Ask a college professor

[smock]

(Inspired by Captain Mel)

Any questions about what it's like to be a college professor? What your professors thought when you fell asleep in class? Crazy things that happen in the university system?

I love talking about myself. So . . . questions?

[cuddlyevil]

What do you do when a student falls asleep in class?

[neonpink]

What do you teach?

[smock]

Ha, I ignore it. I'm still a bit of a cowardly professor, and I prefer not to draw attention to students doing stupid things. But one time in a pretty small seminar (about 12 people), sitting in a circle, one guy fell asleep and started snoring. Everyone cracked up and it woke him up. He looked really embarrassed.

Another time, a student in the back row of a 30-something person class fell so deeply asleep that when class ended and all the students left, he didn't wake up. I left him sitting there as the next class came in. I imagine he probably woke up during another class and got really confused.

From the student perspective, do you think professor should do something if a student falls asleep? I sometimes wonder if I should wake them up and ask them to leave.

[smock]

Mar 25, 2013 15:57:32 GMT -5 neonpink said:

What do you teach?

History. I don't want to get too much more specific since who knows who might be lurking?

[Muddled]

Would my professors remember me if I got back in touch?

[captainmel]

What is the funniest thing that has ever happened in one of your classes?

Have you ever caught a student plagerizing?

[smock]

Mar 25, 2013 16:01:23 GMT -5 Muddled said:

Would my professors remember me if I got back in touch?

Probably! I remember most of my student's names years later, especially the ones who actually talked to me. I had one really nice student who gave me a card seven years ago and I still remember her name, and I wonder what she's up to now. 

But if I run into old students on campus, I recognize them but usually don't remember their names. But I find it creepy when students try to friend me on fb or follow me on twitter.

[smock]

Mar 25, 2013 16:02:48 GMT -5 captainmel said:

What is the funniest thing that has ever happened in one of your classes?

Have you ever caught a student plagerizing?

I'm pretty hilarious so I make a lot of excellent and humorous statements in class that are terribly funny. But the funniest was when a pigeon flew into one of my classes. 

I've caught a lot of plagiarists, who apparently don't realize that professors can also use google. I'm sure some actually good plagiarists have fooled me, but usually it's very obvious. One plagiarist was ordered by the college to write me an apology letter, which was embarrassingly awkward.

[neonpink]

ooo History my favorite! I took as many history/art history classes as possible in college. If I could sit in now I would just to learn.

Captainmel asked my thought about plagerizing.

[neonpink]

Did you set out knowing you wanted to teach college level?

[smock]

History is my favorite too!

But it takes a shit ton of time to be qualified to teach it at the college level. I spent 7 years in graduate school (2 yr. MA, 5 yr PhD), and that's considered very fast to get a PhD in history.

[gault]

How much time would you say you spend creating a syllabus for a course?

[zelda25]

What was your doctoral dissertation about?  Or would telling us provide too-specific info about you?

[captainmel]

Smock I am dying at the idea of a pigeon in a classroom. Please tell me you had someone in there that was deathly afraid of birds and ran out crying and screaming. (I really like to over dramatize situations)

Do you think you have certain personality traits that predisposed you to wanting to teach?

Can you give us more details on the apology letter? I find this hilarious.

[smock]

Creating a syllabus can be really fast or take a really long time. If I'm creating a class from scratch, figuring out books, lecture topics, etc., it can take a few weeks of work. Like, I can't decide when papers are due until I decide what reading the paper will be based on and when in the semester it makes sense to assign that material.

I'm a bad professor, though, and sometimes I assign stuff without reading it first (which has caused a few problems in the past!). I also often have sample syllabi to use in the process, either from courses I've TA'd for, or that friends have taught. Professors are pretty nice about sharing syllabi, which is very helpful. But it takes a long time to figure out what readings work well, how to organize the material, and that stuff.

So I'm teaching a course right now for the second time. I cut some readings that didn't work so well, and rearranged the lectures, and I'm revising and re-writing all the lectures as I go. It's 1,000 times easier than the first time I taught the course, but it's still a lot of work!

And common misconception: I'm only supposed to be devoting 50% of my time to teaching. The rest is supposed to be for research. But teaching new courses takes up SOOOOO much time that it's really hard to find time for research.

[neonpink]

What do you do when the inevitable cell phone rings. Do you embarrass the student?

I had a professor that assigned extra work if it rang to everyone.

[smock]

Mar 25, 2013 16:19:08 GMT -5 zelda25 said:

What was your doctoral dissertation about?  Or would telling us provide too-specific info about you?

