Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with teaching

Teaching children in Africa.

cacao — Wed, 19 Jun 2013 15:30:53 -0800

Please help me fulfill a promise that I didn't expect to be so challenging. So someone I know is a wonderful mentor and encourages me a lot. When I moved away from the city we both lived in, instead of giving him a physical gift I gave him a promise. He always talks about wanting to teach in Africa, for a year or so, but that he doesn't think it's possible. He's in his late 40's.

I realized that "teaching children in Africa" is very vague, but it's his dream, not mine, so I can't really impose details onto it.

I encouraged him to start by teaching for a couple weeks, see how he likes it, and that maybe it'll inspire him to do it again for a year, or to make the couple of weeks a yearly ritual (he would be able to afford the yearly airfare, and lives in Europe so it's not as far as the US anyhow). I told him I would send him a list of good quality programs.

I didn't realize how hard it would be to find good programs! Everything seems to have extortionary, unreasonable fees. I quickly realized that the chances of having a program cover expenses except airfare wasn't reasonable, but I'm still hoping to find quality programs at modest, reasonable sums.

He's very educated, and has a great job in international development/economics/banking. He's very well traveled. He can handle rough places. Please help me find programs that are a couple weeks, or even a couple months long. You can even throw in year-long programs for when he's ready for it. I really want to contribute in some small way to him achieving this dream of his because he's helped me in so many ways.

Looking forward to your suggestions!

Tips for having multiple careers

ichomp — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 19:34:08 -0800

Do you have advice on pursuing/ handling multiple jobs at once? Especially if both are jobs you plan on making into careers. Right now I have two jobs, and while they are not permanent and salaried positions, I like both of them and would like to pursue a career/ work in both long-term. My first job is a project coordinator position, and it is a M-F, "formal" job. My second job is on weekends, as an assistant art teacher for kids. I don't have formal art or education training, but I am greatly interested in children and would like to continue assistant teaching on weekends.

In addition to that, I may be starting a traffic coordinator position at a creative agency 3 half-days a week, which may grow into permanent position after my first job ends. Do you have any tips on having two jobs during M-F that are similar in nature, but different in industry? I would like to do well in both and have energy for my second job of the day.

Do any MeFites have experience growing 2 (different) career paths? Mine would be project management and teaching. Perhaps teaching is not my career, but working with kids in some way is. If you have any advice on pursuing a project management career, I would appreciate it too.

1) How can I do my best in each job and be "fresh" when I go to each of them?
2) How do I develop as a project/traffic manager? I've had this role temporarily in IT and possibly creative agency, and I'd like to find a permanent position.
3) If I'm interested in working with kids on the side, how can I develop in this area without getting a degree?

Please tell me about your experience pursuing two careers paths, if it's feasible, and how you managed them. Thanks.

Examples of early online courses?

Ideefixe — Mon, 10 Jun 2013 10:10:11 -0800

I'm looking for examples of online teaching presentations. Preferably from the early days of online instruction. Extra points for shaky camera, low production values and nervousness. Subject matter can be anything, any grade level.

I would rather throw a tantrum than learn math (10 year old edition)

ovenmitt — Sun, 09 Jun 2013 15:55:12 -0800

I tutor a boy who is moving from 4th-5th grade. He's at grade level in most subjects, above grade level in reading, but getting an Elvis Presley head in math. Can you help me find ways to help him be less intimidated by math, allowing us more time to learn and practice before his eventual mental shutdown each session? He's a great kid with undiagnosed ADHD. Until this year, his math instruction had been immersive Spanish, and he was doing "alright" among his classmates. This year they switched to dual English/Spanish classes and his grades have dropped in both sections. His English math teacher seemed to struggle with the existence of a tutor, and when they responded to emails for help from me at all, simply said the kid needed to speak to them more and try and do his homework, even if it was wrong. The classroom experience was equally difficult, and a normally funny, creative, and intelligent child was often reduced to tears, intimidated by simple concepts like single-digit division and perimeter.

