The Good, The Bad, and The Terminally Unhip

Those of you who have read this blog in the past and those of you who have spent five minutes in my company will know my fondness for speaking to your professors. That being the case, I thought it might be high time to get to know those denizens of the deep who enslave you for months at a time...

The Good: Yes, they are out there (just like the truth...or versions of Return of the Jedi that still include the "yub-yub" song). A "good" professor, doesn't necessarily mean an "easy" professor. "Good" professors challenge you. They help you make the connections between specific things and abstract concepts. They are engaging in a classroom setting and they feel comfortable with their material. Good professors get excited by what they are talking about--they are passionate and dynamic and they actually give a crap about their students. If you start off doing well in their class and then do poorly...they're going to ask you what's going on and if there is anything they can do to help. A good professor will make him or herself available to you. They will give you pointers on your writing, on your study skills. Good professors can become good career advisors down the line so make use of them when you find them!

The Bad: Like it or not, you're going to have bad professors. I try to help my students limit their contact with bad professors because, well hell, I wouldn't want to take a class with them either. But here's the thing; you CAN learn from bad professors. The obvious thing is for anyone out there who wants to teach. Think about the ways that your bad professor speaks to his or her students. Observing classroom dynamics is one of the first things that a young teacher needs to do in order to learn. Take all of the bad traits...and then do the opposite! Take all of the good traits and model your teaching style after those! But we can also be a bit more creative (for those of you who are horrified by the very thought of teaching). Did your bad professor give you a grade you feel you didn't deserve? Use this as an opportunity to learn how to negotiate difficult personalities. Approach the professor with a question, rather than a demand. (Good Approach: "Would it be possible for me to speak to you during your office hours about the last exam? I had some questions about my responses that I would really like to clarify just for my own understanding." Bad Approach: "Hey douchebag, you graded my test wrong! I deserve partial credit on, like, five of these questions!") You know as well as I do that there are people in this world who are generally unsatisfied with their lot in life, are just killing time until they retire, or are so territorial about the things they know (or their job in general) that they might as well pee all over everything in their path. Learning to be smart about your dealings with these people is one of the greatest learning experiences you can have during your first year of school.

The Terminally Unhip: This category has only come into existence within the last few years. I realize that I'm dating myself horribly by telling you that we didn't have things like Blackboard, or iPods when I was in school (we barely had the internet), but professors who are not making use of these tools are just the tip of the "unhip" iceberg. Utilizing technology is incredibly helpful in the classroom setting. Facebook has become one of my favorite tools to help me stay in touch with my students (who often will NOT check their university e-mail). Online course components frequently make professors' jobs easier--but they have to be willing to maintain the technology. If your professor isn't utilizing Blackboard to post your grades, you need to be a LOT more proactive about your attendance. Do you have a folder or notebook for the class? Each time you are absent, write down the date (that way, if there is ever a discrepency, you have a record! Even better, e-mail the teacher or TA and inform them that you missed class and find out if you missed anything. Remember that e-mails are date and time stamped!) If the professor does not allow you to keep your graded work, make sure you write down what grades you're getting, as you get them! The other aspect of this category is the professor who tries to be "cool." They're the ones who make the bad jokes and use the slang that stopped being cool 5 years ago...and they do it with such earnest intensity that you cringe each time they open their mouths. (For instance: My bosses--two of the whitest white guys ever put on this planet--wrote a textbook for students having academic "difficulty". The book is filled with a lot of good advice, but students lose faith in it when they are asked to rate the study strategies on the basis of whether or not it would "rock my world". Not kidding.) When faced with professors like this, I want to beg them not to try so hard--but at least you can laugh at them.

There is one more category I would be remiss if I did not mention here. Though not an official designation of professor, I think I need to talk about TAs. The Teaching Assistant is another one of those time-honored university traditions that you aren't going to be able to escape. Here's what you should know: 1). TA's are only sometimes paid. More often than not, being a TA is something students do for the learning experience. They think they are being favored by Professor X...in reality, they are going to end up doing the bulk of the work, while handling all of their graduate course work, and not getting paid. 2). TA's are still learning. Very few programs actually teach graduate students the art of pedagogy (teaching) and developing your personal teaching style takes time! 3). TA's are young. This might seem like a benefit...and it can be, but all too often, TA's feel like they have to overcompensate for their age by being extra strict. They don't want to be taken advantage of by people closer to their age, so they act like asses. TA's often make the mistake of walking into a classroom and demanding respect, instead of assuming that the respect is already there (or will be earned quickly through fair practices).

I made all of these mistakes (and probably a lot more) when I was a TA--so remember that there is room for improvement. I learned pretty quickly that my passion for certain subjects wasn't something that everyone was going to enjoy--that wasn't my fault and it wasn't theirs either. Be open to new ideas and don't place blame (unless someone is being a douche...then you can blame as much as you want).

Oh, and one final note. I've written before about using sites like www.ratemyprofessor.com and I stick by that. Post your responses to classes, both good and bad...but be fair in your posts! If there was something you could have done to make the class better, you might not want to say that the professor was a jerk (and for the love of god--stop using the freaking chili pepper function on the site! A professor's relative hotness has nothing to do with your learning potential). And you might want to check out MTVu sometime. The Professors Strike Back section is getting a lot of hits lately...with good reason.