The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[seahawk7]

She had a family member die a while back (right before spring break) and so she got behind on her grading. That I understood.

What I don't understand is why she didn't catch up very much over spring break. Or why we got a test back over a month later. Or why it took until last week to get our first paper back (also over a month after we turned it in). And yet she piles on the assignments and expects us to keep up with it all, yet she obviously cannot keep up with her grading. Very frustrating. Another student who has had her twice now says this is pretty typical of her.

My school does not allow our professors to go this long without giving us grades. They have to give us a grade halfway through their class (so for an 8 week class, they give us a grade at 4 weeks, and for a 16 week class, grades are given at 8 weeks). But even so, I suspect professors are required to do their grading within a certain time frame because I've never had this happen before at my school. It also prevents professors from doing what she's doing; giving us so many assignments. If they cannot keep up, we cannot either. She's a nice lady, and she did let me make up an oral assignment when I had a migraine one day and called her in her office to ask to be allowed to make it up even though I had no doctor's note. But this grading situation is driving me bonkers. And is one of the reasons I didn't choose this other school; it has a reputation for not being as good a school

Sympathy like, as a good friend of mine says to me, hang in there.

 

[seahawk7]

This bathroom doesn't scream rent this resort room. Thinking a photo of the shower curtain would be better marketing.

Where was this?

 

[Gabe1]

I find that some teachers start off great and then they hit tenure and don't care anymore. I had two teachers in their last year. One was terrible and one was brilliant. English was my least favorite. All you did was read "classics". If I want to read, I'll have better books at home.

I had issues with the children's classics for elementary schools. Something horrible was always happening to the kid or their family in the books. They were depressing. If you want to encourage the young to read you shouldn't make them unhappy.

 

[seahawk7]

I love this skit! I think it's hilarious how they try not to laugh through it.

When they crack up it makes me laugh harder. The same with SNL.

 

[Gabe1]

Where was this?

Coronado Springs. I was looking up something for my DD about suite sizes, this is on their official resort page. It looks so old and antiquated but what got my attention was the grout.

 

[seahawk7]

I had issues with the children's classics for elementary schools. Something horrible was always happening to the kid or their family in the books. They were depressing. If you want to encourage the young to read you shouldn't make them unhappy.

I can see your point but then you have weirdos like me who enjoy books like Grimm Fairy Tales.

 

[Gabe1]

Ugh. School.

Spanish professor has been horrible about getting grades back to us. We've done lots and lots, and lots of assignments. She has given us two grades back, yet the assignments keep coming. Today was the last day to withdraw from a class. Oh, your grades should definitely be on Blackboard by then, she says.

Just checked. No grades.

I doubt I would have to drop the class because I think my abilities are good enough (and one of the grades she gave back was a 95, so I assume the other assignments are similarly graded). Just annoyed. And remembering why I turned down the free ride from this school two years ago and went to my school.

My DD had the same issue in one of her classes. The lady just didn't give anything back and there were so many assignments. Finally my DD emailed her and asked, she told her grades would be posted. They never were right up to the final. My DD found in the Board Policy that if grades were not current by add drop they could drop until the final. That made her feel better. Never did get an assignment or a grade in the course. All the student got a A or a B, DD got an A. She would have liked the instructor gone.

 

[Gabe1]

I can see your point but then you have weirdos like me who enjoy books like Grimm Fairy Tales.

I'm talking more like award books like Stone Fox. Grandpa owes $500 in back taxes. Will (young kid) enters dog sled contest with his best friend Pup to save Grandpa. 10 feet from finish like the overly tired Pup heart bursts and the dog drops and dies. Picks up dog and carries dead dog over finish line.

The entire classroom of 4th graders crying and they are dismissed for Lunch. What the heck is the matter with novels like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory?

 

[StarWarsGirl]

My DD had the same issue in one of her classes. The lady just didn't give anything back and there were so many assignments. Finally my DD emailed her and asked, she told her grades would be posted. They never were right up to the final. My DD found in the Board Policy that if grades were not current by add drop they could drop until the final. That made her feel better. Never did get an assignment or a grade in the course. All the student got a A or a B, DD got an A. She would have liked the instructor gone.

I would have complained partway through the semester about that professor. Heck, if this were my home school, I'd complain, but can one really complain when one is essentially taking a class there for free? Not really.

 

[seahawk7]

I'm talking more like award books like Stone Fox. Grandpa owes $500 in back taxes. Will (young kid) enters dog sled contest with his best friend Pup to save Grandpa. 10 feet from finish like the overly tired Pup heart bursts and the dog drops and dies. Picks up dog and carries dead dog over finish line.

The entire classroom of 4th graders crying and they are dismissed for Lunch. What the heck is the matter with novels like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory?

I know right? Chocolate is always good.

