Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with students

I need help spicing up second grade.

HotPatatta — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:40:03 -0800

Since I don't necessarily care if I get fired at the end of the year, what can I do to make this a memorable and completely awesome school year for my second graders? At this point, I'm planning not to continue teaching once the current school year ends in June. Since I don't want another teaching position after this, getting a stellar end-of-year performance review isn't a concern (I also have former supervisors who can vouch for me). I want to end this part of my life on a high note, so what are some kick-ass short- and long-term projects, crafts, songs, lessons, books for story time, and field trips (New York City) that are low-to-no cost and that will make this one of the most memorable years of these kids' lives? I'll have to cover all costs myself--the kids all live in abject poverty--so anything that requires very little capital investment and parental involvement would be preferable. Supplies I already have: two computers, a laser printer, a stereo, an overhead projector, rolls of butcher paper in a wide assortment of colors, basic craft supplies, and a switchblade I confiscated.

I'll give you extra credit and a scratch 'n' sniff sticker if you can think of a way to turn all the boogers under the desks into art.

Thanks!

Speak to me of broke-ass students

DarlingBri — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 13:10:08 -0800

Are you a broke-ass student? Were you a broke-ass student? Please give me your best tips and slightly insane ideas for surviving as an impoverished scholar. I'm trying to come up with a list of topics I can distribute to a team of bloggers writing for broke-ass students.

We have a very wide remit on this blog, from food to fashion to travel to entertainment to dating, so there is a lot of scope for all kinds of topics as long as it's relevant to students. So far I've got the basics like couch surfing and freecycle and stuff like how to jazz up Pot Noodles but I'm sort of stuck and I'm sure there are entire areas of student living I've forgotten about.

I really want to avoid boring generic advice like "turn off the lights!" and "save wear on your shoes by taking care of them!" I want the stuff your mom won't tell you.

Possibly relevant to potential suggestions: I am in Ireland. There are no dining halls here; everyone is self-feeding, so food is always an issue. The drinking age is 18, so that's not an issue. There is no Greek system.

Metafilter:Guidelines :: Apartment:???

yaymukund — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:40:08 -0800

What are some things you wish you knew (or were glad you knew) before you moved into your first apartment with roommates? I'm looking for methods of splitting up chores, cooking, finances, resolving disputes, and dealing with common problems.

Health insurance?

djduckie — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:52:16 -0800

Can anyone suggest insurance coverage for a student? I am 27 and about to stop working full time to finish my BA. Living off of loans and working part time i should be okay, but I would like to have insurance coverage. Any ideas? I've been looking online but not really happy with what i am finding ( cost a lot for very little benefit). Has anyone else lived this or have any suggestions?

Younger teacher, older students.

913 — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 23:21:52 -0800

I'm going to be teaching a business class and I'll be at least 10 years younger than any of my students. Any tips? I'm confident in the material and have no problems with public speaking. My only concern is that the students might think I'm too young to be taken seriously.

I'm not looking to demand respect and I really look forward to hearing stories and specific case studies from the students (they're all professionals).

Is there anything I can do from the get-go to make things run as smooth as they can? Anecdotes are more than welcome.

Thanks!

Teaching students to cite

carter — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 09:20:08 -0800

Desperately seeking effective online learning resources that teach undergrads how to identify academic sources, and how to cite them correctly. These could be Web pages, .docs/.pdfs, tutorials, etc. Anything interactive is a bonus. I've gone through this a number of times with different classes. I've told them, basically, that they need to supply some form of:

Lastname, N., (DATE). Book title, or Title & Journal/Vol/Issue, or Title & Conference/ Name/Place/Location, pagenumbers. Place/Publisher where relevant.

And I keep getting back the most amazing garbage. I'm flummoxed, tired of explaining it, and want to point them to a good online, preferably interactive Web resource. Many thanks!

How to deal with an intimidating professor?

Anonymous — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 06:03:29 -0800

My professor’s intimidating, confrontational style makes the classroom atmosphere difficult to tolerate. I can't drop the class or switch sections. What should I do? I’m in an advanced-level business class. The students are all seniors, post-bacs and graduate students, but the professor treats us as if we were a bunch of insubordinate kids in need of discipline. He doesn’t do this all the time, but it’s frequent enough that I’ve started to dread the class.