I am not a licensed teacher, and don't have the benefit of courses that likely cover handling kids with additional learning needs, so mefites, I turn to you. Most of the tips and tricks I've been using are to help with his focus, and they've worked very well. Now his fear of math is eclipsing the attention to detail, and he's started throwing tantrums during sessions. He desperately wants to please me/his parents, so I know these aren't from a place of petulance, but of complete frustration with what he believes are the limits of his learning. Do you have experience helping elementary aged kids through the "math wall"? Were you one of these kids and have helpful hints? We'll be working together over the summer and (in a perfect world I rekindle his love of math, but I don't even have that so really) I want to help him get to a place where math is no longer terrifying, just challenging but comprehensible.

I want to become a primary teacher even though most do not support me.

lovisa91 — Sat, 08 Jun 2013 10:40:55 -0800

I have just graduated from university with a bachelor of science in environmental sciences. My dad would love for me to continue down that route and become an environmentalist. I want to be a primary teacher and he is not happy with that decision. To be honest, most of the modules were boring, and though I am good at science it is definitely not my passion, although I am really glad I studied it overall the degree was interesting and I learned a lot.

My uncle was a teacher for a few years and now is deputy head. He says there is a shortage of good teachers in the UK which is where i live, and he thinks I would be a good teacher and could eventually become head.

My dad says it is not well paid and that it is a lot more interesting to work with the environment because I'd be able to travel and be with animals and nature. I do love those things, but when i think of becoming a teacher and having my own classroom and being with children, I get butterflies in my stomach and i feel i would love it. I have classroom experience already.

Another thing is that I feel people will think it is not challenging enough, and wonder why i would ever give up a cool sounding job for teaching. I know this sounds like I rely too much on what people think, but it is just difficult receiving so much support from friends and family on my choice of degree, and now not receiving much support for wanting to teach. I have wanted to teach for a few years now, but chose environmental science because I love nature and to become a teacher in England you first need a degree. Am I making a big mistake into choosing this route, or should i just do what I want to do even though I have no support other than from my uncle? Thank you..

What are your best academic writing exercises for undergraduates?

caoimhe — Wed, 29 May 2013 08:34:00 -0800

What exercises do you use in class to help undergraduates become better writers? I teach a class to undergraduates (basically Academic Writing 101). I'm planning my syllabus for the fall, and would love even more great in-class exercises to help students become better writers. Any ideas?

Where can I buy architectural engineering models?

mortaddams — Sun, 19 May 2013 15:47:23 -0800

Are there any online stores that sell teaching aids for demonstrating principles of architectural engineering? I am wanting to buy model columns, arches, domes, trusses, cantilevers, and so forth, to use in architectural history classes that I am teaching. The goal is to demonstrate the physical forces that act on buildings, so I don't need models of finished buildings and bridges, but rather models that show how the structures work--preferably in an interactive way. Any leads would be most appreciated.

How to discuss a possible learning disability with a student?

Anonymous — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:27:10 -0800

I teach college students. One otherwise capable student I have taught this year has struggled in particular ways that suggest s/he might have a learning disability or similar. The school's office for student disability service can provide testing &c if the student contacts them. What is the best way to discuss this with the student and recommend they seek assistance? This student is in a language class that depends heavily on reading and translating from an inflected language. The student frequently fails to properly identify verbal forms. It's not clear to me if the student simply is not yet experienced enough in the language, but it's clear they are failing to distinguish between mostly similar phonemes. The student also frequently mispronounces words in this language by transposing syllables (eg "magnificent" would become "magnicifent"), and has misspelled newly learned English words in writing (but is a native English speaker). I don't know anything about learning disabilities but it seems to me that the student is struggling specifically with this one important verbal element. There has been zero improvement over the course of the semester, which is troubling. I can't really diagnose anything but I'd like the student to have access to helpful resources.

As an educator, what is the best way to approach this? Email or face-to-face? What sort of language is appropriate? I have trouble finding a way to do this that a. doesn't involve me asking if they have ever been diagnosed (not my business) and b. doesn't offend. Or should I just butt out? I'm junior TT faculty if that helps.

