I teach two recitations, and one of the Departmental bigwigs was coming in to observe the second one. Whether or not I get a raise, what sorts of classes I teach in the future, and generally what the Department thinks of me as a teacher, are largely determined by the impressions the once-a-semester observer takes from my class.

So for my first recitation I was really relaxed as usual, 'cuz the observer was coming to the second recitation, not the first. Throughout the course of the lecture I said "ass," "damn" and "hell." I also spent twenty minutes going over one problem, my work constantly corrected by various people in the class, and still came up with the wrong answer. Also, there was a formula that I was supposed to know but didn't, so I asked the class if anyone knew it, and said "Okay, good. I'm going to have an observer in my next class, so I want to know this formula."

Anyway, at the end of class this kid who had been sitting in the back row, and whom I had never seen before, walked by my desk. He wasn't really a kid, but a middle-aged person; I figured he was one of those middle-agers who go back to school to get their degrees, and that he was from another recitation but had missed his and so was coming to mine. So I ask the guy, "Hey, are you in this class?" He smiles and says, "No, I'm the observer." FML

4/9/2009 4:15:54 PM

4/9/2009 4:19:51 PM

ass damn and hell are big no no's

you're fucked six ways from sunday

4/9/2009 4:20:02 PM

yeah, you might want to be looking for a new job


what class is it that your students know the material better than you?

4/9/2009 4:20:38 PM

jle;wra

I'm Big Business and i approved this message.

4/9/2009 4:20:45 PM

this is Calc 1...I didn't know the formula for lateral area of a cone...and I'm really bad at algebra so I made all kinds of mistakes

4/9/2009 4:23:20 PM

get ready for remedial math

4/9/2009 4:24:47 PM

who the fuck knows the formula for the lateral area of a cone ?

don't sweat it, you'll be fine

I always get worked up over fuck ups, but I come out smelling like roses

4/9/2009 4:25:27 PM

Quote :

"Anyway, at the end of class this kid who had been sitting in the back row, and whom I had never seen before, walked by my desk. He wasn't really a kid, but a middle-aged person; I figured he was one of those middle-agers who go back to school to get their degrees, and that he was from another recitation but had missed his and so was coming to mine. So I ask the guy, "Hey, are you in this class?" He smiles and says, "No, I'm the observer.""

i mean, if there was a middle-aged person that i hadn't seen before, and I knew that there was going to be some observing going on that day, i would have been a little suspicious.

4/9/2009 4:26:45 PM

^^
thanks, man
I'm a pretty good student and I had really good teaching evaluations last semester, so hopefully they won't judge me just based on this one fuckup


[Edited on April 9, 2009 at 4:28 PM. Reason : ^]

4/9/2009 4:27:22 PM

i woulda googled that junk from my phone lol

but lateral cone area is (pi)(slant height)(radius)

just one of those few that i remember

4/9/2009 4:29:57 PM

see Jeffrey, this guy knows the formula, yet has no job

4/9/2009 4:30:54 PM

I don't know whether to be or

4/9/2009 4:31:23 PM

Was he actually wearing a large wig?

4/9/2009 4:31:53 PM

did the observer look like this?

4/9/2009 4:32:21 PM

who the hell can't figure out the formula for the lateral area of a cone?

4/9/2009 4:33:43 PM

i might have a job slave

gonna find out more about it on Sunday

4/9/2009 4:34:54 PM

^apparently it's not at Chickfila

4/9/2009 4:35:41 PM

what city

hopefully for your sake its actually a city

4/9/2009 4:38:08 PM

LOL^^

it'd be like working from home drawing up blueprints from what I've been told...so wherever i want to be i believe...im gonna be in raleigh to start off at least, but i like raleigh so i wouldnt mind staying there

4/9/2009 4:39:38 PM

raleigh sucks

blueprints for what

are you an architect now

4/9/2009 4:41:26 PM

i would like to tell people that i am

4/9/2009 4:42:44 PM

I mean i can understand someone having a bad day, but come on. You knew you had an observer that day, why wouldn't you just be on your A game if you were really that worried about it.

And I guess the students in your first lecture deserved your half-assed performance because you weren't expecting to be evaluated during that one? That's probably exactly why the middle aged student you didn't recognize decided to show up at the first one to catch you off guard, it's entirely your fault that you don't take your job seriously unless someone's grading you on it

4/9/2009 4:51:11 PM

Quote :

"you deserved it!"

