The Fora: A Higher Education Community

Good morning!

Pangram and above genius. Didn't get back to the bee after posting here.

ab_grp, good luck on finding the very colorful Scott's oriole! I don't think we get these birds in our part of the country.

My class was very small, somewhere around 50 total students, many of whom still live in the blue collar town we grew up in. We had a 25 year reunion back a few years ago, it seemed like maybe 20-25 people showed up.
I don't have much in common with most of them, we just happened to be in the same place at the same time. I don't do much social media but I do see postings from old classmates occasionally, some of them are remarkably the same person they were in high school, just older.
About five or six years ago when I was visiting my parents I ran into the woman who was our prom queen and her sister at a store. They recognized that I was their classmate but called me by the wrong name.
I don't mean to sound critical of the choices most of my former classmates have made, I genuinely hope they are happy. I doubt many of them are from what I have seen and read.

No serious flooding here, but in some places out in the county roads have been temporarily impassable.  One staff member called off yesterday because the roads were so bad where she lived.

It was very bright earlier this morning.  Now it's clouding over.  We're supposed to have another long siege of rainy weather start in a couple of days.  That could cause some problems.

Good morning!

Got the pangram and to a bit past genius so far.  Yesterday we needed bee buddy help with curacy, yuca.

No luck on LB.

Glad your trip went well, Langue_doc! I hope you get to get some rest in.  There's been an elusive Scott's Oriole in the tree for two days now.  We can hear him, and he sounds so close! But the foliage has started to grow in to the point that we can't find him! I guess he could be a she.  Maybe one day we will have luck.

Happy solving!

Quote from: marshwiggle on Today at 04:45:46 AM...
"Treat others as you would like to be treated" is entirely different than "Treat others as they would like to be treated."

I heartily agree with the former; the latter is a hole with no bottom.

"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less." "The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things." "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master—that's all."

Sounds like a wonderful time!  Congratulations on all the good observations.  And on being able to visit such a good refuge.  It sounds like a lovely place, in addition to all the bird life.

No, I really haven't spoken to any of those people since I moved away decades ago (no desire to ever return to that state either!). Our school was somewhat large (>2000 students), so I didn't know most of them, anyway. I don't feel any need to see them again, I actually have trouble remembering most of their names...even those who were in my close friend circle.

Quote from: AmLitHist on April 29, 2024, 09:06:01 AM

Quote from: Parasaurolophus on April 28, 2024, 11:21:31 PMWell, I got the call. I'm giving too many As and failing too few students.

My numbers are very skewed by the one upper-level course I taught this year, where everyone did very well because of a generous concentration of points in low-stakes assessments--definitely too generous for a group who's actually going to regularly do the work.

But even so. Guess I have to be a hardass for the next few semesters.

I'm always waiting on the opposite email:  too many D/Fs, and too few passing grades.

HA! "They" don't care how many A's and B's my students get, but if there are any C's it is a "the sky is falling" call to arms disaster for everyone. For context: this is medical/allied health professional school courses, so a "C" is considered unsatisfactory (students must remain above 3.0 GPA),and <C = F and automatic dismissal.

^ basically agree with all of this

Quote from: Aster on Today at 06:22:25 AM[. . .]

 if the professor wishes to put in the effort.

[. . .]

We have constructed a system (the curriculum and its delivery) to maintain the fiction that every individual faculty member's contribution to student learning is unique and essential. This is why there is no institutionalized process to ensure that assessed work is highly specific to each course, etc.

Haven't been since the 20th. It wasn't terrible; most of my high school bullies found Jesus and were very polite. Might try to get to the 50th in 2031 if a) there is one, and b) nothing else is happening.