Venting Thread- Vent about anything.

[DBear]

Geez, kids nowadays!! What could you, @stereopticons, have done to warrant a trip to the Dean of Students?! I mean, putting myself in a student's position, I've encountered plenty of professors I didn't click with or who I thought were terrible. But short of physical abuse or gross misconduct, I don't think I'd ever go and complain about someone. Even with evaluations, I've always been frank but have also tried very hard to be objective and a lot of these issues are subjective matters of personality and style. Damned kids! 

[stereopticons]

5 minutes ago, DBear said:

Geez, kids nowadays!! What could you, @stereopticons, have done to warrant a trip to the Dean of Students?! I mean, putting myself in a student's position, I've encountered plenty of professors I didn't click with or who I thought were terrible. But short of physical abuse or gross misconduct, I don't think I'd ever go and complain about someone. Even with evaluations, I've always been frank but have also tried very hard to be objective and a lot of these issues are subjective matters of personality and style. Damned kids! 

I wouldn't let him turn in a lab late. Even though make-up lab/late work policies were clearly defined in the syllabus, apparently I still violated his rights somehow. 

[DBear]

@stereopticons why am I not surpised it was something completely the student's own fault?! Now I'm worried- everytime I've had to teach students or even train people at work, I turn into scary-lady-with-stick-up-my-arse. I'm so gonna get fired, aren't I? Hahaha... Ha....

[kekology4]

this process of waiting for admissions decisions is making me mcfreaking lose it. i keep freaking out about the possibility of not getting in!!! -....- i wish it wasnt so competitive. 

[.letmeinplz//]

3 minutes ago, kekology4 said:

this process of waiting for admissions decisions is making me mcfreaking lose it. i keep freaking out about the possibility of not getting in!!! -....- i wish it wasnt so competitive. 

But with it being competitive you'll be even more awesome once you get in

[DBear]

@.letmeinplz// lol way to find the invisible silver lining! Adorable penguins by the way. Looks like they're lining up to get into grad school.... Or maybe I'm just projecting...

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

Perfect, I needed a place to vent.

I'm a TA and I got an email from a student extremely concerned about their score on an assignment. The class I TA for is structured a little strangely so, though I grade most of the assignments, I didn't grade this one and didn't put in the final scores. I went to check the tracker for grades and discovered that scores for two of the last three assignments were put in incorrectly (all not put in by me), damaging the overall grades for all 90 or so students in this class. Meanwhile, the main staff is on retreat, so I'm stuck waiting for permission to calculate the scores correctly and fix these grades.

In addition, I know they were discussing possibly curving one of those scores, so until I hear back, I have to be super vague with the students emailing me with concerns.

[Srweller]

My vent for the day. I realized there was a mistake in one of my SOPs. I asked if I could re-submit and they said yes. So I quickly re-did it and sent it in.... only to realize afterwards that I had a VERY noticeable typo in it.... and now I feel like I just butchered my chances for that school.

Edited January 6, 2017 by Srweller

[shadowclaw]

On 1/3/2017 at 0:47 PM, Cheshire_Cat said:

However, I just learned that the student that went over my head- my class coordinator's head, and the head of the department, all the way to the *dean* to complain about my teaching- is in my upcoming class.  

 

On 1/3/2017 at 1:02 PM, stereopticons said:

One of my first students also went to the Dean of Students about me. I cried in my office that day (and several other times).

This happens even to extremely seasoned professors. I took a math class in undergrad that had some very specific policies regarding takehome exams and dropping the lowest exam score. It was a spring semester course and we were in a region that typically had several snow days or at least delays. So that we could actually finish everything in the course but still leave room for questions and whatnot during class (as well as provide flexibility for snow days), she gave us two or three takehome exams and our lowest in-class exam score would be dropped (since we should do well on the takehomes due to it being open book and having access to the internet). This was in the syllabus. However, in the event that we got a lot of snow, she would substitute more takehome exams for our in-class exams and if we had more than X number of takehome exams, no exams scores would be dropped. This was also in the syllabus, and all of it was explained to us on the first day.

