Today, I decided to give a break to my students halfway through my three hour lecture. The break became the end of the lecture, because nobody came back. FML
Collection
Fall
Dead leaves, the first cold of the season and an umbrella flipped inside out: fall, the season of grace.
Today, I fell asleep in class. I'm the teacher. FML
Today, I finally got the guts to walk out of class 30 minutes early, only to find that the back door was locked. As I stood there like an idiot trying to get it open, all 200 people in my class turned to laugh. My professor stared at me. I then walked back to my seat, sat down, and unpacked. FML
Today, I drove 3 hours to get to a class, just to have the professor leave a note on the classroom door saying that she wasn't coming. FML
Today, I fell asleep during naptime. I'm the teacher. FML
Today, I fell asleep in class. I'm the teacher; I've already given students detention for falling asleep in class this year. FML
Today, I wanted to punish a student for being late. I decided to start a pop quiz before he arrived. I was positive there wasn't enough time for him to finish. He scored full marks and I couldn't say a word. FML
Today, since I always fall asleep in class, I decided not to go to the bathroom beforehand, hoping the need to pee would keep me awake. I ended up falling asleep and wetting myself in the middle of the lecture. FML
Today, I fell asleep in my last period class. When I woke up my teacher said "you missed your bus". I grabbed all my stuff and ran out the room. My class mates were standing outside the class laughing. We still had an hour left in class. FML
Today, I gave a talk in my management class about creating effective presentations and holding people's attention. Go figure, pretty much nobody paid any attention. FML
Today, during a virtual class, I thought I was muted and said, “I’m gonna fake a technical issue and take a nap.” The professor responded, “Let us know how the nap goes.” I never logged back in. FML
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Top comments
LostInTheZone11 29
Keep teaching the empty room. Then they can't complain on not knowing the info on the test.
whassallt26 13
They paid for university, if they want to waste all that money let them
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Comments (78)
dingus08 3
Just give them all zeros on the "pop quiz" they missed by not showing up.
AletheDefender 15
That sucks because now they ruined it for everyone else too
grabyourhooks 12
I read this while taking a break from getting ready for a three hour lecture I have to give tomorrow. Pro tip; 45-50 minuet before a break... And engage the students so you're talking with them, not at them
TomeDr 25
Test them on the part that they all missed.
fabcade 14
fail them. seriously fail them.
theinfiniteend 21
This is why we can't have nice things
drrobotnik1 18
YDI. Speaking as a teacher, if one or two students leave, that's just the luck of the draw. If *every* student leaves, then the only thing they have in common is you. Turn your pointing finger the other way and ask what it was about your lecture that made them not want to come back. I assume you're using "lecture" as a synonym for "class" since you're from the commonwealth, but if you meant "lecture" as in "stand up there and yap for three hours" then jesus christ, of course they left, no one can listen to someone talk for that long, even if it is on a subject they enjoy: break your time up with some discussion or activities or call and response or something. Even if you're teaching a 4 or 5 thousand level class, lecture has been proven many times over to be the least effective teaching tool even for highly motivated students. It's just too easy to zone out and not pay attention when there's no visible means of assessing whether or not you're on task. That's assuming of course that you give a shit. You're a college professor and not a high school teacher, so you have no supervision. It's not like your school's funding's tied to attendance, and you get paid whether or not anyone shows up to your class, so knock off early and go do something you like.
smoothies14 32
Is this the first time you've done this? In most classes you don't get breaks so if you used ambiguous language (like "let's pause there") the students may have thought you were ending class early. The one teacher I have that does this usually leaves us with a question to think about on the break and discuss after. If that isn't the case and they intentionally left, don't bleed your heart out because you can't make them care.
Tyyeezyjr 13
Maybe incorporate two mini breaks to keep them engaged.
monkyvirus 13
Most people can't truly concentrate after 40 minutes so any lectures considerably longer than that are a complete waste of time. Labs/practicals are different cause you don't actually have to focus the whole time. A lot of people seem to be suggesting you should take attendance and penalise people but I hate that policy (luckily for me it doesn't really happen in the UK). For one thing it unfairly affects people who are ill or having a tough time and it's not like we're guaranteed to fail (I've been on the 2:1, 1st border my entire time at uni and I've probably only managed to attend 50% of my lectures through ill health). Anyway next time make it clear that it's JUST a break and maybe try being more engaging (such as asking the class questions or their opinions).