I don't know if any of you are aware of it, but I hate my Monday class. The teacher's awful and doesn't have a good pedagogy. There are many things that I could bitch about with this class, and probably will before this blog is over with, but to began with: he has us - the students - lecturing to each other over things that we've read for class, but doesn't contribute to the class discuss himself or really even take a leadership role in the steering of the class to a particular point. Now the lecturing to ourselves is pretty bad, however it is even worse, because most of the students in this class are freaking morons.
Now, to be fair, I'll explain why I find most of them to be idiotic. For many, this is there first year in Grad School, so they don't know their asses' from a whole in the ground. However, most of these students also don't read for class, or contribute anything productive to the discussion. In fact, many times, they can't even put a complete thought together and propagate the class in a forward direction. Yet, instead of keeping their GD mouths shut, they want to say something, and usually that something requires me to dumb myself down to understand their stupid commentary. And depending on my mood - and my mood has gotten more foul as the semester has gone on - I might, or might not say something to refute what they said, and if I can help it, also make them look stupid in the process. Now, this does not happened to often, I usually just let the train wreck happen without me, and watch it from the sidelines. But I have been known on occasion to say something, and that something might not have been to pleasant to the speaker afterwards.
Another point that makes this class really annoying, is that fact that most of the time, since the stupents - that's my name for the idiots in the class - don't read, I'm stuck with two other people having to lead the discussions. And while I like listening to myself speak for a while, I really start to get self-conscious that I'm monopolizing the time of the class, more so than usual, and I really hate that. In fact, I think I've become the go to guy for my professor when he has a question that he can't really articulate, and he needs someone to answer it. So, I get questions all the time from this guy directed strictly at me, asking me about something, really anything, and I have to come up with something profound on the spot. And you think I'm joking, but truthfully, I can think at least once in the last three classes, where's he pointedly said something like: "Well, I mean, what do you think about this concept... blah blah blah. Tony?" or maybe: "Well, guys, anyone really have a comment for this question? Tony?"
So, while it's nice to be a answering student, ask the rest of the stupents a question everyone once in a GD while! Because it's unnerving to be the one always asked for an answer without understanding the damn question.
However, what remains really sad, is that this class has become more and more drama filled as the semester has gone on. Sometimes this is due to the teacher telling us certain things and then reneging: for example, us having to have three heavily based research papers - another reason why I don't like the class, or it could be students themselves: many examples of this to come. So, while I have blogged about this before, I have more drama filled stories about my hatred for my Monday class, and those who wanted to put me into their conspiracy against this professor.
So, this particular incident happened three Mondays ago at this point. We had just turned our papers in, and all our eyes were looking pretty tired. Thankfully, the professor didn't have us writer anything on the current book that was suppose to have been read that day, and there was no group leaders who were to lead the stupents in a class discussion for the day. Instead, the professor had us do an in-class writing assignment - pretty undergraduate in my opinion - and we would then have a class discussion after about an hour of writing.
So, after the hour had passed, we did just that. However, here's the rub: the professor wanted us to talk between each other and create a dialogue between two particular persons, where one person investigated the other's views upon the book. So, to better explain this, I will just show how the first person did it... oh and by the way, guess who was the first person? Me. That's right, the professor's go to guy. Anyways, so I was the interviewer, and I asked a doctorate student who I know had read which writing prompt she had done, and we had a nice 15 minute conversation. I then was to pass the interviewer position to someone else, which I did, I passed it to Fern, the woman who tried to rope me into the conspiracy against the professor and go see the dean of English.
Fern tried to talk to one of the stupents, and it became readily apparent in about 10 seconds that this guy hadn't read, and was trying to pass it off like he had. So, I just sat back like I usually do, and let the awkward silence start to take over the classroom. This conversation ended about 2 minutes later, and before Fern could pass off her interviewer position, the professor stopped the class, and instead of bitching at that particular student for not being prepared for class, asked Fern to look at her posture. He commented on wanting her to sit up straight, because she was really slouching over, and her body language was communicating something to the class that she presumably didn't want to send. So, the professor said that he wanted her to be aware of what her posture was saying by her slouching in her seat, and leaning against the wall.
Now, I've heard some say this was a personal attack against her, however I don't feel that this was the case. In fact, I thought what he said was quite true, and while it wasn't done in the most professional manner, Fern's response blew his initial statements out of the water and then took a piss on them just for good measure. Fern said this, and now granted I can't say it's verbatim because it has been a few weeks, but the moment was so jarring, I remember them in very accurate detail, even now. "Well, I just don't feel like sitting up straight today, okay? My mother's dying, and I have to go getting a breast biopsy because I felt a lump. So, I don't particularly feel very much like sitting up straight!"
