THE PROFESSOR THAT GOT FAMOUS FOR TAKING PICTURES OF HIMSELF FOR STUDENTS
We know that teachers and lecturers get fed up with their students basically twice a day, in fact, they may even question the reason they decided to educate the nation. This teacher got so fed up, he sunk to the lowest level of the millennial age... memes. He got so frustrated, he started turning himself into memes... on purpose!
With the rapidly advancing digital age, you could say that the generation gap is as wide as it has ever been. The gap is glaringly evident in schools, where middle-aged teachers meet tech-savvy kids who have never known a world without Facebook, selfies and communicating in pictures and memes.
David Red, Professor at St. John’s River State College in Florida, is woke. He knows that if he's going to relate to his students, to be able to truly get through to them, he needs to be on their level. When Bored Panda interviewed him on his level of woke, he said:
“Students generally seem to really like the memes or really anything I do that makes it feel to them like I'm actually trying to talk to them and not just reading from a script or text. For example, in one of my classes this year I wore pink every Wednesday and the first test was entirely themed on Mean Girls. Some of them started wearing pink on Wednesdays too and they really enjoyed it. It became almost like a "team colour". The IT meme that you may have seen was actually right before a final exam and the final was then themed around the movie, using the same characters and "props". Anything that makes the students feel like I put my real-self into the class helps, whether it's memes or one of these other gimmicks. If my real-self is in the room, then their real-self shows up too. And when they're fully present like that, they learn.”
Although his creative ways of getting through to millenials propelled him to internet fame, he plans to stick with teaching physics. So it all began... “The first meme happened with me sitting at my desk staring at a pile of tests and labs to grade,” David told Bored Panda. “Instead of tackling it head-on, I procrastinated and saw a meme on my Facebook feed that I immediately connected to my own frustration. It was Golum looking happy captioned with "We must wash the dishes" followed by a picture of Golum angrily saying "But we hates it!" I made that one there with me talking about grading and it went from there.”
“My fiancée and I would work on a costume and figure out how best to do it – she is the creative genius behind costumes, wigs and any makeup used. I know this would be a good time to start an Instagram account or try to capitalise somehow but I get married in three days and then go on a honeymoon. By then the buzz will be gone so probably I'll just keep doing things as I was before – for fun, whenever I have an idea I like.”
We would definitely give David an A for creativity and hilarity!