One of my teachers, is actually a TA so I give this person a little slack. First of all, this person comes late to class by about 5 minutes everyday. He or she never has a lesson planned out, it is just whatever the syllabus says and when this person runs out of ideas, we watch YouTube videos.
Besides the previous, this person knows the material he or she is teaching, but just doesn't present the material very well. Sometimes I have no idea what to do and how to do it because he or she explains it in a way that makes sense to them, but I'm the one who doesn't know how to do it. SPEAK IN LAYMAN'S TERMS! Don't even get me started with assignments. Yes, we have a syllabus about what are assignments are, but they don't have any due dates on them so no one knows when to start the assignments or when they're due. Sometimes our TA will start talking about the assignment and the whole class, practically in unison, says what is it and when is that due?
I honestly think that I would be doing a lot better in the class if my TA would explain the information better.
In another instance, I have a professor who is late to class by at least 20 minutes. 20 MINUTES!
EVERY.
SINGLE.
CLASS.
The thing is we can't leave because we know he is going to be late.
EVERY.
SINGLE.
CLASS.
He comes in for a minute about 10-15 minutes into class then realizes he has forgotten something and leaves. Class doesn't even start until a half hour into class.
That's right. 30 minutes. But the clincher? He keeps us after class sometimes up to 30 minutes. Is he stupid? Does he not know what class starts and ends? Given this is a night class and sometimes I am left walking home at 10:30 at night! It's ridiculous.
Besides my biggest pet peeve of the class, he has an accent.
And he speaks very fast.
Most of the people around me in class ask me, do you have any idea what he just said?
If it weren't for my previous knowledge about the subject of the class, I would have no idea what to do because he is so ignorant that no one knows what he's saying. And then he looks at us like we're stupid when we don't respond.
One time we had a substitute. Usually class, a 3 hours class, goes by so slow that I can hardly stand it. When we had the substitute, we laughed, we had a good time. He made us interested in what he was talking about. Class started on time and it even ended early. And it went by so fast!
I honestly believe teachers make the class. If a smart person doesn't do well in a class that has a incompetent, boring, intolerable teacher, it makes sense that it is the teacher that has led the smart person to do so terribly.
I once took a class that I'm very knowledgeable in but I had to retake it. I missed a lot of days, which was part of it, but want to know why I missed? Because I couldn't stand being in the same room with this teacher! He treated us like elementary students and graded on his terms - like papers - if you didn't get rid a "to be" verb the way he would, it was wrong. UGH! I got a D in the class, which I then got moved up to C- because he didn't mark like 4 assignments I had done. Anyway, I re-took it so I could move on to the next level.
The next time I took it, I had a teacher that was fun and enjoyable to be around - and remember, I believe I'm pretty knowledgeable about the subject even though I got a C- before. Want to know what I received with the new teacher?
B+
Want to know what I received in the next level of the class with the same teacher?
A
If you don't see what I see, then maybe it's just me.
But if you don't have a teacher that you don't like right off the bat or think is not worth taking the class with, change teachers right away. It could save you time, money, and a lot of stress.
