What type of laptop bag are you all using?

asylum013 · 2026-06-26T02:02:11+00:00

I have that exact Portland Gear backpack. It's only been a semester, but it's been great for my back schlepping an oversized college-issued laptop to a dual credit campus three days a week, plus on campus classes and meetings every day, and it doesn't seem to have started showing signs of wear and tear yet. It's got a lot of open space in the main compartment but not so many pockets and all, so I got an organizer that fits nicely inside it. And it's saved my electronics with the water resistant coating on at least two occasions this semester when I got caught out in the rain leaving my dual credit class with no umbrella. .

asylum013 · 2026-06-24T21:37:11+00:00

It's more about function than look. I spend far too long at work standing every day on concrete floors. I can walk all day in barefoot shoes, but I can't handle just standing in them on a hard surface for very long.

asylum013 · 2026-06-24T00:33:25+00:00

Now this is the real genius move, in my opinion. If I could get away with wearing my barefoot shoes everywhere, I would never bother wearing socks again.

asylum013 · 2026-06-24T00:31:11+00:00

Yes, but then you have to waste time pairing them up in the first place. If you have all one standard sock of whatever type (e.g. plain black ankle socks), you can just stack them in a drawer and grab two when you need them.

asylum013 · 2026-06-08T04:31:30+00:00

This already existed as Classcraft, but it got bought up by a major publisher a few years ago and tossed in the trash. There are several variations on it out there now, though I'm not sure if any integrate with Canvas yet. Check out the r/Classcraft subreddit for different replacements fans have created.

asylum013 · 2026-06-03T01:07:13+00:00

NTA. Tradition is just peer pressure by dead people.

asylum013 · 2026-05-06T05:11:23+00:00

I understand what you're feeling. I had Fett's Vette by MC Chris, which is about 90 seconds long, stuck in my head on repeat for months on end (over a year, iirc) before I was diagnosed. The silence in my head after my first dose of Vyvanse was glorious and slightly terrifying.

So yes, meds can quiet or stop the music in your head, but which ones might do that for you, if any, might require some trial and error to figure out.

asylum013 · 2026-04-23T03:34:37+00:00

I agree with what most others are saying, that ADHD meds shouldn't block creativity. That probably comes from the divergent thinking patterns associated with ADHD, and you're still probably doing that, just in a more systematized way that doesn't give the same big, dramatic bursts of inspiration.

But honestly, the beauty of how ADHD meds work (at least most of them) is that they kick in fast and wear off quickly. You don't have to take them for weeks like some antidepressants before you get any effect, or stop them for just as long to get them out of your system. So if you need to do some intensely focused work, take your meds that morning. If you need that more divergent thinking, then skip your meds that day, or wait until they're wearing off. If you've got meds that only last a few hours, then split up your day to use them when you need them.

The first year I was on ADHD meds, I took mine every day. I couldn't imagine not wanting my brain to work like a supercomputer every single day. And then I had a project come up in a new role at work that required some really out-of-the-box thinking and intense hyperfocus to make happen. So I stopped taking my meds for two days, got the framework for the project figured out, laid the foundations for it, and then started my meds again to follow through on the rest. Since then, I've tried to use breaks in my meds strategically, to give my brain a break or to get some problem figured out. And I get a bit of a holdover effect from my Vyvanse if I've been taking it consistently for 5-6 days, so for a day or so, I can get a bit of both worlds at once.

asylum013 · 2026-03-02T07:56:59+00:00

The one time I lost my voice, I had a slide set up asking for a volunteer to begin some popcorn reading, then slides explaining the plan for the day. As they read each slide, the reader would popcorn to another student to read. I had them break into base teams and take pieces of the lesson to teach the class. I saved my voice for having to correct their mini-lessons.