 

[seahawk7]

I would have complained partway through the semester about that professor. Heck, if this were my home school, I'd complain, but can one really complain when one is essentially taking a class there for free? Not really.

I think you can complain because expectations were set up for both the students and teacher. You are holding up your part of the bargain she should too. That's accountability and it doesn't matter whether you paid or not.

 

[Gabe1]

As a teacher I work really hard to provide quick feedback on assignments to my students (middle school and high schoolers). I need to see how they are doing in case I need to reteach something just as they need to see how they are doing. It really irritates me when teachers take a long time to give feedback to their students. We have a teacher who hasn't graded the last two essays he gave his students, one is from 3 weeks ago! Some of the kids have complained to me but their isn't much I can do but sympathize with them. So I can see how annoying your Spanish situation is, especially with the deadline of withdrawing from the class.

4th grade was rough for both of my kids. That team of teachers needed not to be teachers. For history teacher gives them a Study guide, required to be completed by test day and turned in for a grade. So they study from a study guide that has not been corrected, memorize it and if anything is wrong or not understood they get it wrong on test and on study guide grade. I asked if they would consider in the future grading the study guide first, giving it back so they could study and memorize correct information. She told me she would bring it up at the team meeting and with the Team Leader. Nope. Remained the same way for balance of the year.

 

[seahawk7]

4th grade was rough for both of my kids. That team of teachers needed not to be teachers. For history teacher gives them a Study guide, required to be completed by test day and turned in for a grade. So they study from a study guide that has not been corrected, memorize it and if anything is wrong or not understood they get it wrong on test and on study guide grade. I asked if they would consider in the future grading the study guide first, giving it back so they could study and memorize correct information. She told me she would bring it up at the team meeting and with the Team Leader. Nope. Remained the same way for balance of the year.

That's just plain stupid.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

I'm talking more like award books like Stone Fox. Grandpa owes $500 in back taxes. Will (young kid) enters dog sled contest with his best friend Pup to save Grandpa. 10 feet from finish like the overly tired Pup heart bursts and the dog drops and dies. Picks up dog and carries dead dog over finish line.

The entire classroom of 4th graders crying and they are dismissed for Lunch. What the heck is the matter with novels like Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory?

Elementary school was better than middle and high school and college. Elementary school we got to read books that had a serious tone but still ended well, like Stuart Little, Charlotte's Web, and others. The one I remember most was the True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle. By fifth grade, we were split into four different reading classes. I was in the second highest group. Originally, we were reading what the lower level classes were reading, Caddie Woodlawn (a book I read anyway), but then the teacher decided that the book was too easy for our group, and she switched us over to what the highest level class was reading, Charlotte Doyle. I loved that book and read it several times after the class was finished.

Eventually it got to the point, though, even back then, that I figured if the book had a medal on it, I probably did not want to read it. There were exceptions (Because of Winn Dixie, Ella Enchanted, which I've probably read around five times or so, and a few others). In fourth grade, my teacher tried to get me to read Bridge to Terrebithia because she thought I wasn't reading enough. In actuality, I was reading a lot, but I just wasn't reading anything from her dumb book box. I had been reading Anne of Green Gables at home, and I was going to the library and getting Nancy Drew and nonfiction books about cats (no, some things never change) and stuff I actually WANTED to read. I got about halfway through it before I couldn't stand it anymore and put it back in her book box, never telling her that I never actually read it.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

This bathroom doesn't scream rent this resort room. Thinking a photo of the shower curtain would be better marketing.

Honestly, I wouldn't use this photo at all as a standalone marketing promotion. It would be better in a group of photos for marketing a room. But not by itself.

I think a photo of the bed with a towel animal on it would be better standalone marketing. Unless there's something special about the bathroom (like when they were advertising BLT and you could see MK while using the whirlpool tub in some photos) I don't see a real reason to feature it. An inviting bed is going to be far more appealing to a customer IMO.

 

[Gabe1]

She had a family member die a while back (right before spring break) and so she got behind on her grading. That I understood.

What I don't understand is why she didn't catch up very much over spring break. Or why we got a test back over a month later. Or why it took until last week to get our first paper back (also over a month after we turned it in). And yet she piles on the assignments and expects us to keep up with it all, yet she obviously cannot keep up with her grading. Very frustrating. Another student who has had her twice now says this is pretty typical of her.

My school does not allow our professors to go this long without giving us grades. They have to give us a grade halfway through their class (so for an 8 week class, they give us a grade at 4 weeks, and for a 16 week class, grades are given at 8 weeks). But even so, I suspect professors are required to do their grading within a certain time frame because I've never had this happen before at my school. It also prevents professors from doing what she's doing; giving us so many assignments. If they cannot keep up, we cannot either. She's a nice lady, and she did let me make up an oral assignment when I had a migraine one day and called her in her office to ask to be allowed to make it up even though I had no doctor's note. But this grading situation is driving me bonkers. And is one of the reasons I didn't choose this other school; it has a reputation for not being as good a school

Colleges have interim instructors if an instructor cannot do what they were hired to do. My DS had that when his instructor was having Chemo.

