I’ve been neglecting OD

Well, the first term at Portland State was horrible. The instructor didn’t like teaching. He made it perfectly clear with his chronic tardiness (at times 30 minutes or more). He didn’t like answering questions and would even make remarks like, “there are charts [or some other such and such] in the book,” to avoid answering, which seemed designed to make a student feel stupid or lazy. When he said the like to me, I was sharp. “I read and annotated the chapter twice. I’m asking you to help me understand it.”

Parts of linguistics, like syntax, phonology and phonetics, work more like Math than they do other subjects. There was a lot of jargon and the instructor even used extra jargon (during his very infrequent lectures). The class averaged a D on every quiz and exam (taking them online in the computer center, we have access to statistics of our own scores plus the class average). Most of class time was used correcting assignments (which we were to “correct” as he fed us the answers). A couple of times he had us correct each other’s quizzes (names not hidden).

I had the same instructor for both classes. A little more than half-way through the term, I realized I wasn’t going to pass either with the requisite 85% score if I continued working on both, so I stopped attending the class which was a lesser requirement to focus on the more significant one (it was too late to drop or grade change and the university denied my deadline request).

Even doing that, I wasn’t doing well enough. Grades haven’t been posted yet, but it would be a miracle if I score the solid B.

It’s not just the grade I’ve been concerned about. Intro to Linguistics is the prerequisite for most of the graduate level courses I have to take and I don’t have a solid grasp. Five other students accompanied me to conference with the Department Chair. He seemed nice, but his hands were basically tied since the instructor is tenured. He asked us to be thorough on the instructor evaluations. “There wasn’t one,’ one of the students said. It is true. There wasn’t. The DC seemed not only surprised, but unhappy about that.

The DC told us the department would be reviewing grade distribution of the classes and we let him know that the instructor already told us he’d be curving the grades. If he does that, there won’t be an effective way the instructor could be evaluated and it is a FERPA violation for anyone besides the student or the instructor to view all of the students’ quiz and exam scores without explicit permission from the students.

My summer money and time was wasted. I didn’t learn nearly as much as I should have and I’ll have to repay extra to take at least one of these classes again. If I had known I would just flounder with the very short term and this instructor, I’d have just worked through the Summer and met my primary prerequisite during the Fall term. I not only would have saved that $3k I’ll never get back, I’d have saved even more than that.

I wish there was a way to get my money back or at least have the tuition waived for the retake(s). Pisses me off.

Other than that, life is okay.

Dasc and I are doing well. He is working in the dining hall of a private college here in the Portland area. The hours kind of suck, but he is full time $12/hour with full benefits after 90 days and he’s happy about that.

I’ve met his parents for the second time. They came up to deliver an electric bike for him. Dasc’s dad’s boss gave it to him. The only problem is, despite being a new condition, the bike is almost ten years old and the battery it needs doesn’t seem to be available anywhere.

Big Bang was hectic and I’m glad I am no longer a major part of that. I’ve got a good couple of years under my belt for resume material. I hope it’s good for something.

Anyway. I don’t know when I’ll be online again. I’ve been very neglectful about any kind of blogging or diary writing over the last few months.