frustration with Math Teachers!!!

[AgentSun]

edited your title a wee bit. that whole calling for homicide bit bein' a bit over the top.;)



okay...so this morning, if you've read my "5 am rituals" thread you know that i was awake at 5 in the morning, wrestling with the school network trying to register myself for classes. i finally got my classes done, and i'm feeling really tired. i don't go to my 9 am class and i sleep until my 10 am class which i really have to go to. and then after that, i decide i want to go back to my room because i not only feel tired, i feel sick. so i go back to my room and sleep and i skip my math class. now, i get an email from the math prof. saying that i need to turn in my review sheet into her office by noon on tuesday. fine and dandy, but WHAT REVIEW SHEET?! i email her back asking what the frell she's talking about, and she says that there was a review sheet in class and that it's due tomorrow. i email her back and ask if i can go into her office, and pick it up and she goes "sorry, it was an in class assignment"

ARGH! so now i have a big fat 0 on my grade record...

that's not even the end of it. throughout the entire semester most professors at least keep you updated on your grades right? i haven't gotten a grade update since my 10th homework assignment.... and i have class 3 days a week! not one update since 2 and a half weeks from the beginning of school! and i keep asking her and asking her if she had any updates on our grades and she just said "i'm a little behind"...and for all i know, i'm making a D in the class and she hasn't given anyone any indication that we are in any kind of trouble!

ARRRRRRGH!!!

[Mazinkaiser]

"Death to All Math Teachers!!!"

I'll second that ;)

[arthurfrdent]

go for the jugular kid! Find someone else from class and ge the assignment, do it and turn it in triumphantly... it's little things like that, that will tip the scales in your favor...

[AgentSun]

i could do that but she wouldn't accept it. she knows i wasn't in the class.

[bubblez]

review sheet? Isn't that to score teacher performance? If so, grab her by the aggotts and tell her if she doesn't straighten up you'll have her in front of the review board standing tall before The Man.

[AgentSun]

no it's not. it's a review worksheet for the test we have on wednesday. you know, sample problems, an overview of the chapters covered, etc.

but i think i may file a complaint because my education is valuable to me and i suck at math anyhow, so not knowing my progress in a MATH class tends to cause stress.

[bubblez]

a pre-test?!?! I am boggled. And befuddled. Aren't you responsible for your own review?

You can't possibly suck at math.... you have a complete math support group here at FMD!

[AgentSun]

no, no not a pretest. not at all. it's like a study sheet, you know, to go over the chapters that you've studied. you have to understand this is a really really basic class. it's algebra that i learned in high school. i just did very badly in math on my SATs and i got placed in the "below average" class of math students.

[bubblez]

no, no not a pretest. not at all. it's like a study sheet, you know, to go over the chapters that you've studied. you have to understand this is a really really basic class. it's algebra that i learned in high school. i just did very badly in math on my SATs and i got placed in the "below average" class of math students.

Perhaps. But, you are AgentSun.... on the east coast... and you ride.

Any assistance I can offer is yours for the taking.

[AgentSun]

can you "take care" of my math teacher?

[AgentSun]

well at least maz preserved my original frustration.

[bubblez]

can you "take care" of my math teacher?

I need a last name, a photo, and for you never to speak of this again.

[AgentSun]

she's the one with the femmullet.

[MrVesham]

I hate those. Dumbest, most unsexy hairstyle to happen in the last 15 years.

[AgentSun]

its coiffed to look like a real haircut.

[Mazinkaiser]

well at least maz preserved my original frustration.

Quick story.

I flunked math in college so I had to take it again. I had the same teacher and one day he didn't show up, he didnt show up the next day or the next, or the rest of the semester. We never found out what happened to him (there were a couple of stories) but the school wasn't able to find a replacement, so we all passed :D

[AgentSun]

hmmm...now i am curious. i want stories. what were the stories, maz?

[trinamick]

I feel your pain, AS. I can't even get my math class approved. I'm still fighting, err, discussing the matter with the dean and my advisor. Registration for next quarter started yesterday, but I'm supposed to graduate THIS quarter, dang it! :irate: I finally called and hounded, err, reminded my advisor today that I had already paid my graduation fee, and oh yeah, she had approved the course in the first place! She said she would have a meeting with the dean, but she actually told me that frankly, I wasn't very high on the dean's priority list! At least she's honest. He'd better get my higher on his list, cuz my boss says if he gives me any more trouble, he'll call and tell him we're gonna sue him! :D The only available online course is advanced calculus, and I suck at math, so it doesn't bode well for me.

