Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: CP5670 on September 01, 2004, 11:58:31 pm
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For those of you who are students, this is about the time school starts again. What are your teachers/professors like? My first day at college was monday (I'm enrolled at U of maryland, college park) and after going again today (only have classes on MWF), I have a good idea of what mine are like:
microeconomics: grad student, very friendly and a good teacher. Only problem is that he asks the students questions a bit too often for my liking, although he does just wait for an answer instead of asking individual students. Only gives homework once a week and it doesn't require any more work than the two-day assignments of some other classes.
advanced calculus II: Not sure what to make of this guy. Apparently they changed the lecturer for this class at the last minute and I think he will be taking over for the entire course. Although he is a full professor and is quite friendly, he either has no idea how to teach or is not really familiar with the subject (his area is somewhat different, closer to my stuff actually). Lectures are littered with "uh"s, long pauses and minor mistakes, refers to the textbook constantly while talking and today wasn't able to answer a very simple question from one of the students about a proof he did. Hard to understand what he is talking about and he seems confused about it himself. Also tends to stand directly in front of what he is writing on the blackboard, which can get annoying when trying to take notes. On the plus side, he indicated that he is not quite as picky about details in proofs as most math professors are, so the tests will be easier.
PDE (applied): postdoc, very friendly; talks very softly and has a thick accent so it can be hard to tell what he is saying, but fortunately writes almost every single word he says on the blackboard, so it doesn't matter. As in the econ class, homework is only one assignment a week.
number theory: full professor, friendly and very good at teaching. Very passionate and enthusiastic about the subject, although has a tendency to run over the class closure time due to this. For some reason, although this is supposed to be a third year undergrad class, he still takes roll call every day, although I don't know whether not showing up counts against you or not.
I dropped the physics/mechanics class for various reasons after one lecture, but that guy was quite good too (full professor, old but lively) and had a pretty sophisticated homework system. It's all done through java applets on his website.
I'm happy with them overall, but I need to think about what to do with the AC2 class, as I can change any of the classes in the first two weeks and there happens to be another interesting class at the same time. Maybe I should ask another professor who I know personally about what he thinks of this guy.
On a side note, I had a dentist appointment today and was rather surprised to see the old newspaper article on me posted there; although it would be useful to show to the math professors, it is creating a bit of needless publicity even now. :p
Anyway, what kind of teachers have you gotten?
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advanced calculus II: Not sure what to make of this guy... math professors are, so the tests will be easier.
holy ****, that was the same guy I had for calc 2, no fucking clue what he was talking about and out of his mind, on the first night he spent an hour and a half trying to figure out what he did wrong in a simple volume of a pyramid problem.
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Originally posted by CP5670
For those of you who are students, this is about the time school starts again. What are your teachers/professors like? My first day at college was monday (I'm enrolled at U of maryland, college park) and after going again today (only have classes on MWF), I have a good idea of what mine are like:
Whats it like outside?
Anyway, what kind of teachers have you gotten?
My best teacher was my US history teacher. I knew he was kickass, and then I saw him on TV on the History Channel. Everyone else is blah.
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holy ****, that was the same guy I had for calc 2, no fucking clue what he was talking about and out of his mind, on the first night he spent an hour and a half trying to figure out what he did wrong in a simple volume of a pyramid problem.
:D did you go to the same school?
He was proving that a sequence in Rn converges iff its components individually converge and was pretty clueless when the student asked why he took a square of the cauchy-schwarz inequality (simple answer to that was that it just made it slightly easier later in the proof, since there was no square root). He just sort of stared at the blackboard for a minute with periodic uh's and mumbles and eventually said "you gotta be a bit careful with that sort of thing" and moved to the next topic. :lol: On Friday he said will get to the theorem that a set is open iff its complement is closed, which is a new topic for me so I better master it in advance of the lecture. This is the hardest class I have (real analysis in several variables basically) but it's a good thing he follows the book very closely (which is written by the department head and his boss), as I can just read that instead of trying to make sense of what he is saying.
Whats it like outside?
Well, I had actually been out a lot recently due to going through numerous stores in the area to find a place carrying 6800GTs in stock. (found one eventually) :p
It's a good thing that the route between the Rockville and College Park metro stations is mostly underground and that I have all three math classes back to back (so no need to leave the math building) though. :D
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The sunlight, its burnssssss!