Seeking texts (books, movies, TV, articles, etc.) about authenticity

littlegreen — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 00:02:26 -0800

I'm preparing to teach an honors-level college composition class themed around authenticity. What are some cool texts (in any media) that I can show my students to get them thinking about different aspects of authenticity? In the fall, I'll be teaching an honors-level composition class for college freshmen, with an overarching class theme of authenticity. I have free rein over the texts I select for the class, and I want to provide my students with a variety of examples using different kinds of media - books/films/TV/articles/Youtube/podcasts/etc. I would really appreciate any help or advice that you could give me in figuring out a wide range of texts to show my students.

To give you an idea, some of the sources that my colleagues and I have discussed using are Cheryl Strayed's Wild (thinking about how Strayed is trying to access a more 'authentic' self), Catfish (the movie or the TV show), sources about the James Frey controversy (talking about whether fiction within nonfiction is acceptable, and to what extent). One of my particular interests is pop culture (I'm tempted to use Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, for example, to talk about how/whether the show is 'authentically' southern, and how real reality TV is anyway), so anything in that vein would be really cool.

The sources can be highbrow or lowbrow. They can be directly talking about authenticity, or just related in some way to the idea of what is 'real' and what isn't. I'm particularly looking for resources that are easily-accessed for free, though I'd also be open to cheaply-available sources that I can easily photocopy or otherwise distribute.

Thanks so much in advance for any ideas you may have!

"And remember, children, always subvert the dominant paradigm..."

overeducated_alligator — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 19:49:14 -0800

Is it possible to be a public school teacher if you have a strong anti-authoritarian mentality? I'm in a master's program with the intention of teaching middle school science. I've done a bit of student teaching so far, but the bulk of it is coming up soon.

I'm realizing that I still have strong ideological objections to the authoritarian structures which I have observed in schools (even really good ones) which demand obedience and conformity at the expense of independent thinking.

I know not all schools are bad, I know some schools are making great strides and doing cool and interesting things...but there's a core of it ("Sit down and do what we say") which just doesn't seem ethical to me. In addition, I'm particularly unsettled by students' future job prospects, and I don't have the confidence to tell them that if they just work hard and compete for a spot in a good college, that they'll be rewarded.

My advisors have given me some recommendations for private schools to investigate, but I wanted to hear people's experiences in the public setting which allowed them to transcend the types of worries and objections I'm having. I don't want to just give up on the idea of working in a public setting.

Creative jobs outside of education, possibly finance/math-related?

violetish — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 17:11:44 -0800

What jobs outside of education would fit my interests and experiences (most of which are education-related)? Are there jobs related to my math major that will appeal to my need for creative outlets in my work? I've been in education since I left college 8 years ago, including grad school (MA in math education), 4 years of teaching high school math, and 3 years of training or evaluating math/science teachers. I'm trying to find a new job since my current role ends June 1, but I've applied for several jobs and haven't been offered any. I'm wondering if a change of career paths is in order.

My family is continuously encouraging me to leave education, perhaps for finance/actuarial work, because my undergrad degree is in math (and, frankly, because they'd like me to have the opportunity to make a bit more money than I'm currently making, or would make if I returned to the classroom). Finance/business/economics seem pretty dull to me - I do really love math, but applied math has always seemed unappealing to me. It sounds like a lot of looking at spreadsheets and talking about bonds and dividends and money and statistics, none of which sounds good. I know I'm not giving it a fair shot, though, as I don't totally understand what actuaries or accountants or other people in finance do on a daily basis. I do want to expand my job search, because although I'm lucky enough to have the savings I need to be unemployed for a little while as I continue looking for a job, and although I'm passionate about math education, I definitely want to keep my options open.

