2008 Woodie Awards
A class that should have never gotten out of hand
Issue date: 11/15/06 Section: Editorials & Viewpoints
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This particular Monday started like any other school day. It was the Monday after homecoming, and I assumed it would be very average, considering that all of the excitement and action on campus took place the previous week.
Boy, was I wrong. That day, I got all the action I needed to last the rest of this semester and then some.
The action occurred in the place I felt it would be the least likely-the classroom.
The problem started a couple of weeks ago, when our teacher gave us a group assignment that the class had about a week and a half to complete. On the day it was due, many of the students did not show up on time because they were finishing their assignments at the last minute. When the professor arrived and found only a handful of students, he promptly canceled class and left.
On the next class day, many students noticed a change in the professor's attitude. For one thing, he started giving daily quizzes, something he did not inform students he would do. That made the already-upset class angrier.
But the breaking point occurred that Monday, when the class just about went to hell and back.
We started with a quiz, as usual, but something caught me by surprise as class proceeded. I noticed that a lot of students were going up to the professor to talk about grades.
At that exact moment, a friend in the class sent me a text message asking what my grade was. Last I knew, I had an A average. To my surprise, it had dropped three letters.
I came to find out that the majority of the students in our class had received less than impressive midterm grades.
After we turned in our quiz, the free-for-all began.
The professor complained that he had to start giving us daily quizzes because he felt the students had become too lazy, and treated the class only as an easy elective.
Of course, that statement angered many of the students, and only added more fuel to the fire.
The professor then accused the majority of the class of acting like high school students, and admitted that it had become a job for him to come to the class.
Boy, was I wrong. That day, I got all the action I needed to last the rest of this semester and then some.
The action occurred in the place I felt it would be the least likely-the classroom.
The problem started a couple of weeks ago, when our teacher gave us a group assignment that the class had about a week and a half to complete. On the day it was due, many of the students did not show up on time because they were finishing their assignments at the last minute. When the professor arrived and found only a handful of students, he promptly canceled class and left.
On the next class day, many students noticed a change in the professor's attitude. For one thing, he started giving daily quizzes, something he did not inform students he would do. That made the already-upset class angrier.
But the breaking point occurred that Monday, when the class just about went to hell and back.
We started with a quiz, as usual, but something caught me by surprise as class proceeded. I noticed that a lot of students were going up to the professor to talk about grades.
At that exact moment, a friend in the class sent me a text message asking what my grade was. Last I knew, I had an A average. To my surprise, it had dropped three letters.
I came to find out that the majority of the students in our class had received less than impressive midterm grades.
After we turned in our quiz, the free-for-all began.
The professor complained that he had to start giving us daily quizzes because he felt the students had become too lazy, and treated the class only as an easy elective.
Of course, that statement angered many of the students, and only added more fuel to the fire.
The professor then accused the majority of the class of acting like high school students, and admitted that it had become a job for him to come to the class.
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