[AgentSun]

aww! trina, put on your pk face and go down there. do you need a crew? we'll volunteer.

[generic_screenname]

Quick story.

I flunked math in college so I had to take it again. I had the same teacher and one day he didn't show up, he didnt show up the next day or the next, or the rest of the semester. We never found out what happened to him (there were a couple of stories) but the school wasn't able to find a replacement, so we all passed :D

We heard him call into a radio staion though, remember? Star 93.7. The disco station or whatever it is.

[Mazinkaiser]

We heard him call into a radio staion though, remember? Star 93.7. The disco station or whatever it is.

that's right, i forgot about that. Some of the stories: he was having an affair with someone in school so he had to quit (Goth Kate told me that), he was put in witness protection, someone went to his house and everything was gone ,he was never a teacher, he had an accident at home and died and his dog... well, his dog had to eat right? :eek:

[Col.Batguano]

Hey AgentSun,
I do Agree your professor is being a bit of a Jerk, but also I think she is trying to stress the importance of attendance in class.
Math is not your best subject and you need help in it so attendance is essential.
so I think if you make a complaint about her it will probably reflect more on how the school sees your commitment to education.
I imagine it's because it is a catch-up math class that you have an unforgiving professor. students with problems in certain subjects do have a tendency to skip those particular subjects, so doing most of the work "in class" and making daily attendance an absolute necessity (meaning the only way you can pass is to attend every day) assures that you will actually learn the subject and not pass by cheating on homework.
in general I agree that your professor needs to lighten up, math is a subject that needs to be learned intuitively not by trying to beat in hard facts into ones memory, it needs to be learned like a martial art so the use and knowledge of math becomes second nature.....
but even then you still have to attend class if you are truly going to learn something.
and that is where public High school differs from College,
High school teachers just want you to get the good grades regardless how.
A College professor’s job is to make certain you know the subject.
She maybe a Jerk but it also kind of sounds like she wants you in class and to know the subject.

[Kurt_eh]

The Col. is right. The only way to pass math is to show up in class and do LOTS of homework. Trust me on this one. Voice of experience talking here. I started Calc II four times, and finished it twice! ;)

As for how to deal with her. Call the local authorities and tell them she's got weapons of Math Instruction in her office... ;)

[trinamick]

:rolleyes: :lol

[AgentSun]

actually a hybrid of that is correct. she does want us to know the information....but only her way. this is something i learned in high school, algebra, and i was taught different ways and why one of those different ways may be better to achieving the solution. she, however, does not explain anything except HER way, even when we may know a different way that we were taught was better and more logical. she doesn't explain, she just tells us what she wants us to do and leaves it at that. not only that, one day we had a substitute teacher who taught us the same thing she was going to teach us...and she explained everything clearly and logically, and answered all our questions. and she even got us up to the board to do problems, then taught us what we did right or what we did wrong or what ways we could have gotten the solution in a more effective manner. we liked her and we didn't want to see her go. i might take her for a higher level math i need. i just don't like this prof. because everything is her way or no way. and because of that, everything i learned from high school goes out the window because she refuses to acknowledge that the way i learned might even be correct or better.

[Kurt_eh]

I've had that happen before.

In a HS Calculus course, I use L'Hospital's rule (University Calc) to solve the problems on the Limits exam. Apart from one of the ten multiple-choice questions, I had EVERY SINGLE ANSWER CORRECT!

And my mark was: 9/30 with the comment, "You got them all right, how'd you do it?" when I clearly showed what I had done. (Take the dx of the top and the dx of the bottom and solve...)

It was exactly that momment in time when I gave up on math, and my dream of aeronautical engineering died. :(

[arthurfrdent]

i just don't like this prof. because everything is her way or no way. and because of that, everything i learned from high school goes out the window because she refuses to acknowledge that the way i learned might even be correct or better.

sadly, this is a truth, that you MUST learn, mostly because it will serve you well in life through school and after... I went to a small university and my advisor was also my history prof... and once he took a dislike to the way I wanted to do things... my life was very difficult. I eventually took all my history courses at othe schools and transferred the credits in, because I knew he would mark me down EVERY time he had me in class. In hindsight it was a few years out of college that I realized that while some people in positions of power over you are sometimes SO insecure they feel they need to be the last word of everything. In time you simply must take pity on them and do it their way, ALL THE WHILE THINKING AND BELIEVING IN YOURSELF.

