Wednesday, May 02, 2007
How I, a college student, got a study hall...
By signing up for a class with Cavicchi
I generally consider myself to be a dutiful student. I earn good grades, finish my work on time, attend required classes, and participate to the best of my ability.
However, I have discovered one class so boring, so incoherent, and so worthless that I have converted it into a study hall.
But what about the professor? Isn't it really disrespectful to use his class and time as a study hall?
I would feel guilty about this for any other class, but this particular professor is so disrespectful to students and so mean when you answer his questions (even if you get them right) that I have to refrain from paying attention for fear of correctly answering his question and being made fun of in front of the class.
When I am a faculty member, I will do several things that he does not:
1. I will have legible notes.
2. I will face the class during lecture (instead of leaving us with our hands up for 5 minutes as he barrels on like a freight train).
3. I will review at the beginning of class (instead of jumping into the middle of examples without even explaining what the question was from last class).
4. I will use consistent notation (instead of intentionally changing variable names without explanation).
5. I will never intentionally try to make students feel dumb, even if they give dumb answers.
6. I will make it clear how my notes tie to the book and how they both tie to the syllabus (this class completely lacks coherency in that regard).
7. I will make my grading policies and expectations well known.
8. I will not word test and homework questions in such a way that they intentionally confuse students (on exams Dr. Cavicchi gives us long paragraphs instead of questions. It is difficult to ascertain what he wants even if you spend five minutes of test time just trying to figure out what he is asking).
9. I will not dismiss students immediately and tell them they should re-read the notes when they come to ask me for further clarification on my lectures.
10. I will not ignore student evaluations. Instead, I hope to use them to improve my lectures and classes.
Labels: bitchiness, school
Comments:
Post a Comment
