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Mildly funny/Mildly sad

968 Views 15 Replies 10 Participants Last post by  Anne Victory
I started taking a screenwriting course, tonight was the first class.  For the first exercise, the prof asked us all to write down a rough copy of a premise for a screenplay we might (theoretically) develop as the course progresses.  One student whined: "But they didn't tell us to come with ideas."  Kind of makes me wonder what the student's expectations were when they registered...
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I predict 20% of the class won't make it to the end.
Dalya said:
I predict 20% of the class won't make it to the end.
I'll take your 20% and raise it to 30%.
LisaGraceBooks said:
I'll take your 20% and raise it to 30%.
Also, someone will cry in class.
Dalya said:
Also, someone will cry in class.
The teacher will request verbally or in writing: No text talk in your written work, unless the character is actually saying the letters.
I guess that means that person doesn't have...

8)

...the write stuff.

...

...

...please don't hurt me for that bad pun.

Okay, I lol'd at CMTheAuthor.

I am ashamed.
CMTheAuthor said:
I guess that means that person doesn't have...

8)

...the write stuff.

...

...

...please don't hurt me for that bad pun.
This is how I heard it:

I teach a 100 hour class a couple times a year to mostly college aged people who need it as a prerequisite for jobs of great responsibility.  I got pretty annoyed with things like:

- But you didn't tell us THAT would be on the test.  It was in the (handout, video, workbook, text, lecture) but not in the (handbook, video, workbook, text, lecture)...

Of course it always amused me that they could tell me where it was, but couldn't get a question about it right on the quiz.

The day that tipped me over the edge, however, was one round, first class of the series, we're there for an 8 hour session.  Ten minutes in, I asked them to take out their text and write the phone number down inside the front cover so that they could call if they were going to be late or miss a class.  There was only ONE person out of 20 that had a writing implement with them.  I passed around little golf pencils, they scribbled the number down and STARTED PASSING THE PENCILS BACK!  I told them I was pretty sure that sometime in the next 8 hours, I might say at least one more thing that they should write down!

Let's just say there's a high failure/drop out rate on that class too.
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Dalya that is EXACTLY what I thought of when I read it. Nice job.
edmjill said:
I started taking a screenwriting course, tonight was the first class. For the first exercise, the prof asked us all to write down a rough copy of a premise for a screenplay we might (theoretically) develop as the course progresses. One student whined: "But they didn't tell us to come with ideas." Kind of makes me wonder what the student's expectations were when they registered...
lololol
AndreSanThomas said:
There was only ONE person out of 20 that had a writing implement with them. I passed around little golf pencils, they scribbled the number down and STARTED PASSING THE PENCILS BACK!
Let's just say there's a high failure/drop out rate on that class too.
Oh dear... Oh dear... Oh dear...

And thanks also to everyone else who has posted here (including the BAD PUN!!!)
AndreSanThomas said:
The day that tipped me over the edge, however, was one round, first class of the series, we're there for an 8 hour session. Ten minutes in, I asked them to take out their text and write the phone number down inside the front cover so that they could call if they were going to be late or miss a class. There was only ONE person out of 20 that had a writing implement with them. I passed around little golf pencils, they scribbled the number down and STARTED PASSING THE PENCILS BACK! I told them I was pretty sure that sometime in the next 8 hours, I might say at least one more thing that they should write down!

Let's just say there's a high failure/drop out rate on that class too.
Oh, boy. That is bad.
Well, yeah, the whole thing was meant to allude to CSI. Glad someone caught it.

While I was never very good with note-taking back when I was in school, not even thinking it will be necessary like that is pretty ridiculous.
I was back in school last year trying to finish up a degree.  Let me just say that I was appalled.  Completely appalled.  And I also think it's both sad and funny that kids who Facebooked / Tweeted / texted their way through class were surprised - no, shocked! - when they were in danger of failing the course.  Amazing.

Oh, and I just loved the classes that required 10 hours of classroom observation at the local schools, plus probably another 10 hours to write up said observations.  There was always a handful of students in full-on panic mode because it's two weeks until the end of quarter and OMG! I can't get on campus to observe because of state testing.  HALP!  Am I evil for laughing?

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