The Comfy Corner

You'd think when you come to college that all of your professors are going to be really amazing, smart people and awesome teachers. Unfortunately, that is the rudest awakening of all. Some of them are of course, but many professors simply lack basic teaching skills. They are just knowledgeable in their particular field of study (most of them) but they don't know how to best convey that information. Here are some personal examples of great ways to lose a student's trust/respect:

1) Trying to act cool by "connecting" with your students in awkward ways. For instance, constantly making weird jokes about sex and college hook-ups (and assuming everyone will find it funny). You really gotta earn a group's trust and respect before something like this becomes funny.

2) Trying to remember the names of all of your students when you have zero talent for remembering names. You'll just end up making a fool of yourself - "Ummm...are you Zach?" "No." "Oh, what's your name, again?"

3) Trying to do a PowerPoint presentation or show a film or something without coming in early and figuring out how the technology works ("Oh, I need a password?") This is a biggie. It always ends with some student awkwardly having to get up and show the teacher how everything works.

4) Making slides with a dark blue background and black font, then asking if anyone can read it (or writing on the board with a yellow marker).

5) Not knowing how to pronounce all of the words you typed in your PowerPoint or constantly stumbling over words like "heredity."

6) General unpreparedness. This means not forgetting the tests at home, not taking 3 months to grade a paper, not saying "um" a lot and forgetting what you were talking about.

7) Finally, and this is the best way to lose respect, saying things like "You all know this stuff better than I do." "I'm not an expert on this." or "It's really complicated, I don't know all the details."