It was about this thing that people did in the past, and involved archival research in another country.

Is that too vague? I'd prefer not to get more specific.

[smock]

Mar 25, 2013 16:19:10 GMT -5 captainmel said:

Smock I am dying at the idea of a pigeon in a classroom. Please tell me you had someone in there that was deathly afraid of birds and ran out crying and screaming. (I really like to over dramatize situations)

Do you think you have certain personality traits that predisposed you to wanting to teach?

Can you give us more details on the apology letter? I find this hilarious.

With the pigeon, people just laughed. When there was a mouse in the class, a bunch of students started screaming. And the time a spider was in my class, I screamed.

I am very bossy, and dramatic. I'm good at talking loud. I like pretending to be an authority figure. But I know a lot of people with very different personalities who are great teachers. Part of it is finding out what works for you.

The apology letter was OMG, just . . . like "I dishonored you, and for that I am very sorry." It made me feel embarrassed by proximity.

[smock]

Mar 25, 2013 16:23:58 GMT -5 neonpink said:

What do you do when the inevitable cell phone rings. Do you embarrass the student?

I had a professor that assigned extra work if it rang to everyone.

I also ignore the cell phone rings, or smile at the person. One time I was in a graduate seminar sitting next to the meanest, most angry old professor, and it was the first day of class, and MY phone rang, and it was THE MACGYVER THEME SONG. I learned compassion.

[smock]

Oh, but I know a professor who planted a fake student in his class on the first day. When her phone rang, he called her up to the front, took out a hammer, and smashed her phone. He told the students never to let their phone ring in class. And I don't think he ever told them it was all a set-up!

[Muddled]

I think you may have already answered this indirectly.

Do you get to design your own classes? Or are you given a general outline of topics that you have to cover? Maybe this depends on the class- a 101 vs a superspecialSmockclass?

[smock]

It actually really depends on the university, muddled. At my current institution, I have complete free reign over my courses, even the 101-type courses. For instance, I teach an intro course that any given semester is also taught by 5 or more other professors (it's a distribution requirement thing). The rule is you have to cover a certain number of years and a certain geographical area, but other than that I do what I want, so the class is completely different depending on which professor you take.

I can also design completely new courses that haven't been taught before. Other than the intro course, I can teach whatever I want each year, including graduate classes. Out of the seven classes in my current rotation, 3 are completely new that I've designed and will submit to get added to the course catalogue, and the other 4 had general titles in the course catalogue (i.e. "underwater basket weaving") but I design the course however I want. That's one thing I like about my university.

[Muddled]

That is cool. Maybe I would have liked history if my prof was able to teach the things he/she had actually been interested in.

Actually, this is only half true. I took one college history class that I really enjoyed. Then I stopped while I was ahead, because it was misery inducing in HS. Now you know my history history.

[smock]

Muddled, I wish you could come take one of my classes, seriously. HS history is all names and dates and it can be so boring, right? My classes are soooo much cooler and more awesome. For example, I just wrote a lecture on the history of farting.

[Muddled]

If only you had gotten that other job...

I would definitely take you up on that. And then I would buy you a falafel.

[pedanticwench]

How do you handle dealing with students who pertually have late work or miss class frequently?

Do you prefer a student to give you an excuse for why something is late? Or do you care? Late is late is late or not?

[smock]

Mar 25, 2013 17:16:33 GMT -5 pedanticwench said:

How do you handle dealing with students who pertually have late work or miss class frequently?

Do you prefer a student to give you an excuse for why something is late? Or do you care? Late is late is late or not?

I figure that the students are adults, so if they want to turn stuff in late or miss class, it's on them. I don't take attendance, but I do give a participation grade (and students who skip a lot tend to do badly on exams, small wonder!).

I have a really stiff late penalty, but I'm pretty lenient if students ask for an extension for valid reasons, particularly if I know it's a good student who probably isn't trying to manipulate me. I actually prefer if students don't give excuses for late assignments, as long as they understand the penalty. But if they talk to me in advance I'm nice, like if they're going through personal issues or have a ton of other papers or an important extracurricular event or something, I'll give an extension.

Professors are actually pretty good at figuring out when students are BS'ing. Turn in a paper that only references the first two chapters of the assigned book? Yeah, I know that means you didn't finish the book. Or the two papers in this most recent stack that NEVER mentioned the book? Those are easy F papers.

[Wrath0fKuus]

How is the market for tenure-track faculty positions in your field?

[captainmel]

Do you think the way the university you work for structures class options allows for happier professors?

Do you think happier professors make better teachers?