Comments on: ingredients of a classic teaching nightmare; or, classroom management? don’t make me laugh.

By: unnarrator

unnarrator — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 14:54:58 +0000

Oh God, if I had to watch To Sir, With Love every day (featuring the vocal stylings of Lulu!), I doubt *I* could make it to the toilet in time….

By: BêteGrise

BêteGrise — Fri, 20 Mar 2009 13:27:28 +0000

Maybe you could just show them a DVD of To Sir, With Love every day until the term is over? If nothing else, it will re-direct the blame to Sidney Poitier (they'll mistake him for Michael Jackson, anyway). I once got halfway through showing an old B&W film of Billy Budd to a community college class before I realized the large majority of the students were Muslims, Hindus & Buddhists—no Christ allegories were going to help me sell Melville to them.

By: Lise

Lise — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 18:08:08 +0000

I haven’t had vomit, but one of the very little ones didn’t quite make it to the toilet in time. Yay.

By: unnarrator

unnarrator — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 01:34:23 +0000

Isn’t it uncanny? I almost noted something to that effect but was trying valiantly to stay on point. Besides, others of these show up in my waking-nightmare classroom, too, including but not limited to latecomers, general pedagogical unpreparedness, and total eventual defeat.

So far no vomiting students, though I did have a guy hawk and spit on the (carpeted) floor once, when I taught in New Mexico.

By: Lise

Lise — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 22:10:47 +0000

They ignore you, turn away from you and face the back of the room, murmur amongst themselves, read, talk on their cellphones, dance, play basketball in class…

I had to read until the end of this entry to realise you meant an actual nightmare, like the kind you have in your sleep, and not a metaphorical “nightmare” of a class—or, as I like to call it, my typical working day.