Thursday, October 29, 2015

Big Thirsty. What Class Do You Dread? From Itchy in Idaho.


Even though I know it is an important day, I am dreading tomorrow. My freshmen will pitch their research topics. Impossibly large like "Mistakes in World War II," and impossibly everything like "My Dodge Ram."

Q: What class or lesson do you dread each semester.


PS: Keep hope, misery, and the duck alive!

4 comments:

  1. Professor ChiltepinOctober 29, 2015 at 6:37 PM

    I feel your pain. "Trains." "What about trains?" "I like trains." "Oh, okay." Yup, real example.
    For me, it's getting to be almost every day in one of my classes. I'm so tired of assigning an interesting, brief, but rich reading, and then walking in to blank stares and "ahdunno" when I call on people.

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  2. EC1October 30, 2015 at 1:29 AM

    I dread the review lesson about coconut oil, too.
    Why does it have to be secret?
    Hate it!!!

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  3. Contingent CassandraOctober 30, 2015 at 3:25 PM

    The only thing worse than the predictable misery of topic-pitching day is the unpredictable misery of topic-changing day, which can be any day, up to and including (and, if you're not careful, beyond) the final due date. "It was just too hard to find sources on [original overly-broad topic on which there are abundant sources], so I've switched to [other overly-broad topic on which there is presumably a preexisting paper, whether written by the student or someone else]."

    My students are genuinely surprised to learn, when I tell them early in the semester, that teachers consider last-minute wild swings in topic to be a red flag for possible plagiarism.

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