You may definitely be feeling like YOU have some principle to prove, but you have to be equal standing with them to do that, and that won't be till you are a professor, or whatever. If you get the marks and the grades and get your PHd, and then write a book as a manifesto of how wrong that person was, that will be the ultimate revenge.

That same advisor/professor saw me a few years ago, while I was visiting a friend at the same school... and me ticking off all the things I had done since he said 'you'll never amount to anything' were like body blows to him.

Learn to pick your battles, grasshopper, and you may win the war...

[Col.Batguano]

well I take it from another perspective,
bear out the professor for a while until you can get a more substantial complaint not just about your way vrs her way but something that will legitimately illustrate your complaint, till then suffer it out.
it is still a legitimate learning experience because crap like that doesn't end with school, you need to learn how to deal with impossible jerks in the real world as well.

[Farscape Forever]

Does your University not have those anoymous Prof evaluation forms every semester?

[LT Garrix]

I'm going to count myself lucky in that I have never had a "My way or the highway" prof. I have used some rather creative ways to arrive at an answer. Sometimes I've made it harder, others easier, once I derived a way of doing it we hadn't learned yet, which means we were successfully learning the concepts.

This does teach you there are some people out there who are on a power trip and feel the need to cause unnecessary suffering. You will have to learn how to deal with them and this is a good opportunity because it's only for one semester. Missing class is a strange concept for me because throughout my college career you had to pretty much have the permission of a higher being to miss class without getting in trouble. I've learned that for me at least college classes moved fast enough that missing a class was a bad idea. No matter how crappy I felt, I didn't get a doctor's note to miss class because it would take me hours to figure it out on my own.

Not knowing what the class policy promulgated at the beginning of the semester was, I'm going to reserve judgement on the profs decision to fail you on the assignment. As for not knowing your grades, I would talk with her that you are worried you may not be passing. If she continues to not get your assignments back, take it to the Dept Chair that you feel you may be failing, but haven't received any feedback in a long time. I've had profs that take forever to grade work. Thankfully I've never been on the nervous side, but some of my classmates were very nervous.

[fermicat]

Chiming in a little late here, and probably revealing my "old-fogey-ness" here:

I think students should not skip classes unless they have a very good reason. I am amazed in my *graduate* program how many students routinely skip classes. There are only 9 of us, and it is certainly noticeable. Also, my husband teaches college physics and he has accumulated years worth of statistical data points now relating attendance to performance. The result is very clear... The students who go to class more get better grades, on average. Students who skip do not fare as well. Ditto for students who do or do not do their homework.

Another good reason not to skip classes - training for your future career, which will go nowhere if you don't show up for work every day, on time.

/lecture mode

AS - just make the best of it however you can. Usually the tests are weighted more heavily and you should be able to overcome one bad mark. If you are close to a grade cutoff at the end of the semester, go and plead your case (unless you skipped a lot, in which case the prof probably won't help you).

[AgentSun]

i've only skipped about three times this semester. this most recent time, i really was tired and feeling sick and wouldn't have really paid much attention anyway, as i was about to fall asleep.

[fermicat]

You're doing a lot better than I used to do! When I was a wee undergrad, I skipped a lot during my first two years. It slowly dawned on me that most of the C's I got were in classes I didn't attend regularly. I would skip more than three per month, especially the really early ones.

I'm dreading next semester. One of my required courses starts at ..... 8 AM! Argh! I am SO not a morning person. But the bright side is that I will have Fridays off (with no classes).

[AgentSun]

next semester i have an 8 am tuesday and thursday, and a 9 am on mondays wednesdays and fridays. NO SLEEP FOR ME! especially because i'm a night owl to begin with. and i don't take naps. it took a lot of forcing to take a nap the other day because i was up for about 24 hours straight, and then trying to register for classes.

[LT Garrix]

I don't think I went through a single semester that I didn't have an 8AM class, that's both for undergrad and grad. That was 16 quarters/semesters. Maybe my last quarter I didn't have class until 9am. I've just always been used to starting the work/school day early so it doesn't bother me much. Work days have always started around 7am. I think the 7:30 I have now is a real treat. :D