I do know that my favorite part of any jobs I've had is any time when I can create something - this includes creating lessons plans and projects for students, creating systems and templates for organizing the work of my fellow teacher evaluators, and creating professional development courses, sessions, and resources for the teachers I train. It also means that I highly value any spare time I have, when I can be painting or sewing or working on building my illustration portfolio (I've had a few tiny freelance projects here and there, but nothing has really made me think this is viable as a full-time job, considering my skill level and willingness towards self-promotion). I think that if I left education, which, again, I feel really passionate about, it'd have to be for a job where I can at least feel a little bit creative on a regular basis.

So, here is the question: What jobs, if any, relate to or take advantage of my math major but also appeal to my interest in creating things at work? Or, where would you recommend I look for a job, given my experiences and background as described above? Please feel free to share your experiences transitioning out of education to a more corporate-type job!

Novels about language?

Joseph Gurl — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 23:20:09 -0800

I'm looking for some recommendations of novels that are in some way about language. I'm open to sci-fi and novels about third-culture characters negotiating native and adopted languages, but ideally I'd find something else.

I'm going to be using the books with high school age students, so preferably not extremely long (say <400 pp? I'm flexi on this, I guess), extraordinarily academic (again, somewhat flexi--Foucault and Certeau are on the syllabus), or, um, notably "adult," por favor.

For context, the unit will include a bunch of readings and media about linguistics (Sapir-Whorf, Chomsky, Pinker, Bloom), conlangers, hobo language, paleolinguistics, cockney rhyming slang, etymology, attempts at "language purity," neuroscience, etc. The novel will run alongside all these other shorter readings.

Resources and suggestions needed for improving my teaching skills

Frowner — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 06:37:38 -0800

So I've been doing a little bit of teaching of free adult classes in my erstwhile academic specialty, an area of literature. (I am not an academic and do not teach except for community stuff.) I have trouble with big group discussion and balancing my role in the class. I used to be just a godawful teacher with no idea how to structure a class; maturity and some activist trainings have given me enough skills that I am competent. I feel like I'm pretty good at choosing readings and planning small group activities (even creating discussion questions for small groups). But I feel like I break down when I need to work with the group as a whole. Sometimes we need to do whole-group stuff because the class size is too small for small groups; sometimes it's because I want to see where the whole group is at; and sometimes it's because I want to give the group specific information.

But I feel like I have these problems:

1. Things get rambly easily. I have trouble following up on and linking comments to comments.
2. I often feel undirected - like, I can think of an initial discussion question but I can't help students get to a deeper or more complex level. If the question confuses students (not because I've phrased it poorly but because it's difficult) I have trouble getting past that. In small groups, they can work some of this stuff out for themselves and in any case, I am less responsible for directing the outcomes.
3. What do you do if there is a point that you want students to get and they are not getting it? I find myself veering into "just tell them already", which skews discussion more toward "lecture". In big classes where we're alternating between small group, pair and whole group work I don't mind about this, but in a small class, it bothers me.
4. How do you write really good discussion questions, especially when students have various levels of familiarity with the topic and academic background?
5. How do you stay "teacherly" and not get too chatty? I am really excited about this topic and can easily get derailed into sharing My! Views! Of! Literature!

Basically, I feel like we don't get deep enough into the material and I feel like that's because I am somehow failing to direct the class right, but I can't seem to fix it. There isn't massive student unhappiness but I would really like to provide more to the students than I am currently.

I am teaching people who either are doing, have done or are capable of doing college-level work, virtually all of whom are older than twenty but most of whom are younger than me.

Any suggestions from your experience or materials you'd recommend would be useful.

Where should I hang my fliers about tutoring?

mermily — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 18:07:30 -0800

I want to tutor elementary aged kids. How much should I charge? Where should I go about finding clients? I am full time teacher and thought that tutoring would probably be a good summer gig. I'm not really sure what the going rate is for tutoring children. If I am certified would it be more in the neighborhood of 25 dollars or 60 dollars an hour? Also, I thought I'd do some of those pull tab flier things and wanted to see if anyone had any brilliant ideas about where to hang them where well-heeled parents might be enticed. I thought I'd put one in the practice rooms where I go to play piano because lots of kids take their lessons from there, which seems to be an indicator of extracurricular involvement. That's pretty much my one brilliant idea for flier-posting, besides the Y and Starbucks. I am not allowed to tutor my students so I don't want to go through my school and I'd like to not go through a tutoring service. Thanks for your help!