The class runs for two hours, and we are not given any breaks. If someone leaves their seat to go to the restroom, he will occasionally pause the lecture to interrogate them, ask where they’re going, or insist that they’re going to miss the best part of the lecture in the five minutes that they’re gone. Sometimes he laughs and tries to pass this sort of thing off as a joke, but very few (if any) of us find it funny.

When students ask questions, he often interrupts them or cuts them off before they’ve even finished articulating their questions. If they give an incorrect answer to a question he poses, he often chews them out for it, even if they can demonstrate verbally that they’ve read the assigned material and understood the concepts. At this point the only students who speak up voluntarily anymore seem to be the most thick-skinned ones. I’m not very thick-skinned, so I remain silent in class unless he calls on me directly. Sooner or later, though, he’ll probably put me on the spot and challenge me to explain why I’m so damn quiet all the time. (He’s already done that to another student).

He picks on people mercilessly. This week, for example, he loudly berated a student for not being able to answer the professor’s question:

Professor (pointing at student, after describing a long scenario): What’s the answer?

Student: Uh, I’m not sure. I was a bit distracted. I missed some of the details.

Professor (aggressively): WHY? Why aren’t you paying attention? What were you doing? What’s the matter? Don’t you take this class seriously?

Student (meekly): I’m sorry. I was reading something for a moment.

Professor: If you’re not going to pay attention and take this class seriously, then get the hell out of my class! Either you get on the ball, or you get your ass out of here!

Student (embarrassed): I’m sorry, Professor. I got it. I’m taking it seriously from now on.

At that point a couple of the students gave each other quizzical looks of disbelief, as if to say “What IS this, anyway? Reform school? The military?”

I felt sorry for the student he confronted, and wanted to stand up for him, but I feared that the professor would turn his wrath on me. If the professor ever does try to humiliate me like that, I doubt I’ll be able to endure it. I’ll probably just get up and walk out. I almost walked out today in protest of his treatment of a fellow student, but I knew I’d pay a high price if I did so, and I need this class to graduate.

Two weeks into the term, and already I dread going to class (which is very unusual for me; I love school, and my other classes are great). It’s a required class, and my class schedule is set in stone through my graduation date this summer, so I can’t drop it. There are no other sections available, so I can’t switch to a different instructor. I’m stuck with him until the end of the term.

What should I do? Is there anything that can be done, short of confronting him directly, to get him to ease up or treat the students more respectfully? I don’t want to confront him, because I fear he might hold it against me at grading time, or even try to humiliate me in front of the class and then claim it was “all in fun”.

Would this sort of behavior be considered harassment? He's never threatened or sexually harassed anyone, to the best of my knowledge. Should I document all the individual incidents in the classroom, and take my complaint to the university ombuds office? He's a visiting professor from another university; would this make a difference? Should I complain to the department head, and suggest that they confront him?

Advice, encouragement, suggestions, coping strategies, personal experiences – all are welcome. Thank you!

Throwaway e-mail: merciless.professor at gmail.

Cooking for hungry, hurried students

scission — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 17:33:23 -0800

What should I make for breakfast? I'm giving away the food to students who are on their way out of the dorm, heading to class. Easy to eat and easy to cook are both appreciated! This is a social event at college, for recruitment / rush but hopefully unintrusive about that.

-I have access to one kitchen, but there are others nearby if necessary (only for prep work)
-The space is small-ish and I'm told that the oven burns things easily; maybe it's hotter than it claims?
-No specific restriction on ingredients except that I have to buy it at an average supermarket and prefer cheaper things

The only thing that comes to mind for me is pancakes, but since we are having multiple breakfast events throughout the next month, I want more ideas to break up the tedium. Bonus points if you can offer advice on what works well in a hectic setting like this.

Any Travel Tips for Film and Economics Students in Paris?

codybaldwin — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:30:46 -0800

Where and What to do in Paris (for a film student and his partner who is an economics student)? We'll be spending 4 days and 3 nights in Paris from the 29th October to the 2nd of November (though, my partner will probably be visiting several more times in the coming months). I make and study films and I think it'd be really interesting to see some early avant-garde film related historical places, cool cinemas, and the such. Suggestions? Any quintessential cinema's we should visit? I'm not sure how applicable these sort of questions are for the field of economics, but we'd love to go to museums and other relevant historical sites. I hope this isn't too vague, I'm just looking for fun stuff for students. Thanks!

Your favorite routines from elementary school?

HotPatatta — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 10:13:02 -0800

When you or your kids were in elementary school, what were some of the daily/weekly routines or activities you or your children enjoyed and/or appreciated most? I'll be teaching second grade and I need some new ideas.