Wouldn't you know, it snowed a lot that semester and we had a lot of takehome exams, and we got past that magic number. When the professor reminded everyone when passing back the last takehome (which was also the last exam since we had a freak ice storm at the end of the term) that no scores would be dropped, the class freaked out. Like students were actually yelling at the professor angrily. She relented and said she'd still drop the lowest in-class exam, but that wasn't good enough. Students actually yelled at her even more saying that they didn't even try on this last exam because the lowest score was supposed to be dropped. The professor didn't yield, and probably 90% of the students went to the Dean to complain. 

[Cheshire_Cat]

6 hours ago, shadowclaw said:

 

This happens even to extremely seasoned professors. I took a math class in undergrad that had some very specific policies regarding takehome exams and dropping the lowest exam score. It was a spring semester course and we were in a region that typically had several snow days or at least delays. So that we could actually finish everything in the course but still leave room for questions and whatnot during class (as well as provide flexibility for snow days), she gave us two or three takehome exams and our lowest in-class exam score would be dropped (since we should do well on the takehomes due to it being open book and having access to the internet). This was in the syllabus. However, in the event that we got a lot of snow, she would substitute more takehome exams for our in-class exams and if we had more than X number of takehome exams, no exams scores would be dropped. This was also in the syllabus, and all of it was explained to us on the first day.

Wouldn't you know, it snowed a lot that semester and we had a lot of takehome exams, and we got past that magic number. When the professor reminded everyone when passing back the last takehome (which was also the last exam since we had a freak ice storm at the end of the term) that no scores would be dropped, the class freaked out. Like students were actually yelling at the professor angrily. She relented and said she'd still drop the lowest in-class exam, but that wasn't good enough. Students actually yelled at her even more saying that they didn't even try on this last exam because the lowest score was supposed to be dropped. The professor didn't yield, and probably 90% of the students went to the Dean to complain. 

Yeah, I talked to my dad, who has been teaching for almost 40 years, and he said he had a student this semester who appealed last semester and it was normal.  Still frustrating, but it sounds like everyone has those things, and it has only gotten worse recently.

[THS]

15 hours ago, shadowclaw said:

 

This happens even to extremely seasoned professors. I took a math class in undergrad that had some very specific policies regarding takehome exams and dropping the lowest exam score. It was a spring semester course and we were in a region that typically had several snow days or at least delays. So that we could actually finish everything in the course but still leave room for questions and whatnot during class (as well as provide flexibility for snow days), she gave us two or three takehome exams and our lowest in-class exam score would be dropped (since we should do well on the takehomes due to it being open book and having access to the internet). This was in the syllabus. However, in the event that we got a lot of snow, she would substitute more takehome exams for our in-class exams and if we had more than X number of takehome exams, no exams scores would be dropped. This was also in the syllabus, and all of it was explained to us on the first day.

Wouldn't you know, it snowed a lot that semester and we had a lot of takehome exams, and we got past that magic number. When the professor reminded everyone when passing back the last takehome (which was also the last exam since we had a freak ice storm at the end of the term) that no scores would be dropped, the class freaked out. Like students were actually yelling at the professor angrily. She relented and said she'd still drop the lowest in-class exam, but that wasn't good enough. Students actually yelled at her even more saying that they didn't even try on this last exam because the lowest score was supposed to be dropped. The professor didn't yield, and probably 90% of the students went to the Dean to complain. 

 

 

 

8 hours ago, Cheshire_Cat said:

Yeah, I talked to my dad, who has been teaching for almost 40 years, and he said he had a student this semester who appealed last semester and it was normal.  Still frustrating, but it sounds like everyone has those things, and it has only gotten worse recently.

 

 

 

One term I had a student freak out because I gave her an 85 because although her paper was perfect she didn't follow the prompt. After yelling at me and following me around campus for nearly TWO HOURS and my explaining the prompt over and over and why she missed 5 percent (it was like 1.5 points on the rubric) she didn't give up.  She tried to go above my head (I was the instructor of record) and so my advisor and the lady who was suposed to be managing all the MA's teaching our class got involved and it was a nightmare.  They just changed this lady's grade.  They told me I was in the right, but that it wasn't worth their energy to fight it.  I was stunned.  Just absoluteley floored by the way that it all went down. 

Edited January 6, 2017 by montanem

[stereopticons]

2 minutes ago, montanem said:

 

 

One term I had a student freak out because I gave her an 85 because although her paper was perfect she didn't follow the prompt.  She tried to go above my head (I was the instructor of record) and so my advisor and the lady who was suposed to be managing all the MA's teaching our class got involved and it was a nightmare.  They just changed this lady's grade.  They told me I was in the right, but that it wasn't worth their energy to fight it.  I was stunned.  Just absoluteley floored by the way that it all went down. 