Suggest Sc-iFi/Fantasy Books for a brand new High School elective

ThaBombShelterSmith — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 18:01:50 -0800

Sci-Fi/FantasyFilter: I've just been told that I get to be the first one to teach a brand new Science Fiction & Fantasy elective at my High School. I am building this class from scratch and since the students will be responsible for getting the books themselves, I have pretty much free-reign for my book choices. Great, right? Absolutely! However, I want to expand my initial book search so I wanted to enlist the Hive Mind to help with this initial salvo. More details below the fold. This class is an elective for 10, 11, and 12 and meets 2 or 3 times a week. I haven't even begun the process of planning the structure of the class, but I'm thinking of doing about a novel every 3 weeks or so plus one choice novel a quarter. This is a semester course and I'm thinking of doing a quarter of fantasy and a quarter of science fiction.

My wheelhouse is primarily epic, series based, high fantasy (Malazan, Recluce, Pern, SoT). I'm not that familiar with standalone fantasy novels, and since this is a short class, I would like to probably focus on single novels (or maybe individual novels of a series that can stand alone).

I'm also much more familiar with the classic Sci-Fi canon (Asimov, Bradbury, Dick, Bova) but I'm not really well versed in current Sci-Fi.

I also am not very up-to-date on YA Sci-fi/Fantasy, so any suggestions along those lines would be greatly appreciated.

My request is the following: Please suggest books that would be great to use in a High School elective. At this point I'm not really concerned about Lexile scores so much as I am about quality and length. While I would love have the kids read a book like Reamde or Name of the Wind, those 1000 page tomes are a bit out of reach for my purposes.

Thanks in advance!

ESL tips and games for young children

saul wright — Sat, 16 Mar 2013 12:29:20 -0800

I am teaching English to a 4 and a 7 year old (separately) and I am looking for tips, games, ipad apps, or resources. I've been working through Azar's Basic English Grammar with the 7 year old but I'd like something more fun to supplement with. Also, what would be a good longer term goal for him to work towards?

I've just been working on the alphabet with the 4 year old. He's got the uppercase down and will hopefully soon be able to do the lowercase on his own. What else is essential for his age?

How to handle an extreme narcissistic teen as a teacher

assasinatdbeauty — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 14:11:51 -0800

Posting for a friend - I have a good deal of experience with difficult teens, but i've honestly never encountered this (and am definitely now intrigued myself on how to handle). A short description inside. Here's her situation, in her words. We're dealing with the Junior/Senior in high school age range-

"Basically, this kid always texts and talks during class. And his first paper he wrote about having sex with a girl. When I handed papers back, in front of class, he asked me if I liked his paper. When I told him to read the comments, he (still in front of class), compared his paper to 50 shades of gray, and asked if i liked THAT. Today, the students were doing worksheets and he complained it was too hard and wanted help. I wouldn't help, and he asked why and I said "Do you remember things better if they're easy or if you fuck up?" and he said "I remember things better when I fuck them." I've asked him to move seats away from his friends, to put his phone away, but obviously I can't force him to and he just ignores me, which makes me look even more powerless. When I told him to stop texting today, he said "I'm not texting, I'm rating girls based on their looks (on some website I don't remember)." We don't have a principal, we can't talk to parents, I don't know what to do because he calls me on everything. . .And the sad part is, he's really smart.
Any ideas you have would be awesome. . .
Thank you!!"

Many thanks from me as well!

Transitioning into early childhood education - where do I start?

anotheraccount — Fri, 08 Mar 2013 05:56:15 -0800

I want to be an early childhood educator. Difficulty: I'm losing my job in my current field and need to make a next step quickly. So after my last question (and all the alarm bells that the green pointed out), I've come to realize that I really have very little interest in going further in my current field (nonprofit fundraising) for a number of reasons. For a very, very long time, being an early childhood educator has been in the back of my mind. I previously worked at an organization that provided Early Head Start and Head Start services to low-income kids. I loved being around the kids and I'm very passionate about how critical early childhood education is.

