thursday, teaching, proctors and new profs
This semester Thursdays have been great. I teach in the morning, usually go to a weekly lunch w/ some girlfriends (from my dept. but another program). It is so nice to have the teaching out of the way early in the morning. Granted I do not necessarily like getting up (I am a night owl, never a morning person!) but it is wonderful to have the teaching done and the rest of the day to focus on lab work, data analysis etc. Except today I have to proctor. Yesterday I proctored for the test for my class. Today is one of the extra two times I have to proctor for the dept. It is not like proctoring is hard, but it is a waste of my time.
Yesterday, my prof requested 5 proctors for our class, plus me, the other TA and him. The room is large but not that large. There wasn't really space for all the proctors, with out them ending up bunched together in little clusters. I think that is abuse of the proctor system. I know he is a new prof, but I am going to tell our Grad committee or somebody that there should be a reasonable limit to the number of proctors. I mean this semester almost everyone has to do it twice and if you are a TA you usually are already doing it 4 other times. Besides he refuses to make multiple forms of the test, but thinks proctors are the answer? Please!
I do feel a little bad for him though. He said to me yesterday, hhmmm I did not realize this many people were still taking the class. It is very full in here today, but during lectures I do not see nearly this many students. (yes, about 60 students come to lecture out of 220) [about 20 dropped but I guess he thought more than that did?] He didn't think it was fair that they didn't have attend his lecture but could still take the exam. I said, " Most profs here, for this type of class, have very little text in their notes, so that students have to attend, to make sense out of all the pictures and write down the key ideas as they explain them". [(what I thought but did not say-) They do NOT read the notes to them from the print outs, they can download. I mean where did this guy come from? Has he not taken classes himself? When the prof reads the slides to you, and they come from the book verbatum, why would you go to class? I usually want to gouge out my own ears after lecture, purely from boredom. He makes every topic so blah that it is hard to hold my interest and I actually study this stuff!]
Anyway, after I told him that he goes, "wow, you are full of these little tricks, I am new to teaching, you know?" um yes, I can tell sir. It is painfully obvious! Really the undergrads are the ones that are suffering, and they aren't always aware of how much is lacking. Compared to last spring's prof for this class, they are missing out in a huge way. Sure all the definitions and some of the details are the same, but the overarching themes tying everything together and the overall flow to each talk is missing. The sort of big take home message is lacking. Everyone knows that some students will not continue in this field and will forget the small details, but you always want them to take something else away that can help them organize other information they learn about the brain, and research in general. I feel like the last prof enriched all the material and added something extra to almost every chapter. I know he is new, so he shoudn't be held to the same standard, and he seems to be learning some things, so hopefully his next class will improve, and I won' t have to witness it! I am glad I have taught my own classes in the summer and TAed during semesters, so that if/when I find a job I will not be completely clueless. Of course, I can improve as well, but at least I am getting some practice in before I'm thrown alone in front of a huge audience.
So I guess this serves as an example of 'poor teaching' at a research school, but not because he isn't trying, rather it is his inexperience. But, since I have witnessed some stellar teaching here as well (last semester as one example), it fights the stereotype that all teaching is second tier at a big school.
Yesterday, my prof requested 5 proctors for our class, plus me, the other TA and him. The room is large but not that large. There wasn't really space for all the proctors, with out them ending up bunched together in little clusters. I think that is abuse of the proctor system. I know he is a new prof, but I am going to tell our Grad committee or somebody that there should be a reasonable limit to the number of proctors. I mean this semester almost everyone has to do it twice and if you are a TA you usually are already doing it 4 other times. Besides he refuses to make multiple forms of the test, but thinks proctors are the answer? Please!
I do feel a little bad for him though. He said to me yesterday, hhmmm I did not realize this many people were still taking the class. It is very full in here today, but during lectures I do not see nearly this many students. (yes, about 60 students come to lecture out of 220) [about 20 dropped but I guess he thought more than that did?] He didn't think it was fair that they didn't have attend his lecture but could still take the exam. I said, " Most profs here, for this type of class, have very little text in their notes, so that students have to attend, to make sense out of all the pictures and write down the key ideas as they explain them". [(what I thought but did not say-) They do NOT read the notes to them from the print outs, they can download. I mean where did this guy come from? Has he not taken classes himself? When the prof reads the slides to you, and they come from the book verbatum, why would you go to class? I usually want to gouge out my own ears after lecture, purely from boredom. He makes every topic so blah that it is hard to hold my interest and I actually study this stuff!]
Anyway, after I told him that he goes, "wow, you are full of these little tricks, I am new to teaching, you know?" um yes, I can tell sir. It is painfully obvious! Really the undergrads are the ones that are suffering, and they aren't always aware of how much is lacking. Compared to last spring's prof for this class, they are missing out in a huge way. Sure all the definitions and some of the details are the same, but the overarching themes tying everything together and the overall flow to each talk is missing. The sort of big take home message is lacking. Everyone knows that some students will not continue in this field and will forget the small details, but you always want them to take something else away that can help them organize other information they learn about the brain, and research in general. I feel like the last prof enriched all the material and added something extra to almost every chapter. I know he is new, so he shoudn't be held to the same standard, and he seems to be learning some things, so hopefully his next class will improve, and I won' t have to witness it! I am glad I have taught my own classes in the summer and TAed during semesters, so that if/when I find a job I will not be completely clueless. Of course, I can improve as well, but at least I am getting some practice in before I'm thrown alone in front of a huge audience.
So I guess this serves as an example of 'poor teaching' at a research school, but not because he isn't trying, rather it is his inexperience. But, since I have witnessed some stellar teaching here as well (last semester as one example), it fights the stereotype that all teaching is second tier at a big school.
posted by B @ Thursday, November 09, 2006
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