Preserved Topic: sleep deprivation meets boring class (Page 1 of 1)

I'm taking a really boring class right now. The problem is not the subject matter (Visual Basic) so much as the instructor; she harps on one small detail of MS Vis. Basic for about 30 minutes, to the point that you tune her out about 3 minutes into her lecture, and then she gives us an assignment out of the book to do for the rest of class (an assignment, I might add, that I could just as easily do at home and still get my sleep). Add the following handicaps to the battle for awareness:

We can't have drinks in class. No soda, no chilly bottle of ice water to revive you.

I can't just leave when she gives us the book assignment.

I don't get much sleep; I work until 11 p.m. the night before, and have to be in class by 8 a.m.

Given these obstacles, how would you stay awake?

This can also apply to how to stay awake during a boring meeting, or a boring day at work.


the artist formerly known as gemannihilate

What I used to do is chug a high caffinated drink right before class... Jolt, Mt. Dew, ect... That way during the book time you would need to take a bathroom break. That breaks up the monotony of the class time.



The programmer's national anthem is 'AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH''

Wolfen's Sig Site

I never get any sleep so I know where you are coming from.

I drink High amounts of coffee VERY STRONG COFFEE I might add. I used to make coffee in the morning before I got ready for class and then just pour it into a thermose. Might help, might not.

Later,
C:\


~Binary is best~

Im guessing your in colledge. Get a tape recorder to record what you tune out on. That way when your doing the assignment you can frantically search through the tape and still be interested in what she sais.

If that doesn't work go up to her after class and tell her to spice things up a bit when teaching.

If that doesn't work follow the above posts.

If that doesn't work, your FUCKED .

Have a nice day!


_____________________
Prying open my third eye.

I like your final piece of advice, Insider. That's how I feel right now.

Yeah, this is a college class. What sucks, however, is that nothing she says in lecture is all that difficult to grasp, and then she pretty much reiterates that basic point for 30 minutes. It's hard to stay awake through that. I like the caffeine ideas; I drink coffee, but maybe not enough. And as you say, Wolfen, the bathroom break helps.

Is attendence taken? If you're really ahead of it or could just get it from the book, I'd just skip a class now and then to get some extra sleep. Be careful, tbough, it's easy to miss something important =)

Hmmm, do you eat breakfast? If so then try syrup related products such as waffles . Nothing keeps me awake more then the thought of a slow running fluid clotting up my blood. That or try the opposite... Drink Red Wine, that thins your blood and increases the flow to the brain!

Try sugar pills mate.


_____________________
Prying open my third eye.

holy cow. I was in a class like that last year. Oh My Friggin Gosh. I would play pong the entire time. I got an A in the class so I guess it worked.

I got ya deal here. Chocolate covered coffee beans. They can give a nice buz but they do melt. I keep a bag of them by my computer at all times. (just make sure not to eat them with in a few hours of sleep)

                                                           

Just don't stop moving. Tap your feet, fingers, pen or what ever to just keep moving. If nothing else you will really bug everyone else before you fall asleep then they will throw stuf at you.

__________________________
This is a sig virus. Please copy it to your sig so it can spread.

This probably isn't the best course, but in reading that post at the start, the biggtest urge would have come over me just to walk up to her and tell her how intensley BORING she is. Do it tactfully however. After calss you could give her suggestions on how to improve her teaching technique. Or you could talk to the head of her faculty and work out an arrangment whereby you still get the work done without having to sit through her whole lecture.

Or lobby your student union to get at least drinks allowed into lectures (or is that just her personal choice?)

Try this (has worked for me before):

If you are 21, ask her out for a drink or something to discuss work. Get a little tipsy and tell her how boringly she teaches the class. If she is teaching Visual Basic, than she could probably use a night out anyway. Laugh about it.

I don't know why this helped me stay awake (Am. Government class in my case). I think it has something to do with the fact that we became "friends."

I've found that it also helps to draw pictures. Drawing pictures actually helps me study anyways too. When I see that particualr picture in my notebook, I can instantly remember what had been said for that particular lecture.

Drink lotsa coffee (as stated above)...

Dress to stay cool. If you have air conditioning in class, your heart rate will increase to keep your body warmer.

