Posted by on May 19, 2009 in Rants | 0 comments

I finally submitted my grades for this past semester of teaching Art 112 over at KCC. I handed down 5 “Fs” this quarter.  Some of them simply didn’t come to class past the 3rd week. I think maybe some of these students either forget to withdraw OR I understand they go to 2 or 3 classes just to make sure they keep their student financial aid working and then they don’t attend the class.

What I found more surprising this time was that there were a couple of students who had As and Bs going into this final project and then they simply stopped showing up.  No projects handed in at the final either. So they ended up with Fs.  WTF, I don’t get how you could put in so much effort to get a good grade 2/3rds into a semester only to just let it slide towards the last month of the semester. Sad.

I kind of got depressed this semester. More students phased out this time then the semester before that. I thought it was just me at first…

I remember back in my college days at UH, I took a class in Oceanography just because it was the only class that I could get into during my freshman year. I figured, “What the heck, at least it’ll be interesting.” Day 1 the auditorium was packed — easily 200 – 300 students in the room.  This instructor (I won’t name names but his last name rhymed with “Poop” and he taught in the 90s), turned out to be the most BORING instructor in the world. The professor in Ferris Bueller was a riot compared to this guy.

By the end of the semester, there would be like a handful of us in the auditorium. I remember eventually ditching that class as well.  I remember asking myself, “This guy must have loved Oceanography to have gotten into this field, what made him this way?  Why is he teaching it where we all fall asleep?”  Could it be he just got tired of the student turnout?

Professor Poop is always in my mind each day that I teach. I figure, a student might not like to be in the field that I’m in…but at least he/she’d be able to see that I love what I do.

So…I really got depressed this semester thinking I was another Professor Poop.  Only to hear from another instructor that they were seeing the same thing in their own classes!  /sigh.

However, on the bright side, there were some pretty awesome results from good students who DID show up for class. So at least I reached them.