A Crazy Cat's Life

Every semester I think I've had the worst students that have ever existed. The next semester, I always get ones that are worse. I'm going through drafts for term papers and my head hurts beyond belief. I'm not a drinker but yesterday I contemplated stopping at the liquor store to get some wine to help me through the grading. Ya, it's that painful. It's not the bad writing. That I can live with. It's not the fact that my students don't realize that "cuz" and other text message slang words are not appropriate in a term paper. It's that the idiots can't follow instructions. What is so difficult about listing five sources in your bibliography? And I'm sorry, when I mean no more than two internet sources I mean no more than two internet sources. I'm not willing to negotiate with you. If I want you to use Chicago Style citation in your paper and I even give you a "quick guide" on how to do it, I expect you to do it. ...

Found this over at a friend's site. Too funny. :)

It's that time of the year again: time for "How Stupid Are My Students?" The first comes from a recent test I gave on the roles the rivers played in the development of Mesopotamian and Egyptian cultures and why they developed so differently. Student A's response: It's because the Nile River flows up and the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers flow down. The second comes from a written assignment regarding their term papers. For this one, all they had to do was give me the first paragraph of their term paper and five sources they are planning on using. It is an incredibly easy task that, if one wanted to be truly lazy, could do in their pajamas while browsing the library catalog online. Fifteen minutes tops. Student B decided that this assignment was just too hard . So she went to a website about her topic, copy and pasted not only the opening paragraph to use as her own but even copy and pasted the bibliography down at the bottom of the website. If you're going ...

Sarah Palin did not win the debate this past Thursday night. It wasn't even close. Yes, she did better than most people expected. However, going from a 50 to a 60 in a class is doing better but it's still failing. As I was watching the debate, I was amazed at how well McCain's camp "trained" her for this debate. You could tell exactly when a question was asked that she could answer: she would get that smile on her face and lean to her right on the podium. It's the same look some of my students get when they realize they know an answer on a test. However, when she didn't know the answer, she stuttered and then changed the subject. Hmmm...this sounds like something my students would do: if they didn't know the answer they would give me an essay on something they did know even though they are still not answering the question. You know what those students get? An F. You know what Palin got? An F. Biden was impressive. Ya, so he was dry. So what...