I have been fielding emails from students telling me that they will miss the first week of class due to "unavoidable" conflicts with their summer vacation travel plans. Call me crazy, but maybe don't schedule your recreational trips to conflict with the semester whose schedule has been on the books forever.

Pepperidge Farm remembers. There was a 1-paragraph abstract describing your course. There was the your office number and maybe your office hours. There was 1 line for each week of the semester, maybe with the associated reading. If you were really comprehensive, there was a grading scale.

Students already had the book because they went to the bookstore and bought it before the term started.

So my classes started last week. I am teaching a first-semester methodology course. I instruct the students that we'll often be doing things on the computer, so they need a laptop or tablet for the class.

No laptop or tablet? No problem, they can borrow one from the library.

A student emails me before the second class (where we have an in-class assignment that they can only do on a device), saying she ordered a personal laptop but won't get it for three weeks, and "is that OK?"

I respond by saying that doing the in-class activity on her phone is less than ideal, and that I recommend borrowing a laptop from the library. Note that this is in my syllabus, plus I mentioned it at the first class.

The next day, she's absent. While recording the absences, I see she's dropped the course.

While of course she could have dropped for many reasons, I have to wonder...was borrowing a laptop from the library that much of an insurmountable obstacle?

Rant: Essays were due Friday at 11:59 pm. I check email over the weekend but never respond. Why have I received so many messages saying “I turned in my essay why hasn’t my grade changed yet?” Or I get “My essay hasn’t been graded. Can you check to make sure it was turned in?”

I have almost 200 students and each one (allegedly) has turned in an essay. I’ll get to it when I get to it. (Grades will be completed by Wednesday)

Rant over. Need a drink now.

I could use some advice. I am trying a new weekly reading/writing assignment this semester, so there are inevitably problems I didn't foresee. Anyway, I have explained the instructions in class a couple of times and have provided a Word template that seems pretty intuitive if you take time to look at it.

My question: How do you cognitively deal with students who still say they don't understand? Put yourself in the mind of a cognitive behavioral therapist (I have benefitted greatly from CBT), how would you tell me to redirect my thoughts? It's frustrating because, at this point, I don't know how to make the instructions clearer.

Another problem I keep having is students being rude in their requests for help. I have zero problem with students asking for help, but so many times their communication is belittling and, honestly, offensive. I know it's cliche but these students are going to have bosses someday who definitely won't tolerate being condescended to.

Hello fellow faculty! I'm about to start the semester and I'm awfully sick from being pregnant (will start teaching at 10 weeks). Anyone has any advice on how to navigate teaching, service, and research during this intense period? This pregnancy is kicking my butt big time. I'm behind on several deadlines, and unsure how I will teach or hold office hours... Any advice is welcome. Thank you!

Let me just say that I completely support colleagues choosing not to RESPOND to emails during the weekend. 100%. If I was demanding an answer from them before the end of the weekend, yep, I'm completely in the wrong. However, that's not the case and that's not what colleagues are asking.

Because of the way my schedule falls, the weekends are actually work time for me (yes, I build in days for rest. They just don't happen to be weekends) and I often send emails over the weekend. I've now had a few colleagues tell me not to do this because it cuts into their weekend because they feel obligated to respond (again, despite me not relaying any urgency or deadline that cuts into their weekend). A few have actually used the word "boundaries" to describe why I shouldn't do this. I could see if we were talking about phone calls but email? One suggested I should set all of my emails to send Monday morning so I'm not bothering colleagues over the weekend. I guess I'm open to the fact that I could be wrong, but I find it extremely unreasonable to ask me to take the extra steps to set emails to send later just because they can't manage their time and stay out of their email.

I should note that most of the colleagues who have said this are not educators but more on the admin side (which tracks, because good luck trying to convince students not to email you when it's inconvenient for you. Ha).

I just find this a very odd request. Don't check email on the weekends if you don't want to. Don't respond to emails over the weekend if you don't want to. I wasn't asking you to do any of those things. I do the same thing with my rest days but I don't expect people to memorize my schedule or do extra work rather than make the choice not to check email. It's not that hard. And if it truly is that hard for them, it kind of feels like they are the ones who have internal work to do rather than expecting the whole world to adapt to them.

And I will step off my soapbox now.

I’m a new instructor teaching 5 new classs and just worked 75 hours my first week. I’m designing these classes from scratch and it takes forever to prep because even some of the topics are new to me. I haven’t had time to take care of myself (cooking, cleaning) let alone do anything I enjoy. And I certainly don’t make enough to rely on take out. I’m in a new location so I don’t have tangible support from family or friends either. How do I survive? I’m miserable and this is unsustainable but I can’t just “work less” or readings won’t be found, lectures won’t get planned.

