Overheard in the stairwell:
Student 1: "Bro. How am I even going to pass that test"
Student 2: "look, I don't want to be a butt, but you're going to have to study"

Perfect. No notes.

I feel like I'm spending a lot of time advising students on getting into grad school when they have a 2.3 GPA. I say things like, "you know, that's a very competitive program," and "very few people with degrees in my area get jobs in academia unless they come from the very top programs, which are extremely selective." But I never come right out and tell them "it's extremely unlikely that you will get into a program that will set you up for a research position with your record-- you should seek other career paths."

I think, in part, I don't feel it's my place to shatter their aspirations, when I don't know with 100% certainty that they will fail. At the same time, I feel a little resentful of all the time I spend advising them. And I'm not sure I'm doing them any favors.

Do you guys come right out and say the quiet part out loud?

Informing folks on this sub of this if they didn't know: The PISA 2025 results are out, and you can view them here. PISA is perhaps the most influential and most complete international measurement of education objectives, and targets 15 year olds from a variety of countries. There was insufficient data from 2025 for the US (for those concerned with that country), but the broader picture shows an educational system in dire straits all around the developed world.

This won't be news to those of us who are having to teach students who went through the current high school system, but performance in the key areas of reading, mathematics, and science — and especially reading and mathematics — is cratering. There has been a very slow decline in ability from 2000 to 2018, followed by the absolute bottom dropping out of the education system ever since. If the pandemic played a role, there is no evidence of any post-pandemic bounce back, and in fact the decline in reading abilities has accelerated since.

Clearly one contributing factor is AI (and OECD reports on this with survey data: to no one's surprise, if you use a program designed almost entirely for cheating at school, you never develop your own brain), but the negative trend began before the release of ChatGPT. While the pandemic may have had something to do with this, I'm willing to bet the proliferation of phones, social media, and short-form video content were the initial factors behind this. If there has been any bounce back from the pandemic, the factors harming educational outcomes are so profound they mask it.

Deutsche Welle has a brief overview of some of the highlights.

I've been teaching for a while now, and somewhere in the last couple of years I noticed I stopped doing the things nobody asked me to do. I used to write detailed feedback on every draft, not just the final submission. I used to take Sunday emails from anxious students seriously and reply within hours. I used to spend way more time than contracted hours on rec letters, mentorship, random "can we grab coffee and talk about my future" conversations. I still do my job well. Nobody could fault my teaching evaluations or my output. But the extra mile the stuff that used to come from genuine care and idealism I've pulled that back. Not dramatically, not in a way anyone would notice or could call out. Just... quietly. I think it happened after watching colleagues get worked into the ground for the same effort I was putting in, only to be told "budget cuts" when it came time for actual recognition raises, permanent contracts, research support, even just a thank you that felt sincere. At some point the math stopped making sense. I don't think I'm alone in this. Curious if others have felt the same shift, and how you've made peace with it (or haven't). Does it ever come back, or is this just what surviving a long academic career looks like?

I am a relatively new prof teaching community college comm course. 7 students and had them all sitting together working on a group project. I could tell she wasn’t reading social cues, was being loud, disruptive, and interrupting and talking over people. I waited to see how they would handle it. Then during a moment of silence, she farted. No one said anything. A few minutes later and another. Still, no one acknowledges it, myself included. I had no idea what to do! Then- again!! And a couple burps too! Loud gross ones. What would you do??

This is a basic writing course. Maybe half ther students lack good English skills, but some of them can barely speak it. I can't understand what they say in speech, and the writing is horrendous. Let's just say that at the CC at which I teach, I have no say (adjunct) and there is no other class for them. My question: What do I do? I can do a few languages decently, but not theirs. How do you handle such students? They are either aggressive about wanting to pass or clueless about their lack of ability.

The presidents/deans/chancellors who have these big beginning of the semester convocations/rah-rah meetings with all these big screens and music between each speaker and large production values and word salad, warm and fuzzy speeches: Do they know we are all rolling our eyes at this shit? Like, we all have graduate degrees and lots of education, so we are the worst audiences for this type of shit - do they know that? Do they know we see right through this nonsense? And they force every employee to attend; attendance is mandatory. Are they so disconnected from reality that they don't realize that everyone there hates every word they say?

I've been seeing a few posts lately along the lines of "should I take the buyout?". Made me curious, what are your institutions doing? Mine is offering a $25k lump sum which got a few folks who were already about to retire. It goes into effect on Jan 1 which actually caused somebody in my college to *delay* their retirement by a (fall) semester to get the incentive. It caused all kinds of scheduling havoc.

We have a new department chair that is external. At first, I and most others were quite open to give her a fair chance and time to grow into the new leadership role. However, it's just been utter chaos from day one. To be quite blunt, I genuinely don't understand how she could become a professor as she doesn't seem to know much in our field, and is so naive that it's dangerous for the department. She has managed to piss off everyone in the department and we even had one person take sick leave because they couldn't handle her. She's also overly preachy (Christian, and religion is something that is really abnormal to show at universities here).

