Studying in a university might give you more reason to expect a whole lot from your college, and most especially to the teaching methods the school can offer you. These professors are the source of information of students and the torch that would lead them in passing a dark cave. Without them, we can never learn beyond the sheets of our textbooks. But can you just imagine life with them? Well, it’s not always a happy ending like what fairytales tell.
The worst teaching experience I had so far was on the subject
Trigonometry. I had no doubts about how smart the professor is, but the thing
is, she would make us learn her subject the hard way. In every meeting we had with her, the
scenario was like this: She comes in to class just right after our previous
professor would come out of the room (late for her is five minutes only), gets
a whiteboard marker and starts doodling numbers on the board. The worst part
is, we’ve got to answer on the board some problems from our manuals. Had we not
known how to solve it properly, we’re dead. She will ruthlessly pick on us,
humiliating not just our physical appearances, but also crushing our souls to
the last piece of dignity we have. Mind you, she would also not announce short quizzes,
even long ones! After the lecture, she’ll be like, “Ok class we’ll have a quiz today (evil smirk)”. And we go something
like, “We still have not absorbed the
lesson well so whyyyyy??” We should have known it earlier since we saw her
already carrying with her pile of questionnaires, but we felt so weak to
suspect since we’re still hoping for the worst not to come. And who could ever
forget her endearing pet names for some of us? And those bittersweet
descriptions she labels us like: Super
eng eng, Tan-ga, Laki Mo, etc. Oh Trigonometry, you made me crumble up to
the last bit.
Still, my college never failed to surprise us with “cool” but
hot-tempered professors. I thought I’d had the worst during our Trigo days, but
the wrath has still not ended. Our Organic Chemistry lecture class had the
worst first day so far. When our professor entered the room, he looked at us
warily and seemingly managed to take a panorama screenshot all over the room
with his quick gaze from the leftmost student to the rightmost. Finally, he
stopped the staring game and blabbered, “Who is your class president?? Where
are all the registration forms??? She should have collected it and put it on my
table before I even entered this class! Why are the chairs not aligned?? You
don’t deserve to be part of the College of Science if you do not know what a
straight line is! I get distracted with the slightest detail so go, do
something about it!!!” We were so scared that we even tried to control our
breath that might also distract him. Whew, way to go with the first words that
came out of his mouth. It was really nice meeting him. And what’s even worse
was that I ended up standing for the most time of his period since he saw me
staring blankly (the result of being too scared) when he asked us a question. “Class what is the color of the
table of your book? (hears nobody answering) Oh wag kayong tatanga-tanga ha nagtatanong ako, sumagot kayo. What is
the color of the table of your book?? (students whisper their answers) I can’t hear you! YOU!! Anong tinutunganga
mo dyan ha!! Stand up! (literally shouting at the top of his voice with
popping eyes I would never ever want to remember again)” And I was the lucky
student who was first blessed by his “standing ovation until you can answer the
next question” method when students failed to answer his question. But aside
from the crazy and hurtful remarks he labels us, we love the fact that he is
strict for us not to be complacent with his subject. I am not telling that we
hate considerate professors (gosh we love them!), but his method of scaring his
students for them to exert more effort in learning such a boring and difficult
subject would also be effective I guess. He’ll always leave us with loads of
assignments, online exams, group blogs, Wiley practice problems, and a whole
lot more for us to “maximize learning” accordingly. This is what I found
effective since he does not limit us with the whiteboard and marker discussion,
but he also finds other ways on how to inculcate his subject to us.
Lastly,
who could have said that students love the disappearing act of their professors?
Yes, we do love suspended classes, postponed quizzes, extended deadlines for
projects and such but missing a professor for a number of lecture meetings already
is tantamount to learning nothing and wasting our time and money. Students get
this feeling that they are being shortchanged because their parents paid so
expensive for their tuition and professors end up not coming to class for no
valid reason at all. I choose not to mention specific subjects because this
two-page paper would not be enough for the long list I have. Plus, when these
professors failed to be absent (finally) but rather come in late, they do not
even tell us the reason why they were not here last meeting (or meetings with
an S) or why they were late. It’s so hard to deal with these kinds of
professors because it is so hard to catch up with the missed lessons that the
other sections have already tackled. Not everybody loves the rush-hour.
I
chose not to mention the teaching methods of the professors I truly love because
they deserve more than the special mention I just did. But in how professors
vary in their teaching methods, I hope that students would still have effective
learning experiences from them.
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