do you think Y! Answers is having a detrimental effect on students ability to think and find things out for themselves?
203408
i would hope that the easy access to sites such as Y! Answers might actually stimulate the teachers out there to start formulating homework questions that actually require some thought and critical reasoning skills, as well as actual comprehension of the concept, rather than just rote regurgitation of answers.
32620
not real sure sounds like another excuse for lazyness.instead of holding students accountable for bad grades.they are labeled with some scientific term becouse some students require a litle more 1 on 1.so in efect these lables allow slower students to pass on an excuse.
493351
I'm an instructor at a community college. I wish I had more students like you. Here are some of the conclusions I have come to. First, many of the students are there for reasons other than learning. Many of my younger students are there because their parents have issued ultimatums making them choose to work or go to school. For some reason they think school is easier and choose that option. Second, too many students come out of high school under prepared for college. They don't know how to organize their time, study effectively, or take notes. Third, our society has moved away from the idea of personal responsibility. Everyone is so worried about blaming others for their faults or believing that everyone else is responsible for their learning. They don't understand that the only person responsible for them is them. I am a facilitator of learning but I do not have the power to just give them knowledge. From talking to my friends at other colleges (4 year state and private) they are seeing the same trends albeit not on the same scale.
318874
No. I've been out of school for many years.  \n\nHowever, to the people who are using this for homework: I caution all to check the answers & references to ensure that it's correct.  Reliable sources are needed.  While I'm answering correctly, there's no guarantee everyone is doing this.
303297
I think that it is extremely important. People need to feel like it's OK to put themselves out there and make a mistake. It's impossible to learn anything without goofing up every once in a while. Creating this kind of environment boils down to one thing, respect. If you respect your students, and don't tolerate your other students disrespecting each other it will facilitate their learning.
415829
I am a straight-A-student and for me it's great! If I forget about something, don't know how to do homework or so, teachers always try to help me and there are nearly no consequences of it. They just know I work hard and it's not because of laziness.\nThere are also some cons, though. Sometimes I've got enough of being the first one, HAVING to be the first one. When I say I haven't prepared something just because I don't care, my classmates can't believe in it. It's so strange for them... And, among all, I'm treated like an encyclopaedia. Most of people can't see that I'm a living person, not a machine.
355534
Don't you hate it when people say listen carefully instead of listening themselves. People suck.\nAnd besides, it was the correct answer. The teacher got it wrong. Teachers suck.
176709
I have often seen these mistakes go unchecked by the teachers at my daughter's school. When I asked why, I was told that the thoughts and emotions being expressed were more important than the manner in which they were expressed. I disagree. I cannot take a person seriously if they cannot spell and punctuate. I'm afraid I automatically assume they are stupid. Sorry!
448529
I'm also an inncer-city teacher and I can relate to your concerns.  Part of the problem is that the tests are supposedly designed to measure students' grasp of underlying concepts.  But that's not what they actually measure.  They are mostly word problems, so in the end they are primarily testing the students' verbal skills.  A very bright math student who can manipulate numbers expertly, or a very slow student who can demonstrate understanding using manipulatives, will both fail a standardized test if they can't read and comprehend the test questions.\n\nI've found that my urban students have a lot of trouble with word problems.  One teaching strategy that I had some success with was teaching them how to "decode" test questions.  In other words, I literally gave them lists of key terms in word problems and what they mean.  So at the very least, they knew that if the question asked "how many more," they had to subtract.  But I'm talking about 3rd graders here.  I don't know how well that would apply to higher level math.\n\nThe bottom line is that if you want test results, you have to make some time to teach test prep.  I would guess that your kids who can't sit still during the test are feeling really intimidated.  Often, kids who are perfectly capable of doing the work just freeze up when they see a test.  The only real way to combat this is to familiarize the kids with the test format.  Help them to understand how the test is structured, and give them tools for attacking the questions that they CAN answer.  It's important for the kids to understand that even if questions 1 and 2 look impossible, question 3 might be something you know.  So don't get bogged down.  It's stuff that seems intuitive to adults, but children who are not accustomed to feeling successful don't automatically have these "habits of mind," if you will.\n\nI say, take some portion of the day or week to do test prep.  Help the kids make the connection between the engaging, hands-on stuff and the test questions.  It's really the only way to raise scores.