And yes, the better the University the better the professors and higher expectations for students and instructors. Kinda why a better University on your resume pulls more weight. I guess the only exception to the quality factor for Universities is Disney University on my DS resume. He said it is always was a talking point with potential employers. He was not overly impressed with the courses he took himself or how they were taught however businesses respect Corporate Disney.

 

[Gabe1]

In all my life I have never poked holes in them for the oven. I guess tomorrow I'll make baked potatoes to see the difference.

I have never poked holes in potatoes either when baked in an oven, nor have I ever had one explode. I've always heard you should in a microwave however I don't like the texture of a microwave potatoes so not an issue for me.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Colleges have interim instructors if an instructor cannot do what they were hired to do. My DS had that when his instructor was having Chemo.

And yes, the better the University the better the professors and higher expectations for students and instructors. Kinda why a better University on your resume pulls more weight. I guess the only exception to the quality factor for Universities is Disney University on my DS resume. He said it is always was a talking point with potential employers. He was not overly impressed with the courses he took himself or how they were taught however businesses respect Corporate Disney.

A lot of professors teach at both schools, but my school is smaller and can afford to be more picky.

I was questioning whether I made the right decision going to my school. When I was applying to schools, my dad wanted me to go to this other school because it's his alma mater. In his mind, my school was still this small, private, commuter-only school that used to be all female. My school has done a lot of growing in the past decade, and even so, it was always more prestigious than what he had in his mind. After doing one class at my other school for almost a semester, sometimes I'm like, "Oh, this is why I chose the school where I am, isn't it?"

My mom and I took the tour of his alma mater and were really not impressed. First, they kept us waiting there for 15 minutes after the tour was supposed to start. During the info session, they showed a video, and as assistant in the admissions office came out and read a Powerpoint. It was terrible. None of the other schools we visited had someone read off of a Powerpoint, and an admissions officer always came in and spoke to us. Then, during the tour, all the guide had to say was, "The food is really good here!" By the time we left, we came out thinking, "Okay, there are a lot of hills, and the food is really good. Wonderful." In the Baltimore area, we toured my school, another private school in the area, and another public school. The other public school was fine, but didn't have the exact degree program I was looking for, and would have been a 45 minute commute. The other private school is extremely nice, and about double the price of my school. Out of state, we toured UCF and College of Charleston. All of them had better tours than this school. I had been saying that I didn't want to go to my dad's alma mater, and after the tour, my mom agreed with me (Dad still insists it's a better school. He's wrong.)

My school felt the best out of all of them. Charleston had been my top choice, but then when I visited my school, it kind of clicked. On our first tour there, I told my mom that it would be hard for any college to follow it. Charleston very quickly dropped out of first place. UCF and my school were tied for first, Charleston was third, the other private school was fourth, the other public school was fifth, and Dad's alma mater was dead last. UCF didn't offer me enough money (since I also would have had to live there, it would have been more expensive), Charleston offered me nothing, so those were all quickly out of the running. We decided the other school, even though they offered me decent money, was too far a commute (and based on a friend's experience, I'm glad I'm not there either; they are completely disorganized). It came down to my school, which offered me enough money so that I could go there, and what is now my second school, which offered me a free ride between several scholarships. Thankfully, I have two parents, and my father did not force me to go there thanks to my mother.

And now that I've been taking Spanish at my second school, I am so glad I'm where I am. As it turns out, I really like the small school feel. Even the building where my Spanish class is can be super confusing. Small school=smaller buildings. There are fewer professors, so my school is pickier. The business school at my school has a better reputation. And socially, for me, small school is better. At second school, everyone does their own thing and no one seems interested in making friends other than the "Hey, will you work on this project with me?" thing. At my school, people are friendlier, open doors for people they don't know, and start random conversations with you regardless of whether they know you or not. And some of my best friends were made in classes because people go into classes expecting to make friends. So it was the right choice. I was right from the start.

 

[Cesar R M]

Coronado Springs. I was looking up something for my DD about suite sizes, this is on their official resort page. It looks so old and antiquated but what got my attention was the grout.

THEY are antiquated and simple.
Its a moderate resort!
All moderates are like that imho.

Hence why I fell in love with the black marble style of the Kidani Village at AKL

 

[Cesar R M]

I had an epiphany at 3:00 am..
since I still haven't found any kind of translation or lyrics of the show I wanted.. I'm debating in paying up a friend to do the translation..
that way I win, and he wins...