The School/Uni Thread

[Srontgorrth]

That makes it even worse. There's no fucking way I'd ever call someone at a community college "professor." No offense though.

...then what would you call them?

 

[unknown]

even though community colleges (at least in California) often pay more than 4 year universities which, as a result, attracts more PhDs?

 

[King Richard]

...then what would you call them?

Their name man. College isn't high school. It's ok to refer to someone by their name and it not be considered disrespectful or something. I don't even refer to my bosses at work as mister or sir or any of that shit. They're just teachers.

even though community colleges (at least in California) often pay more than 4 year universities which, as a result, attracts more PhDs?

I've been to several campuses with my community college and have taken numerous courses and have never been instructed by anyone with a PhD, never. It must be much different here I guess. Most of the teachers I've had at CC were not good to say the least. I've complained numerous times to their department chair and to the dean because of some very bad, borderline ignorant teachers in the past.

I don't know how the pay structure works between universities and CC's, and it doesn't really matter much to me. I'm not calling anyone a professor unless they are in fact that, a professor. Being adjunct faculty at a CC with only a masters degree and lack any and all teaching skills doesn't qualify as professor to me so therefore I'm not calling them professor.

 

[Srontgorrth]

Their name man. College isn't high school. It's ok to refer to someone by their name and it not be considered disrespectful or something. I don't even refer to my bosses at work as mister or sir or any of that shit. They're just teachers.



I've been to several campuses with my community college and have taken numerous courses and have never been instructed by anyone with a PhD, never. It must be much different here I guess. Most of the teachers I've had at CC were not good to say the least. I've complained numerous times to their department chair and to the dean because of some very bad, borderline ignorant teachers in the past.

I don't know how the pay structure works between universities and CC's, and it doesn't really matter much to me. I'm not calling anyone a professor unless they are in fact that, a professor. Being adjunct faculty at a CC with only a masters degree and lack any and all teaching skills doesn't qualify as professor to me so therefore I'm not calling them professor.

Seems like it would sorta be disrespectful to me, unless the teacher/professor said it's okay to call them by just their first name. To me, teacher feels like a word more fit for high school, and professor more for higher education. Out of the 9 (iirc) community college classes I took here in Vegas, 5 or 6 of them have PhDs, and out of the 9, there was only really one that wasn't good at all, but it was art appreciation...

 

[Vimana]

Is art appreciation pretty much "this is a famous piece of art and this is why it's good, whether you like it or not?"

 

[Einherjar86]

I personally feel there's no way to organize or develop a successful "art appreciation" course. Art history is absolutely viable, but art appeciation is futile.

 

[Srontgorrth]

It was sorta like art history, just not as in depth. Pretty much went over all sorts of different areas and periods of art, major artists in the period, and a variety of works and so on.

 

[Vimana]

I personally feel there's no way to organize or develop a successful "art appreciation" course. Art history is absolutely viable, but art appeciation is futile.

Same here. It's pretty hard to objectively define "good" in terms of art. That's why I avoid discussions about why some art is good and some art isn't. Imo, "good" in terms of art all boils down to the opinions of the more respected people. I'm sure if some of the more respected users here said Justin Bieber was good and most people don't realize how talented he is, then a lot of the people here would be listening to his songs to confirm this.

 

[Der Morgenstern]

I told one of my classes today that a little bit of fear before taking a midterm is healthy. They all looked at me as if I had already failed them before they took the midterm.

 

[King Richard]

You should pull a prank on them and give them all F's, watch them suffer for a few minutes, and then be like "HA! Just kidding, here are your real grades." And then pick one person and be like, "Ok but seriously, you failed."

You would be my hero.

 

[Der Morgenstern]

I had a prof once who, after the first midterm in his class, would attach course withdrawal forms to any of the midterms he returned that got less than about 65%.

 

[King Richard]

 

[Master_Yoda77]

From my experience at a Community College, the best teachers only had their Masters. I had a professor who taught at Princeton before teaching at my CC, and he didn't have a Ph.D

 

[The Ozzman]

Why not follow up with a phone call?

 

[The Emptier]

yeah seriously the worst teachers have doctorates here, the best teacher I've ever met in the history of ever is the guitar professor here and he only has a bachelor's.

 

[cookiecutter]

Still haven't gotten a reply from one of my profs about a letter of rec. I got responses from the other two but not from this guy, and I sent the email a few days ago. It's especially weird because he's the one I worked for as a teaching assistant and I'm pretty confident he would have no objection whatsoever to writing me a letter. Professors get a lot of emails so maybe he missed mine somehow, and he is kind of an older guy and can be sort of absent-minded when it comes to emails and stuff. Or maybe he's on sabbatical and is without internet right now. I have no idea what this guy is up to. I don't know what to do. I hate the idea of sending the email again and possibly looking like a jackass.

When do you need the letter? Id you can wait a bit emailing after 1-2 weeks doesn't make you look like a jerk because that's easily enough time for a mere email acknowledgment.

 

[Draehl]

Looking at master's degrees for a year or two down the line. I'm pretty much set on a career path towards something Fraud, anti-money laundering, or compliance. It's tough to find the right masters. Finance, accounting, information systems, or a fraud/AML focused degree at a rinky-dink online college. Risk management touches on it, but is really more insurance driven. Need to do more research.

Or no master's degree and just get a couple of certifications.

 

[zerostatic]

After 7 years of teaching in a public school I am ready to get back into the classroom(University). Education classes bored me as an undergrad so I am looking for something that will get me out of the classroom. Possibly a degree as a speech-language therapist or maybe physical therapy.

On a side note, I am embarrassed to mention that I have nearly lost all of my passion for history and politics. I hoped that switching to a new curriculum,World Geography, would reignite my enthusiasm, but alas, I feel just as uninterested in teaching as I did last year. For those of you currently in the world of academia I would greatly appreciate it if you would recommend a few excellent academic texts that might help me regain my desire and motivation for educating the youth of America.

 

[unknown]

Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paolo Freire

Inventing the University by David Bartholomae (at least for rhetoric and composition, but it's still an intriguing read for anyone thinking about teaching)

 

[Zephyrus]

So I have applied/am applying to the following institutions for graduate study:

Michigan (PhD program in Ancient History)
Iowa (MA program in Classics)
Colorado at Boulder (MA program in Classics)
UMass Amherst (MA program in Ancient HIstory)

I can't decide whether to apply to a fifth school. I'm thinking the Classics program at Vermont or Buffalo, but they don't have any faculty to Late Antiquity. Might do it anyway.