Nearly every. single. minute. of today made we want to bang my head against a wall.
Car frustrations. School frustrations. Student frustrations (oh my goodness, I nearly LOST it today). Time crunch frustrations. Mess frustrations. Professional practice frustrations (as in, what the heck am I doing???). Parental frustrations (the kid's parents, not mine!). Food frustrations. Technological frustrations. Weather frustrations.
And then there was my photography class.
Ho-lee crapoli.
I keep hoping it's gonna get better. And it gets worse. This guy CAN. NOT. TEACH. He is the worst instructor in.... well, ANYTHING that I have ever had. Ever. He is all over the map. He is totally unclear. He gives NO background knowledge about what is actually going on in the camera, he just gives us whacked out scenarios (like taking a picture of the sun and making it look like a star. Making daylight look like night. Why? For what purpose? Or taking pictures of the TV screen. "Cause what if you don't have a picture of that good looking guy or girl on the screen?" Seriously? Huh?) and settings to make them work. But he doesn't explain WHAT the camera is actually doing.
This is supposed to be a beginners class (as evidenced by the fact that he has told us ALL THREE WEEKS that to take pictures we need film in the camera. Yeah. Ya think?) And yet he hasn't even TOLD us what aperture actually IS. Luckily I know a little bit from a few mini lessons from a friend a while back, so I can KIND of piece together what he's attempting to tell us. But tonight he totally lost me. Something about hypermode? And how it relates to depth of field? I think if I had a digital SLR it would be at least a little better cause I could take pictures and try stuff out in class to try and figure out what the hang he's talking about. But oh man.
And don't try to ask the guy questions. Oh, he gladly takes them. But there's just one teensy little thing. HE DOESN'T ACTUALLY ANSWER THEM. Last week he did not answer ONE single question I had. He just yabbered on about whatever he thought was kinda sorta maybe related. I was persistent to the point of near b!tchiness in trying to get an answer. I kept it polite and turned it around on me ("I'm sorry, maybe my question isn't very clear...") but WOWZA that took some effort.
I would just stop going, but there's JUST enough info I can pinch out from this otherwise colossal waste of time - perhaps 15-20 minues of the two hours is productive - that I'll stick with it, agonizing as it may be. And it's not just me. Everyone else is equally baffled at how this guy can continue to run this course. Oh man. It is B-R-U-T-A-L.
What if he finds my blog, you ask? Well, he makes absolutely ZERO effort to even TRY to learn our names, so he wouldn't know it was me anyway. I was asked for my surname on the first night so he could check the list, and now I'm "the little AE-1* girl." Yippee. [*AE-1 is my camera model]
OK. Now I feel bad. He's a jolly fellow, and really friendly. As a person, he's great. Kinda like a jovial older uncle. And he knows his stuff. But as an instructor? He's-a makin' me cray-zay.
Aaaand... nowI feel the great burning need now to take out some positives from my day. There has to have been something... hmm....
Oh yes. My kids totally cracked me up today in PE. We were playing skittle ball, which is kinda a combination between bowling with bean bags and dodge ball. They were flinging bean bags across the gym right left and center, and trying to knock down the wooden skittles (kinda like bowling pins) and trying equally hard to hit their opponents feet to get them out. They were SO INTO it, and it totally made me laugh. I had to get in there and play, too. Most of my time was spent running like a flailing fool back and forth along the front lines making "nah na-na nah boo boo" faces at the other team, trying to either distract them or make them try to hit me with the bean bags. At one point I was laughing so hard I couldn't even stand up straight. I'm sure they all thought I was insane.
Good.
Like I always tell them, "Hey! You'll aaalllways remember the crazy ones!"
6 comments:
Um, is skittle ball some game from canadia?
I helped out during the relay races at church on Wednesday night (with the Kindergarten class I help with) and it just makes me laugh so hard. Kids who get totally into running down to the cone, dancing around it, running back and tagging their partner. Or walking with a balloon between their legs. It's just so fun to a child!! You can't help but giggle with them!
Your class would drive me crazy. My foster parent class is great except that the caseworkers just READ the material to us straight from the book, or they write a list on the whiteboard that would take 2 seconds to do in discussion format but takes 10 minutes because we have to wait for them to now write out the answer. UGH!! Hang in there.
Breeeeeathe, Hillary! And hey, you made fun plans for next Tuesday :)
Sounds like your teacher is old. And retired. Which is fine and nice and all, except that you're paying right? Students shouldn't have to pay money to people who can't teach and can't answer questions.
Now look... I'm all mad FOR you now! Lol!
Little AE-1 girl? Not everyone that teaches, has the gift of teaching. Some private colleges hire people that know the subject, but aren't actually teachers. They also pay peanuts. Deep breath is right! Did the 'scream'(title) help? Life can be a bit overwhelming at times. Take time out to recoup. Phew, I feel exhausted for you!
And go get a hug from mom. :)
ugh. I hope you get to do a performance review, or at least a comment card, at the end of this class. If not - please talk to the admin of whoever is running this gong show! I'm glad you're able to get something out of it - deep breath! - it'll all be good :)
Post a Comment