I swear professors think that the students in their classes are not in any other classes. The amount of homework we receive on a day-to-day basic is ridiculous. Yes, we are in college - I get that. Yes, it is about learning all you can before they kick your ass out of the school in hopefully four years to survive on your own. Honestly, half of the homework I have received so far in my college experience is nothing but a waste of time. Why is it that major, time-consuming projects are assigned with only a week left of the trimester? I DON'T GET IT! No I do not want to read 50 pages of something for next class. You can't sum it up in a page or two for us? That would be helpful and we would probably be more likely to come to class if we weren't up until 3:00 am reading - just saying.
How is my life as a Graphic Design major this trimester? Thanks for asking ... not. IT SUCKS! I am bombarded with time-consuming assignments. Make a website for this, that, and oh yeah, this too. (Note to self, never take three courses that involve making websites all at one - seriously I should have thought about this. Guess it is kind of my fault). Anyways, that is not the point.
Here are some tips for all professors. 1. Please don't assign the most time-consuming assignments toward the end of the term. Our brains are already fried and it will most likely be a whole lot more sh***y than if they were assigned at the beginning of the term. 2. When giving final exams, make it either a written exam or a hands-on lab exam - NOT BOTH. 3. Do not base your class activities off the syllabus. Make it fun and exciting so we actually pay attention and come to class. 4. Do not lecture with the lights off or for the whole class period. If anyone is like me, which they probably are, the dozing will begin or the computer will be brought out. 5. If you want us to pay attention, do not just stand up in front of the class and talk. Give us some notes so that we have something to do other than watch your mouth move.
So as I am sitting here working on all of my final projects due this week, think of ways to enhance your teaching in the classroom. Note to you - majority of your students are in 3 or more classes at the same time they are taking yours. In my case, I am in 5 classes total. CUT BACK ON THE HOMEWORK!! We would like to have a life outside of school if that is not too much to ask.
Sorry to any of you who are offended - I warned you at the beginning.
oh.so.lifeless
I'm not offended Ally. In fact, I wasn't going to respond to this post but I am procrastinating looking at the piles of papers I have to grade, so here goes...
ReplyDeleteI understand your pain. Really, I do. However, these 10 week courses at NCC receive semester credit. That means the content is theoretically equivalent to the content of a 15 week long course at UIC or De Paul. Back in my day, you were expected to read 8-10 books in the typical semester course. And that was at the lower level. In one upper level course, I had to read 5 works of philosophy, each over 500 pages long, AND do outside independent research for a term paper. Really we should be assigning 100 pages of reading per week on average. But there is a point to all this reading and homework. It isn't just sadism. It's not that we professors are mean. One of the things students are supposed to learn in college is HOW to concentrate for extended periods of time complex, lengthy, difficult texts, HOW to read, HOW to evaluate evidence and HOW to make sense of (and criticize) other people's arguments. And you'll never learn that if all you read is text books that present you with predigested ideas and 2 page summaries.
That said, yeah, maybe it was a mistake for you to take 3 classes that required building websites in a single term. It is something I usually warn my IMS advisees about. Keep that in mind when signing up for courses in the future. Hang in there. There's only one week left. Then you can sleep.--Steve
A prime example of this is that I have slept no more than 4 hours the past 3 nights because of trying to work on final projects. But that can also be partly my fault because I couldn't decide on a plan of action or theme for my projects. So now I'm in the stick situation of not sleeping to finish my projects...
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