By mutual agreement, I will probably be leaving my job in the next several months. It's just not a good fit for either of us. I have a prime opportunity to start thinking about this transition.

Complicating factors:
1) I have one year to go to finish an MPA degree. I want to finish the degree and possibly use it to work in education policy someday.
2) I have no savings and need a job fairly quickly.
3) Post-MPA, I am thinking about enrolling in an early childhood masters program which requires at least one year of experience with young children.

I've started applying to some jobs that are in my current field, but I have no real interest in them. I would love to take a low-level early childhood job just to start gaining experience, even if that means a big pay cut. Does anyone have experience transitioning into early childhood? What do I need to do now?

Where do I go from here? Teacher Edition

Anonymous — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 17:49:46 -0800

What's my next professional step? I recently earned my teaching license, but I couldn't get a teaching job. I have had to take a step backwards and am now working as an administrative assistant again, which I hate. Do I keep trying to find the elusive teaching job or leave the dream behind? I earned my teaching certification and surprise, surprise, was not able to find a full time teaching gig this year. I didn't want to eke out a living subbing, so I took a job as an admin assistant, which was the field I was trying to get away from by getting my teaching license. I've been at my job for 5 months, and I hate it more than ever. I hate sitting at a desk, in a cube, staring at a computer all day. Plus, I have a crazy and belittling supervisor. In a panic, I applied to another administrative assistant job and was offered the position. But I'm torn as to whether I should take it, or hold out for a teaching position this upcoming school year. On one hand, this new admin job pays $6,000 more than I'm currently making, and I really want to flee my crazy boss. On the other hand, I am fairly sure that I'll continue to feel dissatisfied and depressed as an administrative assistant again. I'm also hesitant about teaching, though, as teaching jobs are almost impossible to get in my city, and my student teaching experience was actually pretty negative and exhausting. Sometimes I think that I should abandon teaching altogether and perhaps taking the pre-requisites for occupational therapy school. Oh, and I'm 36 and single, so I feel the pressure to have a stable job to support myself. Any advice from teachers and others would be much appreciated!

Music teaching with rebellious children

yoHighness — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 09:37:10 -0800

You are a music teacher who knows how to make lessons fun and involving for a young person in a rebellious frame of mind. I visit a brother/sister pair every week to teach them piano for half an hour each.

Their mother approached me at a gig of one of my bands. They were looking for a piano teacher who gets kids to "have fun with music" instead of "just practising scales" (parents' music teachers would hit their fingers when they played scales wrong, I guess this explains their unconventional approach). I do have a formal music education if not any teaching education, but it went great for about six months.

The girl, 14, had some difficulty with fundamentals of music, but seems glad to have a teacher. She could maybe spend a little more time than five minutes a day but she started making it a positive habit for herself, and really took to it every day.

The boy, 10, can play and sing by ear and has a totally natural pulse, but he's also indifferent about having a teacher.
What worked well so far were ear training games, rhythm games; bringing in diverse instruments; recording (unlisted) clips on youtube. Anything involving the laptop really, as we are extremely into computers.

But what to do when a talented kid has no patience for practising anything he can't play right away? When he feels like it he'll suddenly play with a strong beat, even doing mad syncopation. I do manage to level with him sort of from person to person but not often enough.

Recently he's been entirely listless. The parents of the boy say he currently "sabotages" many of his activities by acting super dispassionate, which is all part of a natural rebellious phase at this age. I get that, because I was exactly the same as a kid, and rebelled so successfully that it took me until adult life to make music my own thing. But maybe there is something I could do to help this little guy realise the opportunity he has now, with his available talent.

I and the parents need to get our act together in goal setting and logging, as at the moment all he's learning is getting things to slide. Is there something such as "memrise" but for music? So far I have a text file with his "repertoire" and lesson log on dropbox. Attempts to get him to keep papers with repertoire and lesson logs (disguised as games) failed.

