On a website where students rate professors and TAs, I came across the one and only review of me as a teacher. This is the complete text of someone’s commentary on how I ran a chem class I taught last year:
What the…?
I have absolutely no power whatsoever over the assignments. None. Nor do I get to pick my own grading scale. And if I didn’t grade hard on the labs, people messed up the calculations on the exams. In the overall grading scale, the exams mattered a lot more than the lab reports did. So it seemed worthwhile to point out errors on the labs and grade according to the guidelines we were supposed to use.
Crawling on desks?! When on EARTH would I have done that?! This was a review of me as a TA in a chem course, not in the bio courses I’ve taught. In the bio courses, I do do some demonstrations while standing on a desk, but they’re definitely not suggestive. (Not unless you consider my imitation of blue-footed booby “high stepping” erotic. It looks ridiculous, and it usually gets a laugh, but I don’t think anyone would be prompted to stuff dollar bills in my oh-so-alluring lab-stained men’s jeans.)
The only thing I could think of having done that would have put me on a desk at all would have been an illustration of the discrete energy levels that electrons could occupy. I used the desk and the floor as representations of different energy levels and got the idea of quantum energy gains across by jumping onto a desk from the floor, pointing out that it’s impossible for me to stand in midair (i.e., at some height between the floor and the top of the desk.) I truly can’t imagine when I would have crawled on a desk. Certainly not in the lab–that would have been both stupid and highly dangerous. And there simply wasn’t space on student desks in recitation. Not to mention that I can’t think of a reason for wanting to do so.
And I certainly wasn’t feeling at all sexually repressed. I was horribly ill at the time, being taken care of by my boyfriend. I felt seasick–often to the point of feeling like I was going to fall over and puke–all the time. Trust me on this–there’s nothing like constant vertigo to give the ol’ sex drive the heave (pun intended)–ho (which I’m certainly not.)
“Cracker-ass cunt?!” Okay, so I’m in one of the many ethnic groups loosely classified as “white.” And I’m female. So sue me. But what the heck did I do–other than grade rigorously, and be utterly unhappy that quarter–to deserve this kind of tongue-lashing? I tried my best to make sure that, even if I didn’t do a great job with this group (and not every group clicks with any one given TA, either), I didn’t take my own personal misery out on my students.
I truly have no idea what this person’s problem was.
Oh mt God. . . a website with ratings and commentary on TAs? I don’t think I even want to know the address. Yeah. I’d rather not know.
Of course, if your students are anything like my students, this one might not have any idea what your name is and be confusing you with someone else (on reviews/ exam sheets (we have a line where you put your discussion section time and TA’s name) I have been referred to as “my TA. . . the one with short blond hair, not the older blonde lady” or as “Michelle” (not my name), et al. . .)
Well, my name is pretty unusual. It’s unlikely that someone would be able to type in my name and get the spelling right (which this person did) while being unclear on who I am.
I’m a chem TA too. First thing I learned: they will be frustrated by their lecturer, and they will take it out on you. It’s not personal.
YEAGH, that is horrible. The table demonstrations sound completely non-sexual, though the blue-footed booby thing reminded me of the time my friend put both his feet in the air and proclaimed, “I am a blue-footed booby! Anybody wanna mate?” Maybe you should try that…
That really sucks, but anyone who would evaluate their TA as a “cracker” and a “cunt” isn’t smart enough for to waste your time worrying about.
Scribble, don’t sweat it. I used to get my student evaluations sheets back with truly bizarre comments on them. “Talks too much,” “Doesn’t talk enough,” “Can’t stay on topic,” “Too tightly focused.”
I know the site, and jackelope is absolutely right. Students will write crap about you, the prof, or anyone just because the students themselves aren’t doing well, aren’t showing up, etc.
I haven’t turned up on the site…yet…but I remember the eval’s I used to get at a university where I taught for a while. Invariably, the students who were doing a lousy job gave me crappy eval’s.
The ones writing crap about you wouldn’t like it one bit if the tables were turned and you could rate them instead!
Hey, there’s an idea…
I have posted to that site - one bad evaluation about a professor who I feel truly deserved it, but also some good evaluations in cases when they deserved it as well.
…and it does take away from his credibility. This is a man who must have failed the class and is taking it out on you. No one will take the review seriously.
Can someone explain the racism thing with “cracker ass” (I’ve not heard it before).
And wouldn’t a site like this be libellous?
It sounds more like the little prick who wrote the review is sexually oppressed, obviously straining at the seams to find something provocative or erotic in every adult female around.
Scribble, the worst thing is apparently is that this website is lots more popular than the TA class listings, and if someone inputs your IRL name into google (like a potential employer or a potential SO) the very first link on the net referring to you is as one describing you as a “cracker ass cunt” or the woman who “makes satan look like Little Debbie” .
“Cracker” is a slang term for a white person. It is not that common and usually only used by blacks against whites. It is much like “honkey” except more current and a little more offensive. The “ass” is used for greater inflection on cracker. The way the student put it is a brilliant demonstration in how carefully selected words can give more effective emphasis to a rather bland concept:
He starts with the thought: “Caucasian Vagina” and knows that it will not convey the desired feeling so he spruces it up through the following evolutionary process:
Caucasian Vagina
White Vagina
White Cunt
White-Ass Cunt
Cracker-Ass Cunt.
See, the end result is much more offensive and likely to gain the student a well-deserved pitting.