That's insane. I had a student throw a fit because I gave him a low grade on a paper because it didn't do the assignment I asked for. But I've never seen a department just give them the grade. That just encourages this kind of behavior. 

[THS]

1 minute ago, stereopticons said:

That's insane. I had a student throw a fit because I gave him a low grade on a paper because it didn't do the assignment I asked for. But I've never seen a department just give them the grade. That just encourages this kind of behavior. 

 

I think they gave it to her because she was an older student returning to school.  She was really upset that someone who was still in the process of earning an MA was her sole instructor in the first place (she was a problem student all term that's why she only missed 1.5 points or whatever because I didn't want to deal with her wrath).  

[GreenEyedTrombonist]

Update on my venting:

Supervisor got back to me and basically told me to do what I'd been doing, which was tell the students to sit tight. Turns out, they did decide to curve the grades for that assignment, so they need to look over what happened and correct it themselves. x]

[Karou]

I'm sorry you guys, all of that sounds really upsetting. It always astounds me how completely out of line some students can be. I see it happen at my own school (nowhere near as bad as what you guys are describing, maybe the real ugly stuff goes down in private?) and I'm just sitting here like "Oh god, I'm going to have to deal with that one day!". I still want to teach more than anything, but jeez, some people really do make me question my life choices sometimes! But then again, I'm sure I'd have to deal with awful people at one point or another in any career.

For a slightly more lighthearted bout of venting: winter in the city is awful because the sidewalks are basically icy death traps and I almost fell on my face about 4 times when going to the store earlier today, thanks Canada! Although I did meet a real cute dog named Mustache on the way so I feel like it was a pretty successful outing. 

[stereopticons]

3 minutes ago, Karou said:

Although I did meet a real cute dog named Mustache on the way so I feel like it was a pretty successful outing. 

This is amazing. That would totally make my day. I met a service dog at my work named General Custer. It was the highlight of my day. 

[Karou]

2 minutes ago, stereopticons said:

This is amazing. That would totally make my day. I met a service dog at my work named General Custer. It was the highlight of my day. 

Haha, it was pretty much the highlight of my day too! I was waiting at the traffic light and this lady was talking to her dog, calling it by its name, and I had to say something because 1. dog and 2. Mustache is a great name (although I think General Custer may have it beat! Outstanding). Petted him for an entire three seconds and yup, pretty much made my day.  

[Cheshire_Cat]

Update:  The student I was worried about dropped or changed sections.  Yay!!

Also, one girl joined my section who I have had before, twice.  The first time (my first semester teaching) she dropped, and the second time she failed.  Third time is a charm.  It is nice to know that at least one student has seen me through all of my struggles learning to teach and still decided to take my class again, haha.

[Srweller]

As a student I want to share my experience having "bad behavior" with a teacher. I never went over his head or anything, but this guy is a bit condescending at times. In my first class with him no one really knew him and he's a bit introverted so he has a hard time connecting with students. So, with that combo, we all just thought he was mean and scary. One day he did something, though, where I still feel like he was in the wrong (essentially putting everyone's mistakes on a homework problem on a projector and bashing everything all of the mistakes). I walked out of his class in a huff (I was sitting in the front row of a small class). I took some time to let off some steam, but after the class ended I went to his office to talk to him. Nicest guy in the world. Opinionated and direct, but he cares about what he does and his students.

Most students from that class still don't like him- but most of them have never talked to him outside of the classroom. Me on the other hand? He's my favorite professor. When my senior project came around I didn't care what I worked on abouts long as it was under him. I no longer have classes with him but we're still working on projects together. I look up to this guy and he's probably my closest friend at my college.

So, a bad experience with a student can become a good one- and not all of us students all are all bad. And not all bad professors are that bad either. Unfortunately, most students don't quite see professors as people. People think it's weird that I'm close with my professor (partly because many people some still choose not to like him). But to be fair, I didn't realize how human my teachers are until my last year. I had them all on unattainable pedestals where they were all perfect people. Others just see them as people to give grades and nothing more, which is rather unfortunate because I've learned that my teachers are way cooler than any of the students.

