The Official bad teachers, bosses, colleges thread! (or why im screwed)

[Stephen55]

Luckily for me I go to a college run by idiots. So me and my mates think this guy is so incompetent its funny so I thought id share him, so add your idiots of choice

Krazy Ken we like to call him, named after the excentric character of Kenan and Kel. Ken's managed to lock kids in cupboards, fail the majority of his classes of students (some survive from independent research) yet genrally prides himself as a good teacher with 30 years experience. Ken deliberatly sends his amazon deliverys to college so we can watch them in film studies despite them being totally irrelivent. (We watched the Decent when we were supposed to watch Hollywood cinema) and passed his driving test back in the 70's high on LSD....

Faced with a follow up inspection (after a terrible first one) Ken placed primary school / kindergarden style prompts on the wall 'have I checked my work' 'if I dont know the answer what should I do' the inspector was not impressed, even less so because Ken had not planned the lesson. The next day Ken exploded at students for not engaging enough in the lesson and yawning when he was talking, giving him a bad review...

Recently, (and im ignoring thousands of stupid incidents here) Ken has been not teaching us Japanese film and we have fallen ridiculously far behind our Japanese film exam is on Friday... When I asked Ken if we could do some practice questions he stated there was no point because the question on the exam would be different (missing the point of a practice). I spent ages trying to get Ken to 'teach' us sometimes just repeating the phrase till he realised he was infact a teacher to no avail, he eventually handed out some poorly produced hand outs featuring spelling mistakes, grammarical errors and obvious innuendos. Such as question twenty-ten... when did Benny expel Blacky... and 'who did she sleep with'

Thing is this was his idea of revision, a quiz on the characters a week before the exam, none of the questions touched on the nature of the exams questions but just asked random trivia. He finished off by leaving the room with no work set and didnt return till hometime, one time he came into the lesson late and refused to teach because he hadnt had lunch yet.

So this guy, he needs fired but I dunno if I got the balls to get it done, the college seem to be very determined to pass off all student complaints on 'teenage emotions' or at least they do when its a 17-18 year old girl... yea...

So anybody got any experience in such a thing, has a good story to tell, or has been in a similar situation? let me know. :tongue:

[pocket_pilgrim]

this guy makes me laugh. :biggrin: in a bad way.

i haven't had such utterly strange characters in college, apart from a teacher who always dressed in purple. rain or shine, windy or calm, summer or winter, purple was her choice of colour.

in school i had a teacher very much like mrs. trunchbull from matilda. she was also headmistress and everybody feared her. she taught history and never missed an opportunity to slap or tug on the ear of students; one of them even ended up in the hospital because his ear started to bleed as she had pulled too hard! she would hold assembly every monday and publicly humiliate one or two students. even i have taken the fall because i was... keeping my hands in my pockets. :confused: barking, howling mad she was. she used to keep a chain to attach her purse to her body to avoid theft and she was attacked by dogs that thought she was threatening them with it. they bit one of her legs really badly and had to wear a cast for some time. oh well. all the students' bad karma finally caught up with her.

other than that, pretty much regular characters when it comes to quirks. mile:

[D-Dave]

I had an English teacher who was a real terror, she gave "zeros" everytime someone opened their mouth or let something fall from their table.
She didn't understand the goal of grammatical exercises, and her exams where like "write down the answers of the exercises we made yesterday", how so useful...
But she had funny hair, a la Marge Simpson but in red

[XRIMO]

The worst experience lately I can remember was a professor coming in and yelling at the class that the Greek quizzes we were doing were kindergarden stuff and we should be better than that.
Did I mention that all the students were master's students. It was so demoralizing.

[Wilem]

Hmm...

I'm currently being taught A-Level Physics by a man with no grip on science...

"Sir, why is that the gradient?"
"Wh... what?"
"The gradient equation, there, why is that the gradient?"
"Oh... oh. ... ... That's the gradient."

FFS

[talkochoww]

I had a teacher that use to call all the group idiots and idlers. He always acted as he was the best thing ever happened to the wolrd and used a complex languaje to ridiculize us. He is a total a-hol. We tried to discuss the situation with him and he laugh at us an then went crying with the principal.
the worst part is that he is only there because he teaches other class that no one wanted to teach at a low salary. Seriously, some of us think he sould be dead or killed, weathever happens first (we'll be glad anyway).

[fjp999]

In high school I went to a tech school to study Data Processing. Before the regular term started I had an intro in the summer. The school had just upgraded their computer (an enormous IBM with punch cards).

The teacher was brand new to the school also. He comes in and starts explaining something on how to work the computer. I meekly raised my hand and said I thought that was wrong. He blew me off and went on with the lesson. We come to the physical running of the computer and it doesnt work. Suddenly all the students start screaming to try Franks method! I was soooo embarrassed! And it worked!

