Class, class, pain in the...

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Permalink Reply by Erin on October 26, 2007 at 7:05pm

I have a class right now where I both love and hate the prof. On the one hand he seems to know everything, and he's a Canada research chair and he oozes a kind of grandfatherly adorableness, but on the other hand he has a very... bourgeois view of education. We're not there to get good marks, we're there to learn, so he won't tell anyone how they're doing other than "you're not failing" and the criteria for the term paper is ultra vague.

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Permalink Reply by Alianora La Canta on October 27, 2007 at 6:43am

My favourite class so far this year has been last week's Spanish class. For once the class felt like it had some sense of momentum, the different elements of the class felt connected and even the homework assignments made sense. Text Processing isn't so good, because I'm simply not getting pushed enough.

Good classes, for me, are ones which are well-organised, have a definite beginning, middle and end, allow bright students to explore the topic more while giving the ones who are struggling the best possible chance of learning the fundamentals, and most importantly have content worth learning.

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Permalink Reply by Ashley B. on November 7, 2007 at 12:34pm

I totally agree - the best classes are interactive. I had a 300+ person class where we did activities, watched videos, discussed, etc. It was awesome and people came to class.

Contrast that to the 300+ person class where we hear lectures every day, I counted 90 people in class the other day. And yes, I counted them I was THAT BORED.

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Permalink Reply by Tara on November 13, 2007 at 4:36am

I don't care for my classes that have to do with law. I have two this year and, while I see the value, the material is pretty dry. The class that was most memorable for me was training and development (I am a HR grad student). It appealed to the teacher in me. I don't find a lot of practical use for most of the classes I have taken so far.

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Permalink Reply by Jen Savage on March 12, 2008 at 12:16am

I think the class I hated the most this year was Introduction to Social Studies. It was boring and pointless and I learned nothing. She wanted us to give "mini" presentations but ended up not cutting people off so they basically took up the entire term. It was the biggest waste of my time ever. Intro to Teaching Social Studies (not the same class) was HELL first term but it's gotten better this term.

Favourite. Hmmm. I am not that keen on my classes but I have a good friend who is in several with me so it makes it pleasurable. I think possibly Teaching Secondary English, though I'm not sure what I'm learning exactly. I love the people I sit with and that makes it fun.

The best classes I ever had were with this one professor, Dr Callahan. He is amazing. I took American Lit classes and a World Lit class with him. He was so interesting and his knowledge of literature (and music) was incredible. He was funny and sarcastic and intelligent. I actually got up and went to his 8:30 classes because I liked hearing him lecture so much.

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Permalink Reply by ProsaicParadise on November 7, 2008 at 11:16pm

My hardest class in college the first time around was hands-down statistics. We had a TA for whom english was a second language, and for all of us stats was a second language, so there was a terrific double language barrier.

More recently I'm in community college and I've had my first online class. What BS. I don't know if they are all like that but it was barely interactive and involved little to no teaching and feedback.

This semester we are having a Major Trial with our anatomy and physiology professor... I write about it a bunch in my blog right now. My classmates are disrespectful and whiny. It's really a bummer.

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