I have a look on my face that expresses concerned disappointment, with a hint of "oh well"
My class with Keeble got out early today. We don't usually do this. We don't even get a break most days but lately Prof. Keeble seems to be under a bit of stress.
90% of us apparently missed the point of a major assignment we were given earlier in the year and more than half the class failed the mid-term exam (I got 17.5/35). The first class after our exams were marked Keeble spent half an hour guilt-tripping us for our poor performance. 10 or 15 people registered for the class didn't even write the exam. It was based entirely on the readings and required us to have a pretty thorough understanding of the concepts and familiarity with the terms discussed in the text books. The questions themselves weren't surprising, or in any way unexpected, but my inability to articulate any kind of good answer was.
The only excuse I can offer (besides not studying hard enough I guess) is that Keeble has designed the course so that the readings and the lectures are fairly independent of one another. He talks about things broadly in the course and doesn't specifically refer to chapters of the text books on the same week that they are assigned. If i wasn't such a dumb guy that would be fine, but most of the time I need some reenforcement of ideas, or even just something to jog my memory about something before I'm able to recall it.
A lot of the first weeks of class were spent listening to Keeble rant about seemingly unrelated things while working our way through some text on the overhead projector. he spent one class, most of the class anyway, talking about why we should join the Ontario Professional Planners Institute, and why planning should be licensed. He holds a fairly important position at the OPPI.
He was amusing and informative and definitely intriguing at times, but lately the tone has been very different. Basically since the mid-term the class has stuck very closely to course material, with a lot of notes, handouts, lectures that stay on topic and discussions about concepts. It's really been great... when he doesn't let his emotions get carried away.
That first class after the exam ended after half an hour. He just railed on us for not doing the readings, not attending class, not buying the text books, etc. The irony being, of course, that the people who needed to hear that the most weren't even there.
Today we were sailing along a very steady course talking about transportation and how it influences development, property values, land use and all that good stuff when suddenly Keeble asked a fellow just a few rows away from him what was on his computer screen. See, just about everyone has a laptop at this school. they all bring them to class and they all dick around on them during lectures, not taking notes and not paying attention. There's a guy who sits in front of me in microeconomics who plays World of Warcraft on his computer through the entire class, pausing for breif moments to copy down a graph or a definition of something. So the kid in Keeble's class sat their like a deer in the headlights. Keeble demanded that he turn the screen around so he could see what it was. He did, but he didn't turn it all the way around and I saw what looked like a series of newspaper front pages.
Keeble asked him what it was and the kid said, "news." "What?!" "It's news."
But Keeble misheard him and thought he said, "You" I guess. So he asked, "did I give you permission? are you going to upload that?" etc etc.
There was an article in the Ryersonian this week about a video shot during a class that had been uploaded to YouTube. A prof asked if anyone had any questions and a student stood up and asked her why she was teaching the class when she clearly didn't know what she was doing? Apparently he had a problem with the tests, and the style and whatnot. So someone videotaped it with their cellphone and uploaded it. Keeble might have been a little worried about something similar happening, especially since a certain segment of the class has been suggesting that he marked them unfairly due to a racial bias (which is bullshit).
I caught on pretty quick that Keeble had misheard the kid, and realized that the kid wasn't going to correct him, so I spoke up and said, "It was The Newspaper, news, not you." and he didn't miss a beat. Without slowing down at all Keeble changed lanes and said "Listen I don't mind if you read the paper, I encourage it, but don't do it in my class. I'm distracting you from being able to comprehend what you're reading!"
He said if we didn't come here to learn we shouldn't come to class (which is true) and that if we weren't planning on coming that we should have said something in august so that someone else could have taken our spot (which is a good point).
He breifly considered getting back into the lesson and tried to straighten out a page on the overhead but he turned it the wrong way and made it more crooked, so he took the page off the screen and simply said, "I'm done".
I'm sincerely worried that one of these days the man is going to have a heart attack right in front of us, or he's just going to stop showing up for class. I'm not happy that he ended class half an hour early because of a handful of people dicking around on their laptops, but I can see how he might get frustrated, and I have an idea of how i would react in his shoes.
