Letter to a Bad Teacher

This blog's SUPPOSED to be about a teacher that gave us trouble in grade school, but... I dunno, I guess I block out bad stuff because I can really only remember the teachers I liked. Instead, I will write a letter to my least favorite teacher here at AUM, [name deleted so no disciplinary actions come my way].

Dear [name deleted so no disciplinary actions come my way],

In my Communication 1010 class last semester, I learned many elements that form a decent speech or lecture. You have absolutely none of these elements in your class. I learned that a good "attention-getter" that, while entertaining, must relate to the class material should be used to retain attention. A lecture should be relevant to what we will be tested on. Visual aids must be used, and effectively so. Paying attention to your audience will help one realize how things are going, and appropriate measures must be taken to retain their interest. Most importantly, one should be interactive with the audience to further interest them.

First off, you should try a better attention-getter. You start each class by announcing you are going to tell a joke- this already ruins the joke. You then read the joke off of a sheet of paper without making eye contact with the class. Worse, the joke has very little to do with the lecture. That is a major flaw, because even if you somehow manage to pull the joke off, you've only gained your students' interest in the joke rather than the lecture material.

You then start your lecture. During this, you sit down, and remain almost perfectly still. You begin speaking about [insert course subject here so no one can figure out who I'm talking to], but thus far your lectures have not been reflected on the tests. Instead, all of the test material is pulled from the text book, effectively making your class period useless.

You have used visual aids a total of three times in our class. These visual aids were black and white handouts, and with two of them, you did not even go over the visual aids and explain their significance to the lecture. In the one exception to this, you explained how the visual aid related to the class, but didn't actually have us look at it.

You know something is wrong, because at the end of class, nearly half of your students are asleep. You have commented on this, and asked the class if there was anything you could do to improve. When one of the students mentioned one of your problems, you responded with, "Well, I've been teaching like this for [X] amount of years, so...." This shows that you know a problem exists, and when presented with what the problem is, you refuse to make any changes. You will simply continue to be disappointed in your class's disinterest in your lectures for the rest of your teaching career.

Every now and then- VERY rarely- the class does, in fact, become interested in the lecture material. When this happens, many of the students begin asking questions and discussing concepts. When this happens, you get a deer-in-the-headlights look, and then attempt to quell what I guess YOU think is chaos. Instead, you personally slaughter any interest anyone had in your class. Smooth move.

Over all, your teaching method is not only flawed, but lacks any proper elements that a good lecture should have. Your method of attempting to get your student's attention is just sad. You remain still during your lectures, and the lectures have nothing to do with the test material. Your use of visual aids needs heavy improvement, yet you refuse any suggestions for improvement in any area when you ask for such suggestions. You are not able to interact with your target audience, and that is the best way to keep their attention. If I were grading your speeches as forgiving as my Communication 1010 teacher had, I would give you a C- at best.

Your former "student",
Mark D.

(( I hope I remember this blog's password after a graduate, because I am so sending this to [gender-identifying pronoun deleted to further hide identity of poor teacher] once I know I can't be penalized for it.