Ever have a completely disorganized teacher/professor?

[skygazer]

I have one right now and I have 2 classes with her. I like her personally but she's kind of new to teaching, I think, and she tends to jump around a lot within the subject. Also, I'm not sure if she thinks through some of the assignments clearly - today, she had us researching some legal issues in the library which is fine except we did it during class. So here were 25 or 30 students all crowded into two aisles of books! :eyes:

The sinus headache I have probably didn't help the situation. ~sigh~

[deadparrot]

1. Oh god, yes.

I've actually had him for the past three semesters (finished now, thank god). Near the end of this semester, we had a fairly significant paper due (10-15 page paper worth 15% of our grade). About two weeks before the due date indicated on the syllabus, people noted that we had missed several steps (meeting with him and discussing our proposed topic, etc.), so we questioned him in class. Initially, his response was "What paper?" (:eyes:). Once we reminded him and pointed out that we were behind schedule, we asked if we could have an extension. He refused. And this wasn't just a bullshit paper you could type up over a weekend--it required significant data collection of 7-8 variables on at least 30 countries. In our previous class with him, a similar project took the entire semester to create. The entire class ripped him apart on his evaluation, though, so hopefully he got the hint.

[skygazer]

3. Well, luckily she's not that bad

One of the courses is pretty much an overview course so it's not anything overly complicated but the downside is a lot of people in the program (paralegal) took it as a first quarter course. I know some of them feel a little overwhelmed.

The other course is pretty basic as well and neither of them feature complicated assignments. But I've had to prod her to get her to return the ones we've passed in.

[ThomCat]

2. Yes. I ended up running a study group for one class

so that we could pass without any help from the grad student who was teaching the class. He was useless.

And in another class two of us ended up coaching people in the lab because we had a good grasp of the material and the professor seemed incapable of answering questions.

Fortunately, there were only the two really bad teachers.

[skygazer]

4. I spend a lot of time answering questions

And translating. Someone will ask a question - she either answers a different question or kind of makes a hash of the answer. So I will diplomatically raise my hand and say, "I think what the student was asking was...." and then give the answer as well or I'll say, "So what you're saying is..." and repeat her answer in a way that makes sense.

Damn school should be paying me instead of the other way around. :P

[Adsos Letter]

5. Absolutely!

Two of them, actually. The first was a guy who taught a class on "20th Century World" (lower end of upper division History program). He had actually written several books on the British Empire that were very well received; BUT,...he couldn't lecture to save his soul. stutter and stumble. I distinctly remember him saying, at one point during a presentation on WWII, something to the effect of "well, what we can say about the war is,...um...that it was, was,...um...well, um...bad...generally bad for most of those involved". Riiiight...how much is this costing per semester? And he was a great guy, and knew he had a weakness there...his rationale was "well, some of us do some things better than others". Yeah...I suppose.

The other one was a lady who taught a semester on "The Vietnam War", a course she had not done before. She had actually been a student at the University of Wisconsin when the major protesting started there, and was pretty knowledgeable about that whole scene but, when it came to The War itself...eh, not so much. She used a syllabus designed for 12th graders, and had us "critiquing" it. Class usually devolved into a class member who had been a chopper pilot in Vietnam waxing long and eloquent about his exploits shooting water buffalo, etc...and telling her, essentially, that she had no clue as to what she was talking about.

I think they actually fell in love together during the semester...for a weekend, anyway... :D

[skygazer]

8. This woman says "you know" a lot

It's very distracting and of course, we don't know. That's why we're there. :eyes:

[Adsos Letter]

9. LOL...yeah, that would be...disconcerting, as they say

To reverse things (but still somewhat along the lines of what you are saying) One of the most impressive lecturers I ever had taught a Lower Division History survey course (US 1865-present). He had his stuff MEMORIZED and could rattle it off with great detail and fluency; class basically consisted of sitting down and waiting for the curtain to rise.

Only one problem...about ten minutes into his spiel he would start exhibiting these odd verbal and physical...tics...for instance: he was an overweight older gentleman in his 60's who had a bit of a resemblance to Porky Pig (I mean that in a kind way, for visualizations sake) He would get red in the face and start to sweat rather heavily, then he would start inserting the phrase "umumagain, umumagain" into his speech, and start flipping his ears with his fingers. The more he got into the story. the more he sweat and the faster he would repeat those tics...

And he was a great guy. :D

[DS1]

6. Unbelievably useless

The days she didn't show up were the days I spent correcting all the bullshit she'd previously told everyone about programming Flash and using Photoshop. Due to some fuckup somewhere, she'd bring her 2 kids to the computer lab and set them up with their toys in the middle of the room. Every meeting was rushed, as she had to be somewhere else, every one. There was never a formal sit-down. She was also my advisor. When she finally showed her hand and gave us links to the websites she'd done, they were utter crap. I got knocked for doing a Flash movie which incorporated *gasp* 3D renderings and that apparently made everyone else feel bad so I got a lower grade.

( she also had the audacity to question my Photoshop skills. AS IF ! )

She did hook me up with a website contract, so I'll give her props for that, but otherwise - holy shit.

[bicentennial_baby]

7. Wow....

"she also had the audacity to question my Photoshop skills"

:wow: Crazy lady....

:)

[Oeditpus Rex]

10. I had a psych 1A prof, Dr. Bedford,

who spent the entire hour using every square centimeter of both chalkboards.

During the first class, after he'd successfully transferred several pounds of chalk dust on "Why do we study psychology?" he turned around — we could actually see his face — and said, "Hell, it's fun!"

