One of my students was eavesdropping on a group of whining Wannabe-Norma-Raes getting ready to rail against my course for the 10th time this semester. This is a group headed by the two whiny bitches. He said to me "I don't know what the fuck more they want. We've done nothing this semester." I felt bad for him. I mean I was happy I wasn't imagining it and that I'm not actually a crazy tyrant whose students jump off bridges. But I felt bad that the TWBs were able to manipulate my supervisor into castrating me as an instructor. It reminded me of that evolution of math joke. That's the answer to his question. THAT is what they want. They want "C stands for Carbon. Circle the letter C on the periodic table."
It's summer. Summer session is "supposed to be fun." right? That's what they tell me. So someone help me before I make my syllabus:
This is a bullshit class. It's summer. I'll curve everything to an average score of 118, so the lowest you can get is an A. Most of you will get A-triple-plus. Go to the beach every day. Show up ~once a week so I can take attendance (so I don't accidentally assign a grade to anyone who texts'n'drives off the bridge to the beach), but bring an iPod or something because I'm not going to hold you responsible for anything I say. I'll probably just be reciting episodes of ATHF because it doesn't matter, none of this matters. If you're a grade grubbing pain in the ass who can't accept that I'm giving everyone As and wants to be reassured every step of the way even though you can't get less than an A, I'll have to start drinking again, so pardon me in advance if I black out before you're done asking your question. I'll tweet the final exam to everyone later so you can start loading the answers into your calculators. That's right, tweet. Summer session finals should be fewer than 140 characters, don't ya think?
It's either that, or just plagiarize Frog & Toad's list of hazards.
But I felt bad that the TWBs were able to manipulate my supervisor into castrating me as an instructor.
ReplyDeleteHow were you castrated?
If you have been told to be "easier," then I'd start giving quizzes EVERY. EFFING. CLASS. But only based on the reading. 10 questions. Maybe multiple choice, which many of my flakes love to claim are "tricky"! (Kinda like the SATs, kumquats?) Or short answer/paragraphs.
I mean, replacing actual work with quizzes can't be seen as a hardship by the rebels, can it? *evilaff*
I sympathize but C does stand for carbon. Don't get me started about the arguments between me and my daughters pre-school teacher. C is carbon. Element names should not be capitalized BTW.
ReplyDeleteTrue/False questions are "trickier," perhaps because they require more effort than word recognition & recall.
ReplyDeleteI love that picture of the striking woman. Do you know what she was striking?
ReplyDeleteIt's probably too late, but Academic Monkey go out and rent "Norma Rae"; I think this was the movie where Sally Field (who played the title character) earned an Oscar and made that goofy "You like me...you really, really like me" speech. Rent "Matewan" with it, or if you have a cool store, add Eisenstein's "Strike" to the list. You'll be a Wobbly in a week.
ReplyDelete