4/9/2009 4:57:51 PM

why would you consider acting like a jackass at the first class even if you were completely sure the observer was going to the 2nd?

pretty stupid move on your part.

4/9/2009 5:02:27 PM

sounds like you were observed teaching normally and they found out what they needed to know.

4/9/2009 5:09:03 PM

Quote :

"recitations"

4/9/2009 5:18:18 PM

how many students do you have?

you don't know all your students? at least by face? that's weird.

4/9/2009 5:35:28 PM

that sucks man

4/9/2009 5:39:40 PM

I think you just turned in your resignation

4/9/2009 5:50:07 PM

hahahaha

schadenfreude ftw

4/9/2009 6:03:07 PM

How did your 2nd class go?

4/9/2009 6:04:34 PM

the second class went fine...of course

Actually, I embellished the story a little bit; it wasn't as bad as I made it out to be. I went over four problems, and the first three I did perfectly. The fourth one took me awhile (though not 20 minutes) and I didn't do it in the most efficient way possible, and I think maybe I ended up with an extra pi in my answer; but the overall technique was correct. I did make little mistakes here and there in a couple of the problems, but they were pointed out to me by my students, and I fixed them. I wish I hadn't said "hell," "damn" and "ass," and I wish like hell I hadn't remarked that I wanted to know the formula because I had an observer coming the next class; but c'est la vie. Also, when I asked the observer if he was a student, he smiled in a friendly, rather than a malicious, way, and just said "I e-mailed you about visiting your class."

thx yo V


[Edited on April 9, 2009 at 6:16 PM. Reason : /]

4/9/2009 6:11:23 PM

Figures the 2nd one would go well. Hopefully you won't catch too much shit for it.

4/9/2009 6:13:27 PM

how do you know you said hell damn and ass

not exactly words of which i keep a memory log

4/9/2009 6:16:11 PM

I have learned to filter them out of my speech when teaching or talking to important people
but sometimes they slip through the filter

4/9/2009 6:17:06 PM

Considering the situation and the fact that he realized what had happened I'm sure you would remember saying certain things...esp. said in the past hour.

4/9/2009 6:18:05 PM

if i was observing a class, i wouldn't mark someone down for using these words...everyone is at least 18 im assuming...if anything they might be attention-grabbers (in a good way) for the students

the things i would mark down would be more on if you couldn't explain something or kept doing a problem wrongly...not knowing the formula wouldn't have been terrible, but not being prepared with a reference textbook or something might have counted off more

4/9/2009 6:20:25 PM

piiiiiss coming out my aaaaass!

4/9/2009 6:21:03 PM

^lol

I had a calc. teacher that always fucked up the problems/got confused/lost. That shit was annoying.

[Edited on April 9, 2009 at 6:22 PM. Reason : .]

4/9/2009 6:21:52 PM

if you lose your job over this, that's retarded

you sound like someone i would have liked to have had for calc.

4/9/2009 6:31:47 PM

If a calc professor I had still has his job, you shouldn't have anything to worry about. He was an African who could barely speak English and what he said was crazy. He spent a whole class talking about how to be a "prince of peace."

4/9/2009 6:49:55 PM

goodness grows in north carolina!

4/10/2009 9:30:30 AM

keep us updated with what happens!

4/10/2009 10:22:32 AM

ya can't fix stupid

4/10/2009 11:13:24 AM

So I met with the observer earlier today, and it went fine. He said I should make sure to work out the problems beforehand; ordinarily I can just do 'em on the fly, but sometimes they're tricky, and he stressed that a teacher should always know the quickest and shortest way to do a problem. Also, at this one point this girl "Jones" was turned around in her chair, talking; so I said, "Jones. Jones Jones Jones. JONES!" this last really loud. He noted that Jones did not ask a single question for the rest of the period, and that I should maybe be a little bit more tactful in my methods of quieting students down.

The only thing he was really pissed about was when I said "Liverpool got their asses handed to them yesterday." He wasn't pissed that I said "ass"; but he had recorded the game and was planning on watching it that night, so I spoiled it for him

Anyway, all is well. Thanks to those who expressed their hopes that I wouldn't get fired, etc.

4/15/2009 4:49:13 PM

Glad it worked out OK for you.

4/15/2009 4:51:43 PM

^

4/15/2009 4:54:14 PM

Maybe after Jones shut her damn mouth, she paid attention enough to not have any more questions. DID HE EVER STOP TO THINK ABOUT THAT?

4/15/2009 4:54:43 PM

This "Jones" character sounds like a real asshole

4/15/2009 4:55:47 PM