anonemouse

Yeah, following instructions is a biggie. Our midterms and finals are laid out in stations and we give the students a set amount of time at each station and then tell them to move. There are arrows printed on the question cards at each station, showing them the direction to move in when time is up. We invariably get people that go the wrong way and mess the whole system up. I finally told my class this semester, "If you do nothing else, please, PLEASE follow the arrows. Otherwise, everyone gets their numbering messed up."

I actually just saw a pair here in Kentucky for the first time. Stainless steel. Nearly blinded me because of the way it swung.

Ditto! I'll defer to Grandpa TOM!

Yeah, it's fairly eye-opening, what these people think they can get away with. They can earn up to 6% of their final grade in extra credit points, and I STILL get people that come up to me at the end of the semester, begging for more points. And usually, they are the ones who didn't bother to do the extra credit I offered them. It blows my mind sometimes. We instituted a new policy this semester that says that all students that miss three or more labs automatically fail, whether or not the absence is excused. There really isn't any way around it, because three absences is about a quarter of the entire semester. One of the other lab instructors told me that he already had a student fail. She missed the first three weeks of lab due to "family issues" (in most cases, read: I just didn't feel like going to class and didn't realize it would get me into trouble) and THEN emailed him, asking if there was a way to make it up. He had to tell her that she should just go ahead and drop the entire biology course (lecture and lab), because she had already failed it. Last semester, I had a student email me about 4 weeks into class, saying that he hadn't been in lab that week due to being sick, and that he had missed the other labs because of "depression/family problems" (his exact words), but that he would be in lab next week. I never saw the guy. Apparently, he went to one of the other labs and took his midterm, but that was the ONLY grade I had for him. I had to email him before the final exam to tell him not to bother coming to take it because he had already failed. One of my friends was proctoring a lecture exam for one of the professors, and said that he told her that "The guy in the back has taken the class 4 times. He cheats, but I don't do anything because he fails anyway."

I think it is ridiculous when people post these politically charged things and then get nasty when people post their own opinions. You do know that you are only insulting yourself, right? Since you were the one to start this "immature, uninvolved, worthless, uninspring, useless thread" and all.

It's a fairly difficult midterm, but what really gets them is that the last three labs before the midterm are taxonomy labs, where they have to learn a lot of different organisms and their classifications. The actual lecture portion of those labs is fairly small, but we give them the rest of the lab time to study the organisms, and we leave the material up until the midterm so that they can study it whenever they have lab. Most of them blow off studying until the last lab and get overwhelmed with all the stuff they have to know. It's not that bad if they keep up with it, but most of them insist on leaving as soon as I tell them that they are free to study the material for the rest of lab time. I'd insist that they stay, but I figure that since they are adults now, they should be able to take responsibility for their own education. I've told them several times before the midterm to take advantage of all the study time they get. Most, unfortunately, don't listen, thus the low average score.

What does being old and banded have to do with whether or not you know what you're talking about? "Ooh, I'm older than you! That means I know everything and no one should contradict me! Neener, neener, neener!" Seems to me that you are the one who should grow up. Thank you, Musicalmomma!

I got one for ya!

The ones I teach are biology for non-majors.

To be honest, it really amazes me when people post in the "Rants and Raves" forum, and then act surprised when people actually rant and rave. It comes across as very disingenuous.

I do have to ask what the hell you expected when you posted this "article," then. Did you just expect people to read it and say, "Wow, I didn't know that, guess I won't vote for her after all"? When you post something that is politically charged, expect to be challenged. Otherwise, why post it?

I did take the time to research. The problem with just listing quotes is that they are often taken out of context. I took the liberty of looking this up on Snopes, and they found the sources of each quotes, many of which were from "unnamed sources" or "certain people with such and such experience" that were cited in books. In several cases, the authors of the original sources don't directly identify the source that provided the quote, but rather just listed several converations or sources, which (IMO) would make it difficult to find out if they were actually true quotes. For anyone interested here is the Snopes.com article on this email.

Some of these I find fairly suspect. Others, I don't see the problem with. My case in point, what's wrong with these quotes? Sure. Posting propaganda crap isn't supposed to get people in a tizzy. Tell another one.

Mine aren't that bad, but my mom is basically sabotaging me before I even get banded. She keeps nagging me to reconsider surgery, which is really frustrating, especially since she went to the seminar with me and supported my decision at the time. She said today, "Why have surgery? Just pretend you had it and lose the weight that way." I know she means well, but it bothers me.

One my mom just said to me comes to mind: "Why have surgery? Just pretend you had surgery and loose the weight that way." Um, yeah. If that worked, I'd weigh a hundred pounds less than I do.

Oh, I know. I might have thought about accepting them (probably not, but still) if she had a halfway decent excuse for not turning them in. But dude, I REMIND them in each lab. I wouldn't be bragging about it if I were her, if she really did forget.

You have GOT to be kidding me! I have been going back and forth between my former surgeon's office staff and my new surgeon's office staff, trying to get my information transferred between offices. The old surgeon's office manage just told me that they didn't have the pulmonologist's report. The SAME pulmonologist's report that I spent a month (literally, an entire month) getting TO THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE. :faint: This is getting absolutely ridiculous. Now I have to call the pulmonologist's office and have them send it to the new surgeon's office. I'm tempted to just have it faxed to me and then fax it to the new surgeon's office myself, just to make sure it gets there.

I just got off the phone with the office manager for my new surgeon. Guess what? The surgeon is going on maternity leave this summer. The very earliest I can have surgery is probably late July. I feel wonderful for the surgeon, but still.:phanvan

I got so het up over on OH (see my "Eek! thread in RnR) that I forgot to watch Good Eats on Food Network. That's irritating. I LOVE that show and Alton Brown.

http://www.lapbandtalk.com/eek-t30814.html

Well, I finally got everything to the new surgeon's office, I hope. I had to call both the pulmonologist's office and the psychologist's office to have them fax me the evaluations, and then I sent them to the new surgeon's office myself. When you want it done right, you gotta do it yourself! It still burns me that the old surgeon's office lost the pulmonologist's report, though. I literally spent a month trying to get that damned thing sent to the right fax number, and they had it in their records in January.

Very true.

I never thought I would say that I missed Ron, but he sure did liven the place up.

I am really feeling in the mood to go play "smack-a-mole" with this lady's head. I am REALLY happy that I had to change surgeons. If they can't even keep their records in good shape, what else can they not do?

I have to admit that the one thing I like about her is that I think she drives people away from the ultra-conservative side. IMO, she's like Ron. She's so outlandish and offensive that people are turned away from her opinions rather than recruited.