<p>Have any of you ever had the worst teacher ever in all of your years in schooling? How did you deal with it? </p>
<p>I presently have THE worst teacher probably in any university system in the entire U.S. She is arrogant, redundant, unclear, not respectful of students comments unless they completely agree with hers- it's an English writing class by the way. And I think she's out to particularily get me in any way possible. And I have no way out, it's too late to switch to another professor. So, would any of you have advice on how to deal with this? Have you had any teachers that you feared would destroy your grades? Is it even possible to notify some kind of educational board to review her teaching skills(even though she has a PhD)? </p>
<p>Thanks...good luck in the new semester/quarter/trimester..whatever!</p>
<p>What makes you think she's out to get you? If you haven't done anything to really stand out she probably wouldn't be targeting you in particular. If it's too late to switch out, and there's nothing else you can do, just deal with it. But if the problem is so bad that you know she is messing with your grade, you can try notifying the school (but you should probably have some sort of evidence this is happening, not just a hunch).</p>
<p>"I would seriously rather get sodomized by Hitler than take another five minutes in her class."</p>
<p>My 3 words of counsel for you would have to be:</p>
<p>Get Over It.</p>
<p>...But if that doesn't work... sometimes classes just suck; however, I would have to agree with Pike that she's not "out to get you" unless you've done something to provoke her (and even then, it's unlikely). Chances are, you may just have a personality conflict or something. Use her class as a learning experience. We've all had "bad" professors, but I know that one can often learn from them in unique ways, so that would be my suggestion to you.
If you need to, talk to the professor and <em>RESPECTFULLY</em> present your feelings. If that fails, let the Chair, Dept Director or other direct supervisor know. If all else fails, you can always climb the chain of command, but try not to become the boy who cried wolf! (Trust me, it will hurt you later on if you always cry for rescue!)</p>
<p>One of My teachers now is teaching a advanced algorithms class, and well he cant speak English. Now I am not talking about the students who complain that there professor cant speak English, but they really can just not well. I actually mean he Knows about Hi and Bye and thats about it. He is Japanese and cant speak English, though he can write it pretty well. So he just writes everything on the board and that works pretty well.</p>
<p>Get to know your dean of students well. Keep complaining to him. Or some other compatible figure.</p>
<p>I did this in high school with a band director who kept threatening me. I went 8-0 against this guy.</p>
<p>I've always chewed up teachers and whatnot. Lifetime I'm 83-13 against them in arguments and such. You just have to know how to fight and who to ally with.</p>
<p>At the college level it's more important than anything. Why pay for an idiot?</p>
<p>Your strategy is often effective in school, but if you do it all your life, you're going to end up either out of work (and likely homeless) or with a lot of money but unhappy because everyone hates you.</p>
<p>Fighting "against the system" all the time is no way to live!</p>
<p>On the other hand, I agree that we should not be paying for low quality instruction--I only differ on what I perceive to be the level of intensity!</p>
<p>Remember, professors are NEVER taught to teach (save education professors) as your secondary education teachers were. Therefore, it is stupid to think that just because she has a PhD that she should be a good teacher by default. Some professors are great, some aren't so great, it's a fact of life! This won't be the last time you have to work with difficult people in your life, so I'd stay in the class and take it as a learning experience. Even the worst of teachers can teach you something about life.</p>
<p>The best advice here is to try a respectful conference with the professor to let her know you are striving to do well in her class and ask for her advice.
Keeping a positive attitude (in spite of how you may feel) will be key in this meeting. This may diffuse the sense that you feel about her being "out to get you" if she feels you are a student who cares.</p>
<p>After that, all you can do is suck it up. You WILL have crummy professors in college. As was pointed out, many PhD's can't teach even though brilliant.