 

 

On a seperate note, there was a student I had that class with (where I walked out) and had my senior projects class with him. We didn't recognize each other but eventually realized we had shared that class with each other. He only could remember me as the girl who walked out of the class and though it was hilarious that im now the student who likes this professor the most.

[Cheshire_Cat]

I think seeing both professors and students as people is important.  I am also an introvert, so I had a really hard time connecting with students at first.  This was made worse by how nervous I was.  Last semester I learned how to connect better, but didn't do so until the end of the semester.  This week, I tried connecting with students as soon as possible.  I memorized their names, and took some time getting to know them at the beginning of class.  I had a lot more fun teaching, and I was also able to add things I learned about people into the lecture to make it more interesting.  I've figured out that it is not just for my student's sake.  When I have a personal connection with the students I am much more confident as a teacher.

[angesradieux]

I've known from the beginning that if I want to go to grad school, I have to move out of state. Most schools in the state don't have history professors in my field, and I was basically told flat out not to apply to the one that does, because I did my undergrad there, and they very, very rarely take their ow undergrads as PhD students. So when I made the decision to start applying, I accepted the fact that if all went according to plan, I'd be moving. But I guess it was just a distant possibility. I really wasn't too confident I'd get in anywhere. Now that I feel like I have a really good chance of getting into at least one of the schools I applied to, I guess the reality's starting to hit more.

Anyway, my sister and I have had a kind of rocky relationship for a while, now. Generally it consists of me really wanting to spend time together, and her generally ignoring me and putting literally everyone and everything else in the world first. I can't even remember the last time we had a "sister day" and just went out and spent a day doing stuff together. My parents don't get it, they think I'm just crazy and overly emotional when I get upset over it. And maybe I am. I don't know. But it still hurts when I feel taken for granted and ignored, and I can't just shut it off. And now this is just adding a whole new dimension. It's feeling like a strong possibility that in a matter of months, I could be a twelve hour drive away and only have time to visit once or twice a year. I guess now that it feels real, it hurts even more that she doesn't want to spend any time together when we may only be able to do so for another 6-7 months.

At this point, I'm a little afraid that I'll leave for North Carolina or something, she won't miss me or otherwise care that I'm not around, and I just won't hear from her for months at a time, or perhaps longer.

And it's just making the whole process really tough. It's not enough to make me say that I won't go if I get accepted somewhere. But I felt really good for all of a day after receiving some encouraging news, and now the initial excitement and optimism is somewhat soured and colored with all this emotional baggage, wondering if I'll even be missed if I'll leave and kind of afraid to find out.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just being emotional and ridiculous. But I guess I'm feeling kind of conflicted and pretty hurt. Again, not enough so for me to say I wouldn't still go, but enough that I'm a weepy wreck. I guess it's just a whole lot harder and more confusing than I'd ever anticipated it would be.

[Cheshire_Cat]

17 hours ago, angesradieux said:

I've known from the beginning that if I want to go to grad school, I have to move out of state. Most schools in the state don't have history professors in my field, and I was basically told flat out not to apply to the one that does, because I did my undergrad there, and they very, very rarely take their ow undergrads as PhD students. So when I made the decision to start applying, I accepted the fact that if all went according to plan, I'd be moving. But I guess it was just a distant possibility. I really wasn't too confident I'd get in anywhere. Now that I feel like I have a really good chance of getting into at least one of the schools I applied to, I guess the reality's starting to hit more.

Anyway, my sister and I have had a kind of rocky relationship for a while, now. Generally it consists of me really wanting to spend time together, and her generally ignoring me and putting literally everyone and everything else in the world first. I can't even remember the last time we had a "sister day" and just went out and spent a day doing stuff together. My parents don't get it, they think I'm just crazy and overly emotional when I get upset over it. And maybe I am. I don't know. But it still hurts when I feel taken for granted and ignored, and I can't just shut it off. And now this is just adding a whole new dimension. It's feeling like a strong possibility that in a matter of months, I could be a twelve hour drive away and only have time to visit once or twice a year. I guess now that it feels real, it hurts even more that she doesn't want to spend any time together when we may only be able to do so for another 6-7 months.

At this point, I'm a little afraid that I'll leave for North Carolina or something, she won't miss me or otherwise care that I'm not around, and I just won't hear from her for months at a time, or perhaps longer.