I haven't started school yet, so I don't know my profs.
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Ahhhh, brings me back to the years when I was training in the Pleiades for expeditionary work. Never thought I'd be stranded out here for so long....
I mean, uhh, yeah I like my teachers. :nervous:
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the guy's name was c...something morris, but I highly doubt he is the same guy as I go to a small comunity collage in southern illinois, but he was _constantly_ makeing the exact same sorts of stupid as your guy is. he'd have something worked out in advance and someone would ask "why (the hell) did you do that?" and he would just look at the bord for a moment say something every few seconds and get stuck in some sort of loop untill he rememberd why, at least your guy moved on. even worse was the times when he didn't figure the things out in advance and would end up off in some erronius tangent untiil/unless someone in the class figured out were he went wrong.
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Generally: I like them all this year. I got all the classes I wanted (more or less) and got them (contrary to prior years) have 6th period off. It's looking to be a good year.
AP Lit. and Comp: Teacher, frankly, has ADD I think. For the first two sessions, she spent talking about how much she hates hummers, and how much she likes her own children. Among hte people I know who had her last year, most didn't like her at all although I'm trying to be a bit optimistic. She turned out alright today though, as we actually wrote an essay in class and she talked to us a little about preparing for the AP exam.
Academic Physics: Meh, I would have been in AP if scheduling hadn't forced me into AC. The teacher is really nice though. He seems to have a real passion for physics, and I think I'll learn a lot from him. We also worked out a program for me to take AP level work and take the AP test through his class.
Honours Spanish 5-6: The teacher is really hyper, but really good at teaching. I already know I'm going to learn a lot more from her than I have my last three teachers combined. I'lm looking forward to this year.
Honours Trig: Had this teacher two years ago for Hon. Geom. He's great, personality and teaching wise. He's sort of an old coot, but funny.
Journalism: Teacher is great. She's young and full of energy and deffinitely wants to be there with us every step of the way. Couldn't ask for more.
Russian: The teacher is actually Russian. Good sense of humour, also teaches English as a Second language, so she knows how to cross teach Russian to English speaking folks very well.
All in all, I'm very happy, and suprised I didn't get screwed somewhere along the line.
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any hot teachers yet?
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Journalism and the Track Coach. ;)
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Originally posted by Bobboau
the guy's name was c...something morris, but I highly doubt he is the same guy as I go to a small comunity collage in southern illinois, but he was _constantly_ makeing the exact same sorts of stupid as your guy is. he'd have something worked out in advance and someone would ask "why (the hell) did you do that?" and he would just look at the bord for a moment say something every few seconds and get stuck in some sort of loop untill he rememberd why, at least your guy moved on. even worse was the times when he didn't figure the things out in advance and would end up off in some erronius tangent untiil/unless someone in the class figured out were he went wrong.
Sounds like my 2nd year Discrete MAths lecturer...he'd spend 5 minutes writing down a formula or some working - then go "wait, that's wrong". Very shuffly bloke, reminded me od dustin Hoffman in Rain Man.
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the guy's name was c...something morris, but I highly doubt he is the same guy as I go to a small comunity collage in southern illinois, but he was _constantly_ makeing the exact same sorts of stupid as your guy is. he'd have something worked out in advance and someone would ask "why (the hell) did you do that?" and he would just look at the bord for a moment say something every few seconds and get stuck in some sort of loop untill he rememberd why, at least your guy moved on. even worse was the times when he didn't figure the things out in advance and would end up off in some erronius tangent untiil/unless someone in the class figured out were he went wrong.
I have this guy (http://www.math.umd.edu/~pnw/). He's a fairly senior professor, both in age and position, but I think he might be one of these guys who does great research but just can't teach. His area seems to be numerical analysis though, which is quite different from this stuff.
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My only math class this semester would be Probability/Statistics. The teacher is really cool. I've had this guy as a teacher before. This teacher also looks old but is very lively about the subject. I had this instructor before for Calculus I and I had an A all that semester. Sometimes he tells stories in between ideas to take the heat off the class.
I never really understood how to calculate things in probability very well in the past so I'm hoping he will have a good effect on me like in Calculus.
