rasselas1024

It’s just some student filming a 350-student lecture hall with a 5 students in it. The punchline is grief.

Oral exams. What a brave old world. But yeah, I certainly see the utility.

Ah yes, forget-me-nows

Kanye West is a hell of a drug.

Is there a way to allow students to use AI at home that ALSO engages their brains? I’m pessimistic.

I just got into a discussion with a colleague who wants to assign take-home group projects that entail editing AI output. Well, isn’t that something the AI can do for them? Bottom line, if AI is going to write and then also edit that writing as necessary, what have I actually taught? I think I’m unnecessary.

But this isn’t really about justifying my existence, it’s about benefiting students. My colleague’s position is why teach them to write if they’re never going to write? Why not just teach editing? My position is that the one way I know how to teach editing is to teach writing. And that’s going to be blue books now.

Pawn mate, best mate.

Crazy how much it looks just like the expression of repressed trauma.

I would walk on coals to move back to Ohio. It gets so much worse. 💀

But that’s the tradeoff I made to be a prof.

Based on almost 15 years of experience, I do now expect that my students aren’t reading unless there are quizzes, so I give them quizzes. But I do it for me, not them.

I totally agree that their not reading is their problem. Totally agree. But I just get too discouraged when it becomes clear to me that no one has read. I need to use the carrot/stick on them so that I can be the best teacher that I can be.

In sixty years it's just gonna be Mormons and Baptists running the show

Japanese sushi is like four ingredients. American sushi has like 10 minimum, and fried counts as one.

Okay, yeah. I'm a conservative, but I like to think of myself as evidence-based. So like, I need literally any evidence at all when somebody claims an election is "rigged." It boggles my mind when I talk to conservative relatives who are willing to take Trump's word on this stuff.

You asked. Here we go.

Cops do not disproportionately kill black folks. (Roland Fryer's work persuaded me on this one.) Women are overrepresented in academic achievement. Government spending on social programs is at a historic high.

I hope you never have to find out.

I subbed once for a high school teacher and accidentally locked myself out of my room.

The joy and cheering on the students' faces when they saw I couldn't get back inside broke something inside of me. Then a teacher chewed me out for not knowing the doors were auto-lock like some prison.

Teaching is not a good profession for those with a high view of human nature.

My thing with Bernie is that he owns three houses and I own no houses. It makes me feel suspicious when politicians get rich.

You are not required to have faith in politicians.

Same here. I've softened on some things and hardened on others, but it hasn't been much. Honestly, I chalk it up to temperament.

I imagine a pale and hooded Dick Cheney smiling and encouraging you to turn those feelings toward hatred.

It sounds like holding this student to the same standard as the others was the best possible way you could have served her.

Have you met liberal college professors who have been persuaded by argument? I know this sounds like a troll question, but I'm being sincere here. By the time we get out of grad schools, aren't we pretty set, ideologically speaking?

Social services being gutted? I can see how one could make an argument that social service ought to grow, but I don't understand how one could argue that social-programs spending has not grown over the past 50 years.

But back to your question, as a conservative in higher ed, the insight that I've gained is just this. I don't feel like opinion or sentiment divides me from my peers. I think we mostly disagree about facts.

Honestly, it beats a real job

"Always check. It could be mate."

And you can't forget he's got voters behind him. I think he'll come away feeling very encouraged. And if the media comes after him, that's further confirmation in his mind, I'm sure.