And it's just making the whole process really tough. It's not enough to make me say that I won't go if I get accepted somewhere. But I felt really good for all of a day after receiving some encouraging news, and now the initial excitement and optimism is somewhat soured and colored with all this emotional baggage, wondering if I'll even be missed if I'll leave and kind of afraid to find out.

I don't know. Maybe I'm just being emotional and ridiculous. But I guess I'm feeling kind of conflicted and pretty hurt. Again, not enough so for me to say I wouldn't still go, but enough that I'm a weepy wreck. I guess it's just a whole lot harder and more confusing than I'd ever anticipated it would be.

My sister and I had a pretty rocky relationship around the time I moved away.  The distance helped heal it, and then a couple of years later she spent a few months on my couch, which solidified it.  Now we talk quite frequently on the phone and are much closer than we have been since we were little kids.  Don't lose hope.  Sometimes distance does make the heart grow fonder.

[angesradieux]

1 hour ago, Cheshire_Cat said:

My sister and I had a pretty rocky relationship around the time I moved away.  The distance helped heal it, and then a couple of years later she spent a few months on my couch, which solidified it.  Now we talk quite frequently on the phone and are much closer than we have been since we were little kids.  Don't lose hope.  Sometimes distance does make the heart grow fonder.

Thanks. I'm trying to be hopeful that maybe if I end up moving things will get better because I won't be around to be taken for granted anymore. Maybe she'll care a little more about my presence if I'm only around once or twice a year. But I'm also a bit afraid. It doesn't help that my life's been pretty stagnant thus far, and I was a little nervous about moving anyway. And I guess wondering if she'll even notice or care that I'm gone makes the anxiety worse. This was a while ago, before I'd even submitted the first application, so me moving away was just a vague, distant hypothetical situation, but when it came up over the summer all she said was that if I do move, I'd better take my cat with me, because she wouldn't take care of him for me.

[Cheshire_Cat]

Warning: This part is TMI, so if you are a guy, don't read, haha!

It's that time of the month, and I have a hard time speaking coherently and I'm cramping really bad, like -substantial amounts of painkiller wasn't doing anything for me- bad.  So of course I have to teach...  and we ran out of time and I got flustered when I realized we were going to run out of time.   

/End TMI

Most of the time I don't hate teaching, but I don't like having to teach and go to class and research at the same time.  I feel like I am working all day and barely treading water.  And I feel like a failure in the classroom and like I won't ever get any better.  I am confident in the material, but the second something unexpected happens in the classroom I get all flustered and start stuttering incoherently.  I know it is important to learn how to teach, but I wish I didn't have to learn until after I was done going to classes myself.  I feel like barely surviving is all I can do right now and actually improving in my teaching is out of the question just because I don't have time or the mental power.  Part of it is that the problems and powerpoints I have to use have errors and I can't vet each and every one before class so then when questions come up I look like an idiot.  Or, I improve in one area and screw up another.  There is so much pressure to be a good teacher, and I understand that, but it takes a while to get there, and I am frustrated because I don't feel like I am getting there as quickly as other people.  And I am the American, so I should be better than the people who do not have English as their first language, but I'm not.

[JohnSGrad95]

I've been feeling overwhelmed lately, especially with college, figuring out what to do after I graduate from college, applying to graduate school, and what to do with a sub 3.0 GPA. I entered college thinking I was going to enter medicine, but maybe that wasn't the right path for me. Maybe it was, and my interests diverged too much. Maybe I wasn't focused enough. Either way, my grades for the first two and a half years (or maybe even 3) of college weren't stellar. I switched majors (Psychology) and started doing well in classes. I had a 3.61 semester GPA last semester. However, I'm currently a senior and am looking into graduate programs. I was thinking of entering public health and am currently applying to schools. I've been overwhelmed with finding a post-graduation plan because it seems that people who don't have post-graduate plans are stigmatized in society, either by family members, friends, or the stigma may even be internal. I know that I could have definitely done things differently in college, but here I am-senior year. I'm trying to pick up the pieces as best as I can with the time I have left. I worried that if I enter the workforce now, I won't really have many prospective employers, as I have a sub 3.0 GPA, and I've always wanted to continue my education so I can move up the societal ladder so to speak. I just need some guidance as to what I can do. I really feel as though I dug my own grave, and there's no climbing out of it. Can anyone help me?

Edited January 18, 2017 by JohnSGrad95