#just teacher things

[disast3rtransp0rt]

Shout out to the four 16-year-old guys in my Contemporary Issues class who came in, sat down, debated the legal age for buying weed in our legalized state for maybe 20 minutes amongst themselves, and then pulled out a mini game of cornhole that they played on a desk.

[maestrita]

Trying to force myself to be creative again

[woodsy-hoe]

my students did their dress rehearsal for our creation story plays today and 🥲 i’m a very proud teacher

[rallis-fatalis]

One of my 6th grade student’s excuse note for not turning in a parent conference homework. I’m sorry sweetie, your mom was where?

[ghostedrain]

Not my students loudly singing to bob marley in this morning's class. I love them.

[officialromaniantranslatiuni]

Maybe you've experienced the weirdest shit, but have you ever had to escape a parent (who was threating to slash you face because she didn't want her kid to be online or come to school during covid, which meant he would not pass) to rush to get to your class where a new kid was beating the German teacher for mentioning the character Marion and "suggesting" that his name (Mario) was a girl's name?

[theres-music-in-you]

welp we are four weeks out from the beginning of the school year and I just found out I may be getting moved from third grade to first grade... please send good vibes I am stressed

[valiantlyannoyingbread]

working with kids is wild one minute you're explaining the curing process that makes salami salty and the next they're trying to lure you into the mlm they invented without knowing what an mlm is

[lachrimae-verae]

Every time there's a new school shooting I am forced to deal with the fact that I live in a country where deciding to teach children means deciding to work in a space where there is every chance I will be randomly murdered protecting my students. I've spent the last few days thinking about all the places in my school I could hide children if we aren't in the classroom when a drill is called.

I got an email from my boss that they bought new bullet proof sheilding for our groundfloor windows and classroom windows. We're going to have more security cameras and alarms. The police are gonna coordinate with the admins on how we can best prepare in case of a shooting.

I don't want to die at work.

In the last decade I've either attended or worked at five different schools that have all had threats made against them or actually had an active shooter. Some threats were specifically against students and teachers of color or who were queer.

It's spring break for me right now. I'm the only transmasc staff member who's out. I'm afraid that people will now see me as more of a threat. I know thats really unlikely, but fears are irrational and I would not be suprised if there are parents who won't want me around their kids now.

[marshmallowwitharubberband]

No, but fr, as a professor I would rather have handcrafted bullshit bc at least it has soul. And because I have seen students fail at chat gpt and that is somehow more insulting to receive than a half-assed work.

Case in point (keep in mind it's college students):

For video editing class, I gave my students a list of music videos from random artists from other countries (because I like to encourage the younglings to expand their horizons beyond their comfort zone and appreciate the beauty of variety). The assignment was to pick a video, watch it, then write a list of effects or transitions that caught their attention and describe what tools or techniques they could use to emulate them. Then, during class they would have to do just that: emulate the effects to the best of their ability (this was near the end of the semester so they had some knowledge of the software already).

It was supposed to look something like "1:03 minutes, the transition is fast and looks dynamic. It could be done with masking and motion tracking" I gave them examples and guided a practice round in class.

Enter Jimmy, Timmy and Greg.

Jimmy submitted a poorly-written work; very disorganized notes, only chose one effect to write about and his answer to how he'd recreate it was "search for tutorial". I gave him an extension and the chance to redo it in class. He managed to find the tutorials he needed and completed the work more or less successfully (but complaining the whole time).

Timmy submitted something that read like AI (idk how to describe it but it has a distinctive writing voice/style) that was kind of a "making of..." description of the effects. But evidently he didn't even read it bc he couldn't do anything in class since he didn't even watch the video nor knew what effects he was aiming for. I sat with him to actually watch the thing so he could at least know the expected result. I gave him an extension and he did reasonably ok but needed a lot of prodding. He failed the related exam later on.

Greg... oh my god, Greg. His work was also very obviously AI generated. It contained:

- the dictionary definition of the artist's name, not of the artist, just what the word meant.

- the definition of random editing tools like what is blur, what is masking, etc.

- the definition of video editing.

- a wildly inaccurate "biography" of the artist.

I was annoyed because this kid could not even write a dang prompt to at least get more decent results. But I had to be fair. I gave him the extension, he had questions, I answered them, re-explained the whole assignment. He redid and resubmitted... the exact same work. He just broke up some paragraphs to add random timestamps. That didn't even match the video, wdym 4:05, the MV is less than three minutes long!

I failed him on the spot.

All other students managed to follow the instructions just fine, with varying degrees of quality.

So, yeah, as a professor, AI generated works denote you don't even care enough about the class to fail by yourself. But eh, in the end it's YOUR money that's going down the drain when you graduate knowing nothing. (AI can be a very good tool if used right, though. It's just that so far I haven't seen it used right).

here you go professor. several pages of home brewed bullshit. as opposed to the chatgpt-brewed bullshit you're used to these days. i hope u enjoy it i worked very hard on it ❤️

[nickioeste]

Translation:

Me right now:

What day of the week is it?

Thursday, Saturday, 1996, Monday

[maestrita]

Parent email of the day:

Please do not call on our daughter or ask her to participate in class. It makes her feel dumb.

[woodsy-hoe]

most of my students are calling dibs for my group during our cross country skiing field trip today like guys 😭 pls i love you but

[spaceoddball1969]

There is a third grader in my school who had a tough time last year and has the shittiest home life you can imagine, but he at his core is such a sweet little boy. Today in my music class we were listening to Mozart and moving around the room to show volume levels. He grabs my hand and says "It's time to move, come with me." And we got all twisted to where I had to spin around to get unraveled from him. And so I said "You just spun me." So then we spent the next ten minutes spinning around with each other and other students joined in. Soon enough we had a whole group of 3rd graders spinning each other around so sweetly. It made my heart so full and happy. After having a horrifically tough day teaching yesterday, I really just needed to spin with my little buddy.

[ahotknife]

the thing is that childhood doesn't just end when you turn 18 or when you turn 21. it's going to end dozens of times over. your childhood pet will die. actors you loved in movies you watched as a kid will die. your grandparents will die, and then your parents will die. it's going to end dozens and dozens of times and all you can do is let it. all you can do is stand in the middle of the grocery store and stare at freezers full of microwave pizza because you've suddenly been seized by the memory of what it felt like to have a pizza party on the last day of school before summer break. which is another ending in and of itself

[orqheuss]

it's actually not that shocking that i quote victorian poetry while under the influence.