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School doesn't start again for me until the 27th, so I only know who one of my professors is:
2nd year Chinese: I have professor Ren. He is a native chinese speaker, but his english is not so good. He can speak decently, but trying to ask him about something is extremely difficult. His chinese handwriting is terrible (I can usually make out most of his characters), but his english handwriting is even worse (I cannot read it at all). I had him for first year, and it was fun. He is without a doubt one of my better professors (not like he has a whole lot of competition since I'm an engineering major).
Only problem is that he asks the students questions a bit too often for my liking,
So he won't let the entire class fall asleep? Darn. ;)
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Hey, a rival! College Park just doesn't have the same feel as Tobacco Road, though :p
My prof's all seem ok; my CompSci professor I've had before, and he's cool; my math instructor seems a little spacy but good, one professor is very enthusiastic but boring as a brick wall, and the last (though I haven't had more than maybe 2 lectures) seems pretty good as well. I'm pretty happy with the semester; it marks the first time in my college track that I haven't been instructed by a grad student in anything.
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Originally posted by CP5670
advanced calculus II:
"advanced" calculus II? that's interesting, we have Calculus II... that's it. no "advanced" in front of it. is that some special course?
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Originally posted by Knight Templar
Generally: I like them all this year. I got all the classes I wanted (more or less) and got them (contrary to prior years) have 6th period off. It's looking to be a good year.
AP Lit. and Comp: Teacher, frankly, has ADD I think. For the first two sessions, she spent talking about how much she hates hummers, and how much she likes her own children. Among hte people I know who had her last year, most didn't like her at all although I'm trying to be a bit optimistic. She turned out alright today though, as we actually wrote an essay in class and she talked to us a little about preparing for the AP exam.
Academic Physics: Meh, I would have been in AP if scheduling hadn't forced me into AC. The teacher is really nice though. He seems to have a real passion for physics, and I think I'll learn a lot from him. We also worked out a program for me to take AP level work and take the AP test through his class.
Honours Spanish 5-6: The teacher is really hyper, but really good at teaching. I already know I'm going to learn a lot more from her than I have my last three teachers combined. I'lm looking forward to this year.
Honours Trig: Had this teacher two years ago for Hon. Geom. He's great, personality and teaching wise. He's sort of an old coot, but funny.
Journalism: Teacher is great. She's young and full of energy and deffinitely wants to be there with us every step of the way. Couldn't ask for more.
Russian: The teacher is actually Russian. Good sense of humour, also teaches English as a Second language, so she knows how to cross teach Russian to English speaking folks very well.
All in all, I'm very happy, and suprised I didn't get screwed somewhere along the line.
Lucky.....all the teachers I had were miserable idiots...or at least, It felt that way.
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Have I mentioned I don't like Math Majors...j/k...I just don't get along with math very well, and my disgust rolls over to the ones who do understand it :sigh: . I've never taken any form of Calculus and don't do complex algebra(factoring is my nemesis) worth a hoot. The funny thing is I'm a CIS major.
On the hotness question, all of my potential instructors(I'm taking a semester off to get my ducks all in a row) are either: A)old men or B) middle-aged married women. I take gratification to note that my school's primarily an Education school, so there are lots(the student body is something like 75% female) of attractive young women around. Unfortunately, I'm the only 6'3", 285lb hole you'll ever meet. I get looked through and ignored by my own family.
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one professor is very enthusiastic but boring as a brick wall
:lol: I had an english teacher who was like this a few years ago, getting all worked up over some shakespeare stuff that was putting me to sleep.
"advanced" calculus II? that's interesting, we have Calculus II... that's it. no "advanced" in front of it. is that some special course?
They call real analysis advanced calculus here for some reason. This class is basically to calc 3 / multivariable calc what real analysis is to calc 1 and 2, with some topology thrown in. I believe it's supposed to be a fourth year undergrad class.
I think I will stick with this class as another professor I know very well strongly recommended it. He did say that although this professor was very experienced and knowledgeable, he was also rather "strange" and that his teaching style took some getting used to.
So he won't let the entire class fall asleep? Darn.
At least it's a good thing that a couple of people in particular raise their hands all the time (despite frequently giving wrong answers), so everyone else can fall asleep without any problems. :D
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I had my first day of class today. I didn't meet all of my professors, so here're those I met today. I'll update you guys on the rest when I meet them all.
Again for those of you who are curious, I'm a freshman at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland.