Get a little buzzed before class. I have found that visiting a nearby bar before class can make for an amuzing session.

Put a rock in your socks. The fact that this bugs the shit out of you will keep you awake all period.

That's all I can come up with...

Unfortunately, I can't skip class without it affecting my grade. I like the idea of people throwing things at me, though.

Seriously, chocolate covered coffee beans do sound like a good idea. I can probably get away with eating those in class.

I would love to tell this teacher how dull she is. Problem is, I don't know her very well, as I'm in the web program and she's in programming. I've never had her before. I don't know how she'd take it. Further, she's the department head in programming, so I can't go over her head within her own department.

I will say this; I got my first degree in high school education, and therefore I tend to be really opinionated about what makes for good teaching and bad teaching. But as a result, I also tend to intimidate teachers a little bit. My favorite teacher actually said I make him nervous whenever I'm in his class, because he knows that I have been taught how to teach, and he feels like I'm sitting there picking the whole lesson apart. And you know, it's a tech school so the teachers don't have a formal education in teaching. They are professionals in their field of specialty, but not all of them are terrific at teaching what they know.

So essentially, there's apparently something about me that makes teachers feel like I'm seriously critical (which is true, to a degree), and I don't know that she'd take that too well, either; despite her poor classroom skills, she seems like a very strong woman, so I'm not interested in getting into a shoving match with her.

I actually think I may email her anonymously and just say in a very straightforward way that the class is dragging, and I think everyone would do better if she picked up the pace. I know this seems kind of cowardly, but you never know with some teachers. Sometimes they get really defensive over criticism, and that can effect your grade.

Sorry to double post: Thumper posted while I was composing my last message. Thumper, I actually thought about going to class with wet socks. I figured the discomfort alone would be enough to keep me awake. Or maybe too tight underwear...

Well, there's these pills on the market that you can get prescribed to you. They're $4/capsule. Military pilots use them when they fly long missions. They'll keep you wide awake for 24 hours straight.

CNN - Fighting Sleep Deprivation Tips: http://www.cnn.com/2000/CAREER/trends/12/04/napping/index.html

I think modafinil is the drug that keeps you awake.
http://www.modafinil.com/

Most doctors will prescribe it to you.

drop acid

Jason

I wholeheartedly agree with the recorder suggestion. I had a boring class awhile back where the teacher wouldnt allow us to just leave the recorder and bounce so I would turn on the recorder, tip back my head and go to sleep. When I rudely awaken and confronted about it I went into a diatribe about how boring he was, cited several examples, I made suggestions and after class he pulled me aside and said I could leave the recorder as long as I did the coursework and took the tests, problem solved.

If that dosent work before class go pick up a bottle of metabo-crack or stacker2 at walgreens or GNC or maybe order a quadruple espresso from your local corporate coffee house. I wont recommend you sleep more because its not an option I would really consider. Sleep Deprivation is your friend.

I get my coffee beans at super target. Becare full not to eat *too* many tho. Like multiple hand fulls cuz that would screw your insides (give you a reason to get out of the class room for a bit).

                                                           

Yep, no matter where you are, what school it is, anything... You'll have teachers like this. Where I'm going, there are a whole 4 Comp Sci profs. Happens that 2 of them are VERY Korean. Don't get me worng, I have no problem with Koreans or any nationality really, however, they (husband and wife) have only been in the states a few years and have an unbelievable accent that is quite difficult to translate. Not to mention the different grammer/sentence structure of Korean compared to English. Then you add the extremely BAD jokes he attempts (just the husband tries at humor); then when no one laughs, he tries to explain it like we didn't get it...

At the end of each semester everyone fills out an evaluation for each of their Profs. They are all typed up anonymously and published in the library for future students to reference, and available to the Profs as well. Anyways, when he got his back, apparently the whole class went off about not understanding a word he said, and even some comments about the bad jokes... The next time we came to class after he read them, he spent an hour and a half (the whole period) ranting on about why he has the major accent and the grammer differences and trying to explain that it wasn't his fault the class was boring to us and all that. Getting very defensive. Then... we all have him again the next semester (remember, only 4 Comp Sci Profs) and end up writing nearly the same thing in the evaluation again. Nothing was changed, same boring lectures, same really bad jokes. Even after a few of us talked to him one on one after class... And still won't let us sleep and use a tape recorder or not show up but make sure we do all the work/tests/projects/etc.

