If you're a college teacher, PLEASE read this

[herkulease]

1st year in college?

 

[whattaguy]

Transfer to a school with a quarter system if you want a "real" spring break.

 

[Kipper]

Originally posted by: Jzero

Originally posted by: MadCowDisease
They've done YEARS and oodles more work than you have and know a helluva lot more than you do in their respective fields.

In fact, many of them have spent so much time in academia that they have no grasp on how the rest of the world functions. And lots of them are AWFUL teachers. Calling them "teacher" is an insult to the profession. Possession of knowledge does not imply ability to convey that knowledge to anyone else.

I have found that the teachers that quibble over being called professor or doctor are always the ones that least deserving of their titles.

Sorry you've had that experience but I've had very few professors who are bad at teaching their subject, and I think I've been lucky in that regard - partly because at a liberal arts school, I have the flexibility of not having to take classes with bad professors in order to graduate - I can always take another class to substitute for the requirement. True, many professors have spent years upon years in academia - but that doesn't mean they have no grasp of the real world. Many of them do have lives beyond research, you know - families, commitments, and so forth. I think lack of real-world grasp has a lot more to do with the person themselves rather than what they do for a living.

As far as titles go it is simply a matter of respect and recognition - nothing else. I think a Ph.D alone is worthy of respect, regardless as to the teaching capability of its possessor. The bottom line is that the OP should not be complaining about his workload because he signed up for it.

Edit: Academics get paid squat. That's all I'm saying - nothing more, nothing less. No value judgments.

 

[Gibson486]

Originally posted by: MadCowDisease

Originally posted by: Gibson486

You want good Teacher Evaluations? You want Tenure? respect us and we will respect you.

Since when did tenure have todo with teacher evalulation? How is giving homework over spring break disrespect?

Those professors work harder than most students and they do not even get a spring break.

Most universities are moving toward a system which balances teaching ability and research & publishing. While the latter is probably weighted more than the former and it doesn't matter for you if you are bloody brilliant, student evaluations play a great role in weeding out who to keep for tenure and who to release.

they better start soon. I remeeber that my college gave my differential equations teacher tenure and the guy could not teach for beans. geesh, everyone who is talking linear Systems now is failing because the prequisite was differential Equations.

 

[Aharami]

Spring break? wtf is that?

<----works in corporate america

 

[sciencewhiz]

At my alma mater, christmas break was in the middle of our winter quarter. My E&M professor assigned a project on the friday before break, and it had to be turned in on the monday after break. Thankfully, my flight back was on saturday, and I spent all sunday before classes resumed in the lab.

 

[liquidblue]

I can't recall whether I had assignments during spring break.
I do remember enjoying those weeks off though. Yeah, yeah... "welcome to the real world." Please. College is not the corporate world. It's a path to it. If the OP was complaining about not getting days off from work, he'd deserve the crap he's getting but it's college. The last place you get to play before all you do is work and have all those responsibilities with almost no time off.

Professors just as well as the students deserve that week off.

 

[Jzero]

Originally posted by: MadCowDisease
Many of them do have lives beyond research, you know - families, commitments, and so forth. I think lack of real-world grasp has a lot more to do with the person themselves rather than what they do for a living.

Except you associate with people in your field. Academics hang out with other academics. They forget that there are people out there who work on a completely different schedule.

The bottom line is that the OP should not be complaining about his workload because he signed up for it.

Perhaps, but I can and did gripe about work handed out over Spring Break until the cows came home. Even when I didn't travel on spring break, I was going home where I have no computer, no internet, very little ability to do solid work. I don't care what I signed up for...the course description never says "Big project due the day you get back from Spring Break."

Edit: Academics get paid squat. That's all I'm saying - nothing more, nothing less. No value judgments.

I cannot cry "bullshit" loud enough. Unless by getting paid "squat" you mean that getting paid $30k at the low end to work 10 months out of the year is "squat."

I am thankful that at least my own wife knows how good she's got it...and she has to teach the brats that get kicked out of the public school system.