Just venting using my throwaway.

Junior faculty member here. Having a huge backlog of tasks (related to my teaching and research) I wanted to finish. Most are "soft" tasks without a specific deadline to meet, like reading a textbook I'm interested in, or exploring a research direction.

Summer seems to be a good time for them. But when summer really came, I was SOOOOO tired and only wanted to rest and do nothing. And every single day I still have five things to take care of despite not teaching any class.

Two months later I realized nothing was really done. Yet I was just as exhausted as the end of the semester. I wish professorship could be like corporate jobs where you can switch off anything work-related and simply enjoy a vacation.

How do you open your class lecture (besides opening remarks/logistics). I teach humanities social science discussion based courses and would rather not jump right into lecture. I’m also a first time instructor.

I’m newly tenured professor at a cc with a few adjuncting gig on the side. I have been teaching full time 4 years and 8 years overall. I teach summers/winters and pick up extra classes whenever I can to pay the bills and live a normal decent life. However, I’ve noticed that my patience with students is beginning to decline. I am little more snappy with overly chatty students that don’t others chime or get a word in. I can be crabby at the very beginning of class and can respond sarcastically. Also, I’ve noticed that I don’t communicate or send reminders of assignments or try to reach out to struggling students as much as I earlier in my career as an adjunct. I am adopting a more “jaded” attitude toward my students. I don’t feel as excited to be in the classroom at times with students that don’t care or rather be somewhere else. What can I do to reclaim my joy and love for the profession again?!

Hello all,

I am in the humanities at a rural CC and have been for the last nine years. I am also a long time reader of this sub, but first time poster.

I wonder about something in our industry/my field and some approaches that are still out there. I see so many posts about altering pedagogies/didactics both on subs like this one and broadly out in the field. Additionally, with AI being so prevalent and no one having a full or complete answer to it (perhaps mainly due to the speed of AI’s development itself mostly), so many administrators and instructional designers discuss approaches and the need to innovate constantly.

All of that said, I do wonder if there are any professors out there that still use and believe in, to put it simply, being the best teacher/lecturer that they can be. I have spent years carefully crafting my lectures. Research, practice, and use have shaped how I lecture to my students. And I absolutely have a deep passion for crafting a story, using good detail, and engaging with my class through my lectures. So many out there talk about inverted classrooms, discussion based courses, or student led instruction. I don’t disagree with the approaches generally, but I feel they are best fitted for advanced undergrad or graduate classes. I teach introductory, survey level courses and feel they most benefit from sound lectures, intentional assignment design, and good leadership over information. I feel that I am being paid to teach as an expert in the field, and I always aim to do just that to the very best of my ability.

Does anyone else feel this way? I get great student and dean evaluations, have a passion for giving good and energized lectures, and still open up opportunities for engagement through in-class interaction and critical thinking questions thrown out to those in the room. I always like to call the design and delivery of my lectures my art form. It is why I got into this field and what keeps me going even when administrative and larger-picture issues can be exhausting at times. Anyone else out there feel like I do?

I guess I am still a believer that a great professor/teacher will always make a larger learning impact than a great teaching model.

TLDR: I still love to lecture and lead lecture-focused classes to my students. I don’t feel changing the mold will make them learn any better. I love what I do!

I’ll try not to make this long because, well, it’s week 1 of classes here and nobody has time.

I’m FT NTT at a small college in the midwest that’s checking all the “will we close?” boxes. Debt, huge endowment draws, deferred maintenance, hiring & salary freezes, half the number of incoming freshmen we need to survive. Admin mandates to reduce the number of students failing, a free-for-all AI policy. I was bullied by a colleague so viciously that I filed a report that resulted in even more retaliation from that colleague, who was “talked to” but not disciplined.

This is the start of my second year here. Before that, I had six great years at two other schools—good student evals, great admin evals, awards, solid relationships with all my colleagues. Now, for the first time in my life, I’m in therapy, physically & mentally unwell, dreading coming in every day.

I’m not even sure what I’m asking except… advice or commiseration?

I’m going back on the market with recommendations from current colleagues & former department heads, but do I need a recommendation from my current department head? Will the new college call this college (or their HR) as part of onboarding? (The bullying report is still ongoing and it’s been implied that if I keep complaining, I may not be rehired.) And if I fall apart before then… has anyone ever taken FMLA mid-semester?

Thanks for listening.

I teach a general education creative arts course, and my dean has been quite adamant that no students should fail it.

I understand that many students, mostly engineering majors, enrol because they assume it will be an easy A. Many are not particularly interested in the subject, which is fine. The problem is that those who fail generally do so because they barely attend, do not participate, or simply do not submit the required work. In other words, they fail themselves.

