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Class act
Besides pulling all-nighters and praying for a miraculous GPA, ever think about talking to your professor to help your grade? A chat with your prof might surprise you. BY LUKE DALEY
There is one in every class. The teacher's pet who won't put their hand down. The one who won't let anyone else answer a question and the one that makes the professor expect the same enthusiasm from everyone else. The plebian-like students in the back of the classroom resort to slouching in their seats and scowling at the brown-noser, quiet and content to stay invisible to the teacher.
The idea of the college professor is manifested differently by each student and everyone interacts with them differently. Some see the professor as an unapproachable, stuffy, boring authority figure. Others, although a considerably smaller number, visualize a scholarly individual, ready to aide them in their higher learning process. Whatever the conception, every student must decide how much they should interact with their professor, if at all.
When it comes down to it, all anyone wants from a class is a good grade, and sometimes a little bit of fresh knowledge (mostly the good
grade though). Attaining both of these aspects requires at least a minimum of communication with the instructor. But how do you make the grade and avoid becoming the class brown-noser?
Elizabeth Schnieders says she has student to teacher interaction figured out and its all about effort and recognition. She says it is important to give professors a face to put with the name on their class roster, allowing you to become more of a person than just a alphebatized name in their gradebook. Schnieders, a Dallas senior, adds that if you can prove to them that you are interested and trying to do well, the teachers respond to it positively.
For other students, having a chat with their professors seems more daunting, if not unnecessary.
not unnecessary.
Ally Lane, Dallas junior, says she sometimes tries to talk to her teachers, but prefers not to if the class is large.
She says the annoying and always
prevalent brown-noser sometimes does the talking for the whole class.
Frank Farmer, associate professor of English, teaches a number of graduate teaching assistants how to teach freshman and sophomore composition classes. He says his assistants know the difference between students who try and those who suck up.
"Most teachers see through that and it usually, not always, but it usually doesn't leave a favorable impression," Farmer says.
He says that the students who are shy in class, but try to communicate with their teachers on a more one-on-one basis often turn out to be the students who do the best in class.
"Nearly all teachers respond favorably to students who care about their work," Farmer says.
Caring about the class also entails being prepared and thinking about how
Kerri Henderson/Kansan
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jayplay
thursday, september 11. 2003