Posts tagged with course.

It's never too early to try and avoid the mean teacher

Kathy Dobson, June 25, 2009 at 10:38 AM

My two oldest recently finished their course selections for next semester. It'll be their second year at the University of Waterloo.

They knew exactly which professors they wanted, which professors are known for giving unfair exams, and which ones to avoid at all costs.

They knew which professors give interesting, engaging lectures. And which professors don't.

They knew all this before even setting foot in the classroom.

Thanks to websites like ratemyprofessors.com and birdcourses.com, there isn't as much trial-and-error in choosing university courses these days.

On the first day of classes, there are very few surprises.

But if a student decides later that they've somehow made a bad choice during course selections, there's a simple solution. Drop the course. Swap it out for a different class.

Elementary school is a completely different story. There isn't any screening-out process. Even if ratemykindergartenteacher.com existed, students and their parents have little control over selecting their teacher - the person who has complete control over a significant portion of their day, for ten months straight.

Of course, high schools students can always turn to ratemyteachers.com. There are even some elementary school teachers listed on the site.

Back in high school, my two oldest had a serious problem with one of their teachers. The class was a prerequisite for the undergraduate program they both hoped to eventually apply to so they couldn't drop or change out of her class. When they looked her up on ratemyteacher.com, it was oddly validating to see four pages worth of negative comments and concerns posted by previous students and their parents.

And of course, anonymous comments posted on the internet are a pretty reliable source of information, right?

In the public high school system, however, there's usually no way to reverse thrusters and swap classes at the last second, regardless of a teacher's reputation. Short of moving to a new school district, there's no avoiding that teacher.

Well, at least not officially.

Some schools actually post a student's classroom placement for next year on the final report cards. Which means parents can start campaigning and pestering their child's school principal immediately if they don't like the name they see, or don't see, in their child's future.

Come to think of it, maybe that's why my children's current school doesn't share that information until three days before school starts again in September.

My four-year-old son is starting kindergarten this September. My next door neighbour warned me about one of the teachers, saying I should make sure my son doesn't get Mrs. 'Smith.'

"She's really mean," said my neighbour. "Try and get Mr. 'Jones' instead. He's very nice and really loves kids."

I admit, I didn't feel comfortable calling the school principal to ask for a specific teacher, based on some vague gossip from my neighbour.

Thankfully, with eight kindergarten teachers at the school, the odds are with us.

If not, we can always move.

Tagged with school, university, ratemyprofessor.com, teacher, reputation, course, selection | Comments (64) |