Many students dread public speaking and say they only sign up because the class is required. But in Sam Blank’s classroom, they find it isn’t so terrifying. “I’m a pretty well-liked person, considering the fact I teach a course that creates fear in people,” jokes Blank, 62, a communications professor at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in New York . Blank is among millions of educators who are praised, glorified — and sometimes verbally torn to shreds — on websites where students go to rate their professors. Luckily, he got a stellar rating: the No. 1 community college professor on the website RateMyProfessors.com . RateMyProfessors.com, known as RMP, is the front-runner among such sites, with about 1.9 million unique visitors a month, says comScore, which tracks Web traffic. Owned by MTV ‘s college network, mtvU, RMP lists more than 1 million professors from 6,500 schools in the USA, Canada and England . Other smaller such sites include KnowYourProfessor.com and ProfessorPerformance.com . On RMP, professors are rated on a five-point scale, for overall quality, helpfulness, clarity — and how easy it is to get an A in their class. Students also give chili peppers to professors they consider “hot.” Despite some harsh comments warning others away from professors some raters didn’t like, the website is about “shining a spotlight” on the best professors, mtvU’s Carlo DiMarco says. “College students always sought the advice of their peers, friends and family members” about which classes to take, he adds; online, they can seek advice from thousands of voices. Rodney Kashem recently bought RMP’s rival, ProfessorPerformance.com, and has revamped the site. Kashem, 24, a grad student at Dartmouth College, says it’s the same as checking hotel ratings before spending money on vacation; students are “customers” who want to make sure their tuition is well spent. Blank says he didn’t know about his top rating on RMP, but when a reporter told him, he said it was “absolutely wonderful. … Perhaps it’s an affirmation of my ability to teach.” Juann Watson, a psychology and mental health professor at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, N.Y., was rated the site’s “hottest” professor of the year. Watson, 44, says she’s honored to be recognized, but “a chili pepper means nothing at this stage in my life or in my accomplishments.” Ted Coladarci, director of institutional research at the University of Maine, has studied how closely RMP’s ratings align with the teacher evaluations students write at the end of courses, and he says there’s a strong correlation. His findings , with co-author Irv Kornfeld, were published in the journal Practical Assessment, Research & Evaluation. But he cautions that students motivated to go online to rate a professor do not necessarily share the same opinions as everyone who took the class. “An instructor’s RMP ratings tend to derive from an exceedingly small and arguably biased sample of all students the instructor has had,” he says. Coladarci adds that some instructors receive less-than-stellar RMP ratings but nevertheless enjoy high ratings on their school’s official student evaluations of teaching. These cases, he says, “serve as an important cautionary note for RMP users. In short, it’s risky to form judgments about instructors and their courses based solely on what you see on RateMyProfessors.com.”

MILWAUKEE (AP) — For students entering college this fall, e-mail is too slow, phones have never had cords and the computers they played with as kids are now in museums. The Class of 2014 thinks of Clint Eastwood more as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry urging punks to “go ahead, make my day.” Few incoming freshmen know how to write in cursive or have ever worn a wristwatch. These are among the 75 items on this year’s Beloit College Mindset List. The compilation, released Tuesday, is assembled each year by two officials at this private school of about 1,400 students in Beloit, Wis. LAST YEAR: Cultural ‘Mindset’ of freshmen may foil ‘Boomer arrogance’ The list is meant to remind teachers that cultural references familiar to them might draw blank stares from college freshmen born mostly in 1992. Of course, it can also have the unintended consequence of making people feel old. Remember when Dr. Jack Kevorkian , Dan Quayle or Rodney King were in the news? These kids don’t. Ever worry about a Russian missile strike on the U.S.? During these students’ lives, Russians and Americans have always been living together in outer space. Being aware of the generation gap helps professors craft lesson plans that are more meaningful, said Ron Nief, a former public affairs director at Beloit College and one of the list’s creators. Nief and English professor Tom McBride have assembled the Mindset List for 13 years. They say it’s given them an unusual perspective on cultural shifts. For example, as item No. 13 on the list says, “Parents and teachers feared that Beavis and Butt-head might be the voice of a lost generation.” With far edgier content available today, such as South Park or online videos that push the envelope, there’s something quaint about recalling the hand-wringing that the MTV cartoon prompted, Nief said. “I think we do that with every generation — we look back and say, what were we getting so upset about?” he said. “A, kids outgrow it and B, in retrospect we realize it really wasn’t that bad.” Another Mindset List item reflects a possible shift in Hollywood attitudes. Item No. 12 notes: “Clint Eastwood is better known as a sensitive director than as Dirty Harry.” A number of incoming freshmen said they partially agreed with the item, noting they were familiar with Eastwood’s work as an actor even if they hadn’t seen his films. “I know he directed movies but I also know he’s supposed to be sort of bad-ass,” said Aaron Ziontz, 18, from Seattle. Jessica Peck, a 17-year-old from Portland, Ore., disagreed with two items on the list — one that says few students know how to write in cursive, and another that suggests this generation seldom if ever uses snail mail. “Snail mail’s kind of fun. When I have time I like writing letters to friends and family,” she said. “It’s just a bit more personal. And yes, I write in cursive.” Peck did agree with the item pointing out that most teens have never used telephones with cords. “Yes, I’ve used them but only at my grandparents’ house,” she said. That’s the sort of comment that can make a person feel old. McBride jokes that he’s not immune from feeling ancient just because he compiles the items. But the 65-year-old said the lists can also reveal a larger truth about tolerance. The Beavis and Butt-head item suggests that maybe parents shouldn’t overreact every time a controversy arises, he noted. For example, maybe it’s no big deal if college freshmen misspell words when they text, and maybe their attention spans will be just fine even though they grew up in the Internet age, he said. “There’s something about the resilience of human nature that renders these gloom-and-doom prophesies moot after a while,” he said. “I can’t say for sure, but it looks like the track record of these very anxious prophets has not been impressive over the years.” READERS: What was (or do you think would’ve been) on your class’s ‘Mindset List’? Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

LOS ANGELES — In an era of yawning budget deficits and teacher layoffs, schools in the Los Angeles area are looking at a nontraditional source for some extra cash — Hollywood. School districts from Lawndale to Glendale are seeking to earn thousands of dollars a day from renting their campuses as locations for movies, TV shows, commercials, and even truck parking. OUTRAGE: Is 2010 the year of the education documentary? DUNCAN: Congress must act on school funding The money is being used to save teachers’ jobs, upgrade school facilities and replenish districts’ dwindling funds. “Schools have historically been reluctant to make themselves available, but now they’re falling over themselves,” said Scott Graham , leasing director for the sprawling 1,000-school Los Angeles Unified School District . Officials at FilmLA, the Los Angeles film promotion nonprofit, say they’ve had a flurry of inquiries from cash-strapped districts in recent months asking how they can market themselves to production companies. The spike of interest from schools is coming at an opportune time. Youth networks such as the Disney Channel and MTV are moving away from reality shows to scripted programs that often feature kids at school, said Trisha Edgar, FilmLA’s property management manager. To serve the increased demand from both schools and producers, FilmLA recently rolled out a new website featuring photos of campuses and a description to make it easier for location managers to find what they’re looking for, whether a football field, classroom or cafeteria. Hollywood has filmed at some of Los Angeles’ architectural standout schools for decades. Viewers have seen the classic red brick-Ivy League look of El Segundo High School in the 1955 drama ” Blackboard Jungle ,” and the TV sitcom that launched Will Smith , ” The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air .” Torrance High School’s graceful Spanish-style arched walkways served as backdrop for TV shows “90210,” ” Buffy the Vampire Slayer ” and “Medium.” In West LA, University High School starred in the romantic comedy “Valentine’s Day,” released earlier this year, and the 2003 Jim Carrey comedy ” Bruce Almighty .” Not all schools allow movie shoots because of the disruption a crew can bring to campus. But with state education cuts resulting in thousands of teacher layoffs and furloughs for the third year in a row, filming is looking more appealing for Los Angeles-area schools. “Any additional revenue is more critical than ever,” said John Vinke, associate superintendent of Lawndale Unified School District, which has had sporadic productions at its nine schools through the years but is hoping to land more regular gigs through FilmLA. School officials who permit movie shoots say it nets them big bucks. They get paid location fees ranging from Los Angeles Unified’s $3,100 per day to Torrance’s $5,500, plus sundries such as cleanup. With more schools signing up for filming and ramped up promotion through FilmLA, Los Angeles Unified has earned the most it’s ever made from filming this school year — $1.5 million from last July through March. FilmLA takes a 16% commission for arranging the deals, the host school keeps three quarters of the remaining amount and the district takes the rest. With movie money paying for everything from pools to playgrounds to some teacher salaries, some schools go to considerable lengths to accommodate filming. El Segundo High Principal Jim Garza removed the school’s palm trees so the campus would look less “Southern California” and fit a wider location demand. At University High in Los Angeles, interiors and exteriors were painted, floor tiles replaced, landscaping overhauled and classes and lockers moved for ” Drillbit Taylor .” The school earned $90,000 for the 2008 comedy starring Owen Wilson . But allowing film crews on campus is not all glitz and glam. University High students and teachers complained in the school newspaper that the “Drillbit Taylor” crew blocked access to classes and took over the parking lot. They also resented security guards stopping them from moving about campus. Similar complaints about the filming of “90210″ several years ago prompted Torrance High to restrict filming to outside school hours. “It was a distraction to students and the learning environment,” said Mitchell Tabaldo, site supervisor, who now gets three or four inquiries a month but few takers after producers hear the restrictions. At El Segundo High, opposition came from outside the school. Neighbors complained to the City Council about trucks occupying streets, noise from generators and crewmembers running through their yards. Over the school district’s protests, the council last year limited filming at any city location to 20 days per year. Principal Garza said the clampdown has virtually stopped the phones ringing at a time when the school year is being shortened because of lack of money to pay teachers. Still, school administrators say they welcome the money and sometimes they can work in perks, too. As part of a $400,000 deal to lease Hollywood High School’s football field for the summer, Disney hired students to work at a ” Toy Story 3 ” mini-amusement park set up there. “In a terribly difficult environment, it’s wonderful,” said Graham, LA Unified’s leasing director. “They’re going to get almost six teachers funded.” Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.