30 Day Challenge: Day 22

Day 22 - Tell us about your least favorite professor.


(this 30 day challenge thing is a total failure, but I'll still complete the tasks anyway)


Least favourite professor . . . probably one of my chemistry instructors? Actually it's a tie between one of my chemistry instructors and a math instructor. The chemistry instructor was dry in terms of teaching material and the math instructor always carried a sarcastic tone in his voice whenever he spoke.

30 Day Challenge: Day 21 (and something on the older student)

Day 21 - Tell us about your favorite professor.


My all time favourite professor is my Latin teacher from when I took Latin. It was only the beginner courses I took but those were some fun times. The reason why I like him so much is for his humour. A lot of it has to do with either pop culture or old tv shows. Things that I remember from his lessons:


The imperfect tense of verbs: Remember B.A. is  imperfect for his fear of flying. B.A. is a character from The A-Team (played by Mr. T.) and the character had a fear of flying (maybe heights too). If I wanted to say "I was praising" in Latin, that would be laudabam. Breaking the word down: lauda-ba-m where ba is an infix putting the verb in the imperfect.


the enclitic -que: fish chipsque (this coming from a vegan, and he's quite vocal about veganism).


He sometimes would tell stories too like the one about the Audi company name I mentioned here and maybe some anecdotal stuff too.


He also had an interesting accent. His family name is of Serbian origin (his first name, Milo, is short for Milorad to boot) but he identifies as German and even speaks it too. He did some schooling in England before coming to Canada. Okay he does have a German accent but he's not all Hans Gruber with it or Schwarzenegger with it.


Anyways something occurred to me today. Not sure sure if it's the weather or how I see people but something to watch out about the student older than average. Not all undergrads are well, young looking in appearance. I apparently mistook some who could easily be a faculty member or a grad student and not know that the person was a full time undergrad. fml? or it could've been anyone's mistake.

Advice for the young grasshopper starting university -- Course Instructors

Course instructors. I use this term in this post because whoever is teaching the course will not always hold a Ph.D (a.k.a. be Doctor such and such of whatever subject). Your instructor could be a grad student who is a candidate for either the Ph.D or a masters degree and in the case of some language courses your instructor could be someone who has completed a undergraduate course or obtained a certificate that allows them to teach whatever language.

Instructors come various ages and backgrounds. I personally find that the older the instructor the more likely their teaching methods are similar to what mom and dad might have experienced at our ages and still use chalk/the white board while teaching. That's not the case for all old geezer instructors as I have seen them using PowerPoint as well newer teaching methods. I can't really vouch for that as personally one of my parents went to university in another country and the other parent went to a different, Canadian university back in the 70's.

New instructors depending on how long they've been teaching vary in their styles as I think that they're still exploring how to connect with the students. You might get someone who constantly reads off his or her notes to someone who makes frequent eye contact. Since these guys are new try not to give them a hard time and this is where I find those instructor feedback forms coming in handy. That way if they actually use the advice off of them it can help in improving their teaching skills.

Universities hire instructors from everywhere. If there's life on other planets my guess is that they would do the same to extraterrestrials too. Your instructor may speak English as their first language but at the same time carry an accent just as those who speak English as their second, third, fourth fifth, etc. language. Yes sometimes their accents can be funny at times but out of respect try not to make fun of it. If you have a hard time trying to understand what the instructor is saying don't be afraid to ask to repeat something.

The same applies to T.A,'s or teaching assistants though the majority of T.A.'s are grad students. T.A.'s are there usually running the tutorial classes, assisting you in labs (though some senior undergrads can do this too) and marking your assignments. So if you ever get something marked wrong on an assignment it's not always the instructor's fault but hey, they're still human.

Not sure what else I can say about instructors. It's really a hit or miss in terms of getting an instructor that's really enjoyable (unless you read stuff off of ratemyprofessors.com). I should also mention some instructors are visiting instructors from other universities. They're there either to temporary fill in a position when the regular instructor is away on something (sabbatical or doing a research position at another university) or are looking to apply for a position at your university. These ones may not turn up on the site so unless you know someone who had the instructor before it's a hit or miss.

Your instructors are usually experts in their field may have written your course's textbook.

Other than that if there's anything that I've missed or something you want to say, be my guest.