Talking Heads

So ...

:(

... uh ... well I got the December critiques this week ...

I was expecting them to be bad, right? Well they are ... mostly. And not bad in the way I thought they'd be bad. I mean, I have no idea how bad I thought they'd be. I realize that I kinda yelled at them in October for being idiots on the quizzes. Of course, I haven't yelled at them since. I just kinda say, "This was based on the lecture, and you can use the lecture code on the quiz so let's take a look at it." And maybe then they feel dumb for not looking at lecture code, but they shouldn't feel offended by it.

Well ... lemme explain what my first idiotic mistake of December was. I told them they were gonna fail. I actually said, "This is a very hard class, and quite a few of you are going to fail. Hell, if you've never programmed before, I *expect* you to fail. That being said, you'll have to work hard and maybe see me for office hours ..." And I said stuff about maybe they didn't know why they enrolled, and perhaps they'd be better off in another program. I told them the story about my enrollment in the National Guard. I slept on top of the sheets because I was scared the drill sergeants would come in the middle of the night and expect us to dress and make the bed in under a minute or something. And, of course, I immediately ditched them. Now that story isn't one I'd *like* for people to know, I suppose I was just ranting. But I called it a sort of inspirational speech.

So about four people complained that I totally shouldn't have said that, and it immediately brought down their spirit. One even said I didn't do anything to make it easier for them. (Bullcr*p because I made the study guide for the final.) So I got pretty low marks for "Maintained a positive lecture environment" though I'm pretty sure that was the only negative thing I said. Granted, I wouldn't put it past me to have said something else. Like ... I'm not curving the final because they shouldn't have missed 40 questions, or they shouldn't have done so bad on the quizzes to need such a high grade on the final. I'm pretty sure I also mentioned that last month. Oops.

I also got many complaints about them not being able to use their laptops during lecture, which I know my predecessor got as well. An older guy this month (the one that complained) asked the first day if they would be allowed to use laptops. I said no. He said they were great students. I said no. He said they'd use peer pressure to keep everyone in line. I said no. He asked if he could use his, since he's slow at writing. "Well ... I suppose if you sit in the back so it doesn't cause a distraction to the other students." This is another reason why his complaint pissed me off so much. I treat this guy as an exception and he stabs me in the back. My coworker said I shouldn't have given him an inch. So one of his complaints to my supervisor was that they weren't allowed to use laptops, and my supervisor completely knew this. But it was a sign that I didn't trust them. (Well duh! I remember what I did in all my programming classes when the teacher couldn't see my screen.)

So my supervisor forced me into allowing them to use their laptops this month. That's fine, I really don't care. If they f*ck around during my lecture, they can fail. But this guy says they're a real trustworthy bunch. Peer pressure. They'll make sure everyone stays on task.

Heh.

Ha.

Ha ha.




HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!


Oh wait, one more HA! I've docked more GPS this month than any other month (including the GPS Nazi phase a year ago). And I'm only docking their Global Professionalism Standard points during lab. I can't believe these guys are screwing around right in front of me. And a coworker walked in on my lecture and caught about half of them screwing around. So I know there is no peer pressure being used to keep them in line.

But I don't really care. They signed some bullsh*t contract about abiding by the Standard and if they screw around, they lose points. So I just dock points. This month I was more of a GPS ninja, I generally didn't bother telling them to stop screwing around. I only got involved if there was a group of students. Because now the guy failing is watching the guy passing goof off. And they'll both blame me for their poor grades.

Another major complaint was about the lighting in the room. I'm not sure how this is my fault exactly (and I'm sure some were blaming me specifically for this). The lights have two settings: one or off. Dun dun dunn!!! They have some Java controls, but they don't work at all. The dimmer sliders aren't work the pixels used to display them, they suck so bad. The Mighty Student this month also complained about that. I managed to click wildly on the Java form until the front lights turned off, but the back stayed on. But that only worked two days. I haven't been able to reproduce that lately.

I think two people said I was boring and monotonous ... I'm totally not monotonous. It's a boring class if they've programmed before, but that's not my fault they didn't test out of it.

