Tuesday 12:50: Time for my Anthropology class and I'm excited and ready to go. I find the awkward and nasty room in the basement of a building I’ve never been in. The instructor shows up and things get off to a really strange start. He seems to be nervous or have anxiety issues; I’m not sure which one. The first half of class he uses transparencies of screen shots to show us how to log on to the course website and get assignment information. Then he talked about the syllabus and we did a few practice assignments. He lectured for about 10 minutes and class was over. I didn’t know what to think. The guy seems nice enough but his teaching style is polar opposite of my learning style.
15 minutes to get to my next class. It’s in another basement room but this time in a building I am very familiar with, the Technology Building. All of my Architecture classes and most of my other classes have been in this building.
The instructor shows up a little late and for the first 10 minutes I was sure he was intoxicated. Then I realized he was just extremely eccentric. He forgot the syllabus and his lesson plan. He spent the class telling stories and goofing off. The 18 year olds in the class loved it. Me not so much. I’m spending my time and money and I want to learn something. He also lectured for a few minutes at the end but it didn’t seem to go anywhere.
I left for the day feeling extremely frustrated and disappointed. When I got home my wife asked why I was so grumpy and I told her. She suggested it would change; the first day of class is always crazy.
Anthropology class was the same on Thursday. Exactly the same! He reviewed the course website and syllabus and lectured on the same things plus a little bit more. Déjà vu? I WILL die in this class!
American Civilization went a lot better this time. The instructor showed up a minute late again and goofed off a little but then he got to business. He read an Egyptian Folklore story and related it to several events throughout history and recent events as well. He is definitely a very strange dude but I’m looking forward to his class now.
Now I’m only 50% frustrated with school. After class I decided to see if there were any other Anthropology sections open that would work for me. There is one on Tuesday nights from 5:30 to 8:15 but it is at a different campus. Definitely pros and cons. I won’t see my kids at all on Tuesdays and by the time I get home I’ll see my wife for about an hour and a half. I will be able to work longer on Tues and Thurs so I won’t have to make up as many hours at work on Mon, Wed and Fri. And I won’t go crazy. The instructor for this other section isn’t on ratemyprofessor.com so I’m hesitant to pull the trigger right away. I’ll go to both classes on Tuesday and see how it goes.
Sorry for the never ending post. I needed to rant.
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