u/someonesomebody666

I'm an A-Level Philosophy and Religious Studies tutor and have been for about 10 years now.

The single biggest thing I have noticed over the last year is the rise of AI. I see countless posts on this subreddit asking how AI can be integrated into lessons, how it can be used as a tool. Do not do it. AI has consistently been a massive hindrance to every single student I have tutored who has used it. At present, there is not a single useful or helpful way that AI can be integrated into tutoring.

- Using AI to mark essays. This does not work; AI will tell you what you want to hear. No matter how much you tell it to be critical or even if you give it the mark scheme and tell it to stick to it rigorously, it will not. This has led to students grossly over inflating their own results and believing they are at a higher standard than they are.

- Using AI as a revision tool. This does not work; it does not matter what input an AI gets, it will make mistakes. Students have sent me countless revision posters, notes, essays that have been generated by AI and they all have mistakes in them

- Getting AI to test your students. This also does not work. If you get something wrong, AI will sometimes spin the answer to it looks like you almost sort of got the question right.

I am seeing students become more and more reliant on AI and no matter how much I tell them not to use it, it's too tempting for them as a safety blanket. I tell them I can tell their work was generated with AI, I point out the mistakes, I tell them it cannot be relied upon. I feel like this is falling on deaf ears.

I have a reasonably high success rate in elevating my students' grades. I take on a lot of D/E students and I have consistently been able to get them up to a B or an A. However this year I have noticed so much more AI usage and for the first time, two of my students came out of their A Levels with a C and D in Philosophy. The two students who got these grades used AI as their safety blanket. I spent hours and hours with these students planning detailed essays, manually making revision posters, manually making flashcards, making them personalised resources that explain complex concepts in detail. We have over 50 pages of essays that we have written together on a Google Doc and this has been unused and they just go straight back to AI.

To all the posts on here promoting language models: this is harming students.

How do you deal students who rely on AI?

This is a post on behalf of my mum. Both people involved are in social housing.

Background (skip to problem below):

My mum's neighbour recently moved in next door. She has a son who is autistic so she does not work and claims the relevant benefits associated with this. Since she moved in she has been causing a little bit of fuss and hassle on the street, having 3 dedicated disabled bays created for her and then getting the council to drop her curb, while maintaining the disabled bays.

She has had her whole kitchen and bathroom refitted courtesy of the council as well. So I guess what I'm trying to get at is she knows the best way to make demands and get what she wants.

Problem:

Recently, my mum had a gardener come round and tidy up the garden and dispose of garden waste. The next day, the neighbour knocked at my mum's door (at 10pm) and said that 2 footballs had been kicked into my mum's garden and can she please return them. My mum said thay she recently had a gardener round and doesn't know of any footballs but maybe the gardener disposed of them because she can't see anything out there. The footballs had apparently been in the garden for quite a few days.

Today, my mum gets this letter through the door:

"Dear Neighbour

Thank you for speaking with me yesterday regarding my son's footballs.

As mentioned, two footballs went into your garden over the past week. When I knocked, you explained that you had recently had a gardener working there and that you weren't sure what he may have done with them.

I wondered if you would be able to check with the gardener, as the footballs have still not been found. I would be extremely grateful if you could ask whether he moved them, put them somewhere for safekeeping, or disposed of them.

One of the footballs is a yellow football that has significant sentimental value to my son. He won it as part of a competition several years ago, and it is no longer available to buy, so it cannot simply be replaced. The other is a World Cup football.

I appreciate this may simply have been an oversight, but if the gardener did remove or dispose of them, I would be grateful to know what happened, as I understand he would not normally remove or dispose of items from a customer's garden without their knowledge or instructions.

If you could let me know after you've had a chance to speak with him, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks,

Neighbour"

I told my mum to not say what she THINKS might have happened to the footballs or what could HAVE happened and told her to just be honest - she has not seen them and she still cannot see them so she doesn't know where they are.

I believe this neighbour is about to start demanding money or potentially something worse like reporting my mum. Is there any advice for navigating a situation like this?

This is in England, so via NHS.

2 months ago I was diagnosed with a 6cm simple cyst. Nevertheless it is causing me a lot of pain and has been for over 2 months now.

