Schinckel.net

I think I can say that, since I used to be one.

I guess having been a teacher means I know how to spot when one isn’t really prepared, or doing their job properly, or just plain incapable.

I’ve got some teachers, both lecturers and tutors, who I don’t really have much time for.

There are a few things I really dislike. The first is obnoxiousness. I have one lecturer who is not only obnoxious, but also boring. He can spend a whole lecture teaching a tiny amount of content, and perhaps this is why he is so boring. He is also dry, and does not use examples to elaborate particularly well. His worst trait is probably the questions he asks. It is never clear whether a particular question is a rhetorical question or not. Finally, he seems to think that it is acceptable to just discard all negative feedback that he receives, as it is “probably invalid”, or the person “just has a grudge”. Never mind that you are just a crap teacher.

The next thing I dislike is when someone is teaching something they don’t really know that well. This is definitely a place I have been, having to teach stuff I didn’t really know about. I have one tutor who as much as said several times there were things he didn’t understand. I’m paying good money to go to Uni, I don’t want to waste that, or my time. At one stage, when I knew I was right about something, and he wasn’t really listening to what I was saying, I basically gave up and let him continue. I know (that with a ternary relationship total participation isn’t automatically implied), and I think now that the rest of the class thinks that it is.

My third annoyance is to do with general organisation. I hated being poorly organised when teaching, and did my best to overcome this issue. I know at times I didn’t and it really embarrassed me to be the one who was at fault. Not having work prepared ahead of schedule, not being on time, these are all things that turn off the good students, perhaps more so than the bad students!

My final gripe is about… I’ve forgotten what I was going to write next.