WSU's teachers

There's such a dichotomy of professors at WSU. Some of them are absolutely wonderful, discuss the material clearly, state expectations, welcome questions and comments, and are just generally helpful. They really care about their students and the level of clarity they get across.

Then there are the rest of them. These professors do not care if you understand the material, don't try to teach, don't listen to your questions or answers to their questions, and act as though they are only here to fill the space in the front of the room until the clock moves ahead enough and they can let us go.

When I went to SCC one of my teachers told the entire class about ratemyprofessors.com. I got into the habit of reading the evaluations by former students of my new teachers. Then I got out of the habit. This semester one of my classmates mentioned what they knew about our teacher-in-common via this website. Yesterday I finally go around to looking up my instructors for this semester. Here's the results:

My math teacher had 19 reviews ALL of which said to avoid her at all costs. The students were from a myriad of classes ranging all levels and ALL of them said she confused them more than taught them. Many times it was mentioned that a) she is learning it as she is teaching it and b) she does examples in class and gets them wrong so the rest of the class period is spent correcting her and watching her try to figure it out in front of them.

My music teacher is generally agreeable but expects a lot (good!). They only thing they caution, repeatedly, about is leaving the class early. Apparently this behavior drives her wild! It would bug me, too, so I can't fault her for that. I have seen a small amount of this in our 9 am class as this one guy ALWAYS falls asleep. She is severely irritated which I think is completely understandable.

My speech teacher (public speaking!) doesn't teach. I knew this already and had it confirmed when I read her reviews. She expects us to give a LOT of speeches, most of them impromptu, and doesn't teach or give much feedback. You have to listen very closely to get anything out of the class that is supposed to be 95 minutes but generally is 30 minutes. We should be using this time to lecture, no?

My HD profs are not listed but I can sum them up for you, in case you're interested: awesome.

My Teaching and Learning teacher is not listed, either. I wish she was because this class is so unpredictable. It's only 1 credit, though, and you don't even get a typical "grade". You get a satisfactory or an F. cool.

Also, met with my advisor yesterday and changed my major again, just a little bit. If I continued to do the P-3 version of Human Development I would not graduate until at least Spring of 2012. Instead I am going to get my general human development degree with an education certificate. this will take me 1 year if everything goes according to plan, allowing me to graduate in May 2010. THEN I can apply to the MIT (Masters In Teaching) program which is another year. Even if I don't get in the MIT program right away (it's really competitive) I will still have a LOT of job opportunities just with my BA. And if I do get in right away, I will finish my schooling a full year ahead of the P-3 program AND I'll have my masters which starts me off $10,000 ahead of those with just their BA in teaching.

So that is the plan. And the synopsis of how awesome my teaching folk are this semester.

The upside is that I only have HD classes from here on out (except 1) so the quality of teaching should go up. The HD department in general has mostly excellent reviews.