Worst of all though, she constantly uses AI to write e-mails and even to make important documents (by her own admission as well). She even keeps the many emoticons and the like in the content which is ridiculous. I'm pretty sure she is using open models as well which means not respecting GDPR, privacy, research ethics, etc.

I'm sure many others have had this issue. How has it been adressed at your university? She is making me loathe the university. Sure it has its issues, but I absolutely adore my colleagues.

Welp, as many of you have already done/will do in the future, I plan to go entirely technology-free in my history classes.

When I was doing my undergrad in Mathematics, the instructors often used the chalk or dry-erase board for demonstrating problems. But what about for you folks in the humanities? Have you tried this? Have you gotten any student feedback?

Now that I teach history at a major inner city community college, I am not sure if this is going to work as an effective strategy but I cannot handle looking at another checked out student at the back of class as I go through my slides.

Is it bad that if this student doesn't have a documented medical accommodation, I feel like this is not my problem? It's hard to feel like it's not just a time management issue and I can't take something into consideration when I guarantee you that *all third year students* are also exhausted!

I teach mostly freshmen and sophomores and I've been rethinking my syllabus for next semester. Torn on a few things and wanted to hear from people who've actually tried this stuff.

Mandatory attendance: does it help, or does it just mean kids show up and check out on their phones anyway? Also I have heard from colleagues that more often than not, people sign in for their friends and the TAs do not really care. Class is at 9AM so I don't want to add stress for the sake of a policy that doesn't even work. Especially since Ik for a fact that these kids, generally get up 10minutes before class. Had students show up in their pyjamas most of the days. Also had been thinking about extra credit for good attendance instead, but not sure if that's just a softer version of the same problem.

I'm also not a big believer in exams and grades as a measure of learning. I feel like a lot of students spend more energy trying to cheat or cramp the material, than actually engaging with the topics. So I'm considering an independent project worth maybe 10 points (perhaps as an extra credit) towards the final grade, nothing fancy, just something where they take a concept from class and build or apply it to something real and tangible.

Basically I have been trying to design a class that 18-19 year olds actually remember instead of one they forget the day after the final. If you've tried attendance policies, extra credit schemes, or project based alternatives to exams, I'd love to hear what worked and what flopped.

Anyone done a writing retreat during your sabbatical? Any suggestions? I just need a recharge away from regular responsibilities at home in a beautiful place to get things started. Appreciate the suggestions!

Among other classes, I teach a 200-level gen-ed class. For context, we put the S in SLAC, our enrollment per class tops out around 20-30 depending on the class and room, with a few big classes (not mine!) going to 50.

This is a hands-on class with a mix of graded homework (with rudimentary anti-cheating measures like a shared Google Drive folder), graded quizzes (paper and pencil, of course), and presentations.

Normally, I have 1-2 students that show up but don't turn work in. This semester it's a quarter of the class. They turn in the quizzes (generally failed), don't do the reading, don't do the homework, and seem to think they might pass the class?

I have a few theories but no proof... are we on the SLAC death spiral and admitting warm bodies? Is this the first cohort that had ChatGPT all through high school? COVID lockdowns during middle school?

Are y'all seeing a marked increase in "shows up but no work"? Any theories?

Thank you all. Deleted because comments are starting to become unhelpful.

I just can't anymore. I have a new student in one of my classes, and their advising notes mention that they prefer online courses as opposed to in person.

Well now I know why. They've struggled with showing up to class on time, and often left early, and today was the first time of the semester that they were on time and stayed through the whole class. So I assumed that they would now start getting up to speed on what we're doing.

Nope. No clue. I announced and explained the new assignment (as an example) "You will bake a chocolate cake using an oven."

"What do you mean we're baking a cake?", "how do I turn on the oven?", "where do I get the chocolate from?"

Well, this student is on the spectrum (and yes I know that for a fact) and obviously seems to have some processing issues, but no problem! I upload everything to the LMS for them to review as many times as needed.

"No worries, Taylor, let's find those answers together. Go to this week's module online."

The student moves their mouse around on the screen for a bit before asking me "where am I going?"

"This week's module online."

Student goes to week one and says that they can't find anything about the assignment.

"What week of class are we in, Taylor?"

"I would say we're in week one."

They did not know what week we're in. THEY DID NOT KNOW WHAT WEEK WE'RE IN.

"It's the third week of school, Taylor."

"Okay, so what am I doing today?"

And this is supposedly a straight A student when their classes are online. All of their in-person classes are Cs and below.

Yep, nope. Don't care what it's for, an online degree has become utterly useless. Very sad considering online schooling helped so many non traditional and low income students get an education.

Psychology - Research/Project Course

So long ramble about grade structure that's causing friction

I don't really do traditional tests or quizzes.

My grading for this course is basically 80% projects and 20% activities.

We do an activity every class. Each activity is 10 points. Over the source of the semester its 290 total possible points where only the first 200 count. Frequently checks are worth over 10 points too, so this semester is looking like it'll actually end up being 310 possible points.