:D

[Adsos Letter]

15. Now that is funny! My girlfriend (now wife of 29 years) and I

had a psych 1A prof who was a real joy to behold. He was in his 60's, white hair in that kind of "mad professor" 'do. When it came time during lecture to describe how certain psychiatric illnesses "presented" he would stop, bury his face in his hands, and kind of radically morph into whatever type of behavior he wanted to demonstrate. Entertaining, to say the least... :D

[mike_c]

11. ROFLMAO....

I *AM* an completely disorganized professor! :rofl:

[Adsos Letter]

13. And we love our profs despite it all...

:toast:

And what subjects do you hold forth on? :D

[mike_c]

21. I'm a biologist-- I teach entomology, ecology, and related topics....

And I am NOTORIOUSLY disorganized. I think my grad students hold periodic contests to determine who will approach me about the need to clean up my mess in the lab. I have not emptied my voicemail box in two or three years now-- in fairness, I did volunteer to simply have my phone taken away as punishment, but the administration doesn't see things in the same light. I always manage to show up for class, but I occasionally forget the topic listed on the syllabus, which I wrote, for cryin' out loud, and have to make something up on the spot, which is usually amusing for all concerned.

[Adsos Letter]

25. Hey, my cousin is a biologist (retired on disability)

but you teach at Humboldt State, I see, and it is totally beautiful up there! My wife's favorite part of the country.

I just retired at 51 in January and have been admitted to SSU's Graduate History program for Fall 2007. I have about 12 units already finished from a previous stint there, and a pretty good twist on my thesis, so I am really looking forward to it.

My eldest daughter is just finishing her first year of Medical School in Philadelphia, and she has plenty of stories of her own about professors.

I was the decorative painter for a high-end painting company for 30 years and coming into the shop after the boss had finished a project was always an exercise in restraint; toxic crap and materials scattered everywhere, and I'm trying to bring in a piece of furniture or trim for custom woodgraining, marbling, metal leaf, whatever, and it takes 2 hours just to make a decent space to work.

His was saved from injury many times by the fact that he was an excellent employer... :D

[XemaSab]

20. Go sit in on soil physics sometime...

:P

I saw a green bee yesterday! :bounce:

[mike_c]

22. halictidae, most likely....

Who knew that soil had physics?

[Xipe Totec]

12. Good God, Yes.

The guy is a throwback to the 60's, he's in his 60's, dresses like a hippie, wears his gray hair in hip length braids with scrunchies, full beard...

I think he's going for the Willie Nelson look.


Never ends a lecture on the subject he began....

All we're trying to do is learn Advanced Object Oriented Programming. You'd think that's a straight forward no nonsense subject.

But Nooooooooooooo!

[Critters2]

14. I've been a completely disorganized teacher!

Now I just do it one morning a week--jumping around a lot within the subject.

Sorry to hear you have to put up with it--and hope your headache gets better!

[baldguy]

16. Statistics

The woman was a full professor, but she couldn't add a column of ten numbers three times and get the same answer twice.

[asthmaticeog]

17. I had a logic prof with a tendency to spoonerize.

Not only that, but he'd fuck up and do things like say modus ponens when he meant modus tollens, basically all kinds of verbal tics that were NOT conducive to instruction in intro logic. Pretty much everyone in the class ended up with a "Gentleman's C" because a lot of the students just couldn't parse the guy. It was pretty funny, actually.

[undeterred]

18. Been one and had one

But I like to think that my being one in front of a class did not affect anyone's life as badly as the advisor I had in grad school affected mine. I had a list of 9 heavy duty books that I was planning to read for one of my oral exams. After reading each list I was supposed to sign up to discuss the list with him. I was taking courses at the time too, so reading one of the lists took me a year.

Well, one day I came in for an appointment and told him I had finished the list. He looked at it blankly and said, why did you read these? These books aren't eligible for that exam. I told him that I had discussed it with him and he approved it, but he denied it. There was really nothing I could do. I felt like I just wasted this huge chunk of time and there wasn't a damn thing I could do except start over with another list. I made him sign the second one.

[XemaSab]

19. You have Dr Marshall too?

'Cause she will SCREW YOU OVER on the final... do all the practice problems you can. The semester project--do the best you can, but it's a lost cause, so expect a low grade on that too.

On the bright side, she doesn't usually fail people. :D

[mike_c]

23. good gawd, is this thread about Susan Marshall...?

Pretend I didn't ask that. :rofl:

Susan, if you read DU, PM me and I'll give up XemaSab in a heartbeat!

[XemaSab]

24. No, it's not about Susan Marshall,

it's about a different soils professor who did the shittiest job ever of teaching soil physics in the fall semester of 2001. :P

[Lydia Leftcoast]

26. Yes, my calculus teacher, who is the reason I took only one term

I was trying to gain a technical background for translation, so I did the math sequence through college algebra and trig and then decided I was ready for calculus.

Well, I got Mr. Bug Eyes for an instructor, a man who had a full-time job at another college and taught night school at the University of Minnesota four nights a week. I swear he was on speed. He must have been, or how else could he have survived that schedule?

At least he acted as if he was on speed. He gave a bunch of explanations that made no sense to me, and my questions just elicited more gobbledygook. I tried reading the textbook and working the problems, but since we never had to turn them in ("This department won't give me a grader, because I'm an adjunct"), I never knew whether I had done them right, he never gave us the answers unless asked, and then he couldn't always work the problems either.

The only people who survived that class were those who had had calc before and were taking it for review.

I came out with the only C- of my entire life.

[philosophie_en_rose]

27. Yes. It is unacceptable.

Professors are not perfect, but they need to be at least as prepared for class as students. They also have a duty to learn to convey material in an organized manner, as well as using assignments as a tool instead of a babysitter.

[unsavedtrash]

28. this semester.

I had no idea what she was saying most of the time. She would start on one subject and then be on something completely different. You should see my notes from class. Exams were much the same way.
Somehow I pulled off a B in there. Good luck to you it will be over soon.