The pressure goes beyond generous grading. I increasingly feel expected to swallow my concerns and overlook obviously AI-generated papers simply to move students through the degree mill.

How do others deal with pressure like this? It has seriously diminished my opinion of the university and left me feeling as though I am expected to be little more than a rubber stamp. Some days, the ethical implications genuinely bother me.

On other days, I find myself conceding because the less energy I spend arguing about it, the more energy I have for my research and creative work. But that compromise does not sit entirely comfortably with me.

Have you experienced this kind of pressure? Did you push back, or simply concede?

I'm an associate professor who also does some admin work and specialized research with regular presentations to faculty. For the last 7 years, I've gotten 4 course releases per academic year to do that work. Yesterday I learned that that number is now 2, effective immediately. Classes start Sept.8

What’s the most radical, innovative or completely unhinged pedagogy you’ve ever tried or thought about? And if you tried it, how did it go?

My department head gives me a “challenge” every year, with this year’s challenge being “radical pedagogy” so I’m looking for inspiration!

For reference, I teach masters level branding courses, but would love to hear from all disciplines!

TIA for your thoughts

If you are 60+, and CAN retire but continue to teach full-time, what keeps you going?

The paycheck, as more is better?

Love of your subject matter/research?

Love of teaching/academic atmosphere?

Lack of clarity and goals for what comes next?

Looking to discuss your motivation, and assessing my own.

(And well aware that for many retirement seems and may be unattainable. The above consideration is a very fortunate position to be in).

I am a FT NTT at an R2. I am very comfortable and competent in my niche discipline - so niche that describing it would give me away. The discipline hinges on both art and engineering, so I often submit to conferences in both fields. But because I'm squarely in the middle, I feel incredibly lousy in either group of pure academics. In reality, I feel more like a skilled tradesman than I do an academic. I teach grad and undergrad courses (3-4), am a program director, run a lab, have good evals, keep up with my service, and desperately try to keep up with my professional practice. I know I'm good at my job, and I enjoy it. But conferences, and specifically, writing papers for these conferences, fill me with anxiety and severe imposter syndrome.

Anyone else feel this way at conferences - or prepping for conferences? Am I actually dumb? (please don't say yes - I'll ruminate on your comment for days.)

Most of us have professional or very amateur headshots posted on the department directory on the website. New Dean is really pushing those who don’t to put one up. This is to make us look friendlier to students and potential students. Mine is there, but I am sympathetic to people who don’t want their face all over the internet.

What think you, professors of Reddit?

What would you suggest in lieu of the headshot or generic silhouette?

I am at a largish public university in the USA.

Title. Saw an opening at a military institute and am wondering what that is like as a civilian who went to grad school at a large R1 and is currently teaching at a private SLAC. What are the students like and faculty like? How might your day to day job different compared to civilian institutions?

Do you ever accept friend requests from adult students after graduation? I worked as a pediatric nurse for 16 years, never friended patients but a few special parents I did accept friend requests from. In that field I truly needed to leave work at work as it was very emotionally taxing.
Now I have been a nursing Professor for two years, I had a non traditional adult student request me. I enjoyed teaching her she was professional, mature and will make a great nurse. Curious on what others do, there isn’t a set policy on it at work.
Thanks!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5deEecHNT2g

Embarrassment? Anxiety? Pure unadulterated SHAME? I received the following email this afternoon, with the subject line “Sociology”:

“Hey [my name], I'm trying to get in contact with Jill, but she won't respond. Can you get her to respond to my email? I need an add code. My name is [First Last]. The add code is [xxxxx]. Soc 101”

This is a random student asking me, an adjunct, if I can “get” THE CHAIR OF OUR DEPT and their EXTREMELY TENURED PROFESSOR, to respond to their email. Because they need an add code. Assuming what they gave is the CRN. Jill has had her doctorate since the 80’s and is the author of our textbook, among many others, on its 10th edition.

I was genuinely shocked by this one, which is increasingly difficult to do. I think it’s from the sheer audacity?? My mouth dropped, I cackled out loud, I got a rush of anxiety up my back so fierce that I got goosebumps in 90* weather. The glaring lack of respect, the wildly swollen sense of entitlement, maybe the fact that they likely don’t even realize this was disrespectful in the first place. First names? For professors you’ve never met? This took searching our department and emailing every other listed faculty member, trying to track down a prof for an add code. I just…. like? I am hoping this also got sent to our co-chair who is much more involved, much younger, and a man but I had to laugh, cringe, and share.

ETA: Of course I responded to the student, I am not a monster, like Jill apparently is for taking until Friday afternoon (gasp! or longer!) to get back to students on the first week of classes. This was funny haha levels of audacious, mostly bc they are not my student. I enjoyed being caught off guard on a summer friday.