Okay, so throughout my many years of schooling, I have prided myself on having the ability to pay attention and not fall asleep in spite of the material of the class and the tone of the professor’s voice. There are only two classes that I specifically remembering falling asleep in: the first was my freshman year taking Intro to Psychology on a Wednesday afternoon for three hours. Mind you, this was in Florida, so it was extremely hot outside and thus comfortable inside the classroom and this particular professor defined monotone. While the topic was interesting, the professor had a hard time convincing me thus I got a regular dose of sleep every week. The second, which Melissa can attest to, was my junior year (first year at the University of Washington) taking a class in geology (which I can’t even remember the name of the class) at 9:30 in the morning in a warm room with another professor that loves monotones. Everyone fell asleep in that class.
So, like I said, proud of my ability to at least stay awake and alert in classes. Well, the class I am currently taking, Fluvial Geomorphology, has been testing me to the extreme. The professor teaching it is brand new to teaching. She stated the first day of class that she has never taught a class before, only guest lectured…and it is apparent in her teaching abilities. She has a very rough time engaging the audience and despite the fact that this topic is extremely interesting, she cannot convey it. Her slides are dull (always white) and packed full of sentences and equations (which she proceeds to explain every single variable, and read sentences directly from them). When she is asked questions, they fluster her, and she will read through her slides for about five minutes and then provide an inadequate answer. The students have now figured this out, and avoid asking questions.
The only way that I have learned to survive this class, is by bringing my laptop and entertaining myself by accomplishing work while sitting HERE in boredom. If you didn’t guess, I am writing this post in class right now. And…..she just gave some very incorrect information about the Mississippi Delta. Ohhh, that pisses me off. About half of the class isn’t here right now and that is normal, and the ones that are are either working on something else (me and four others), sleeping, or staring at the screen (obviously not really listening).
I don’t know if it is my senioritis kicking in or what, but I can’t wait to be done with this class.