Organic Chemistry
Prof. David Klein - He seems to be a very nice guy and a solid instructor. He himself graduated from Hopkins as an undergrad a decade or two before and has taught orgo for more than 5 years here. He constantly cracks jokes to make the class laugh. He's Jewish, but he seems to be the Mel Brooks type. Cool!
Calculus III (Multivariable/Vector)
Prof. Qiao Zhang - He's cool and cracks jokes about calculus. The only thing is his Chinese accent, where it's hard to understand him at times.
He said, "You can choose not to come to lecture. But if you attend lecture regularly, then you'll also get in a language course for free." And he wrote "Chinglish" on the board for us, and of course the whole class cracked up. Again, I'm really looking forward to this class, as it shouldn't be too hard where I know a lot of the material already.
Cheers!
Rampage
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Two new teachers for us this year. In
Russian
Ms. Lyudmilla Yelanskaya
She's a great replacement for our last teacher, who was ****ter than ****. She is native russian, but actually speaks Estonian for a change. She also spends most of the class speaking about her life (in russian, of course), so it's great practice for vocabulary and understanding. A lot better than learning from the crappy books we have. She also has a sense of humor.
French
Mr. Thierry Mourrey
Another excellent teacher, also native French. Great sense of humor. Actually he doesn't joke much, but his personality, and the way he says simple things is soo funny, that we can't help but like him. He's terribly, terribly cute.
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Originally posted by Rictor
any hot teachers yet?
*cough*
:D
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AP US History - Quality
PreCalc - Quality
AP Chem - Quality
English - Quality (from what I've heard)
AP Spanish - no clue
I start classes tomorrow. :(
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By the way, since this is on-topic, and I just scanned this, here is a picture of some of my teachers on the prom.
(http://www.penguinbomb.com/stunaep/scan.jpg)
From Left to right:
Mr. Maarits - our toolworking teacher. A very chill guy to hang around with. Always very calm and witty. Couldn't danse to save his life
Ms. Sinka - our literature and estonian grammar teacher. Best teacher ever. Knows everything about literature (including where to buy a certain book, at which price, and how to get a discount), and is a wonderful person to argue with. Also great sense of humor.
Ms. Küüsmaa - Our maths teacher. An excellent teacher as well, with an adequate sense of humor. Since she is also the director of studies at our school, all of our cancelled classes are always replaced with additional maths.
A teacher who doesn't teach us.
A literature teacher who has occasionally substituted for ms. Sinka. A complete bore.
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Originally posted by Rictor
any hot teachers yet?
Originally posted by Tiara
*cough*
:D
:nod: :yes: *runs*
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We are making our school plan through web or telnet interface. It's generally possible to choose time of the lesson and teacher. Students made some pages where we can discuss advantages and disadvantages of each teacher.
It's easy to choose only if you are a good student (me not) because capacity is limited. So if you have more credits you can register yourself sooner.
My school is CTU FEE in Prague (http://www.feld.cvut.cz/en/).
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Anaz's teachers:
AP Calc: Awesome guy. Knows tons about math in general, also tells amusing stories. However, due to an error in my choice of seats, I have to sit near the...strange children.
AP Chem: Another awesome dude. Pyro all the way. Demonstrated how to use all the fire saftey stuff except the fire extinguisher today. It was really funny to see him soak a washcloth in alcohol, light it on fire, then stick it under the big emergency shower, and pull the handle. He also lit someone's desk on fire to show how to use the fire blanket.
AP Lit: Amusing guy. Is 'current' on culture, always brings other refrences in (simpsons, monty python, etc...) when teaching. His room used to be the room of the insane old english teacher lady, so he's "exorcizing" it at the moment, with glade plugins, and simpsons/band posters. Nifty guy.
Econ: Nifty teacher. Knows what he's talking about, good at teaching. Wants to market "taco tape" to hold tacos together in the microwave :D.
German 4: Same teacher as I've had the past 3 years. She was fun for the first 2 years, ok for last year, and this year she seems to have gotten slightly senile/more strange then before. She's the type that seems like she'd be better at teaching kindergarten.
Cisco 3: ...yeah...she's a nice person, but she doesn't _really_ know too much about the material she's teaching. Is somehow CCNA. Not quite sure how. As an example, it took her 1 time through the course, and 3 times teaching to understand subnets. She doesn't even comprehend VLSMs at the moment.