Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Down from the Ledge

Phew. I was totally off the handle yesterday, huh?! Thanks for talking me off the ledge, people, especially you, B. I felt a whole lot better after getting it all out, and all the encouragement helped me get my brain back in gear.

You're right - it was totally unprofessional for that advisor to say that about that professor. It says more about her than it does him, at least for the moment. For all I know, she could have wanted to date the guy and he snubbed her, and now she's mad. Trash talk is completely inappropriate.

However, I do have to say, it's not looking great so far for this professor. I looked him up, and he's an associate professor; I'm not sure what this means, whether it's that he's new or that he just doesn't have tenure. I sent him a very polite email yesterday thanking him for letting me into the class, briefly explaining why I had registered at the last minute, and saying that I am familiar with how online classes work from grad classes I've taken. I apologized for having missed his orientation (which happened over a week before the semester starts), and asked if he could please send me any materials I will need to get started. That was at around 3pm. This morning, I called his office and left a message around 9. It is now after noon, and I still haven't heard anything. I know the semester hasn't started yet, but he must be checking email and voicemail at least once a day? Sigh. If I haven't gotten anything by tomorrow morning, I'm going to call the department and see if I can find out what his schedule is so I can stop over, or at least call when I know he's going to be there. Also, maybe if he knows that someone else knows I'm trying to - hello - find out about my class that he said I could enroll in yesterday, he'll get back to me.

I've been going through this book, Forgotten Algebra, and to my surprise, I really like it. I've always thought that math was fun, but since I didn't spend enough time on it when I was younger, I got behind and confused and stressed. This book starts with basic concepts, gives a few examples, and then exercises, the answers to which are fully explained, and then moves on to the next thing. I started at the beginning, and have been feeling pretty good about things, so a few minutes ago I flipped to the back to look at the stuff on triangles, which are the basis of trig. So far, so good.

I have no idea if I have to get materials for my bio class, or if they're all available to download as well. I suppose I should call the campus bookstore? I'm looking forward to the material in that one a little. Thank you, Discovery Health channel!

4 comments:

Hotch Potchery said...

There are 3 levels of professor...us lowly Assistant Professors (means we are tenure track, but not tenured yet, but we are not assisting anyone), then Associate Professors (has tenure), then Full Professors (the highest you can get).

I don't even check my voicemail everyday when school is in session, but absolutely not when we are on break...try email, but even that may take awhile.

As professors our only 'vacation' is breaks...so we tend to stay away!!

Now, dude still may be a douchebag...but I wouldn't be concerned just yet.

Not Your Aunt B said...

I agree with HP. I wouldn't be concerned yet. Who knows who makes up rules as to when orientations must be held, but they're never planned well. It's college algebra. Even if you don't get oriented until after the first class, you will do great because you like the textbook. Are you running a fever? Just reading you talk about math made me sweat. No thanks!

You can try getting the bio stuff at the bookstore, but I would wait for the first day of school as sometimes class & lab materials vary on the prof (not on the course). Then you aren't having to deal with returning something you don't need. No one has it together for the first couple of weeks anyhoo.

creative kerfuffle said...

i think i'd rather remove my own liver, with a spoon, rather than take trig. i hated in in high school and i'm sure i'd hate it now. my liberal arts degree require one math class and i took the easiest thing i could find and waited until the last semester of my senior yr to take it. stupid move considering if i failed it i'd be screwed, but i hated and hate math that much : )

Kelsey said...

I'm really envious that you are going back to school - I love being in school, seriously. When I did my master's degree it kind of stunk that I couldn't get much work done until after Harper was in bed, so I was constantly exhausted from two years of not enough sleep, but STILL, LOVED it.