But this is neither here nor there and I must apologize for derailing this thread over my pet peeves about the academic world.

 

[eLiu]

im taking 5 classes and i have 1 hmwk assignment over break. however, for the other 4 classes...1 has an essay due, two have tests, and one has a project due the week after spring break. GAH.

 

[Kipper]

Originally posted by: Jzero

Originally posted by: MadCowDisease
Many of them do have lives beyond research, you know - families, commitments, and so forth. I think lack of real-world grasp has a lot more to do with the person themselves rather than what they do for a living.

Except you associate with people in your field. Academics hang out with other academics. They forget that there are people out there who work on a completely different schedule.

The bottom line is that the OP should not be complaining about his workload because he signed up for it.

Perhaps, but I can and did gripe about work handed out over Spring Break until the cows came home. Even when I didn't travel on spring break, I was going home where I have no computer, no internet, very little ability to do solid work. I don't care what I signed up for...the course description never says "Big project due the day you get back from Spring Break."

Edit: Academics get paid squat. That's all I'm saying - nothing more, nothing less. No value judgments.

I cannot cry "bullshit" loud enough. Unless by getting paid "squat" you mean that getting paid $30k at the low end to work 10 months out of the year is "squat."

I am thankful that at least my own wife knows how good she's got it...and she has to teach the brats that get kicked out of the public school system.

But this is neither here nor there and I must apologize for derailing this thread over my pet peeves about the academic world.

JZero, there's this little thing called a "syllabus." It lists all of the course requirements, description, and assigments, including exam dates/project dates, well in advance. If you fail to prepare, that is the student's responsibility alone. If there was confusion, the proper prior-planning student could easily speak to the professor and get a rough idea of the year's schedule. NO responsible professor will assign an exam or project without ample time to prepare. If you fail to prepare, whose fault is that?

As far as associating with people in the field alone...you have your co-workers, then you have your friends who aren't necessarily going to be academics. While I don't deny that there are plenty of academics that are up to their ears in their field and out of touch with the rest of the world, this is true of almost any occupation, person, or such...you're going to be out of touch with some part of the world, like it or not. I really fail to see why this is an issue for students. You are going to school, you are on the same schedule as the professors - you have the same weekends and breaks off. Many people procrastinate, and this is the problem - not the assignments themselves.

 

[Jzero]

Originally posted by: MadCowDisease
NO responsible professor will assign an exam or project without ample time to prepare. If you fail to prepare, whose fault is that?

Unless you don't have the background to complete the assignment far enough in advance. "Oh, that project that's due the day you get back from break? You won't be able to really even touch that until the lesson the day before spring break. Sorry about that..." I agree that the professor is not the sole guilty party, but it is pointless and abusive to assign work over a "break" in any case. It's one thing to have a big project that if you are smart you'll work on over the break. But I think we're talking about assigning work that is specifically to be done over a break.

I really fail to see why this is an issue for students. You are going to school, you are on the same schedule as the professors - you have the same weekends and breaks off.

Because not everone is a full-time student. Of those that are, not everyone is sitting around weekends and breaks drinking beer in Cancun. They, too, have jobs and families and "real world" responsibilities. I once had a professor seriously suggest that I might take a class during the summer at 2PM at a campus 90 minutes from my house. Sure, sure...I'm sure my real job won't mind...

 

[shimsham]

its called growing up. you know, learning to balance fun with responsibility. probably best to learn that now.

 

[3point14]

All of my students know their responsibilities. They do the homework at their own discretion. If they want to pass my final, they must keep up with their work. If they decide to keep up with a lil? math during spring break, kudos to them; if they decide not to, that?s their choice. I do not assign homework over Spring Break, but I do suggest that they review over a few problems from each chapter (maybe 5-6 chapters up to that point). I respect my students and I respect their time, but they took my class to learn. They are adults now and they must act like it. As a result of this, I have students still come in and review stuff I taught them last semester so they can do better in their current math course.