Roommate dating

Anonymous — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 09:54:22 -0800

I'm dating a roommate, but we need an excuse to go into her bedroom after a date. What can I do? She seems to really like me, and we've been going out for a couple of weeks. She's also one of my roommates, but only for a little while longer as she has to go back to the US. There are five students living in this apartment.

She has a room with a door, the rest of us have low walls in a loft setup (this means my room is a no-go).

I'm not sure how to carry the relationship from kissing outside her bedroom door to go inside it. I don't know if coming out with "can I sleep with you tonight?" is a smart thing to say or not. What should a guy do in this situation? Should I just take her by the hand and go in with her?

I feel that she is interested, but is too shy to make a move- especially as there are no convenient excuses like "you have a long way to walk home"... my bedroom is just a few feet away.

How do I teach intermediate-advanced (spoken) ESL students how to write?

thewalrus — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 08:31:39 -0800

ESL teaching for non-professional teachers! Help me teach native Farsi speakers with intermediate to advanced spoken English skills how to write grammatically correct business English. Example correspondence and other documents needed. I am temporarily filling in for a guy who due to unforeseen circumstances is not able to teach his ESL class. The class consists of about twenty native Farsi speakers, all of whom have intermediate to advanced level spoken English skills, with a fairly deep verbal vocabulary and proper grasp of spoken grammar.

However, they need a lot of help with writing. Specifically the questions are about phrasing, grammar and idioms used in English business emails: Relations between vendors, suppliers, wholesalers, import/export, contract language, writing RFPs/RFQs/RFIs, SOWs, etc. We have a textbook which offers plenty of written mail examples, suitable for use with postal mail, but 98% of the business correspondence these students are conducting (all white collar professionals) is done via email. The students are very bright individuals who seem quite intelligent in face to face or phone conversations, but do poorly communicating with suppliers and other contacts that they have never met face to face.

I am searching for a large selection of sample business correspondence and formally worded documents covering a variety of topics. Any suggestions will be very much appreciated.

Help a college kid help college kids, online.

clearly — Thu, 15 May 2008 20:07:23 -0800

What would be some good practical web resources for college students? My university pretty much has the course resource and website thing covered, but I would like to implement a section on practical information pertaining to the college student. Some resources I think would be helpful are cheap and good places to eat out, professor reviews, course strategies, a textbook marketplace, and a forum for general discussion.

Do you have any ideas I could implement?

Grading papers and apologizing when I'm way behind the power curve

notcomputersavvy06 — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 08:35:11 -0800

Help! How do I face my employer and students when I've really f*cked up! A friend recommended me as a distance learning coordinator (read, elevated grader) for an online MBA course at a large university in another state. I thought it was a great idea although I didn't realize exactly what would be involved. As it turns out, although I've taught at the graduate level before and LOVED it, when I'm not actually teaching, merely grading, and I'm not in front of a live classroom, I HATE it! As a result, I've completely procrastinated and haven't done much of anything for 3 weeks. Suffice to say, the students are not happy (understandably) and have complained to my employer. I readily agree, I suck! I definitely need to rectify the situation but I'm soooo behind, it's hard to even begin.
So, first, any suggestions on how to force myself to tackle my backload of grading? Second, what is the best way to eat crow to my employer? Third, should I send an email to my students apologizing for the delay in my grading and responses to them?

How do i contact chinese web design people

peshay9000 — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 13:45:54 -0800

How do I find and contact people in China (students/professionals) to discuss web design topics with? - For a while now i have been wondering what the chinese internet business/usage is like but it is hard to get right impression. It would be nice to have someone knowledgable to discuss this with. ... I dont speak chinese

Recommend a Toronto Financial Planner

gavia — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:19:49 -0800

Toronto money filter: Two full-time students, recently common-law (under the CRA definition) looking for financial planner recommendations. So, we're not rich by any stretch of the imagination and somewhat rudderless when it comes to future financial goals (other than the amorphous "save for retirement" & "buy a house" ) partly due to the uncertainty that comes with pursuing advanced graduate degrees--in both the "we're broke" and the "we don't know where we'll be in five years" department.

I'm in my early 30's, my partner in her late 20's. We don't have friends who are in similar situations to provide us with an already-in-place planner recommendation. We've invested ad-hoc to this moment and want to add some rigour to the process, establish some goals and have a plan. Points for a Financial Planner who has some experience dealing with full-time students. Bonus points for someone who can offer Tax advice.

