In the article below (from the ASU student paper) you will read about what is becoming an internet phenomenon for college students. This student was actually in one of my classes (and I was pretty sure that many of her lame excuses were flat out lies but I had no way to prove such a thing).

Kudos to this TA. (What goes around comes around honey!). I have removed the students name but you may be interested in knowing that the original article did no such thing because she really thinks that she was wronged by the academic system. I say, don't post things online that you want to keep a secret (especially when you have already crafted a lie about it).

Networking sites present special danger for students

 by Stephanie Berger
 published on Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Student X knew she was in trouble the minute she walked into her teaching assistant's office.

The T.A. for X's politics and film class had a stack of papers on his desk, and she could see that he had printed them from her profile on the Web site Facebook.com. It was around Thanksgiving of last year, and X, a public relations senior, had gotten an extension on a paper because she had been sick the weekend before it was due.

Now, X's T.A. was saying that he didn't believe she had been sick at all. He had checked her profile on Facebook and come across pictures and comments that indicated she had been to a party on the weekend she said she was sick.

"But I was sick," she told him. She had just stopped by the party to pick up a drunken friend who needed a ride home. Some friends left comments on her Facebook "wall" that made it sound as if she had been there longer, she said.

"He had all this stuff printed out. My friend had written, 'Thank you for letting me puke in your toilet,' and another wrote, 'Great seeing you at the date party.' They were just being funny, and this guy highlighted every single thing, and even searched through my friends' profiles," X said.

X said the T.A., whom she preferred not to identify by name, refused to accept her paper, and she ended up with an incomplete in the class that she never resolved.

"I'm a good student and an honest person," Giacoppo said. "He took what was written on my profile and applied that to my character. That's not who I am, and it's not fair if teachers are going to judge you and not take the time to know your entire character." 

X  did learn one important lesson from the incident, however: You never know who's going to look you up on Facebook.

I just bought this perfume today. I feel like a want to have a bath in it (it smells THAT good!). I'm not normally a big perfume wearer (mostly annoys the heck out of my allergies) but this one is super granola in an "I'm a hip academic" sort of way. If only I could manage to tranform the rest of myself to go with my new super cool smell.

Here is a photo of Jesse and his nemesis Bear. Bear is going home to her own house come Monday night and Jesse will NOT be sad to see her go.

Jesse and Bear

To be truthful, I have a never ending dream of a family that includes more and more dogs. I dream of going to the pound and adopting all of the poor forlorn dogs they have (despite the best intentions of my allergist who has recently informed me that the dog is only one of my many allergy triggers not to mention my new and possibly life threatening allergies which thankfully are not to dogs...)

Point being, I am looking after my friend Ben's dog over the Thanksgiving holiday. Bear is an 8 year old pomeranian and weighs approx 5.5 pounds when soaking wet (and that's not an exaggeration!). Jesse (who loves other dogs and has spent a weekend camping with Bear) has decided that other dogs are fine as long as they don't come to his house and think they're going to stay!

She also doesn't seem to catch on to "regular" dog behaviour ie) get too close to me while I chew my bone and I'm going to give you a little growl to give me some space. She is the equivalent of a "close talker". No matter what Jesse does she doesn't get it.

Take home message... Jesse is a good dog. He's low maintenence and quiet. Content to just hang around and go for walks every now and again. and he doesn't use my new carpet as a toilet (and never has). I am changing my mind. One good dog is perfect. No more trips to the pound for me.

IMGP1182

This article in the Washington Post is about the amphibian version of Noah's ark. Our collegues at El Valle are trying their hardest to keep chytridiomycosis from wiping out the frogs in Panama. You can read the rest of the story at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/25/AR2006102501994.html

Panama Hotel Is Imperiled Frogs' Lifeboat

EL VALLE DE ANTON, Panama -- The guests in Rooms 28 and 29 at the Hotel Campestre here in this lush volcano-crater town get the full spa treatment.

Daily cleansing rinses. Exotic lunches. Even 24-hour room service.

It would all be so lovely, a real dream, if they could only go outside every once in a while. But they can't. Not ever. One step outside, or in their case one hop, and they'd be goners.

Thus is the lot of Panama's -- and perhaps the world's -- most unusual hotel VIPs, the darling little Panamanian golden frogs of El Valle de Anton. The frogs, considered so lucky in Panama that their images appear on lottery tickets, are in big trouble. They're on the run from a vicious fungus that has already wiped out as many as 120 species of amphibians in Central America.

Baby_sweater2

I finally finished knitting this baby sweater/hat combo for Mark and I's friend Michelle (who is expecting her baby at the end of December). I am quite pleased with it. I am now working on a scarf with a really intricate lace pattern of leaves from www.knitty.com.

Travis, I saw your post about the princess Leia hat and you are not the first person who has suggested that they would like one. Sass put it on her Christmas list for me sometime in July. I'm trying to convince her she could knit herself one (she is less than convinced).

So my first blog will be in regards to my students. More specifically, it will be in regards to the undergraduate students that walk the palm tree lined walks of this fine institution. Did you know that there is a website called "rate your professor". On this website students from all over can provide "critical advice" to their fellow students by rating you as a professor on such important teaching characteristics as your "hotness factor" and uploading a photo they took of you using their cell phone. Other students can then determine which classes they can sign up for where the professor will have few, if any,

expectations of them regarding work ethic or academic honesty. Apparently, having to actually work for your degree is no longer considered a requirement. In retalliation, the academics of the world have united and their commentary on academic life at the "New American University" can be found on the blog "Rate your Students"

http://rateyourstudents.blogspot.com/

I highly recommend The Campus Mascot Ate My Homework, and Other Whopper Excuses

Here is an example of a post that is sure to get you laughing (probably because you're not the one who received the email).

"So, what do they learn in their English classes? Haven't a clue. However, I can tell you what they're learning about themselves. They seem to be getting the message - over and over and over - that they are wonderful. They are brilliant. They are all gifted, talented, special, unique. And when I don't grade their papers like I completely agree with their overblown sense of self, I get this e-mail:

hi professor this is joe blow i have a question in regardsto my movie review papaer grades and why they are all a 25 out of 40 fora grade i beleive i covered the reviews of the material fully indepthand also my punctuation an spelling were average if not above. pleaseeamil me back with the reason why. thanks your very much joe blowoh ps werent we aloud to revise them or at least one of them for ahigher grade if so. i was wondering if i could do that also before theend of the semester thank you.

Note to all K-12 educators: Stop handing out the freakin' ribbons. Enough already with the gold stars and stickers. It's not working. Trust me, these kids have enough self-esteem. When they write a paper about the country being in the "mist" of a baby boom, and they don't know when to use "doctor" or "Dr." and consistently use "and" and "an" interchangably yet they still think they are "average if not above" writers, the country has officially gone to hell in the proverbial handbasket." http://rateyourstudents.blogspot.com/

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