It will happen again. What you need to do is learn how to make the best of it and take it on as a personal challenge. What you learn from this experience will help you manage through the next time. It will also most certainly happen in real life too---ever heard of the "boss from hell"?</p>
<p>Best of luck and keep us posted as to how your semester turns out!</p>
<p>I'm only in HS/10th grade, but my worst teacher thusfar was in 8th grade; my science teacher had me EXPELLED FOR HITTING MY FRIEND WITH A RUBBER BAND. Seriously, no joke. The assistant principal (well, I guess it is her decision more than anything, but still, I shouldn't have been sent to the office in the first place) said that it was assult against my friend, had me sign my name on a white sheet of paper, and told me that I was expelled.</p>
<p>The worst teachers, IMO, are the ones that grade you based on your personality traits. I've gotten a string of C's from one such teacher. He has a syllabus but he doesn't really follow it, he makes us write papers occasionally (if we're lucky, we get more than a week's notice to do this) and I always get A's on the paper (only about 20% of the class gets As), and yet I end up with Cs as final grades because most of our grade is based on "class participation". </p>
<p>Now, I am definitely not the most outgoing person in the world. I come to class, every class, on time. I don't leave in the middle of class to use the bathroom. I don't leave in the middle of class to get food from the building across the street, bring it back to class, and eat it in class. I don't sleep in class. I don't bring my laptop and watch movies on it during class. I don't show up to class without having done our homework and I don't hand in my assignments late. Lots of other people do these things. But yet, he's known as the teacher that gives 'everyone' an A and the only reason I can come up with for it is that everyone else likes to make comments in class, and I don't unless I'm specifically called on. He may as well grade us on how tall we are, or some other random trait.</p>
<p>ASC- that totally sucks...but it will make a great college app. essay one day! hahaha</p>
<p>BlahdeBlah - class participation does not mean just show up and do everything you're suppossed to. Try speaking up, or just asking questions even if you already know the answer (just dont ask dumb ones!), or just making a statement. Maybe visit the prof. during his office hours about a "question" and just shoot the bull for a bit. Participate in class, don't just show up and be Susie Perfect</p>
<p>Yeah hi did you miss the part where I said I'm extremely shy and I can never make myself volunteer in class? Try paying attention next time. I guess arachnophobics should just get over it and buy themselves a couple of pet tarantulas to keep in the bedroom, too, huh? I mean, if you have no problem doing it, obviously everyone else in the world is exactly the same, and they have no reason to have problems doing it either. Professors have no excuse for basing your grade on how outgoing you are, which is exactly what it is.</p>
<p>To kind of extrapolate what you guys are talking about, this class also does participation points, and I happen to be among the more outspoken people in the class. What I find hilarious too is how little she regards my comments/answers when they are completely relevant, and waits until some other student says something close to what I said and gives that person the credit for that. It sounds weird, but trust me, it happens several times a day.</p>
<p>I've had a few bad professors.. mainly with the inability to teach without realizing that they weren't explaining anything.
For instance, I had a physical chemistry prof that filled powerpoint slides with equations, so many equations... & he'd say a few words about it then say "Ok, you understand?" then immediately go to the next slide. No chance of copying anything down & his explanations were so short it was useless.</p>
<p>Right now I have a professor that is going senile & so he forgets what he hasn't covered. He gives out a packet of handouts every lecture but never finishes the packet, then the next lecture he begins with "So as we covered last time..." ... but he never covered it because he didn't finish everything last time. He's also made a few mistakes during lecture that the students have corrected him on.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Right now I have a professor that is going senile & so he forgets what he hasn't covered. He gives out a packet of handouts every lecture but never finishes the packet, then the next lecture he begins with "So as we covered last time..." ... but he never covered it because he didn't finish everything last time. He's also made a few mistakes during lecture that the students have corrected him on.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Hah, my high school English teachers all did a similar thing. Every year, the teacher would start out on the first day of school by explaining what we were going to be covering that year, and they'd alway say, "Well, since you covered grammar last year, we won't be doing that again this year." Never did actually have a lesson on grammar in any English class past 7th grade or so.</p>
<p>Good professors DO base some of your grade on participation--which DOES mean volunteering from time to time. If you are afraid of that, it IS something you can work on--just like an arachnaphobe might would on that phobia! Most psychologists would not suggest "immersion therapy" for most arachnaphobes, but perhaps a more gradual exposure "pyramid" might be helpful. In the same sense, you can learn to open up in safe environments.
I personally see calling out a professor as "bad" simply because they expect students to participate as simply ridiculous. If you struggle with public speaking, maybe you should take some communication and speaking class (i.e., public speaking, for one!). It's a skill you will need to learn for the rest of your life, so you may as well begin now!</p>
<p>^I think it might be annoying if blahdeblah sees other students clearly goofing off, but because they are "loud and likeable" (you know the type), they get As on participation where a more quiet, shy person (who actually attends class and pays attention to lectures) is getting subpar marks.</p>