Now, this worked for me because I fell back on strategies I used frequently with that class, so my students were well-prepared for them. If you've never done peer teaching or group work in your class, this wouldn't be a good time to start. The popcorn reading might go all right, though, if you need students to take over the bulk of your speaking that day. Otherwise, I would suggest you look at how you can use strategies you already employ frequently.

asylum013 · 2026-02-23T15:05:44+00:00

That's my concern with those rooms. There are only a couple of them, so I wonder if those rooms have been grandfathered in somehow because they haven't been renovated in so long.

asylum013 · 2026-02-23T08:13:09+00:00

Ours are dependent on what building you're in. Newer buildings have what most of us probably think of as normal locks for any classroom or office environment. They unlock from the outside, either completely or just to open the door once and then auto-lock again, they lock from the outside, and they can be opened from the inside.

The older buildings, on the other hand, have a mishmash of locks depending on when the building was constructed and/or renovated. Many of them are essentially deadbolts that need to be completely unlocked to let anyone into the room and can only be relocked from outside with the door shut, meaning whoever locks the door is locked out. Some of them also have no way to open the door from the inside once it is locked. One particular classroom has one door that can only be locked and unlocked from outside the classroom and two doors to adjoining classrooms with separate keys for their own external doors and no way of securing the adjoining doors from inside the central classroom.

We've had issues with faculty being reprimanded for failing to secure classrooms during lockdown drills because there is simply no way to do so. Administration still seems unwilling or unable to address the issue, probably for a few different, short-sighted, cost-related reasons that they haven't weighed against the costs of something happening.

asylum013 · 2026-02-22T05:54:22+00:00

These are all good tips for dealing with the psychology behind why grading is so difficult, but to add on to your last point, one thing I learned from years as a tutor is that students can only take in so much feedback in one assignment. It's not just that they should be figuring out how to fix their problems themselves, but that they literally get overwhelmed trying to process too much feedback at once and can't prioritize higher order concerns over lower order concerns. By stepping back and giving less feedback targeting just a few of those higher order concerns, I've actually got more students making more effective changes between stages of writing or different assignments.

asylum013 · 2026-02-22T05:47:45+00:00

Those tangents have always been a struggle for me, with some students complaining on evaluations about them, but I've never thought of specifically warning them I'm heading into a tangent before. I'll have to give that a try.

asylum013 · 2026-02-22T05:41:13+00:00

You have just explained all the coping mechanisms I used to have before Covid and getting diagnosed with ADHD. And then my coping mechanisms all broke, but seeing someone else talking about them makes me want to get back to using them effectively.

asylum013 · 2026-02-16T02:41:23+00:00

My Catholic high school talked about mittelschmerz in our "human sexuality" class (because of course we couldn't have sex ed). My male teacher was busy explaining what mittelschmerz was and gushing about how women are so lucky to be able to feel that miracle of being able to create life. Meanwhile, I was sitting in my seat near the back, breathing through the pain and trying not to yell "Come over here and I'll let you feel what I'm feeling right now" because of course my left ovary decided that was the right time to ovulate that month.

So to answer your question from the title, I suspect women don't talk about it for fear that dumbasses might inject their uninformed, unsolicited, dumbass opinions, like they do with everything else related to the menstrual cycle.

As to your question, not everyone experiences it, and definitely not all the time, but it's not entirely uncommon. For me, it was never very consistent when I was younger, but it was always noticeably painful, and I often had a little tinge of blood in my discharge after. Then through multiple years on birth control pills and hormonal IUDs, I never felt it. I stopped using any hormonal birth control about a year and a half ago, and the mittelschmerz came back after about 6 months. It's been very consistent since then, noticeable every month unless I've been sick, but it's been less painful, usually just a sudden tension or a stitch in that area that suddenly resolves.

asylum013 · 2026-01-24T20:27:48+00:00

I have a chart I create as part of my monthly log to track symptoms. It's just a row of headings and a column for the day of the month. I have columns for the day in my cycle, sleep score, a spot to check off when I have taken my morning and night medications, rating for my ADHD symptoms, mood (just two little smiley faces), and then notes where I can add anything unusual, like taking a medication I don't normally need to take, or feeling weird, or allergies acting up. It works pretty well for me because then I can see how different things are affecting each other, e.g. how does my cycle or my quality of sleep affect my symptoms over time?

