Active, engaged learner or gunner?

[eray01]

If you constantly have to vocalize wild guesses to even the most rhetorical questions by your professor, you might be a redn.... er,...gunner.

But I do agree with the above comment.  At some point all of us owe something to the gunner.  Consider the following scenario:
There's 10 minutes left in class.  You fell asleep reading the last case last night and are really not prepared to discuss it.  Your professor looks around and starts towards your side of the class...

Then Gunner pipes up in the nick of time with a barrage of stubborn hypos or random stories, saving the day!!

Oh yeah. That's so true. I love the gunner. The gunner takes all the heat off me. Like when there's twenty minutes left in class and we are beginning to move beyond what I've prepared for. The gunner swoops in and saves the day by taking the professor off on some tangent that lasts right up until class ends. Gotta love the f-ckin' gunner.

Here's my contribution to the Jeff Foxworthy knockoff gunner jokes:

If you look around the room and can't figure out who the gunner is, you might be the gunner.

Classhole. Now that's funny.

[Comm-Law]

So far we have just one "gunner" in our 1L section, but the following quote hit it right on the head on Tuesday.  Our property prof just wailed on the gunner because he caught-him-unprepared or just-plain-wrong

If the prof makes a point to mock you in class .... then you're probably a gunner.

[Blue]

I'm in the same Property class as Comm-Law, and while I usually feel bad for any of my fellow classmates getting beat up, it was awesome to see our gunner get pounded on.
We are three weeks into 1L, and he's already over his question limit for law school... 

[nonamesleftforme]

The gunner in my school is also in my Legal Writing Class of only 15 students.  So I thought I would see what he was really like.  We chatted, and he's totally harmless.  He even asked me how I kept my briefs to one page, because he had 3.  In this gunner's case, he's just one of those super-excited guys who wants to "take it all in."  Sometimes I feel sorry for him...but he's happy.  And as the previous posters mentioned, he has saved my butt in class already.   

[cburkedavis]

http://lawsloth.blogspot.com/2004_07_01_lawsloth_archive.html

If you include yourself in EVERY conversation the professor has with EVERY student at the end of class - you might be a gunner.
If you literally run up to the professor at the end of class - you might be a gunner.

Although these people often overlap with the gunners, they can also be a separate annoyance all their own.  We called them podium trolls.

Colleen

[eray01]

The gunner in my school is also in my Legal Writing Class of only 15 students.  So I thought I would see what he was really like.  We chatted, and he's totally harmless.  He even asked me how I kept my briefs to one page, because he had 3.  In this gunner's case, he's just one of those super-excited guys who wants to "take it all in."  Sometimes I feel sorry for him...but he's happy.  And as the previous posters mentioned, he has saved my butt in class already.   

You make the gunner sound so mysterious, Like the law school version of Boo Radley.

[attchmntdsrdr]

Gunners disappear with the passing of time, though. In a typical 2L or 3L class, there's only one stupid person (gunner, that is).

[up_late]

If you insist upon asking a question (actually multiple questions) that you know is going to bring up a topic the class is CLEARLY not talking about yet....you are a gunner.

Oh, yeah.  That is the WORST gunner characteristic.

On the other hand, I like hearing from people who really have something to add, ON THE TOPIC WE'RE DISCUSSING.  I do not, however, like hearing from someone who just wants to summarize what the professor just said.

[up_late]

... With that being said, I do plan to ask and answer questions... not be obnoxious but if I don't understand, I'm not going to just sit there and become more confused...

Asking a question for clarification is good, but not more than once per class.  After that, if you're still confused, take it up with the professor after class or in office hours.  That way, you get your question answered, but the class isn't slowed down.

[dft]

Good idea/rule. I'll try to stick to that.

... With that being said, I do plan to ask and answer questions... not be obnoxious but if I don't understand, I'm not going to just sit there and become more confused...

Asking a question for clarification is good, but not more than once per class.  After that, if you're still confused, take it up with the professor after class or in office hours.  That way, you get your question answered, but the class isn't slowed down.