Here are some inappropriate, disrespectful, and noneducational things students have done in my college or graduate school classes. You teachers out there, add your own horror stories.
1. Walk in 15 minutes late with the iPod so loud that all the students can hear it until the student tums it off some time after getting seated.
2. Checking IMs or cell message during class--repeatedly, even when I am standing right in front of them in the front row.
3. Playing with or cleaning one's toenails while in class.
4. Playing video games or doing on-line shopping while in class. (Hey, ask me want. My Coltrane and Miles collection is not complete.)
5. Clipping fingernails in class.
6. Asking for the assignment two days before it is due when it was handed out two weeks earlier.
7. Looking at the clock repeatedly--within the first ten minutes of class. (I called on this student, who also liked to yawn loudly. He dropped the class rather quickly after that.)
8. Eating entire meals in class--and not during break.
9. Read a book--not the textbook--while the teacher (me) is lecturing.
Can you top these? I'm afraid some of you can.
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12 comments:
Was back in the day, I read a magazine during one of my classes. Of course, I was passing the class with an A without much effort. I've since emailed the teacher and told him how good of a teacher he was and apologized for my behavior.
Here's one...
When students use the word "feel" when they should use "think," such as "I feel that..." or "If you feel like you should..."
In my philosophy classes I tell students that "feel" is THE four-letter word, so stop thinking with your hearts and feeling with your heads. After all, it's rude to use inappropriate words.
One time I had a student who approached me at the beginning of class and wanted to drop my class. I said that they would need my signature to do so. This student said, "I thought I signed up for Ethnics. Seriously, you're like 'wah-wah wah-wah wah-wah'." As he said this last part, the student made their hand into a kind of sock puppet to mimic my movements. (I was teaching ethics at the time, and it's also difficult to type a student doing an impression of Charlie Brown's teacher). This student proceeded to go all the way to the registrar's office, get the form, come back in the middle of my lecture, stick the form in my face to sign it and then left. Pshew!
What about rude things students do to each other in class? For example:
1. Students who think "asking a question" means "expounding a long-winded, irrelevant diatribe".
2. Students who believe they are the smartest person in the room, not excepting the professor. Often, they also fall into category 1.
3. Students who talk or make other distracting noise while others are trying to learn.
4. Students who complain about the amount of coursework in the syllabus on the first day of class. They should be shown the door immediately and be asked to come back when they become serious about their degree.
I first want to emphasize that despite having shared most of the experiences that have been shared here, I still love to teach and I have found that it is a visible minority of students who do these things. With that said, here is my addition.
It drives me up the wall when a student misses class and asks "did I miss anything important?" The implication seems to be that there are some days where we cover important things and some days when we don't. (Since I don't cover Continental philosophy, I don't think there's anything that's unimportant in my class.) If it was unimportant, I wouldn't have assigned it.
There is a student in a class that I attend who regularly falls asleep during the lecture. And this is a pretty small class, with perhaps 20 students enrolled. A few times this semester he has started snoring, quite loudly actually, forcing his classmates to wake him up. The professor has had ample opportunity to pounce on him for this outrageous behavior, but has exercised great restraint in just ignoring the situation.
Students who work on assignments for other classes during my class irritate me the most.
Wow!! Classroom etiquette has certainly devolved since I was in school. I had to pay my own way through college. It was expensive then and even more so now. I couldn't imagine wasting my time and money by not being attentive and respectful.
In my logic class last semester a student would continually come in 10 minutes late, and then proceed to say "excuse me" over and over until the professor stopped lecturing to acknowledge him.
Two more things...
1. When a student says "Whatever" in a response to a question or comment. ARGH! That drives me crazy! The only thing left is intellectual suicide.
2. When a student exclaims "There is no truth!" and I rejoin "Is that true?" to which they respond "Huh? I don't get it."
Dr. Groothius,
You sound like an awfully boring professor. "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars...
Bryan,
This is an old post, so I don't know if anyone will see this, but I am a former student of Dr. G's, and he is anything but boring. His lectures are extremely engaging, and at times very funny, to those who are willing to listen. I would rather listen to a Groothuis lecture than watch TV, that's for sure!
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