Pick a Professor

Lots of ideas running through my head right now but my eyes are not cooperating.  I never thought I would be so excited for an eye exam.  Reread my english essay with slightly less stressed eyes this morning and I wanted to eat it just so I wouldn't have to see how bad it was.  I didn't even get to Baldwin and used minimal quotations, how dumb of me to think of writing that when I could have focused on fewer authors with my short time frame.  

/ bad student rant.  

[Back to ideas.]

One idea:  

While I've been trying to take an active role in selecting professors and classes that I think will be the most beneficial to my learning, I've been thinking about what a shitty system is going on with community college course selection.  If I look at four year university website I can find information on professors, basic bios, specialties, academic interests, but I can't find that at JCC.  When I first discovered ratemyprofessors.com I thought it would be a great way to get some information but soon I realized that they are so often personal and so rarely accurate, and if accurate they lack details that would make it in anyway helpful to me.  Sometimes there are professors that obviously have a good personality and that shows through, but I'm not necessarily looking for a good personality.  Most of the time I'd take a class with a major asshole if I thought it was going to benefit me more than taking a course with a nicer person. 

I realize I'm not looking for what every student is looking for.  Just this week I was discussing a course that a fellow student is thinking about taking it for her requirement in that area and she asked "Is it easy?" and she was hopeful that I'd say yes.  "Is it easy?" is not a question I would ask.  And I think that there are a lot of cases on ratemyprofessors.com where that's the only criteria being judged.  

On the other hand, had I read comments about my WORST ONLINE CLASS EVER I would have known that he never planned on doing any sort of teaching whatsoever.

Now, is that his pedagogical practice or him just being lazy and afraid of technology?  I have no idea, but with a bio page a student could find that out.

So I'm not suggesting just your standard "this is where I graduated, this is what I studied, this is what I wrote, and by the way I like to garden."  And I'm not suggesting rating oneself on "easiness" either.  Instead, I'd like to know about teaching styles.  It'd be nice if a professor could sum up their style if they have one, and they usually seem to.  If it's a totally on your own, totally self paced, no discussion, no collaboration, kind of a deal then it'd be nice to know up front.  There are people who love that sort of class and people who don't.  If it's a class that involves a lot of group work or a lot of participation that'd be nice to know, too.  If a professor likes to lecture a lot or wants you to learn through experimentation and research that would be sooo helpful in trying to find the right fit.   Unfortunately, if anything about this gets mentioned it's on the first day of class after a student has already signed up and after every other class is full.  (And the sample syllabuses have limitations). 

I know there is the much circulated idea of schools treating students like customers and how that's bad for education and going into this corporate model that will probably end up dumbing down classes and make us all stupid zombies who would like to eat brains except we can't remember where in the human body they are located.  

BUT

when there is nothing available to students to find someone that fits their unique needs (and yes, I believe students have them) they end up in classes with teachers that would be really great for someone else, but maybe not for them.  So maybe the student who isn't as easily engaged by a certain style complains about the class on a website and then another student posts and says they loved the class, and so we've learned absolutely nothing about the class or the professor's style.    The concept of what is or isn't easy is subjective and sometimes saying something is "difficult" is just saying that you found it difficult to stay awake. 

. . . I haven't fully formed this idea.  There are problems with it, I can tell.  I could argue that students need to move out of their comfort zone, but I think a lot of students do that when they enter courses they're weakest in, often as a general education requirement, but sometimes as an elective.

And, on top of discussing style, it would be nice to know what each professor's area of expertise is, what their specific interests are.  If I'm interested in a specific area of literature and I find that one professor happens to have the same interest or specialization then I see that as a reason to to try and take the course with that professor.  In college we're adults, we should have general education requirements, but we're making decisions about our majors and our careers, so why not try and find a professor that you could learn best from?  Or someone you could ask questions regarding something you are particularly interested in? 

I have another idea in my head about this, I feel like it's trying to come to the surface but I can't quite bring it to birth.  Let's see . . . there is something to be said about the way a student views a community college vs. a four year university.  The community college is disrespected and if you are a student you may find yourself thinking less of yourself because of your own or others or even a perceive disrespect of the college (this is another entry all together).  But in a college where teaching is favored over research it would sure be nice to know a little more about that teaching the same way four year university students have access to their professor's published titles and areas of special interest.  There is something that feels less second class student about having more information.  At least to me.  I'll have to run this by my people.