In one of my classrooms I have twenty great minutes at the start of each class. Then the banging starts. It was alarming the first time. But now, weeks and weeks into class, the class is ready for it. One smartass, who I like, bangs on his desk, matching the cadence of the wall sound perfectly the first couple of times it starts up.
I think it sounds like Queen's "We Will Rock You," but I've not made that reference to my 18/19 year olds. I know they think I'm ancient already, and if I mention a band from before their time, I'll cement my status.
I investigated the banging the first time I heard it. I imagined it was another professor banging erasers or slaughtering a student. But no matter how I walked the interior walls of the building, I could not ascertain the location. And I've never heard the sound anywhere else in the building.
I'm not crazy. I'm just baffled by it.
I wait for it now. I know it's coming.
I told Ana yesterday that I'd like a different classroom for my Spring classes. She said, "Is there something wrong with your room now?"
"Uh, no," I said. "I mean I don't think so."
I don't want Ana to stop me from moving. I'm ready to take on anything in order to get away from the banging.
We're building a labor camp in the next room.
ReplyDeleteSincerely,
Strelnikov's class, "Gulag Management 101"
Are there any faint sounds of conversation? "For the love of God, Montressor!" perhaps?
ReplyDeleteI have a similar problem, but it doesn't happen only at the beginning of class. Turns out it was the skateboarders on top of the building (which looks like a parking garage). They love to do their jumps (once called "allies" -- still?) and the clatter of their landing (and fall) is very loud and persistent.
ReplyDeleteIt is not legal, but I also don't have the time to go upstairs and tell them to knock it off.
My current classroom has a persistent high-pitched beeping, like a watch alarm going off, every second for the entire class. It's enough to drive me slightly mad.
Your sounds, brother Hiram,
ReplyDeletesound zenlike
compared to the scraping
I occasionally hear
next door.
I never investigate,
however.
So cowardly am I.
It could be a heater issue. I had an apartment once that had a clanging that sound exactly as if someone in another part of the building were banging a spoon in regular cadence against the pipes, but it was simply the change of temperature or something, something mechanical with the heating pipes, not human activity. It would go on for 30-60 minutes and then be done.
ReplyDeleteI agree with M.A. I think it's someone broaching a cask of fine Italian sherry.
ReplyDeleteI was going to suggest what AdjunctSlave suggested. I used to teach in an ancient classroom, and every day in the winter, like clockwork, some part of the radiator or something connected to it would go "CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG," distracting my students and forcing me to talk louder for at least 20 minutes. This probably isn't reassuring, since there may be nothing you can do about it, but there you go.
ReplyDeleteExpanding/contracting pipes are the most likely culprit, but it might be an electrical issue, as well. One classroom in my grad school's brand-new building was entirely unusable because the room contained a door to an electrical panel that hummed and banged incessantly.
ReplyDeleteMy building's flat roof has enough loose sheet metal to rattle our teeth when the wind blows.
ReplyDeleteThe building I teach in has those semi-permanent walls that could (with some difficulty, I imagine) be moved to reconfigure classroom sizes if the institution ever deemed it necessary. They're quite thin and not terribly soundproof, but it's not usually a problem for ordinary, discussion-based seminars. However, the class next door to mine this year? Historical opera.
ReplyDeleteMonkey - "Ollie" - named after the skateboarder who created the trick. Part of the basic repertoire of any skateboarder - my 7 year old learned to do one at skateboarding camp this summer. And yes, it is annoying as fuck to listen to [or any sound made by skateboarders trying their tricks over and over again]. Apparently my feelings about skateboarding didn't factor into "our" decision for the kids' summer camps...but this is not material to delve into in this blog...
ReplyDeleteYou forgot to let the student out from last semester.
ReplyDeleteOdds are good they know "We Will Rock You." The frat house down the street plays it every week, and the marching band does a pretty good job of reprising it throughout the season. Just sayin'.
ReplyDelete