41019
Believe it or not, it's still a vast improvement over the drivel that was regularly being posted in here as little as two weeks ago. As the novelty continues to wear off, things will get better.\n\nBut, I must agree with you about the apparent level of schooling (or lack thereof) exhibited in a number of the questions. I don't think it is so much an issue of intelligence as it is apathy and a bit of laziness.
375421
I think it's fine for teachers to come here and ask for advice/suggestions to use as effective teaching tools/techniques. \n\n But when teachers-or any other professional for that matter- come here and ask the general public to provide them w/information that they need and is the basis needed to perform their job...in a teacher's case---curriculum, then maybe it does come across as being "lazy".\nBased on the past questions you've asked, there's not really anything there save but 1 or 2, that you couldn't have typed in your own search for....probably within the same amount of time it took for you to log in and post your question here....and the info found could've been printed out in the same or less time then it takes for you to keep checking for posted answers.\n\nTurn the table here...how do you feel when you see students on here asking us to provide them with the FLAT OUT answer to their homework questions--with NO explanations.  They don't want to know nor do they care HOW it's done, they just want to GET it done.   Perhaps that's the light some see your questions in?
32441
I think they are short-sighted, rescuing their kids from the difficulty of homework now at the expense of the children being able to learn on their own later on.  The same goes for kids who come on this website looking for answers that they can just copy down verbatim, instead of just getting a push in the right direction.  \n\nThat said, I think a lot of the homework teachers assign these days is busywork, something for the kids who catch on quickly to do while the teacher works with the struggling kids.  I also think that teachers assign unrealistic projects to the kids.  I can't believe they really expect a 5th grade kid to "construct an authentic log cabin without using lincoln logs, demonstrating 6 features from the novel" (one of the assignments my son got this year), without some parental help.  \n\nIn things like this, I try very hard to let my kids do what they can do themselves, and only step in when adult assistance as needed.  As a result, our projects are often a bit cruder than some of the kids who had parents do it all, but I comfort myself with the knowledge that my kids learned a lot more from the project.
582559
Not really, you should really talk to your math teachers about it. It leaves no room to get a real answer for in class questions and showing the step by step process for problems.
619539
I love teaching smart students and wish I had more of them.  Teaching those types of students is more of a discovery session than a typical lecture/response type of situation.\n\nI tell my students early on in each semester that no one person is smarter than anyone else... it's just that some people are smarter in other areas than others.  I use as an example that I know more about mathematics than any of them (they're all high school kids), but that each of them are better than me at something else.  It makes for a lighter, more friendly teaching atmosphere, without all the intimidation of dealing with a so-called know-it-all.
496341
Not if they're getting/taking ONLY things that HELP them figure out the answers on their own.  The problems arise when people just hand over the answer. This doesn't help the kid learn a thing. To me, that's cheating and the person who is handing the kid the answer is enabling the behavior. We should be HELPING not spoonfeeding.
488603
A good question. I have been reported several times for telling kids to do their own homework.\n\nI really hate it when they will not read a book and want Answerers to report on it for them\n\nI think it is okay if someone needs some help but not to get on here and expect us to write a paper for them or do an analysis or write a poem\n\nI just refuse to answer those questions anymore
666678
Dear Jassa b,\n            What do you think? Does all these stupidities work? Abstain from such handiwork. These are Satan's handiwork. There was a research done in America. There was a Professor who taught a class of 100 students. After a week, the Professor said, I have got to know the nature and past of every student. I will write it on papers and give the students. After it, the students will open it simultaneously and tell whether it is true or not. The Professor wrote the nature and past of every student and distributed them among the students. When the students opened them, more than 90 % students said that the Professor was 100 % correct and the remaining 8 or 9 % said that the Professor was 90% correct. After that, the Professor told that he wrote the same thing for every student. You know there are certain things which are for sure, which anyone can say. Like, I say that in the next 6 months, you will hear a good news. Even if 100 bad things have happened, at least one good thing will happen. Its just a guess.\n\nSo ....  Abstain from palmistry.