Two people complained that I teach how to do something wrong 8 times and how to do it right once. Well ... there are 8 possible ways you could break said code and only one way to not suck. My few is that you shouldn't just be able to program well, you should be able to debug well. I apparently just suck at teaching that part. Especially since in lab they don't realize it's the same broken code I just showed them. *sigh* I called my younger brother and asked him how they teach it in a mechanic's class. He said they show them how the parts are supposed to fit together. Then they're supposed to take it apart and put it back together before they're allowed to leave. He handed the phone off to his wife (yeah ... even he got married before me). We talked for about an hour on this.

She taught English as a Second Language down in Mexico. Not that she was qualified to teach, but she was American and could speak English. And she had to teach a bunch of 40 year old men that didn't respect her at all. I would guess most of my students don't respect me as a teacher because of my age as well. She gave it to them straight; she's in charge and they won't pass if they don't do what she says. Well ... if I had 40 year old guys, they would probably expect some young tech guy to be teaching the class. But I have 17 year olds expecting some 40 year old teacher. I'm only a few years older than most of them. And obviously me "setting them straight" is just me being negative. And they b*tch about it on their anonymous critiques.

About the broken code, she suggested I should give some of the labs as broken code and have them fix it. Which is a pretty good idea ... though it involves work on my part. But I actually see this as a challenge now, and I'm going to give 100% into being the best teacher ever.

I scored really low on "Teacher was able to convey knowledge to students" and "Teacher's lecture style was conducive to learning". I think those are probably because of the no laptop policy, which is admittedly not conducive. About 6.5 average on a satisfaction scale of 1 to 10.

Incredibly though, I scored really well on "Teacher was knowledgeable of subject" considering how low the others were. There were a few things I was wrong about. Hell, you can't know everything about code. But I was happy to see they didn't think I was an idiot. High intelligence, low wisdom has always been my thing. 8.5 average.

I think the "Test material was fair" scored higher than it had been for my predecessor sometimes. 7.5 or something.

The labbies were marked well with their category average of 9.1. Though that is still a bit low for our pool, considering who was in my class. I'm guessing they just weren't too happy with the class in general (*cough* me) so they marked everything a bit low.

I thought it was funny how some guy ranted about how bad I sucked, but then marked N/A on all my marks. Good job. Wonder why I think you're an idiot? What's lower than a 1? N/A. Sure. Pick that.

I'm glad most of the students picked N/A for "Teacher was available during office hours" since they never went. I hate when they mark teachers low for that even though they never bother asking for office time. More of my students *should* seek office hours.

And one guy said that the lab guys were awesome, but gave them low marks. Um ... were they just not awesome enough?

Now, one thing I'm completely confused on is the "Lecture began on time" average of 7.8. Because I've had problems with the Music Business people getting out of my room before 5pm, I told the class we would start at 5:15pm. And I was certainly prompt about taking attendance right at 5:15pm. So ... is the lower score because I was always prompt? Cause they don't like me? Cause 5:15 is not 5:00? I just don't know.

***
So, what do I plan to do about this? Keep the open laptop policy (one less thing for them to b*tch about). Spend as much time necessary to get the lights to not suck. Finish rearranging the lecture material so it's presented in an orderly and understandable fashion. Create some broken code labs. Create some labs that have the same layout as the quizzes. Perhaps go over the correct lab code after they've finished it. As one student pointed out this month, how are they supposed to know if they're doing it right. There's a lot of ways to hack something into working, but that doesn't mean it's right. So perhaps I'll have them turn in their labs (and grade them just for effort so they stay on task during lab), and then go over how to do it correctly.

But a lot of work right now will go a long way for me. I expect January's critiques to be a lot better with the open laptop policy, but if I can pull it off, February will be amazing! And then I won't be so afraid of my boss.

***
Mucinex is scoring some critical hits against my cough. I had to cancel Wednesday's lecture because I couldn't talk. I feel great, and I was talking to a friend for a few hours today. So I *should* be able to lecture tomorrow without a problem. *crosses fingers*