How many bad teachers have you had? + Aftermath
It's been a long time since I made a text post on here that wasn't fanfiction. It's been at least a year. I have a feeling most of the people who keep me on their flist do so because it's easier than going through to delete, lol. Real life has been pretty quiet, hence no text posts. Also I do my fannish ramblings on my podcast. But there was a shift today. One of my professors threw a hissy fit and stormed out of the class ten minutes early.
Okay. This man is a replacement. He is not the original professor. The original prof was sick the first day of the semester. She subsequently went to the hospital and the head of the department filled in for her. Then she got transferred to the ICU, so this man started subbing. A week later the original prof passed away, so he became our permanent professor. He admitted that he didn't know much about the subject (a 4000-level class on Zora Neale Hurston, the author. He knows about the anthropologist, but not the author. That is to say, he doesn't know the books on from an academic pov).
Tension has been mounting among the students towards this man since about the second week of class when we noticed he wasn't following the syllabus. He was and is making the class more difficult and irritating than it needs to be. Either we take too long on a section of the syllabus or we ignore a section completely. He didn't even go over the first couple of readings, just made us listen to music from the Harlem Renaissance (which was fun). Then suddenly he decides he wants to discuss one of the readings, but guess what? Hardly anyone did it! Well, we spent two weeks going to class only to end up listening to music, so what did he expect? For us to read the material, that's what, because upon seeing that no one read, he got pissy and gave a quiz next class. Everybody was looking like, "The hell?" He did that for a subsequent reading material too.
So we have this group project coming up. Presentations start next week. He took forever and a day to even talk about it and tell us what it would be on. He didn't assign groups until the week before Spring Break. I'm in group 4 (will be important in a bit). Today he decides to let us know that we're going to divert from the instructions on the syllabus. Instead of being a minimum of 15 minutes, the presentations have to be 20 to 25 minutes long with a Q&A afterwards. Isn't that something you tell the class when you're talking about the project?! Isn't that the type of crap that should be on the syllabus? But it gets better. He then tells us that he's going to pick the groups at random. So instead of going week after next since I'm in group 4 and we have the class twice a week, we all need to be ready on Tuesday, which means I have to cancel plans to travel Easter weekend because everyone else in my group can only meet on Saturday. The day I'm supposed to leave.
This man is egotistical, arrogant, and condescending. I won't even get into how he talks to us when he's explaining stuff that we already know, but he of course acts like we don't. He's really not qualified to teach this class. West Africa and everything to do with it is more his speed (he's part of the Africana Studies department). I get the distinct feeling that he really hates this class. I just wonder if he also gets the feeling that no one likes how he conducts the class.
So the hissy fit. He was going and on like he usually does about something that, as usual, we already understand. We had split off into our respective groups, so a girl from my group, deciding he'd spoken enough, just starts talking to us about how we're going to do our presentation. I don't know if he knew who the voice belonged to, but he went, "Excuse me, I'm talking." So she goes, "You're excused." Again, I don't know if he knows who exactly said it, but he gets mad. He goes to his desk and starts putting things in his briefcase and I'm wondering, "Is he packing up?" He goes, "Speaking when I'm speaking, how dare you?" Everybody's quiet 'cause obviously he's in a mood. But then we see he's not gonna talk to us again, so we all start talking about what we're gonna do. I'm sitting close to the door and next thing I know I seem him walk by and out the door. Ten minutes before class was supposed to end. And one of the guys in my group ended up having a question about the presentation, but he couldn't ask because there was no professor.
I haven't had a sucky professor since my freshman year. That man couldn't teach math to save his life. Before that it was in 9th grade with a woman who couldn't teach geometry to save her life. Half the class failed (me included), and she got fired the following year.
This.guy.sucks. And I'm going to e-mail the head of the department to tell her about his unprofessionalism today. I had a feeling he was pissed the moment he walked in to class. Late, I might add. Which is a frequent occurrence with him. And everyone in the class, but especially my group, is wondering if he's going to penalize our grades for the presentation just because he got mad. He's petty enough to do that.
So that's 3 bad teachers for me. Anyone want to add to the chorus?
***I got a response from the head of the apartment, and she told me she understands my frustration. That's it. She said it's unfortunate that this change (of professors) had to happen, but she's sure he'll be in a better mood on Tuesday. I don't know if that means she spoke to him. I wasn't expecting anything big like he's gonna get fired or we no longer have to do the presentations (lmao, that would be nice). What I'm most curious about is if he'll apologize on Tuesday. I'm very curious about that. I'll add to this post and let everyone know!
