My Message to Morehead
Okay, so this will only interest those who know who Prof. Morehead is. So, she gave me my SECOND zero for an observation log today. And I was really, really pissed off...because it was late by one minute. ONE F***ING MINUTE. I couldn't believe it. And just so you know, I'm not naive enough to just say, oh, she wouldn't take my late log. She's stupid. I hate her....I just hate her whole style. She's so subjective...she gives different people different grades for doing basically the same thing. She cuts some people more slack than others. Basically, your grade for one assignment can come down to whether or not she likes you. Which is a load of crap. She should be judging that individual assignment. She gives the excuse of just having high expectations, etc., but the truth is she's biased and enjoys making our lives more difficult. She's a pain in the ass. But anyway, without further ado:
This is an email I was actually going to send back to her. About two thirds of the way through my tirade, though, I knew I couldn't send it to her anymore. But I just kept going...it was therapeudic. Haha. So here's what started as a reply directly to her, and finished as me on my soapbox talking to myself, but still pretending like I was talking to her. And yeah, I got a little carried away. But anyway, enjoy.
12:01:13 AM warrants a zero? How can a deadline be so ironclad when we're dealing with email? Maybe there was a delay and Yahoo took two minutes to send it. It only would have been in just before the deadline, but it would have been on time. It seems like a trivial amount of time when the fact that these are electronic communications, dictated by server speeds and the like. A down-to-the-minute deadline, set in stone, only seems reasonable when dealing with a hard copy. And then, it has been demonstrated in the past that the deadline for the logs is not completely set in stone anyway. I don't feel it's fair to use such a subjective method of "It's been late before, so now I'll decide not to take it." Can't each assignment be judged independently of the others, and of general accumulated emotions? How is it possible to climb out from ever-growing unacceptance and achieve the grade that one individual assignment deserves? As for "professionalism," and the idea that going "above expectations" would mean that I would turn it in well before the time it was due, then that starts to make the whole idea of a deadline ridiculous. Maybe it's only "above expectations" if it's turned in at least an hour before the deadline. Maybe a day. Maybe a few days. The reason I'm so angry is that it's been an uphill battle to get you to consider anything anymore. I've always had a problem with deadlines. Do you expect that to change overnight? Just for you and your "professional" class, which in fact is the first real education class that any of us have had? When we don't even have any experience with any kind of expectations, let alone being bombarded by yours right off the bat that are unreasonable by any standards? I don't care that it's a 300-level class; it's still the first education class there really is, in terms of learning any kinds of methods and discussing real teaching situations. The introductory class. Not the "you should know better by now class." At least save that for 354 or whatever other class you teach...though I've heard that by then, your expectations are, in fact, even stricter, and approaching ridiculous. This is OU, not some ivy-league school, and while most of us are probably intelligent enough to handle extremely high expectations, we can't do it all at once. Remember when you were talking about "faking it" in high school...students that know how to manipulate the teacher and the class in order to get good grades without having to do all of the work? I guess the joke is on you, because I don't think I'm the only one that has treated this class that way as well. I mean, it's the old standard. There are maybe three people in the class that actually read Kincheloe, and a reasonable student knows that as long as the class can count on the few standard overachievers, the rest of the class will be fine. And we can pretty much come up with stuff that sounds good enough anyway. Does that mean we don't know what we're talking about? Hardly. It just means that there's only so much we can do, and that at least I, for one, have to determine a way to stay sane. And you are getting decidedly in the way of my sanity, at least when it comes to school. I guess my only solace is that there are only two classes left, and then I'll never have to deal with this kind of biased, unreasonable attitude anymore that is disguised as "high expectations in a professional class." Maybe you should just fail me...at this point, as a junior after 5 years without any hope of getting much further in sight, it wouldn't really make a difference. Then I could take Staron like I always wanted. Congratulations on being the last-resort, all-the-other-sections-were-full professor, though. They say the professors you take in college make all the difference...some will just connect with you and inspire you much more than others, and that's what really shapes your learning and your ideas. And as much as you want to harp about some sort of "realistic" expectations, the fact of the matter is that you're simply not one of those great, inspiring teachers. It is a matter of (unscientific) general opinion, not just my own. You don't have to be in the education program long to know that the EED 310 professor that will enlighten you and give you the true push to succeed is Jack Staron, and I will probably always regret being late, once again, and not registering in time to avoid getting stuck with a subpar professor in an otherwise great education program. It is important; I will always remember the important college professors I had, since they are the ones that truly gave me the drive to succeed in my career, the focus of my life. I suppose, in the end, I can only be satisfied with the knowledge that I can write you off at the end of this semester. I hope to still be able to find an understanding, inspiring professor that actually believes in his or her students, as opposed to striving to find ways to tell them that at this rate, they won't be good enough. Does nothing you tell us about being a good teacher actually resonate with you? In the end, I guess the greatest victory is that you are now, in fact, just a professor that I never have to take again. There is no longer any way that I can end up in a school where you are principal. And that is really reward enough.