I need help on structuring lessons, being more engaging, and repertoire that'll interest kids. What kind of songs do 10 year olds really go for? Tunes from "The Singing Sherlock"? Are there books with CD's or online playback which the boy and the mother could practice together?

Apologies for length. Thanks very much for any insights from more experienced Mefi music teachers.

Whose salary depends on him/her not understanding something?

underwater — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 14:17:22 -0800

Can anyone point me to a video demonstrating the Upton Sinclair quote, "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends on his not understanding it"--but in a non-political context? I'm teaching a course on critical thinking for first-year students and want to show them a short (<5 min) video, probably an interview, that demonstrates this quote. I tried showing them an example from a political interview but that totally distracted from the point as students started arguing about whether the video was fair to one party or another. So I want an example that will be less controversial. The class is about science and pseudoscience, so controversy in that realm is ok. Thanks!

Help me teach an informal ESL class on writing?

caoimhe — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 11:31:31 -0800

Hi! I often eat in a certain restaurant, and one of the people who works there asked if I would help her with her writing in English. I am very happy to help, but I have no idea how to do this. She speaks very good English, but she said her writing is very bad. (Her first language is Spanish.) I am meeting with her (and maybe a few of her co-workers) for the first time this week -- any ideas on what we should do? I thought I'd start out with dictation, but any ideas would be much appreciated!

Volunteer Teaching in NYC

azoth — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 12:55:12 -0800

I am looking to do volunteer work in New York and was hoping to do something that would engage me like teaching. This could include tutoring, GED classes, SAT classes, job hunting, etc. I have a BFA and an MBA so I think I could be fairly versatile. I am hoping for specific suggestions I could pursue. Thanks!

What to do about cramster.com?

Anonymous — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 14:03:30 -0800

I'm seeking suggestions for dealing with the existence of internet cheating sites that provide answers to university homework problems. I teach a freshman-level engineering class. This week a student emailed me with a link to a page on cramster.com apparently created by someone in my class. (Cramster describes itself as a source of "Textbook Solutions", "Homework Answers", and "Subject Experts"; it is a combination of answer repository and expert network, designed to assist students to cheat.)

The linked page contains an upload of the first homework assignment, along with several anonymously contributed hints and answers, some better than others. I don't know who created the page.

I've already talked to my class about this, telling them that it's not right to upload stuff that I wrote (it's both a copyright violation and a university honor code violation), and asked whoever put it up to remove it. I have also updated the course syllabus to clarify what I consider to be acceptable collaboration. (I encourage people to work together on homeworks, but I don't want them consulting previous year's homework solutions, people who've taken the course before, and certainly not J. Random "Expert" Person on the Internet.)

I understand that sites like this are the future (cramster has raised $millions in VC), and it's pointless to fight the tide. Still, I wonder if there is something else I should be doing. I have designed my class to require the students to think a lot about the problems I assign; having a shortcut to the answer will make the course considerably less meaningful and useful. Colleagues have suggested that I

- request a DMCA takedown of the page
- request the university to track visits to the site
- base the course grade entirely on exams and zero percent on homework
- offer a reward for the identity of the perpetrator and pursue honors charges
- just chill out and let nature take its course
- ???

Have you had to deal with anything like this in your class? Advice and suggestions solicited. Throwaway email: cramster_jerk@yahoo.com.

Need strategies for dealing with classroom disruptions

angrycat — Wed, 06 Feb 2013 10:49:25 -0800

OK wise teachers, can you help me with tips and tricks? Issue: Student talking disruptively. I am looking for ways to handle this w/o ejecting the student. Maybe factors at issue: kids from tough neighborhood, which is also mine, but our backgrounds are very dissimilar and I probably come off as, I don't know, snooty white lady. This is not one particular student but several. These are jc students. Many of them know each from high school. I've explained the pleasenodisruptivetalking thing ad infinitum. I guess that last thing isn't a factor so much as a so what the fuck do I do now conclusion.

Thanks so much in advance.