Okay. This man is a replacement. He is not the original professor. The original prof was sick the first day of the semester. She subsequently went to the hospital and the head of the department filled in for her. Then she got transferred to the ICU, so this man started subbing. A week later the original prof passed away, so he became our permanent professor. He admitted that he didn't know much about the subject (a 4000-level class on Zora Neale Hurston, the author. He knows about the anthropologist, but not the author. That is to say, he doesn't know the books on from an academic pov).
Tension has been mounting among the students towards this man since about the second week of class when we noticed he wasn't following the syllabus. He was and is making the class more difficult and irritating than it needs to be. Either we take too long on a section of the syllabus or we ignore a section completely. He didn't even go over the first couple of readings, just made us listen to music from the Harlem Renaissance (which was fun). Then suddenly he decides he wants to discuss one of the readings, but guess what? Hardly anyone did it! Well, we spent two weeks going to class only to end up listening to music, so what did he expect? For us to read the material, that's what, because upon seeing that no one read, he got pissy and gave a quiz next class. Everybody was looking like, "The hell?" He did that for a subsequent reading material too.
So we have this group project coming up. Presentations start next week. He took forever and a day to even talk about it and tell us what it would be on. He didn't assign groups until the week before Spring Break. I'm in group 4 (will be important in a bit). Today he decides to let us know that we're going to divert from the instructions on the syllabus. Instead of being a minimum of 15 minutes, the presentations have to be 20 to 25 minutes long with a Q&A afterwards. Isn't that something you tell the class when you're talking about the project?! Isn't that the type of crap that should be on the syllabus? But it gets better. He then tells us that he's going to pick the groups at random. So instead of going week after next since I'm in group 4 and we have the class twice a week, we all need to be ready on Tuesday, which means I have to cancel plans to travel Easter weekend because everyone else in my group can only meet on Saturday. The day I'm supposed to leave.
This man is egotistical, arrogant, and condescending. I won't even get into how he talks to us when he's explaining stuff that we already know, but he of course acts like we don't. He's really not qualified to teach this class. West Africa and everything to do with it is more his speed (he's part of the Africana Studies department). I get the distinct feeling that he really hates this class. I just wonder if he also gets the feeling that no one likes how he conducts the class.
So the hissy fit. He was going and on like he usually does about something that, as usual, we already understand. We had split off into our respective groups, so a girl from my group, deciding he'd spoken enough, just starts talking to us about how we're going to do our presentation. I don't know if he knew who the voice belonged to, but he went, "Excuse me, I'm talking." So she goes, "You're excused." Again, I don't know if he knows who exactly said it, but he gets mad. He goes to his desk and starts putting things in his briefcase and I'm wondering, "Is he packing up?" He goes, "Speaking when I'm speaking, how dare you?" Everybody's quiet 'cause obviously he's in a mood. But then we see he's not gonna talk to us again, so we all start talking about what we're gonna do. I'm sitting close to the door and next thing I know I seem him walk by and out the door. Ten minutes before class was supposed to end. And one of the guys in my group ended up having a question about the presentation, but he couldn't ask because there was no professor.
I haven't had a sucky professor since my freshman year. That man couldn't teach math to save his life. Before that it was in 9th grade with a woman who couldn't teach geometry to save her life. Half the class failed (me included), and she got fired the following year.
This.guy.sucks. And I'm going to e-mail the head of the department to tell her about his unprofessionalism today. I had a feeling he was pissed the moment he walked in to class. Late, I might add. Which is a frequent occurrence with him. And everyone in the class, but especially my group, is wondering if he's going to penalize our grades for the presentation just because he got mad. He's petty enough to do that.
So that's 3 bad teachers for me. Anyone want to add to the chorus?
***I got a response from the head of the apartment, and she told me she understands my frustration. That's it. She said it's unfortunate that this change (of professors) had to happen, but she's sure he'll be in a better mood on Tuesday. I don't know if that means she spoke to him. I wasn't expecting anything big like he's gonna get fired or we no longer have to do the presentations (lmao, that would be nice). What I'm most curious about is if he'll apologize on Tuesday. I'm very curious about that. I'll add to this post and let everyone know!