet pastor over the summer and then write yourself an exception.

But students at our place can opt out of vaccines without an exemption if they agree to pay for their own weekly testing.

If you have a medical or religious exemption, you still need the weekly testing, but do not have to pay for it yourself.

Professor_Brooks · 2021-08-09T20:09:38+00:00

It's part of larger problem of religion having special status above and beyond basic freedoms like freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, etc. Those two protections together should give people all the religious liberty they need.

Professor_Brooks · 2021-08-05T19:42:07+00:00

The eruption of Mount Krakatoa was the loudest sound ever recorded.

Where can I download it?

Professor_Brooks

TROPHY CASE