This is an email I was actually going to send back to her. About two thirds of the way through my tirade, though, I knew I couldn't send it to her anymore. But I just kept going...it was therapeudic. Haha. So here's what started as a reply directly to her, and finished as me on my soapbox talking to myself, but still pretending like I was talking to her. And yeah, I got a little carried away. But anyway, enjoy.
12:01:13 AM warrants a zero? How can a deadline be so ironclad when we're dealing with email? Maybe there was a delay and Yahoo took two minutes to send it. It only would have been in just before the deadline, but it would have been on time. It seems like a trivial amount of time when the fact that these are electronic communications, dictated by server speeds and the like. A down-to-the-minute deadline, set in stone, only seems reasonable when dealing with a hard copy. And then, it has been demonstrated in the past that the deadline for the logs is not completely set in stone anyway. I don't feel it's fair to use such a subjective method of "It's been late before, so now I'll decide not to take it." Can't each assignment be judged independently of the others, and of general accumulated emotions? How is it possible to climb out from ever-growing unacceptance and achieve the grade that one individual assignment deserves? As for "professionalism," and the idea that going "above expectations" would mean that I would turn it in well before the time it was due, then that starts to make the whole idea of a deadline ridiculous. Maybe it's only "above expectations" if it's turned in at least an hour before the deadline. Maybe a day. Maybe a few days. The reason I'm so angry is that it's been an uphill battle to get you to consider anything anymore. I've always had a problem with deadlines. Do you expect that to change overnight? Just for you and your "professional" class, which in fact is the first real education class that any of us have had? When we don't even have any experience with any kind of expectations, let alone being bombarded by yours right off the bat that are unreasonable by any standards? I don't care that it's a 300-level class; it's still the first education class there really is, in terms of learning any kinds of methods and discussing real teaching situations. The introductory class. Not the "you should know better by now class." At least save that for 354 or whatever other class you teach...though I've heard that by then, your expectations are, in fact, even stricter, and approaching ridiculous. This is OU, not some ivy-league school, and while most of us are probably intelligent enough to handle extremely high expectations, we can't do it all at once. Remember when you were talking about "faking it" in high school...students that know how to manipulate the teacher and the class in order to get good grades without having to do all of the work? I guess the joke is on you, because I don't think I'm the only one that has treated this class that way as well. I mean, it's the old standard. There are maybe three people in the class that actually read Kincheloe, and a reasonable student knows that as long as the class can count on the few standard overachievers, the rest of the class will be fine. And we can pretty much come up with stuff that sounds good enough anyway. Does that mean we don't know what we're talking about? Hardly. It just means that there's only so much we can do, and that at least I, for one, have to determine a way to stay sane. And you are getting decidedly in the way of my sanity, at least when it comes to school. I guess my only solace is that there are only two classes left, and then I'll never have to deal with this kind of biased, unreasonable attitude anymore that is disguised as "high expectations in a professional class." Maybe you should just fail me...at this point, as a junior after 5 years without any hope of getting much further in sight, it wouldn't really make a difference. Then I could take Staron like I always wanted. Congratulations on being the last-resort, all-the-other-sections-were-full professor, though. They say the professors you take in college make all the difference...some will just connect with you and inspire you much more than others, and that's what really shapes your learning and your ideas. And as much as you want to harp about some sort of "realistic" expectations, the fact of the matter is that you're simply not one of those great, inspiring teachers. It is a matter of (unscientific) general opinion, not just my own. You don't have to be in the education program long to know that the EED 310 professor that will enlighten you and give you the true push to succeed is Jack Staron, and I will probably always regret being late, once again, and not registering in time to avoid getting stuck with a subpar professor in an otherwise great education program. It is important; I will always remember the important college professors I had, since they are the ones that truly gave me the drive to succeed in my career, the focus of my life. I suppose, in the end, I can only be satisfied with the knowledge that I can write you off at the end of this semester. I hope to still be able to find an understanding, inspiring professor that actually believes in his or her students, as opposed to striving to find ways to tell them that at this rate, they won't be good enough. Does nothing you tell us about being a good teacher actually resonate with you? In the end, I guess the greatest victory is that you are now, in fact, just a professor that I never have to take again. There is no longer any way that I can end up in a school where you are principal. And that is really reward enough.