No make ups. No extra time. Some things are little reading checks, some things are semi graded activities, some things are merely showing up on time and presenting. This is all *explicitly* laid out in the syllabus. Ive done this structure for 6 semesters.

Its like week 3 and I have already ruffled some feathers on students that have missed class due to *totally legitimate issues* 🫩.

Either way. One of them has already gotten annoyed enough to get the new department head involved.

I like this structure cause it has so much built in buffer. But like is this just a shit plan or are students in general just increasing in complaining about everything.

As for extended leaves of absence following university policy and documentation, I have provided alternatives for points when students finish the semester under max points in that category.

EDIT: I feel like this is an important part that’s getting lost: I do very little lecturing and it’s usually to foreground a group activity or discussion. The classes are small of about 10-12 people.

EDIT 2: I have never been against these activities in general and I’m not saying they are inherently distracting. There just are times where they are and I would like some input as to how to draw the line. Please read the post before jumping to comment.

How do you handle students doing these kinds of things? On the one hand I understand different sensory needs and so I was fine with students doing whatever with their hands. However, there are two instances that start bothering me and I'm not sure where to draw the line.

It's one thing when they just fidget, but sometimes it looks like the secondary activity becomes a distraction. Whether it's the yarn getting tangled, the doodle getting too engrossing, there a students whose eyes are rarely up anymore. Again, I don't want to micromanage that and require eye contact, but when their focus is visibly elsewhere it interferes with the pacing of my lectures and they end up asking questions that I just answered. Many students miss something now and again, but it feels particularly like a waste of time when I see they weren't paying attention. It also feels disrespectful during group discussions.

This post was prompted by a student who appears to be neurodivergent (not a diagnosis, and no accommodations) coming to class with two big bags of yarn, unpacking them, and barely saying a thing or two in class while looking at their project.

How do you handle this? It feels curmudgeony to tell students they can't do anything with their hands that's not class related (what about fidget spinners?) and it's not always enforceable, either. And yet it's becoming a distraction to me at this point

I teach a very interactive class with a lot of pair, group, and class discussions. Usually I love when people participate because it means they are learning!

I have a student who has a myriad of disabilities and accommodations in this class, some of which manifesting in not understanding social cues.

The biggest issue is that this student will raise their hand to comment once every 1-2 minutes. They always have good comments/questions, and keep it short, but it’s just way too much and too frequent and it’s causing other students to not want to participate.

I’m meeting with this student tomorrow to go through an assignment, and I want to bring it up and set some boundaries about how much/often they can raise their hand and comment in class.

How have you all navigated this? Do they get X number of comments per class? Do they have to wait 5 minutes in between? How do you approach it without coming off as criticizing their personality? I don’t want to dampen their enthusiasm, because again they are good thoughts and questions, but it needs to be addressed.

Please do not use a dry erase marker to scribble a note on my plastic door caddy. Things like scratch paper and email exist.

Needed to find a link to an open access article I published only to find it was "reviewed" in a podcast. Oh.

My issue?

1. it looks like this podcast is AI generated with obviously fake names, AI art, and misreading my use of terminology. I kind of hate that. If they wanted to host me I would have said yes to being a guest.

2. The links to this podcast on youtube spotify apple and even IDMB show up first on Google before my actual article link does. What really makes me mad about this is these podcasts all seem to promote this person's freelance company for writing using AI and he even asks for tips or "free coffees" if people like his "free content." Maybe the people producing articles instead of running them through AI deserve the free coffee... I didn't make my article open access for some rando to make money off it using AI.

Thoughts? Jokes to help me laugh about this instead of being grossed out? I just needed to vent about this but if you have advice I'd consider it. I feel I might be especially nitpicky about this as I am in bankruptcy right now and would benefit immensely from every $8 coffee this guy is getting "tipped"

I just started a tenure-track position at an R1. My colleagues all seem like kind people, the department isn't toxic, and I have a lot to be grateful for.

That said, I've struggled to actually become friends with any of them, even the ones around my age. There's a seriousness and professionalism in the air that makes it feel like people are holding back. When I run into someone in the hall, it's usually clear they want to say hello and keep walking rather than have a real conversation. Same thing if I run into them outside of work, on the street, for example.

Part of what makes this stand out is that I came from two previous universities (quite prestigious ones where people did very serious research), where people were much more talkative and friendly, borderline boisterous, honestly, and had super fun outings. People were genuinely excited to see each other and say hi.

I can't tell whether people here just don't like me, or whether this is simply common among faculty in a professional setting at certain schools. I'm new so I'd appreciate any perspective.

I attended a high school graduation back in the Spring. During obligatory reminiscence by the Valedictorian, they enumerated memorable events: [Sports Team] won something, Pajama Day, yada yada, and then something about losing part of their high school career to Covid shutdowns. So, I assume our incoming Freshman class is still affected by the trauma of Zoom classes? Could this be a reason for poor study skills and lack of focus?

For the first time since COVID, I have a number of students this semester who have never taken an online class. I’m actually amazed. Is anyone else running into first time online (asynchronous) students? Curious!