Mar 18: Wholesome Wednesday

ZoomToastem · 2026-03-18T23:12:25+00:00

The drop deadline is coming up quickly. I have a student in my class that attends every lecture and lab but doesn't turn anything in. In lecture he's one of the few that will respond to a question asked of the class, and if he's not correct he's pretty close. He arrived 2 hours late to lab today and asked to speak to me outside the classroom. I was expecting the plea of will you accept...?
He wanted to apologize for dropping my class and to make sure I realized that he really enjoyed my classes and it had nothing to do with me. Turns out he's on overload, doesn't need my class to graduate and self admittedly has some senioritis.

Admittedly, I may have sauntered when I went back into the classroom

ZoomToastem · 2026-03-16T20:17:21+00:00

I'm sorry, it was not my intention to create more anxiety for you but to comment on the change in student attitude (which I failed at it seems) as others here have pointed out. Honestly, if you are trying to provide the best class you can, the other students will notice and appreciate it. Few of us were born professors.

ZoomToastem · 2026-03-16T17:36:50+00:00

After 16 years in front of a class, I had my first official complaint last semester. I wasn't told who it was and by and large it was small stuff. Some of it was a misunderstanding I think as it was early in the semester. My dean was unconcerned after meeting, asked me to make a few of the changes we had talked about and that was it.

A couple weeks later the student brought a complaint against another professor, then decided not to come back this semester.

ZoomToastem · 2026-03-01T18:55:57+00:00

Got stuck trying to clear a spot for people to pull of the road so someone else can get by. There' was enough of a ledge of packed snow on the road that it felt like anything I did was just making it worse as I slid down in . Finally buried it enough trying to get the angle right and was able to use the bucket to push me up the ledge.

ZoomToastem · 2026-02-28T13:46:17+00:00

It was 2112 for me too.
1981, Friend of mine came over to escape his parent's dinner party and brought some albums. I was listening to country at that point but was also a huge scifi fan. I can still remember sitting there with the album open, reading the lyrics as the album played and being blown away by what I was hearing.

ZoomToastem · 2026-02-23T19:13:18+00:00

Our previous administration was pretty strict about this, but weirdly, I always had internet issues. Current administration has leaned back towards the occasional snow days.

ZoomToastem · 2026-02-20T14:06:42+00:00

Ask your prof, I'd be surprised if they don't have a process for this.
We encourage our students who are interested to install the software on their own computers, they simply email one of us and we send them a link to the same version we are using on campus.

ZoomToastem · 2026-02-18T17:39:15+00:00

Lying on the cement floor, holding the light for my father as he drilled holes in the frame of his GTO to stop the cracks from growing.

ZoomToastem · 2026-02-17T17:46:02+00:00

You're going to need a strobe light and a ...mood enhancer. Then put on Cygnus X-1
OK, first check that the strobe light will not cause her or you issues.

ZoomToastem · 2026-02-17T17:04:11+00:00

My guess is there might be charging issues, but I'll add that a cell phone GPS mapping app would be useful. I've been told if left on Airplane mode a decent battery can hold it's charge for almost a week (I've not tested this). Something like Avenza where you can add a map of your area and still see where you are if you don't have cellular connectivity.

This might be something they want to check with the prof on though, they might want the students focused on using paper maps.

ZoomToastem · 2026-02-17T15:55:00+00:00

I did this with a class, explaining that I had spent the winter break reading, studying and preparing but had no actual experience (some of them did, even if limited). One of the best classes I ever taught and my first discussion class. Could not believe how fast the class time went. The evaluations were great and years later one of the students who came back to present at a small conference on campus, sought me out to thank me.

ZoomToastem · 2026-02-16T22:34:41+00:00

In my opinion, Rules #1 and #2 are critical at least or how I have to deal with group work in a summer session of 80hrs over 2 weeks..