If you don't have a specific recommendation, I would appreciate what I should be looking for. For example, I think I would feel like I was getting honest advice from someone who I paid, rather than made their money on commission. But perhaps I'm way off on that.

I've found posts that deal with similar questions, but nothing that really offers suggestions for someone in my (our) situation. Merci bien.

Don't Smile 'Til Christmas

AmbroseChapel — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 17:05:20 -0800

I'm going to be teaching less-than-enthusiastic students; help me keep their respect and attention. I'm not a trained teacher, but do quite a bit of in-house corporate training.

The attendees are usually

quite cheerful because they're having a couple of days off work;
quite motivated because they need the training to help them do their work/advance their careers;
in their twenties or thirties.

Also the courses are short.

My teaching style in these sessions is to be funny and light and hopefully entertaining. I worry that I'm turning into the guy from The Office sometimes, except the training really is useful and I really do know my stuff.

But I have an occasional job teaching evening classes to graphic design students where everything is reversed:

less cheerful because it's at the end of the day;
less motivated because it's a mandatory, non-graphic class in a subject they find dull;
mostly just out of high school.

The classes go a whole term.

Last time round my chatty, jokey teaching style wasn't much good. They basically didn't respect me much and didn't take the class very seriously.

What should I do to make sure I have a style appropriate to the situation? It's not that different to teaching high school, as far as I can see.

British teachers (whose school year starts in September) have a saying: "don't smile 'til Christmas". Apart from just being very formal and serious, what do I do to keep their respect and attention?

Online Biography Resource for 5th Grade?

snsranch — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:47:58 -0800

Any suggestions for online biography resources for 5th graders? My lovely teacher-wife's students will soon be doing research on various people in history. The students are a diverse crowd. The students are researching a wide variety of people from Hymen Rickover to Andy Warhol to Picasso and Houdini.

Sadly Wikipedia and the like can't be accessed from the school and biosforkids.com doesn't quite have the range. Yes, the library is excellent, but for this project we'd like to use the internet.

What do we call these informal school group meetings?

brownpau — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 19:45:03 -0800

I'm posting this on behalf of a teacher friend of mine who wants your ideas: A university is developing an initiative in which pairs of professors, across disciplines, will meet up with small groups of first year students during their second semester to discuss themes of interest and promote intellectual engagement. These informal meetings will occur at least four times over a couple of months and can take place anywhere: in seminar rooms, in a dorm lounge, at a restaurant, at a professor's home, at an art gallery. So, what do we call these? "Study groups" is not an option. We need something catchy.

How Can I Get More Students?

rossination — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 20:22:47 -0800

Musicians -- how do you attract students? I'm a trombonist and college student (music performance and music ed) in Seattle. I have one private student, and I teach semi-privately once a week at an area school. I'm looking to pick up a couple more students. Everyone says to put an ad on Craigslist and to talk to area band directors. I've done both, and (so far) I haven't had much luck.

I realize that I'm not teaching piano, guitar, or drums -- it's not like there are thousands of people out there just looking to get their trombone on. But I'm looking for suggestions from others who teach privately (not just music) as to how they got the "gigs" that they have now.

If for whatever reason you don't want to post here, email is in profile.

[Final note -- hope this doesn't seem like I'm trying to advertise on AskMe. I'm not.]

Help us regiter thousands of voters!

allthewhile — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 20:30:34 -0800

I would like to do a major service project with my Chicago middle school students where we register voters in their (and our school) neighborhood. What ideas might you genius mefites have for us? What organizations should we work with? How can we maximize our efforts through creative events/ideas? Any ideas? Any? I just thought up the idea today so I don't have any big plans other than I thought, "We could register 5,000 inner city voters before the presidential election." My wife thought 5k was too high, but I'm not sure. Anyways, if anyone has an cool/original ideas for events to attend, organizations to hook up with, or what number might be plausible, I'd appreciate it.

btw around 130 students would be involved.

Best Approaches to Work-Study Student Management?

robocop is bleeding — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 11:27:48 -0800

How best to manage work-study students? If you were a work-study student, how did you like to be managed? So in my new job, I'll be in charge of 20+ work-study students at a medium-sized academic library. While I have supervisory experience with full-time and part-time employees, I don't have much with work-study undergraduate students.