Ahhhh, that feels good Needed to just rant on about something and this topic fit quite well.

Anyways, what to do to stay awake...
-chocolate covered coffee beans are WONDERFUL!!!!!!!!!!
-lots of doodling in a notebook...
-sketching out layout/designs for programs/webpages...
-actually writing some code by hand (find a "challenging" problem in the book and work it out with as few references to the book as you can) I've found that it's easy for me to stay awake if I have something of at least slight interest to work on...
-read waaaaaaaaaay ahead in the book... I think I finished the book we used about a month and a half before the rest of the class, even going through the chapters the Prof didn't cover...
-and when in doubt, lot's of caffine



________________________________________________________________
-- Jack of all trades, master of that which has my attention at
the moment.

Home Sweet Home

take a cigarette break.... just say you're going to the bathroom....

or leave your bag outside- "go to the bathroom" and just leave...


Code - CGI - links - DHTML - Javascript - Perl - programming - Magic - http://www.twistedport.com
ICQ: 67751342

oh, and sometimes I draw flowcharts for really neat apps and games...

that keeps me self-inolved for a *long* time

oh, maybe someone already mentioned this but- have you tried hitting on the girls in the class?


Code - CGI - links - DHTML - Javascript - Perl - programming - Magic - http://www.twistedport.com
ICQ: 67751342

I want sleep
I miss sleep
I can't have sleep
What is sleep?
Are you sleeping?
I'm not sleeping
Is sleep there
Sleep isn't here

I'm going to find some chocolate covered coffee beans tonight. I like the idea of working ahead in the book, too; she's got this real anal thing about people using the Internet when they're done with an assignment (which makes me crazy! Who cares if I use the Internet after finishing an assignment???), but if I get ahead by a chapter or three, she might have to make an exception. It's too bad we don't have Photoshop in the programming classrooms; last quarter, I did so much Photoshop work in a boring class! At any rate, I am totally going to shred this teacher on the quarter-end review.

As for hitting on the girls, Petskull, I don't know... just going by the most basic clues and stereotypes, they don't appear to be interested in lesbianism.

I don't think he quite knew that odd cat. How about the suys then...any cute one's there?

I'm sure he didn't know. I just thought it was funny.

One of these days I'm going to make a thread titled "Gender" and ask everyone to declare what gender they are. Apparently I'm not the only one who can't tell the difference half the time.

I'm not entirely kidding either =) just wait...

Not a bad idea Slime... I can usually tell if I read enough posts from someone, but in this case I was wrong as well

Wow, that last post of mine was a bit longer than I realized when I wrote it...


________________________________________________________________
-- Jack of all trades, master of that which has my attention at
the moment.

Home Sweet Home

Yeah, gender is sort of vague here. But at the same time, there's a kind of freedom to gender being vague. I don't think people mean to, but lots of people tend to look at work by girls completely differently. Like you'll see something and think "wow, that doesn't seem like something a girl would do." Like I say, I don't think it's intentional, and I even do it to an extent. Like I did this poster-size photo-realistic image of a motorcycle last quarter for my Photoshop class, and it just doesn't look like a girl's work. Most of the other girls in my class rendered images like a purse, or a piece of jewelry. One of them did an image of a baby. Meanwhile the guys are all doing guitars and cars and weapons and tools. So the funny thing is, I did this motorcycle and all the guys are just crazy over it now, and want to talk motorcycles with me, and I just say "dude, I don't know anything about motorcycles. I just chose this image because it's hard to do."

So yeah, gender is a funny issue. I also tend to communicate in a very masculine way, and I can be really aggressive, so online I often get mistaken for a guy. But in a way, that's cool too, because I'm totally not into the whole "I can't make it in this business because I'm a girl" rant. Frankly, aggressive people get further.

I was so bored listening to speeches today (except for the teacher flipping out on some goof off 19 year old kid) that I decided to teach myself to write with my off hand. I did that after I was sick of drawing. Its surprising how 22 years of motor skills in the right hand don't rub off to the left hand.... I guess in 22 years, my left hand will write nice and neat also.