When I was in high school I made my teacher cry. It wasn’t my fault she was in her first year of teaching and couldn’t keep her sh*t together. It’s not like I spit at her or called her names; I simply disagreed with her argument that Cyrano de Bergerac was the best book ever written. And it was a Literary Criticism course! If you can’t handle a difference of opinion, then maybe you should consider teaching Kindergarten.

Had I known then that I could have been sued for such a disagreement, I probably would have thrown independent thought out the window and nodded my head in agreement like the rest of the class.

Thankfully, my teacher just excused herself to cry alone in the bathroom, unlike one Dartmouth lecturer who took it to a much more serious level: by seeking legal counsel.

I actually got my degree in education, so I can say from experience that teaching is a very difficult and thankless profession. You spend 16-18 hours a day either with the students, preparing for the students, or grading their crappy work. Then you come into the classroom where they are disrespectful and often times annoying. It is a job that drives you to drink countless glasses of wine and wonder why you ever wanted to do it in the first place. (Note: It is also incredibly rewarding!)

But, that is all part of the job and something you surely expect getting into a profession that deals with ungrateful children. (Don’t hate; you know you made your teachers’ lives hell back in the day.) Surely this woman cannot be naïve enough to think that Dartmouth kids would be any different? Read More »

Days as a Freshman: 113

Mood: Smiling

“There’s a bench back here.”

I pushed the last couple of bare branches out of my way and walked into a man-made clearing in the back of the campus woods. Justin was sitting in the middle of the small space, sitting on the bench, his eyes on the stars.

The way his sweatshirt was pulled around his head, the way his mouth was slightly open in concentration, the way his eyes traced the clear night skyline above us, made it easy to see what he must have looked like as a boy. Skinny and sweet, adorable because he didn’t know it, innocent for longer than most other kids. Maybe I was making it all up, maybe the dark was making me seen things that weren’t there, but in the moment before he looked at me, I really thought I had seen all I needed to know about Justin.

“Come on over.” He smiled. “The stars are awesome.” Read More »

• Did you know that our makeup is causing us to absorb over 5 pounds of chemicals a year? I’m going to go wash my face… (UK Dailymail)

• Some good news for a Friday afternoon! The trapped miners in South Africa have been rescued. All 3,200 of them, thank God. (Associated Press)

• A remix of sorts when it comes to those daily inappropriate teacher/student stories: Advice for young high school teachers. (valleyjew.blogspot.com)

• Drop that Diet Coke…it’ll give you cancer. For real, this time! (dmiessler.com)

• Most important First Aid myth you really should know about: Peeing on wounds DOESN’T HELP. (ririanproject.com)

* Sure, this story is shocking, but I’m more intrigued by the fact that Japan has porn vending machines! (Mainichi Daily News)

* Learn and Earn? Seriously? Just how bad do I need to do in school to make the government want to pay me to do better? (11Alive.com)

* One NJ teacher is making his students parents do homework too. Sweet justice. (NYT)

* Doctors say smokers who are quitting should be treated in the same manner as heroin addicts. (The Independent)

* Woman finds rodent head in a can of beans and is offered $100 for it. She won’t take it. (Salt Lake Tribune)

A lot of people think sitting front and center at a lecture is lame. Lame and nerdy. And a lot more think having scintillating discussions with the professor after class is even lamer.

But I think it’s the smartest thing you can do.

Make no mistake about it, even if you go to a small liberal arts college where kids walk around without shoes and you know the name of everyone in your class, you’re still one of hundreds. One of the hundreds of students your professor has.

Just another face, another paper, to be graded quickly before Must See TV comes on at 9:00.

But what if you want to do extra well in the class?

What if you’re like me, and really anal about your reputation, and simply can’t deal with the fact that someone might think you’re not trying? What if you’re taking that required math course, and honestly can’t remember those 5th grade times tables?

You get to know your professor.

*Be Engaged: Sitting front and center, looking awake, keeping your body language open and available helps your professor see that you’re actually taking in what they’re saying. After staring into a sea of glazed-over eyes, finding yours open and watching will set that professor’s heart aflutter.

*Answer Questions: Nobody likes know-it-alls and morons who love the sound of their own voice, but raising your hand once a class will keep you on your professor’s radar. Just make sure you have something worthwhile to say, because believe it or not, professors hate idiots just as much as you do. Read More »