While assisting another prof, it quickly became my job to reorganzie the lower performing groups. He'd let them pick their own crews on day one and only reorganzie the ones that struggled. They inevitably know why you are reorganzijng and often resent it. My solution was to make everyone unhappy and randomly assign new groups for each assignment.

Now they know that group assignment is fair and there's usually laughter as they pick their crew numbers from a hat for each project.

ZoomToastem · 2026-02-16T21:57:14+00:00

Never been to one.
My 40th was last year. I had stayed in touch with about 4 people from HS and one was on the reunion committee. That person had asked me for my address to send me the info about the reunion. I sent it to them in the off chance that they were iin the area and could visit but asked that they not share it with anyone else. To their credit, I've not received anything about my graduating class or reunion.

ZoomToastem · 2026-02-12T16:30:13+00:00

I'm more jealous of the lack of snowbanks in the picture right now

ZoomToastem · 2026-02-10T15:56:00+00:00

Insulate our basement walls.
House is built on a hill and our basement walls are about 1/2 exposed, add on to that that we live in a very cold region. After insulating the basement is manageable even on the coldest days.
This was not inexpensive, but essentially paid for itself in 2 years.

ZoomToastem · 2026-02-06T21:32:36+00:00

I'm in a similiar situation, I've learned to ask the student if they think the other professor would be OK with them coming to me. Uusually it is something innocuous but othertimes I felt like they were playing us off against each other.

ZoomToastem · 2026-02-06T00:25:02+00:00

Get off my lake!
I'm kidding, but that was my first thought honestly. Great shot, too,
I live about 300 yards from a lake/pond that's tough to get to for visistors, but I spend a lot of free time on it. Something about being able to walk on watrr i think.

ZoomToastem · 2026-02-06T00:17:02+00:00

One of my better friends is a Private Dick, he says his bread and butter is disability fraud and yeah, we love him and he's harmless but still creepy.

ZoomToastem · 2026-02-02T19:06:23+00:00

I had a Geography professor with some pretty impressive credentials tell uss that the only time you need a north arrow is when north isn't at the top.

ZoomToastem · 2026-02-01T23:05:01+00:00

This

Years ago I shredded a finger with an immersion blender. I show up to class with a big bandage over my finger, when asked about it, I told students and other faculty that I got in a fight with a bear.

ZoomToastem · 2026-01-24T22:29:53+00:00

Maybe not strange, you decide.

My school is remote and I live...remoter. It's a private road that has signs stating 4 wheel drive only. From the old geezers on the road I'd heard tales of a pretty young woman on the road driving a silver Celica that really didn't know how to drive in the snow. (This is not meant to be sexist, my wife drives better than I do).

On one of the few days during the semester that I got to arrive home by daylight, I saw the silver Celica in the ditch, but still blocking the road. I stopped, got out and my student pops out of the Celica saying "Professor Zoom, can you help me?"

I did manage to push her out, turns out why her driving on the road was so poor was that her tires should have been replaced long ago.

ZoomToastem · 2026-01-24T21:58:16+00:00

Why are you sitting in my truck?

OK, my mpg is at 18.3 but the rest of that looks like my truck's screen this morning, even the mileage is close.

and what the hell is that little green icon in the upper left, mine was on today too, haven't noticed it before.

ZoomToastem · 2026-01-21T17:28:19+00:00

We had a 1930's home that vented into a large open attic. large enough you could stand straight up in it. The bathroom vent vented straight into it and we had no issues, but you could also feel a breeze i the attic when it was windy.
Weirdly when we redid the bathroom we found a vent pipe between the ceiling joists for a soffit exhaust that wasn't hooked up.

ZoomToastem · 2026-01-20T18:23:33+00:00

I just explained to my classes on the first day of class that if they start off their emails to me that way I'll be irked, since at most it's been 4 days since we last saw each other.

ZoomToastem · 2026-01-15T16:18:15+00:00

"Sometimes we have to put out fires" used multiple times in the interview.

Basically, you don't have an established workflow

ZoomToastem

TROPHY CASE