I shit you not, it was pretty much that statement. And the classwent dead silent, and the awkwardness that I am so used to in that class quickly enveloped the room. And what did the professor do about her rude outburst? Absolutely nothing. I would have at this point asked her if she were done, and then told her to leave for the day. But - and this is why I can't stand this man as a professor - he did absolutely nothing, because, I'm sure, he was as dumbstruck as the rest of us. However he could not get the classroom train churning again, and instead, let us remain in silence. Finally, about 30 seconds later, I turned back to look at Fern, and I could see she was starting to tear up. And I thought to myself, oh shit, here it comes now. Tony, if she pulls anything out of that bag, you fucking hit the ground.
However, instead of grabbing something out of her bag, she started quickly stuffing as much of her shit into it as possible, stacked the rest of it and quickly left the room. And the moment I saw her packing her stuff, I wanted to laugh. Not because I found it funny, but I'm a notoriously inappropriate laugher person; at the most inopportune times, I can't help myself, and the laughter bubbles to the surface, and makes me sound like a maniacal evil villain. And thankfully, I was able to hold that laughter in, until I heard not only the classroom door shut, but also the stairwell door, and then I couldn't hold it in anymore, and let it rip. And after about 5 seconds, I was able to stop myself, apologized and then the class went on. And at the end, the professor apologized for her, but I felt like I was owed an apology from Fern... I told Lindsey - the only girl, check that, only person, I actually like in that entire classroom - this fact, and also told her that she should say this to Fern on Wednesday, since Lindsey would see her then. Lindsey told me that there was no way in hell she would say that to Fern, and I told her that if she actually did, that she should leave my name out of it, because Fern makes me nervous on the best of days, and after today, even more so.
However, the drama doesn't end there. Later that week, Fern forwarded us an email from the dean of the English department regarding the meeting she had with him concerning our professor. The email included the fact that the professor had been talked to by the chair, and that both recommended that he direct some questions to the class to see what we could still have an effective class.
So that next Monday rolled around, and I felt that we had a good class. The professor seemed to actually lead the class a little bit and took more of a leadership position where he was posing questions and guiding the discussion. And I thought this was just an overall more effective class than any we had before. So after break, he told us - because we weren't suppose to know - that he last week had a meeting with his boss due to the complaints that dealt with this class. And he stated that we were going to be starting over from scratch and moving ahead at this point, and asked for comments about what could be done differently, so that we could have an effective class. So, I named what i complained about above: bad teaching method - didn't say it like that, by the way; that he needed to take more of a leadership role in the class; that I didn't appreciate getting lectured to by other stupents, nor was I particularly learning anything from their awful lectures anyways.
Anyways, what it amounted to was it was a pretty good metacognitive pedagogy discussion, until a student - Christi - who's even a freaking Education, not English, major, told the professor that those who are having a problem should just suck it up, and deal. And that, he should just leave everything the way that it already was, and that she was uncomfortable with this entire conversation... blah blah blah. At this point, everyone of course got really silent... something that we weren't problem with before her comments.
And I really wanted to ask her if she felt that teacher's shouldn't question their teaching method? Because she pretty much stated that somewhere in her five minute diatribe against all the other students who were making productive comments. This question I thought was really relevant, because of the fact that she is an Education major, and should at all times be wondering if her teaching method is working, and if it's not, what she should do differently. And what she should do differently is not tell her students to suck it up, and figure it out. I know that I've done metacognitive pedagogy discussions with my class a few times now, and while I wasn't being forced to by my superiors, I felt, especially the first one, it helped me to be a better teacher, and to see what I could be doing differently to better to help my students.
Anyways, this isn't even the most horror filled part. After she was done, the professor appeared to get really emotional, went behind the desk, picked up his pile of crap, quickly told us that the class was finished - I wish forever - grabbed his crap and RAN out of the of room, because I think, and Lindsey confirmed, we thought he was about to start crying. And then I wanted to start crying, because I have another 5 classes still.
So, what I've decided is I need to start drinking before class. In fact, I am really tempted to go buy a flask and to start drinking inside class. And I will make a show of it; when drama starts, I will explicitly go for the flask, uncork it, and start drinking. And I will probably offer it to whomever wants to take a hit. In fact, Amanda said, and I'm seriously contemplating this as well, that I should just taking the bottle, because I want to create a spectacle with these action, and it would be even more amazing if I were to pull a bottle out of my bag instead of just a flask. And who knows? I'm a pretty happy drunk, kinda loud and mouthy, but pretty happy. I might make class more interesting! And since I know that there will be drama again this week, i might as well partake in it for once, instead of only sitting on the sidelines and being a spectator. And truthfully, if no one else starts the drama, I have a particular stupent who I'd love to pimp slap, so I'd target him first. And, even though he's more of a dick than a bitch, I'd still slap him like I was his pimp.
