<p>Hey all,</p>
<p>I hope I can find some answers here because this is a topic I have been struggling with. </p>
<p>Normally I am a nice person and if someone misses a class I don't mind sending my notes along. The problem I find lately is, that other students just assume that I will. Yesterday I had someone ask me for my notes because I take them on a laptop, and that was great because I can "just send them to him". When I made the point that people had taken advantage of this before and I didnt appreciate it, he response is that "he needed them from only one day".</p>
<p>Before midterms I had quite a few people who wanted my notes. Yes I take good notes - awesome ones, but I had people wanting a week and a half's worth of notes. I find this to be ridiculous. I come to class, I bust my butt, why the heck should I have to had that over, because there is little to no effort on my part "to just send them"? It really bugs me. Sure sending it is no issue, but that is my hard work. Why should I feel obligated to hand that over because you decided not to come to class. (At this point I want to say I am not a total snot, if someone had a grandparent die that is one thing, but I am talking about folks who "just didn't feel like showing up". </p>
<p>Frankly this idea of sharing one's work is just really irritating me. Just before mid-terms I was talking with a girl about a study guide that I was making for the class. I told her how I did it, and her repsonse was "so that is in a Word doc, right"? I said yes, and she asked me if I would send it to her. Heck no. I worked hard on that, why would I "just send it along"? That is like me just sending you my homework. I am not here to make your life more convenient. </p>
<p>I think I also find this galling because these are not people that I know. These are folks I have not talked to more than a few times, and in some cases, this was my first time talking to them. </p>
<p>I am just hoping to get some feedback here. Do you feel like I am being too harsh just saying I am not lending my notes out, and that is the end of it, or do you think that all this "just sending it along" is just fine?</p>
<p>Have a good day!</p>
<p>I am with you on this one. It’s great that you wanted to help out in the beginning, but you have been taken advantage of. It will be tough to pull back from it without meeting some resentment, but going forth in future classes you might want to remember this. </p>
<p>Even if it is relatively simple, it still takes some time to get the person’s e-mail, go into your e-mail, search up the file and send it. Just let people know that you’ve been asked a lot lately and you don’t have the time to be sending out notes everyday. They can go see their professor if they are worried about missing something. </p>
<p>Are the people who are asking your friends? Or just classmates that you chat with on occasion? If they are not friends then don’t waste your time. I bet they’d show up to class more often if you quit sending notes. Or they’d just fail. But that isn’t your responsibility. If they are friends - close-ish friends - then I would probably send notes but have a talk with them about how you feel taken advantage of and that they should expect to put more effort into it if they want the grades.</p>
<p>just start selling them instead, be creative</p>
<p>^^ I like that idea. Time is money.</p>
<p>Thanks NovaLynnx,
No these people are not my friends. Some of them I have never even seen before the day they wanted notes. It is ridiculous. </p>
<p>In class today the girl sititng next to me saw I was going to take notes (we were watching a DVD) and the girl who came to set it up said our prof would ask a question about the DVD on our final exam - so of course I am gong to take notes. </p>
<p>I told the girl I was and she said, “oh could you just send those to me”? I was stunned. Sheer freaking laziness. I told her no that with the influx of people asking for my notes I have decided that I am not sending them to anyone any longer. It has gotten to be too much and I can’t take notes for everyone. </p>
<p>This is a prime example of the kind of thing I have run into this semester. It is utterly ridiculous. I am here working my butt off for me, not for them. </p>
<p>Abbas432 - thanks for that, I will keep that in mind. Maybe $10.00 a page to be paid upfront? lol</p>
<p>I really appreciate your responses!</p>
<p>S~</p>
<p>If you’re a good notetaker, you might be able to get a job taking notes for students with learning disabilities through your school’s Disability Office (or whatever they call it there - my school has a cutesy acronym). That way, (a) you get paid and (b) you can legitimately say that you can’t share the notes with anyone but the [anonymous] student you’re helping.</p>
<p>^ I had my professor ask in one of my classes if someone would be willing to take notes for another student in exchange for work-study pay. That is certainly something to look into. </p>
<p>And good for you for standing up for yourself. That takes a lot of nerve to ask someone that. “Oh, you’re taking notes? Well just send them to me then so I don’t have to!”</p>
<p>I have noticed that a couple times in your posts you indicated that you told people about taking the notes (on the DVD) or about writing the study guide. Why did you say anything in the first place about what you were doing, if you know now people are just going to ask you to share. Simple solution unless you want to sell the notes/study guide: don’t say anything. Just set up your computer inconspicuously as possible, take your notes, and that’s it. Don’t make a big spectacle of what you are doing…if you broadcast the fact, you deserve to be bugged for the product!</p>
<p>Well the first girl that I was talking to about the study guide we were having a conversation about the mid-term for that course and the various things that were on it, so I was telling her how I was studying for it, by creating the study guide. I didn’t feel like I was broadcasting anything, just talking about how I was studying. At my last school, where I got my first degree we did things like that. </p>
<p>The second girl I didn’t say a word about notes, in fact the only thing I had said to her was hello when she came in the room. When the movie started I only opened my laptop and started typing. It was she who asked me about it. I couldn’t exactly say I wasn’t going to take notes because she could see what I was typing. In that class there really is no “being discreet” as we sit at long tables arranged in a U shape, so you either sit next to or face the majority of the course. It’s not like a typical classroom where I can sit in the back with no one who can see you.</p>
<p>Keep “forgetting” to send them the notes or say your laptop has a virus… Something along the lines that will cause them a hassle as well. Maybe just send them like half the notes and they will think your notes suck. Eventually they won’t want them anymore.
I have a similar problem with people asking me to sign them into class all the time because I never skip =/</p>
<p>Lol, porcelain! I actually thought about that for a moment - the sending of bad notes. </p>
<p>Does it ever tick you off that people just feel like they can take advantage of the fact that you are a good student so they can slack off? I know I would be very frustrated. I am sorry that you have to put up with that. </p>
<p>A solution for you could be writing the student’s name on the sheet and after that writing “wanted me to write his name here”. Technically you signed his name on the sheet…</p>
<p>Stradmom- I am sorry I only now saw your post. Thanks for the reply. That is a good idea, I never thought of that. I could look into that easily because I know the coordinator of the Assistive Technology program. I did some work for her this summer and she could probably put me in the right direction. </p>
<p>NovaLynnx - thanks for saying that. It was awkward to try and come up with it so on the spot, but thankfully I had the confidence and the right words at hand to do it.</p>