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[fiona]

Laugh, shrug, have more caffeine. No-Doz (caffeine pill) works faster than coffee.

The Fiona, caffeine fiend

[math_geek]

You know where I mess up sometimes? I cannot seem to coordinate the saying something and writing that same thing on the board! I'll say 2 and write 4 or something like that... Oh well. I think it depends on the severity of mistakes. As long as you're able to ultimately correct them, or if you don't know, come back with an answer the next day or something, I don't believe the students hold it against you. It is those who have other poor teaching habits along with constant mistakes that the students start to resent. Those who make errors but are generally good teachers and make every effort to correct an error are seen as human and conscientious in the students' eyes.

[trabb]

My big mess-up for the semester:  a few days back, I walk into class and begin delivering what surely must be the most ass-kicking lecture I've given in quite a while.  (I usually don't lecture much.)  About 10 minutes in, one student raises her hand in a most timid fashion.  I pause, and I ask her if she has a question.  Looking slightly embarrassed, she said: "Professor Trabb, are you aware that the book on which you're lecturing is assigned for next class's reading?"


*DOH*

And I can't help remembering from my own undergrad days.  The art historian, a notoriously absent-minded yet brilliant and quick-witted gentleman, displayed a slide of Picasso's "Guitar."  As he talks, one of the other profs in the room from the front row whispers in one of those loud enough to be overheard whispers: "Hey Nick, I think you've got the slide in upside down."  Art Historian, without missing a beat or even acknowledging the comment, says: "And in order to help you better see what Picasso is doing, I've put this particular slide in upside down, something that I've found helpful in the past to illustrate even more fully the power of the abstract qualities of this work."  To this day, I remain uncertain whether that slide was put in upside-down on purpose or not.

Screwups require quick thinking.  Laugh off the small ones.  Improvise to work around the big ones.  We all make these kinds of mistakes, and as always remember the point that one of my mentors makes when someone claims to have made a terrible mistake: "Did you kill anyone? Because if you didn't, it wasn't that bad."

[case_insensitive]

You know where I mess up sometimes? I cannot seem to coordinate the saying something and writing that same thing on the board! I'll say 2 and write 4 or something like that...

I wonder if this is a regular thing for those of us who teach number-oriented subjects? I have this problem in accounting all the time.

[cc_alan]

You know where I mess up sometimes? I cannot seem to coordinate the saying something and writing that same thing on the board! I'll say 2 and write 4 or something like that...

I wonder if this is a regular thing for those of us who teach number-oriented subjects? I have this problem in accounting all the time.

It happens to me when working chemistry problems. I'll be thinking ahead and make a mistake on the board.

When a student catches it, sometimes I'll race to the board, fix the problem, and then ask what's wrong with it. Usually while smirking or commenting on the reality distortion field that occasionally exists between the students and the board.

Alan

[bio_prof_]

I do this too. (Well, I do pretty much all the things posted here.) I also can't alphabetize to save my life.

I laugh and say, "See? You don't need to know the alphabet to get a Ph. D." The students usually laugh right along with me.

I hope your marathon ends soon and well, OP.

[fishbrains]

My superiors seem to brush it off as I am very open about laughing at my own mistakes if I mention something about it to them.

I would caution you about relating these experiences to your "superiors." You don't need to give yourself that kind of attention if you don't have to. We all do silly things, but some stories are better left untold.

If the students get snippy (which they probably won't), you can always make them read Emerson's essay "Self-Reliance": "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds" and all that jazz.

There's no worse punishment than reading Emerson when you don't want to.

[birdie]

Messing up just makes you more human to the students.  I once put together a slide show with rock music hoping to energize the students about my field, and the whole thing fell flat. Really flat. When I turned on the lights, they just blinked at me, like what was that all about?  I got over it, and no one ever mentioned it again.

[dr_evil]

You know where I mess up sometimes? I cannot seem to coordinate the saying something and writing that same thing on the board! I'll say 2 and write 4 or something like that...

I wonder if this is a regular thing for those of us who teach number-oriented subjects? I have this problem in accounting all the time.

And I thought it was just me.  I do that all the time.  Commonly I reverse digits and say 3.56 when I meant 3.65.  I tend to do it more often when I'm trying to think ahead of what I'm writing, so I'm trying to break myself of that habit.

[case_insensitive]

You know where I mess up sometimes? I cannot seem to coordinate the saying something and writing that same thing on the board! I'll say 2 and write 4 or something like that...

I wonder if this is a regular thing for those of us who teach number-oriented subjects? I have this problem in accounting all the time.

And I thought it was just me.  I do that all the time.  Commonly I reverse digits and say 3.56 when I meant 3.65.  I tend to do it more often when I'm trying to think ahead of what I'm writing, so I'm trying to break myself of that habit.

There's something about writing on the board and trying to simultaneously talk... that makes my IQ drop about 100 points...

[dr_evil]

There's something about writing on the board and trying to simultaneously talk... that makes my IQ drop about 100 points...

Does that still keep your IQ above that of your students? </snark>

[case_insensitive]

There's something about writing on the board and trying to simultaneously talk... that makes my IQ drop about 100 points...

Does that still keep your IQ above that of your students? </snark>

Not all of them...  ;-)

[drsyn]

This is so good to hear.  I sometimes transpose numbers and really thought that I was the only one who had this problem.

[conjugate]

This is so good to hear.  I sometimes transpose numbers and really thought that I was the only one who had this problem.

Oh, no.  In fact, transposing numbers is one of the most common sources of error.  For the ISBN number, the coding has been designed so that if you accidentally transpose a couple of digits the number won't be valid (so you won't accidentally get a much more expensive book than the one you wanted).  Something similar is true of the digits of credit-card numbers, though I think those don't catch 100% of all transpositions.

[abd_jhs]

I am resurrecting this thread because this is my first semester teaching. Wow! It has been a humbling experience. I am juggling finishing up experiments for my doctorate, writing papers, writing posters, and writing my thesis. Oh, and I just finished interviewing for some VAPs and did land a job-so I am under the gun to finish by June.

Anyways, I am teaching an upper-division Bio course. For this particular course, I have not seen the material myself in about 7 years, since my undergraduate days. I got hired one week before the semester. Needless to say, I've been preparing a lot but there are still a lot of bumps in the road and I make mistakes almost daily. I had to teach students to set up bacterial cultures, and what do you know? I was telling them the totally wrong streaking pattern. One of my lab assistants, politely raised his hand and said "Professor....." Before he could finish, with a smile on my face, I said "That's not right, is it? Let's try that again..." LOL (I have never taken Microbiology, either). Awkward. Please just let this semester end!