To drop to the depths of your comments, who in the hell do you think you're talking to!?!
I don't know what classrooms you teach in, but where I'm at we take our courses very seriously. We work hard to pick textbooks that will work for students who no longer know how to read. We struggle to come up with a way to entice them to think. We make lesson plans, practice our lectures, grade our papers in a timely manner, and attend all the faculty meetings, workshops and the dreaded in-services. We get paid half of what we should -- yeah, I know we're called the rich full-timers by the struggling part-timer but when anyone adds the time I spend in classes to the time I spend in committees to the time I spend researching new ideas, I'm still sure I'm barely making minimum wage.
We also bitch, moan, complain, rant and rave. I reserve the right to continue to vent on this site specifically because at least here I know I'm talking to people who understand. What do you think keeps me sane when I've worked for hours to get a presentation ready only to face a room full of students who haven't read the chapter so they'll have no clue what I'm talking about. Yes, I vent about the kid who sleeps in the back row, the girl who is so dense I don't know why she's even in school, the athlete who comes begging with yet another sick grandmother story (my grandma would have kicked my ass from the grave if she had found out I even thought about using her dying as an excuse to get out of writing a paper). I have weird names for my students, I make fun of them, I rage about them, I throw things, I curse loudly.
I also raise my hand at meetings and make suggestions even if everyone groans and says "we've tried that before." I submit well researched, aggressive strategic plans only to get shot down by a state governor who keeps slashing the education budget. I also, and I mean this, have been known on more than one occasion to take money out of my own pocket to pay for something we needed in a course because the budget constraints are killing us.
Speaking of my unwavering commitment - I've bought student lunches, bought school supplies, given out my own pens and pencils in unbelievable numbers. I, the college professor, shop at Wal-Mart, Target, Staples and everyone else that has 2 for 1 specials on school supplies not because I have children at home -- I don't -- but because I have kids at school that this blessed system of ours doesn't have the ability to support.
They're lazy little slackers, but they're MY lazy little slackers and by golly I will rant and rave about them all I want. And I will rant and rave here because we're not a bunch of complainers -- we're a bunch of very tired, very frustrated, very aggravated people who want to get all this off our communal chests so we have the courage to go back out there and face the music.
In short, unsubscribe, take this site off your list of favorites, or blow me. Just don't dare call me someone who doesn't care about solving the problems.
I don't know what classrooms you teach in, but where I'm at we take our courses very seriously. We work hard to pick textbooks that will work for students who no longer know how to read. We struggle to come up with a way to entice them to think. We make lesson plans, practice our lectures, grade our papers in a timely manner, and attend all the faculty meetings, workshops and the dreaded in-services. We get paid half of what we should -- yeah, I know we're called the rich full-timers by the struggling part-timer but when anyone adds the time I spend in classes to the time I spend in committees to the time I spend researching new ideas, I'm still sure I'm barely making minimum wage.We also bitch, moan, complain, rant and rave. I reserve the right to continue to vent on this site specifically because at least here I know I'm talking to people who understand. What do you think keeps me sane when I've worked for hours to get a presentation ready only to face a room full of students who haven't read the chapter so they'll have no clue what I'm talking about. Yes, I vent about the kid who sleeps in the back row, the girl who is so dense I don't know why she's even in school, the athlete who comes begging with yet another sick grandmother story (my grandma would have kicked my ass from the grave if she had found out I even thought about using her dying as an excuse to get out of writing a paper). I have weird names for my students, I make fun of them, I rage about them, I throw things, I curse loudly.
I also raise my hand at meetings and make suggestions even if everyone groans and says "we've tried that before." I submit well researched, aggressive strategic plans only to get shot down by a state governor who keeps slashing the education budget. I also, and I mean this, have been known on more than one occasion to take money out of my own pocket to pay for something we needed in a course because the budget constraints are killing us.
Speaking of my unwavering commitment - I've bought student lunches, bought school supplies, given out my own pens and pencils in unbelievable numbers. I, the college professor, shop at Wal-Mart, Target, Staples and everyone else that has 2 for 1 specials on school supplies not because I have children at home -- I don't -- but because I have kids at school that this blessed system of ours doesn't have the ability to support.
They're lazy little slackers, but they're MY lazy little slackers and by golly I will rant and rave about them all I want. And I will rant and rave here because we're not a bunch of complainers -- we're a bunch of very tired, very frustrated, very aggravated people who want to get all this off our communal chests so we have the courage to go back out there and face the music.
In short, unsubscribe, take this site off your list of favorites, or blow me. Just don't dare call me someone who doesn't care about solving the problems.