-----
In other news:
I've begun bringing people together to form an environmentalist club at the school. Four people have signed up, plus myself. Now I just have to suck up the shyness and try to get 16 more so we can apply for official status and funding.
90% of us apparently missed the point of a major assignment we were given earlier in the year and more than half the class failed the mid-term exam (I got 17.5/35). The first class after our exams were marked Keeble spent half an hour guilt-tripping us for our poor performance. 10 or 15 people registered for the class didn't even write the exam. It was based entirely on the readings and required us to have a pretty thorough understanding of the concepts and familiarity with the terms discussed in the text books. The questions themselves weren't surprising, or in any way unexpected, but my inability to articulate any kind of good answer was.
The only excuse I can offer (besides not studying hard enough I guess) is that Keeble has designed the course so that the readings and the lectures are fairly independent of one another. He talks about things broadly in the course and doesn't specifically refer to chapters of the text books on the same week that they are assigned. If i wasn't such a dumb guy that would be fine, but most of the time I need some reenforcement of ideas, or even just something to jog my memory about something before I'm able to recall it.
A lot of the first weeks of class were spent listening to Keeble rant about seemingly unrelated things while working our way through some text on the overhead projector. he spent one class, most of the class anyway, talking about why we should join the Ontario Professional Planners Institute, and why planning should be licensed. He holds a fairly important position at the OPPI.
He was amusing and informative and definitely intriguing at times, but lately the tone has been very different. Basically since the mid-term the class has stuck very closely to course material, with a lot of notes, handouts, lectures that stay on topic and discussions about concepts. It's really been great... when he doesn't let his emotions get carried away.
That first class after the exam ended after half an hour. He just railed on us for not doing the readings, not attending class, not buying the text books, etc. The irony being, of course, that the people who needed to hear that the most weren't even there.
Today we were sailing along a very steady course talking about transportation and how it influences development, property values, land use and all that good stuff when suddenly Keeble asked a fellow just a few rows away from him what was on his computer screen. See, just about everyone has a laptop at this school. they all bring them to class and they all dick around on them during lectures, not taking notes and not paying attention. There's a guy who sits in front of me in microeconomics who plays World of Warcraft on his computer through the entire class, pausing for breif moments to copy down a graph or a definition of something. So the kid in Keeble's class sat their like a deer in the headlights. Keeble demanded that he turn the screen around so he could see what it was. He did, but he didn't turn it all the way around and I saw what looked like a series of newspaper front pages.
Keeble asked him what it was and the kid said, "news." "What?!" "It's news."
But Keeble misheard him and thought he said, "You" I guess. So he asked, "did I give you permission? are you going to upload that?" etc etc.
There was an article in the Ryersonian this week about a video shot during a class that had been uploaded to YouTube. A prof asked if anyone had any questions and a student stood up and asked her why she was teaching the class when she clearly didn't know what she was doing? Apparently he had a problem with the tests, and the style and whatnot. So someone videotaped it with their cellphone and uploaded it. Keeble might have been a little worried about something similar happening, especially since a certain segment of the class has been suggesting that he marked them unfairly due to a racial bias (which is bullshit).
I caught on pretty quick that Keeble had misheard the kid, and realized that the kid wasn't going to correct him, so I spoke up and said, "It was The Newspaper, news, not you." and he didn't miss a beat. Without slowing down at all Keeble changed lanes and said "Listen I don't mind if you read the paper, I encourage it, but don't do it in my class. I'm distracting you from being able to comprehend what you're reading!"
He said if we didn't come here to learn we shouldn't come to class (which is true) and that if we weren't planning on coming that we should have said something in august so that someone else could have taken our spot (which is a good point).
He breifly considered getting back into the lesson and tried to straighten out a page on the overhead but he turned it the wrong way and made it more crooked, so he took the page off the screen and simply said, "I'm done".
I'm sincerely worried that one of these days the man is going to have a heart attack right in front of us, or he's just going to stop showing up for class. I'm not happy that he ended class half an hour early because of a handful of people dicking around on their laptops, but I can see how he might get frustrated, and I have an idea of how i would react in his shoes.
-----
In other news:
I've begun bringing people together to form an environmentalist club at the school. Four people have signed up, plus myself. Now I just have to suck up the shyness and try to get 16 more so we can apply for official status and funding.