First of all, the sonographer who diagnosed me asked me after the appointment what I was going to do with the rest of my day and I said "probably go home and chill and feel sorry for myself". He was irrationally angry at that and told me to stop being ridiculous because a cyst is nothing to feel sorry for yourself about. A woman nurse did jump in and tell him he would never know what it is like and to be quiet though haha.

I phoned my doctor the next day and explained I was a bit scared. He said there was nothing to be scared about as 6cm isn't particularly big. I know so many women have had waaay larger cysts but I am in a lot of pain. I asked to be re-referred back to the hospital in a month for a rescan and he agreed.

A month passes and nothing. I query this and I am told "it's been sent".

2 weeks later I phone again and beg them to please re refer me because of the pain and I am told the referral is sent. I ask for advice on pain management because I can barely work as my job requires me to climb in and out of things quite a bit higher. I'm told just wait for the referral.

A week later I log into my NHS profile/ record and see that that referral has been rejected without being given a reason why. I phoned the doctors and I'm told they will email radiology to find out why.

Today, another week later and now at the 8 week mark, I ask if there is any news. I'm told they're waiting to hear from radiology.

I don't know how much more noise I have to make. I am feeling guilty for bothering so much but I also need to advocate for myself because I'm in so much pain. I just don't know what to do

I posted this recently: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskVet/s/L524o94QDZ

My 9 year old dog weighs 20.5kg and she was prescribed a short course (prednisolone) for allergies. The schedule was as follows:

Days 1-2: 30mg

Days 3 - 5: 15mg

Days 6 - 7: 10mg

Days: 8 - 12: 5mg

STOP

She is now on her second day of no steroids. She is happy, bright and eager to play and walk. Some very slight panting, but it is warm here and she seems a lot more relaxed. Eating her food normally.

I just took her on a walk and she did one soft poop (maybe a 4 on the stool chart). It had shape, but was a bit mushy and when i picked it up it mushed quite a bit. I know that abrupt steroid withdrawal can cause a crisis, of which diarrhea is a symptom, so I am wondering how urgent is this and should she be taken to an emergency vet asap (all normal vets are currently closed where i am).

My 9 year old dog weighs 20.5kg and she was prescribed a short course for allergies. The schedule was as follows:

Days 1-2: 30mg

Days 3 - 5: 15mg

Days 6 - 7: 10mg

Days: 8 - 12: 5mg

STOP

I've heard that abruptly stopping even at 5mg can cause problems. Does this sound appropriate or should a further taper be needed?

It's just she is panting a lot even on the 5mg so I'm a bit concerned. Been to the vet like 3 times and they're not concerned about her and they said this is an appropriate taper.

Breed: Labrador

Age: 9

Female, spayed.

Weight: 22.5kg

My dog has been suffering with skin problems and allergies for a while. We have tried apoquel and cytopoint but neither helped.

My vet prescribed a short dose of Prednisolone to get the itching and rash under control at this dose:

2 days of 3x 5mg tablets twice a day (30 mg in total)

3 days of 3x 5mg tablets (15mg in total)

Then 2 x 5mg tablets a day (10mg total)

She has been on them for one week now and she is on her 3rd day of 2x 5mg a day (10mg).

I don't think they've been agreeing with her, constant panting and she's restless. I want to get her off the medication ASAP.

I have already got a telephone appointment with my vet for the morning but I'm just looking for some advice to tide me over until then because I'm so worried about her on these tablets. I know abrupt stopping is dangerous.

What should the tapering plan look like for her? How much longer should she be expected to be on these meds?

One other note is that during this time she developed a UTI as well which the vet thinks is because her immune system was suppressed because of the steroids. She just did a 5 day course of antibiotics for this as well.

Has anyone managed to get any Isaderm gel for their pet recently? I have a prescription but it is out of stock absolutely everywhere. Pup has a nasty rash :(

Hi guys!

I'm wondering if you guys could shed any light on this or have similar things that have happened.

Over the last few months we keep finding food buried in our front garden. At first it was a whole egg, then it was a small chocolate egg (like the Easter egg hunt ones), and now today 2 gingernut biscuits!

Do you think it could be a fox using the garden as a little store? We do have a lot of foxes around here. But the thing is I have a dog so I'm also wondering if it is a fox why they're comfy leaving half buried food around another animal. And also, if it is a fox I feel bad cause I've chucked the stuff away.

Its kind of freaking my husband out (he is from a country where they do not have foxes)