Very nice–sounds like a good fit for you. I just started grad school in library science. It’s been a fun semester.
Sounds like you’ll have good reason to celebrate when you finish.
Speaking of celebrations, anyone have anything big planned to mark the start of the break? A couple of students in one of my classes mentioned that their other class has been a killer and that a good stiff drink right after will be in order. Me, I think I might try to get tickets for a Ronnie Spector concert next Friday, the first weekend after all my work is handed in.
That is a really good idea. I have had a cramp in my neck for 2 weeks now. My boyfriend already got me a Christmas present. I wonder if I can ask for a deep tissue massage for an early birthday present.
Miller: That is very cool. Do you decide on what the video game will be like or did you have certain guidelines to follow? How long does it take to write a final grade-worthy game?
The assignment was to create a computer game version of the old Mastermind board game. The class was an entry-level course on programming, so we’ve actually spent most of the quarter working on it. For the midterm, we had to have a working version using ASCII characters, then added actual graphics to it for the final.
That sounds really awesome, Miller. Having an actual video game as your end product instead of just a paper seems really neat. (Not that it isn’t gratifying to finish a term paper, but a video game is just so cool!)
I actually did because we’ve been having major problems like this all semester. It’s all stuff like this that is just on the edge of unreasonable, but not really against any rules. I could write a long list, but I won’t. Anyway, the head of the department says I have to sit down and talk to him first about all this.
There’s no way I’m doing that before my grades are in. Sorry, but things are really arbitrary in this class and this guy has a nasty streak. There’s no doubt in my mind that my grade would tank instantly if I went to him to tell him he’s been a terrible teacher, even if I was very polite and diplomatic. I’ll go talk to him at the beginning of next semester and then to his department head, if only to make sure that if someone else has a problem and wants to complain, they have a little backup. But there’s no way I’m sacrificing my grade to try to talk sense into this asshat. That’s not my job.
He’s going to assign us another paper today. Exam day. At least he warned us about this one, but fuck. Exam day is supposed to be the day you say goodbye and good riddance to the class. He says it’s because another teacher “was allowed to” rent out the department’s laptops for exam day (he was really irate about this, too. And it’s not like he owns them or has any claim to them. It’s absolutely, perfectly reasonable that someone else should get to use them if she requested them first. He just… thinks that way.), so we can’t do what he had planned. So instead, we get to write papers. Lovely.
I’ll be really glad to be done with him. The rest of my classes, I’m actually sad to be finishing. I have my French exam today and may not be able to take French next semester, which kind of crushes my heart a little.
This. I do have a tendency to give fellow professors the benefit of the doubt, but this is unconscionable.
Send a letter to the Dean.
The chair is following procedure in terms of sending you to the professor first, but don’t go until after your final grade is posted, and think of it as a way to politely and respectfully express your concerns with the last-minute assignments.
You won’t get anywhere. He’ll dismiss your feedback as whining.
Then, go to the chair, and politely and respectfully express your concerns with the last minute assignments.
You probably won’t get anything, since the semester is over.
Send the letter to the Dean. If there’s been a pattern of this behavior…well, unfortunately, it depends on a lot of things as to whether or not the issue will be addressed. But you will have at least gotten your say.
I get that I teach at a community college and therefore don’t have research responsibilities that are required, and can focus on my teaching instead, and that other professors are caught in the teaching/research/publish or perish triangle. But in my opinion, that doesn’t excuse professors at research institutions from acting like boorish asshats, and giving the profession a bad name in the process (since when professors or teachers act this way, people say “that’s what professors are like and that’s why all professors suck” in a way that doesn’t happen when people bitch about their bosses or supervisors in other settings).
I’m mid-semester (my program has a different standard semester.)
I go out for mid-term break on the 17th. I’m back on the 4th. I have two major papers due during the break. I’m behind on my reading in one class. So break here, in the sense that I have three weeks with no lectures.
I can go back for the academic support Christmas party on Thursday if I like (for the tutors and TAs and so forth) but I don’t have to, so I… may or may not. But I’ve finished everything that’s required of me and I think I did pretty well on the finals! I’ll end this semester, most likely, with all As except for probably a B or C in the class I’ve been going on and on and on about.
Two finals down and 3 to go. I took the 2 easy ones this morning (Sociology and Gov’t). Multiple choice, online, open-book tests. Oh yeah, my brain feels taxed.
I did have to send an e-mail to one of my professors though since he gave us 4 multiple choice answers, which were all wrong. Of course I chose one of the 3 wrong wrong answers instead of the 1 wrong right answer. That’s really annoying.
Getting down to the wire now. I have one fifteen page paper left to write today, as well as an exam to study for tonight, and I have a presentation on Friday, and that’s basically it.
Well, I didn’t do as well as I had hoped on the Stats final. I got 2 wrong, leaving me with a 78%. I really wish he’d put more problems on the test so I wouldn’t end up with a C from 2 wrong answers. Oh well. I got the hypothesis testing right at least and my final grade should still be at least an A- so it’s not a complete tragedy.
Algebra though, oh boy did I screw up. I decided to take the final today since I was on such a roll. I was halfway through the damn test and I had a complete brain fart. I forgot it was a REAL test and not a PRACTICE test. I went to check my email by clicking on the email tab. Automatically killed my test. I almost started crying when I went back and saw what I had done. I sent my professor an email to see if he’ll let me back in the test but I wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t. The thing that really sucks is that before I started taking the test, my average was about 99%. If he doesn’t let me finish it, I’ll end up somewhere around 87%. I’m going to be so pissed at myself if I lose the A I worked so hard for just because I’m an idiot who’s conditioned to check email every time something comes through.
My stats test was on the same program so before I started, I closed everything except the stuff I actually needed for the test.
I’m going to be so pissed at myself if I lose the A I worked so hard for just because I’m an idiot who’s conditioned to check email every time something comes through.