unfair professor comment

[Senusret I]

Email the department chair and your dean immediately.

[scbelle]

^^^ Ditto on what Senusret said. What a crazy prof! I think someone in the department needs to be aware of this situation.

I had a trig teacher at my high school (it was for math and science nerds, and let's just say, I was there for science!) who I just couldn't understand. I had always done pretty well in math before, but her teaching style and my learning style were not meshing. I tried really hard, but to no avail. One day, she got fed up with me asking "ridiculous" questions and actually called me stupid in front of the class. I was mortified. I didn't know what to do, and I finally decided that I needed to confront her. I told her that I was trying my best, and that I believed it was just not a compatible match between our styles of teaching/learning. She thought I was lambasting her teaching ability and basically got all huffy. I HAD to tell the dean about everything that had gone on, if for nothing else, to cover my own you-know-what for what I had said. I actually received a lot of support from him. I hope whatever you decide to do to work this situation out that everything will end peacefully and positively.

[Velocity_14]

^^^Co-signing with them. Also show them the original email you sent her as well as her response. This is just crazy; I will suggest trying to address the issue before dropping. You may also want to see if she is the only one teaching that course if it is one you need. I may be wrong but we would have had a face to face "conversation" immediately following class. Don't let that ride...seriously. You are investing too much time and money to play games with people like that.

Also, check your student rights & responsibilities handbook. At this point, if you haven't been, you need to be documenting everything---she is the one with issues...

[Buttonz]

Wow. I'm so sorry she is doing this *hugs*

Get in contact ASAP with your dean and dept chair and let them know what happened, show them the e-mail that you sent and her reply. If you have a good friend in that class have him/her ready to back you up if need be.

I've done it before on a professor, as much as I hated doing it, a few of us went at once that had issues with her, there is strength in numbers.

[mulattogyrl]

Originally Posted by penguincutie

Well, there's more to the story.

In class today, my professor started off by bringing up the e-mail I sent her. She never said it was mine, but honestly, no one else's critique would have merited an e-mail, so I'm sure everyone knows who sent it. So she started going off on how "oh, I must have critiqued too hard, well, blah blah", basically bringing up some points I made in my e-mail and refuting them. Great, so that went well. Then, at the end of class, she noticed she still had my paper, so she looked at me and said, "Why do I still have this?" I told her she had said she wanted to keep it... I had assumed she just wanted to write more comments on it and hand it back later, as she has given back everyone else's. So she says all cheerfully (her usual voice is usually kind of monotone, so this was definitely odd for her), "Well, I want to keep it, so I'm going to!"

I don't know if this constitutes bullying, but honestly? I feel as though I'm being bullied by a professor twice my age. And I really don't appreciate it. If she keeps this up, regardless of whether I need the class or not (it's four credits, so I kind of do), I'm dropping it.

Co-sign with what everyone said. She's crazy and you shouldn't be going through this.

[AKA_Monet]

Originally Posted by penguincutie

Well, there's more to the story.

In class today, my professor started off by bringing up the e-mail I sent her. She never said it was mine, but honestly, no one else's critique would have merited an e-mail, so I'm sure everyone knows who sent it. So she started going off on how "oh, I must have critiqued too hard, well, blah blah", basically bringing up some points I made in my e-mail and refuting them. Great, so that went well. Then, at the end of class, she noticed she still had my paper, so she looked at me and said, "Why do I still have this?" I told her she had said she wanted to keep it... I had assumed she just wanted to write more comments on it and hand it back later, as she has given back everyone else's. So she says all cheerfully (her usual voice is usually kind of monotone, so this was definitely odd for her), "Well, I want to keep it, so I'm going to!"

I don't know if this constitutes bullying, but honestly? I feel as though I'm being bullied by a professor twice my age. And I really don't appreciate it. If she keeps this up, regardless of whether I need the class or not (it's four credits, so I kind of do), I'm dropping it.

Do you attend a large university or a small one? If it is a large one, and you feel this class is not worth your heartache, then I would drop it and wait. But, if it is a small one, well, there are some issues.

Firstly, most schools have line that cannot be crossed especially about emails, no matter how personal. Did she violate that line? Do you have proof?

Secondly, my university uses Epost or Classsite as groupsites for students in the same class to join and discuss. Those places have not been productive as expected by educational professionals. What appears to work is clearly delineating the expectations of the assignments with the students to demonstrate one's knowledge. That works.

Did she explain the assignment to your class or did she give you a syllabus that detailed the assignment? What I did for my students, is presented a powerpoint and told them to make a group presentation as if they were experts. Some groups did excellent and showed they did their research, some just read off the page. But, they followed my basic concept, which was to give them exposure to presenting science in front of audiences like a journal club, etc. That was my goal for that assignment.

She needs to have a goal, period. I can tell you at a Research 1 university, most professors don't... Which sucks for education.

So ask yourself, why do you need this class? Do you need it to graduate? Can you take another professor? Just asking?

[texas*princess]

Originally Posted by Senusret I

Email the department chair and your dean immediately.

agreed 10000000%.


Make an appointment, see them in person... and bring whatever documentation you have with you.