Last teaching log

Today is the last day before Thanksgiving break. I have already received several e-mails from kids who have told me that they cannot make it. Normally I would never hold class before a break because I too like to get more time off. I think it is interesting that most teachers will not give days like this off because they NEED to have class. Quantity Quantity Quantity.

Another issue that has come up is a student that has missed a lot of class. She has been in a car accident, her grandmother died, she had the flu, among other things in this short semester. She also did little to no work for her group project. Now, I feel like she deserves to fail the class and might from grades alone, but I worry that she is gonna come after me for giving her an F. Why is it that I have to worry about things like this in a college level? These kids are here for a service and they feel like they can complain when they get bad grades. Once they complain they think that somehow everything will be ok.

On the other hand, I really hate bad teachers who make the system even worse for people like me. I feel like we should have more power to deal with situations like that, but at the same time I had a friend who was sexually harassed by an older professor here this semester. Now, how can profs get more power when there are horrible people that get to teach? I am really disheartened by the state of affairs in higher education. In my experience, I have had terrible teachers, people who have harassed their students, those who could care less and just teachers who could care less. Why can't higher education be more about teaching and less about ourselves?

My students have been pretty good for the most part this semester, but I am still excited to done with this class so I can improve on the next class. While I have no control over the syllabus, I can still adjust the ways that I teach the material and subvert the class in other ways. I am glad that I will actually have an idea of what the class is about and possibly be able to teach it better. I think that I will be in a much better position simply because I have read the material once and have heard from other teachers about their techniques.

While many of my posts have been cynical, I think overall I am pretty excited to teach again next semester. I just wish I had more time to become a better teacher.