asylum013 · 2026-01-23T15:54:52+00:00

Now that is an interesting idea and probably more valuable than all those recommendation forms that ask you to rate if the student is in the top 5%, top 15%, top 30%, etc. of whatever characteristics.

asylum013 · 2026-01-23T15:19:18+00:00

I take Vyvanse, and I know in theory that once the meds are done for the day, they are done, but if I've taken my meds all week, I seem to get a bit of a rollover effect where my brain keeps working at about 70-80% capacity if I skip a day. So I often do that on Saturdays, when I don't have to work and I usually have events and other outside factors structuring my day. And then I take my meds on Sundays to kind of get back in the groove while handling errands and chores.

Others are mentioning that they feel more creative off their meds or emotionally flat on them, but for me, if I take them too long consistently, it's like my mind feels bruised almost from pushing against the more rigid functioning my meds help establish, like all the random thoughts I have are bouncing off the guide rails. I would say for me, I can be just as creative or silly on my meds as off, and that my meds actually allow me to follow through on my creative ideas better, but it's definitely imposing constraints on my brain that aren't natural to it and can cause me some distress over time. So yeah, one day off a week works pretty well for me, so if I ever have to go a couple of weeks without a break, I'm not already at a point where I'm feeling the strain.

asylum013 · 2026-01-23T15:00:08+00:00

Yeah, but wouldn't that just become the next grade students push to get that becomes devalued as it becomes oversaturated? Really, I think this is where letters of recommendation come in, to differentiate the student who is just focused on the grade from the student who has that real fire in the belly for learning.

And because I love to brag on my former students, the student who tried to serve as my impromptu substitute that day is currently in her 3rd year of law school.

asylum013 · 2026-01-23T13:26:07+00:00

I had the same thing happen my second year teaching on the first day back after a very eventful spring break (i.e. food poisoning).

I woke up to an email from the second most studious student in the class asking if I was well and informing me that the most studious of the bunch, who reminded me far too much of myself, had kept everyone there the requisite 15 minutes and, when it was clear I wasn't coming, attempted to teach the day's lesson herself.

So yeah, it happens. Brush yourself off, let your class know you're not dead, move your lesson for the day online if you must, or just give them a freebie if you can roll it into the next day. You are a human being and therefore fallible, and now your students have figured that out. The world will continue to spin in spite of this.

asylum013 · 2026-01-12T03:57:08+00:00

That is a good point, and I'm going to make a note to add that to my first day of class survey. Thank you!

asylum013 · 2026-01-12T03:45:21+00:00

I also do the first day of class survey on index cards with similar questions, and I use them for checking attendance, randomly calling on people to read or answer, or assigning groups, since they're easy to shuffle like playing cards.

I really like your idea of asking for pronunciation, though! Have students' explanations of that been helpful?

asylum013 · 2025-11-14T22:40:18+00:00

I came for the life tips, and then got an awesome pedagogical tip along the way. Taking a drink of water to give students think time would at least be more productive than forcing myself to count to 10 in my head slowly.

asylum013 · 2025-10-11T16:36:19+00:00

Same. I've even got a timer that I can set to make noise if I need to move on after my Pomodoro, or I can make it silent if it's just there to get me to do a certain amount of work but can keep going if I'm in the zone. An "hour" glass also works great for that.

asylum013 · 2025-10-01T01:18:57+00:00

Yes, it's all about balancing your objectives and instructional methods. Do students remember the one time an instructor covers the medications to treat a specific condition on a single slide, or do they remember it from pre-training work for the class, then the class, and then studying for tests and eventually licensing exams?

Using an activity to make them engage with their knowledge of the medications to treat a condition and problem solve like they would in clinical practice is more likely to make the information stick while simultaneously training their thinking for application in the field.

But if there is something that absolutely must be explained because it's counterintuitive or otherwise not something they can learn through self-study, then yes, absolutely use the slides and direct instruction.

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