Thursday, November 10, 2005
Writing Assignment 12 (My psyc teacher asked us to give our critique on her class.)
First of all, I love your psychology class. Yes this may sound like the words of a sycophant but I shit you not when I say that I tell everyone how much I enjoy this class. I have never had a professor who freely speaks to the students in a profane way…but it’s those moments of levity that keep tired working students interested in the subject. In the memory section of the class I learned about ways in which people encode information. I can tell that you base your lectures that information to better aid your student’s learning.
So thank you for being a fun and insightful teacher.
I’m sure it’s an ageless concept but coming from the intellectually sheltered background I came from in Aurora, Colorado (80010 What What) it doesn’t surprise me that I picked up this bit of information in a cliché pop culture novel instead of from the mouths of my direct ancestors. In Robert Pirsig’s book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance he said something to the effect that a big problem in our world is that people don’t attack the source of problems they spend too much of their timing attacking what he called ghosts or the bi-products of the problem. So, at the expense of getting over essay-aic, I would like to discuss the source of my particular issue in the class. I thank you for the chance to give you feedback considering I have a journalism teacher who takes the opposite stance on feedback and who would probably much rather her students not have opinions. This is my third year of schooling here at Metro and what makes your class a challenge for me is your use of the textbook set college curriculum alongside your very interesting and I think much needed perspectives drawn from your personal practices in psychology. From my experiences here at Metro a majority of my professors have been professionals in the field they are teaching but they draw a clear line of what is expected of the students as far as curriculum. For example, I currently have a Spanish teacher who of course knows how to speak Spanish fluently. He sticks 100% to the school's designated curriculum according to the text book assigned to us. He will teach the class numerous idioms, phrases, cultural references, etc. but he will never make us responsible to have that information prepared enough to be tested on it. I know how to study for his class because I know exactly what material I will be tested on. I had this intro to philosophy professor who actually wrote his own curriculum for the class. We had to buy his own little hand make book called “Ponder” (which was a play on his last name Pond and when I say buy I really don’t think he turned some sort of profit on the $8 book. Even if he did I’d rather have one $8 book for class opposed to what I spend on books for other classes.) The book really couldn’t stand on its own to make sense. The content of his tests was completely drawn from his lectures and the book only had little sub-points on what he was going to discuss. It was easy for me to study for the class because I knew exactly what was expected from me. The only difficulty I have in your class is I’m not sure exactly what needs to be studied and with what emphasis…your lectures or the text book curriculum??? Some of the questions on this current test were based on your lectures and upon scouring over my entire notebook I cannot find a clear concise definitions for some of the terms I was responsible for on the test. Working 40 hours a week and enrolled in a fulltime school load (like many fellow classmates) I allot as much time as I can to studying. I haven’t faced a class environment whose curriculum is bi-driven by my teacher’s personal expertise and the school’s mandated text book. If I really needed help I believe you’d have no problem giving me your advice... But hey, it’s a page later now and I’m two points richer for it, YEA!!!
First of all, I love your psychology class. Yes this may sound like the words of a sycophant but I shit you not when I say that I tell everyone how much I enjoy this class. I have never had a professor who freely speaks to the students in a profane way…but it’s those moments of levity that keep tired working students interested in the subject. In the memory section of the class I learned about ways in which people encode information. I can tell that you base your lectures that information to better aid your student’s learning.
So thank you for being a fun and insightful teacher.
I’m sure it’s an ageless concept but coming from the intellectually sheltered background I came from in Aurora, Colorado (80010 What What) it doesn’t surprise me that I picked up this bit of information in a cliché pop culture novel instead of from the mouths of my direct ancestors. In Robert Pirsig’s book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance he said something to the effect that a big problem in our world is that people don’t attack the source of problems they spend too much of their timing attacking what he called ghosts or the bi-products of the problem. So, at the expense of getting over essay-aic, I would like to discuss the source of my particular issue in the class. I thank you for the chance to give you feedback considering I have a journalism teacher who takes the opposite stance on feedback and who would probably much rather her students not have opinions. This is my third year of schooling here at Metro and what makes your class a challenge for me is your use of the textbook set college curriculum alongside your very interesting and I think much needed perspectives drawn from your personal practices in psychology. From my experiences here at Metro a majority of my professors have been professionals in the field they are teaching but they draw a clear line of what is expected of the students as far as curriculum. For example, I currently have a Spanish teacher who of course knows how to speak Spanish fluently. He sticks 100% to the school's designated curriculum according to the text book assigned to us. He will teach the class numerous idioms, phrases, cultural references, etc. but he will never make us responsible to have that information prepared enough to be tested on it. I know how to study for his class because I know exactly what material I will be tested on. I had this intro to philosophy professor who actually wrote his own curriculum for the class. We had to buy his own little hand make book called “Ponder” (which was a play on his last name Pond and when I say buy I really don’t think he turned some sort of profit on the $8 book. Even if he did I’d rather have one $8 book for class opposed to what I spend on books for other classes.) The book really couldn’t stand on its own to make sense. The content of his tests was completely drawn from his lectures and the book only had little sub-points on what he was going to discuss. It was easy for me to study for the class because I knew exactly what was expected from me. The only difficulty I have in your class is I’m not sure exactly what needs to be studied and with what emphasis…your lectures or the text book curriculum??? Some of the questions on this current test were based on your lectures and upon scouring over my entire notebook I cannot find a clear concise definitions for some of the terms I was responsible for on the test. Working 40 hours a week and enrolled in a fulltime school load (like many fellow classmates) I allot as much time as I can to studying. I haven’t faced a class environment whose curriculum is bi-driven by my teacher’s personal expertise and the school’s mandated text book. If I really needed help I believe you’d have no problem giving me your advice... But hey, it’s a page later now and I’m two points richer for it, YEA!!!
# posted by Nick D @ 9:57 PM 