That teacher had it out for me for three years :eek:

In junior high we had two teachers who gave us students a big break. One would leave the English class for 15 minutes during tests. Another would leave the original test in the waste basket. Poor first class would get the test but not much time to go over the answers. Every other class got the copy with all the answers = everyone did very well in those classes.

At uni I majored in film studies. My fav teacher brought in spiked coffee and smoked half a pack of cigs during class. At uni most of my profs were art types so it was all very cool

[marshlander]

Stephen,

I am very sorry that I didn't see this thread until now. Your situation actually sounds intolerable and I guess I may have missed the boat in offering you any ideas. I have had some experience of teaching in an FE college a few years ago and was shocked by the way the rules were bent and issues glossed over, so I know these things can happen.

In the "olden days" (when I were a lad ) student unions had some teeth and got involved in important issues, but they seem to have a far lower profile these days. Is there a student body that has the ear of management to whom you can turn? The problem seems to be when action is perceived as one person's word against another.

While it may be a bit late in the day for your course any action is going to require the production of written evidence. From your side of things it may be that you have to start keeping a diary of things that happen in "Krazy Ken's" classes. If you get to a serious discussion about your concerns you might be surprised at the weight such a document might carry.

I should have thought that there would be quality control procedures in place in your college. It would help if you knew what these were. Presumably you also have a personal tutor? What sort of response do you get when you talk to him/her?

Because I actually know very little about this I have written to the DIUS (the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills - who seem to have taken over the functions of keeping an eye on post-16 education) to ask about formally agreed procedures for monitoring teacher performance and for investigating complaints by students about quality of teaching issues. When I receive a reply from them I shall get back to you. If they need to pass my enquiry on to another department it may take a few days, but hopefully we shall all be better informed ... eventually.

I am sorry that you have had to see your course squandered like this. Unfortunately there are a few teachers around who just don't seem to get the whole accountability thing. Fortunately, I believe these are very few in number.

Regards

[princealbertofb]

... In junior high we had two teachers who gave us students a big break. One would leave the English class for 15 minutes during tests. Another would leave the original test in the waste basket. Poor first class would get the test but not much time to go over the answers. Every other class got the copy with all the answers = everyone did very well in those classes....

I know you're saying this tongue in cheek with hindsight, Frank, but do you really think anyone learnt anything from those classes? You say everyone did well in those classes, but you actually mean EVERYONE CHEATED and didn't bother to learn anything...

Maybe I'm mistaken, but it's not the right way to go about things. I know it's tempting, I know kids do it, but it's still a silly way to go about it. The only thing it's got for it is that it's cool and relaxed. I feel, however that it should be possible to learn (really learn) in a cool and relaxed atmosphere and still to feel that, at the end of the day, your brain has worked and grown wiser. But then, maybe that's just me. I would hate to go to a class and feel that I'd learnt NOTHING. Unchallenging teachers are a "disgrace" to the profession, lol.

Is there a nerdy emoticon with glasses???

[fjp999]

I know you're saying this tongue in cheek with hindsight, Frank, but do you really think anyone learnt anything from those classes? You say everyone did well in those classes, but you actually mean EVERYONE CHEATED and didn't bother to learn anything...

Maybe I'm mistaken, but it's not the right way to go about things. I know it's tempting, I know kids do it, but it's still a silly way to go about it. The only thing it's got for it is that it's cool and relaxed. I feel, however that it should be possible to learn (really learn) in a cool and relaxed atmosphere and still to feel that, at the end of the day, your brain has worked and grown wiser. But then, maybe that's just me. I would hate to go to a class and feel that I'd learnt NOTHING. Unchallenging teachers are a "disgrace" to the profession, lol.

Is there a nerdy emoticon with glasses???

Yes, my prince. I so dreamt of having an institution you speak of. Unfortunately, in Jr. High the one prof had dreams of being mayor of the city (succeeded) and the other probably wanted to be the gym teacher but taught literature. I did feel horribly cheated by most of my teachers but the very few that made an effort to involve students in a conversation were most rewarding.

I was so happy to learn that the profs that I met at Uni were real educators and communicators. They opened up the thought of debate and I always held a friend who could debate me out of my mind with the highest of regards.

I once debated a hetero male friend about gay love and it so upset his system (in a positive way) that he got physically ill as his body rejected his own concept of love! It was a very powerful nite.

I was a real nerd as well. I worked at the school library and then was employed at the city library at a very young age (maybe the youngest in that libraries history). Uni did change a lot of that when sex, punk, Reagan, AIDS, new wave, etc took over my consciousness.

But back to Stephen55 and the questions he asks... it seems that things are the same and maybe worse especially if these things are happening at the uni level. I guess the only way to end on a positive note is for students to gather in a study group and educate themselves...