I have a teacher, and she teaches my Latin American Civilization class. She's widely considered as the worst teacher in the History and Foreign Language department(she has a 1.0 on Ratemyprofessor.com, and it's widely rumoured that she will be fired at the end of the semester.)
Now, I know what some of you are thinking. She's only bad because she's strict, or she's only bad because she's hard. I'll give you a list of things she's done that solidify her place as the worst teacher I've ever had.
1. She uses Powerpoint presentations for all her lectures. This is all fine and good, but she reads them word for word, and her "bullet points" consist of an entire paragraph of information that we're suppose to take down for notes, however, she switches slides immediately after finishing reading the slides.
2. She begins every single sentence with "um." When she's thinking, she begins her sentences with "uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmm." She finishes all her sentences with "mmmk." When I listen to her, these are the only things I can hear, and can't focus on the actual content. I thought it was just my OCD kicking in, but I asked other students in the class, and they have the same problem. Maybe it's just jarring, I dunno.
3. She doesn't know the material that she's teaching. Someone in the class will ask a question regarding the current content she's reading directly off the powerpoint, and she won't know anything about it. If someone answers a question in the class, there is no affirmation; she just moves on to the next question without a word.
4. At the end of every class, we do a series of questions. The questions have vague relationships with the stuff in the powerpoint, and are impossible to answer without further knowledge of the subjects. Some of them don't even fit in. For example, we did a study on the Viceroyalties of Latin America and the Bourbon Reforms. My group was asked "Who was Napoleon Bonaparte." I realize that Bonaparte occupied Spain around this time, but he wasn't mentioned once, not a single time, during the entire powerpoint presentation. Of course, it was an extremely easy question to answer for anyone with any knowledge of history.
5. We took a test today. It consisted of over 50 short answer questions and 3 essay questions. When the class was over(it lasts 1.5 hours,) not a single person had finished. She asked short answer questions about stuff that had occupied a single bullet point on her powerpoints, and her essay questions were based on stuff that we just barely went over. The essay question I did was on imagined communities and how the concept could be applied to Latin America. I knew what imagined communities were beforehand, so I was lucky, but it was something that she explained in 2 sentences on a single bulletpoint, thus anyone who didn't research it further would have no idea how to explain it.
I don't mind getting a B on a normal course, but this course...it's within my major(Spanish Education) and I'm trying desperately to maintain a 4.0 major, which I have after 3 years of it. I'm afraid of this class, it's impossible to know what she's expecting. Essay number 2 is coming up a month after essay 1, and she hasn't returned or graded our first essay, which means that no one can see what they did wrong on the first one and what she expects on the second one. Don't even get me started on the presentation we have to do....
I know this is long-winded, but I'm frustrated and need to know what I should do. Thanks.
Now, I know what some of you are thinking. She's only bad because she's strict, or she's only bad because she's hard. I'll give you a list of things she's done that solidify her place as the worst teacher I've ever had.
1. She uses Powerpoint presentations for all her lectures. This is all fine and good, but she reads them word for word, and her "bullet points" consist of an entire paragraph of information that we're suppose to take down for notes, however, she switches slides immediately after finishing reading the slides.
2. She begins every single sentence with "um." When she's thinking, she begins her sentences with "uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuummmmmmmm." She finishes all her sentences with "mmmk." When I listen to her, these are the only things I can hear, and can't focus on the actual content. I thought it was just my OCD kicking in, but I asked other students in the class, and they have the same problem. Maybe it's just jarring, I dunno.
3. She doesn't know the material that she's teaching. Someone in the class will ask a question regarding the current content she's reading directly off the powerpoint, and she won't know anything about it. If someone answers a question in the class, there is no affirmation; she just moves on to the next question without a word.
4. At the end of every class, we do a series of questions. The questions have vague relationships with the stuff in the powerpoint, and are impossible to answer without further knowledge of the subjects. Some of them don't even fit in. For example, we did a study on the Viceroyalties of Latin America and the Bourbon Reforms. My group was asked "Who was Napoleon Bonaparte." I realize that Bonaparte occupied Spain around this time, but he wasn't mentioned once, not a single time, during the entire powerpoint presentation. Of course, it was an extremely easy question to answer for anyone with any knowledge of history.
5. We took a test today. It consisted of over 50 short answer questions and 3 essay questions. When the class was over(it lasts 1.5 hours,) not a single person had finished. She asked short answer questions about stuff that had occupied a single bullet point on her powerpoints, and her essay questions were based on stuff that we just barely went over. The essay question I did was on imagined communities and how the concept could be applied to Latin America. I knew what imagined communities were beforehand, so I was lucky, but it was something that she explained in 2 sentences on a single bulletpoint, thus anyone who didn't research it further would have no idea how to explain it.
I don't mind getting a B on a normal course, but this course...it's within my major(Spanish Education) and I'm trying desperately to maintain a 4.0 major, which I have after 3 years of it. I'm afraid of this class, it's impossible to know what she's expecting. Essay number 2 is coming up a month after essay 1, and she hasn't returned or graded our first essay, which means that no one can see what they did wrong on the first one and what she expects on the second one. Don't even get me started on the presentation we have to do....
I know this is long-winded, but I'm frustrated and need to know what I should do. Thanks.