While I have access to the standard library How To materials that lay out the Dos and Don'ts of student supervision, I'd really like to get a handle on the wants/needs/opinions of the work-study student themselves.

So if you were a work-study student, how did you prefer to be supervised? How much effort did you put in? How much did you slack off?

And if you've supervised students before, any anecdotes or tips/tricks not likely seen in Official Literature are more than welcome.

Thanks!

People & Resources in Student Welfare

divabat — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 22:47:33 -0800

I am deeply interested in education - not teaching, but in student life and welfare, as well as alternative/non-traditional education. How do I learn more about those issues? Which people are prominent in the field? What resources do I have? Some example issues of the above are: ace for grades, college choice, career choice, being overloaded with extracurriculars just to enter a prestigious university, anything alternative education related, education policy, etc.

I've been scouring different Brisbane (Australia) universities' staff profiles, since I live there, but no one I found seems to be working in those areas. Almost all the resources on those topics are American. I have contacted a few places but haven't heard anything from anyone. I'm particularly interested in specific people who research or work in this field.

Examples of people I'm after:

* Denise Clark Pope, who wrote Doing School and organizes the Stressed-Out Students Conference (we've corresponded a little bit but she hasn't replied to my latest email)

* Loren Pope & Marty O'Connell from Colleges that Change Lives (I've corresponded with Marty a while ago)

* Marilee Jones, ex-MIT Dean of Admissions who was in the news recently for lying on her resume - she was a big advocate of choosing colleges for their suitability not their name (I would LOVE to talk to her...but I can't find any contact details)

* Nel Noddings, author of The Challenge To Care In Schools

* Grace Llewellyn/John Taylor Gatto/John Holt - regular names in unschooling/homeschooling (I've tried emailing Gatto but apparently he doesn't read emails anymore. Missed a chance to meet him directly. Damn!)

* The folks at Education|Evolving (shot them an email, waiting for a reply)

also: how else can I get involved in this area? I'm currently a Creative Industries undergrad. I was thinking of doing an Education degree but the ones here are focused mainly on teaching. (I could get a Grad Dip with my current degree, but I need a year's worth of related work experience...which requires the Education degree. bah.)

I also write a blog about related issues (see profile) but I feel like I should do more.

Ultimately I would like to raise awareness of the issues students in Malaysia (where I'm from) face in school that get overlooked - stress, choosing uni courses, work-life balance, etc. Only now has the interest been piqued in the national mindset and it's critical that this awareness is raised. That's the main reason my blog was set up. However, I would like to get a stronger foundation, and network with people that could help me out.

What can I do? Shadow as someone's research assistant? Read as many books as I can get my hands on? Move to America and transfer to Stanford since that's where most of them (Denise Clark Pope and Nel Noddings especially) seem to be hiding? What else am I missing?

How to administer a read-aloud math test

Sweetie Darling — Mon, 21 May 2007 17:57:31 -0800

Suggestions/resources for administering a math test out loud? My husband has to administer end-of-grade math tests tomorrow for two fourth graders.

Because the students have moderate learning disabilities, he will read the test out loud. These tests are a big deal for the school, district and parents, so he's worried about doing it right and reading the numbers (1) correctly and (2) in a way the children will understand but not (3) giving away the answer.

Google-fu fails and the district is providing no help. Here are specific questions: How to describe a fraction; how to describe a graph and/or ordered pairs; how to "talk out" an equation.

Here are links to a few sample test pages: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/docs/accountability/testing/eog/g4/samples/grade4mathitemsgoal003.pdf. Full list here: http://www.ncpublicschools.org/accountability/testing/eog/sampleitems/newcurmath4

The students will have a copy of the test in front of them; his reading provides supplementary help.

Any special-ed or math-teacher folks out there with suggestions or tips? We'd be grateful.

What are some killer Photoshop projects for my class of design students?

jeremias — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 15:19:40 -0800

What are some killer Photoshop projects for my class of design students? I have a class of 12 graphic design students who are about 75% of the way through a intensive 2 week class. They're doing great and have learned a lot about color correction, layer masks, clipping masks, etc.

But I'm looking for a cool final project that will pull it all together. Usually we do something like a cd cover for a band of their choice using scans, internet grabs, etc. But they did a large cd cover project in Illustrator a few weeks ago, so I want to avoid that. (This is design for print BTW, not web)

For designers reading this, what projects do remember as memorable, fun and Photoshop-centric, i.e. doesn't involve integration with Illustrator or page layout?