Teacher
Taming Techniques | 4.
Let Your Fingers Do the Walking
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4a. Let Your Fingers Do the Walking ACTION STEPS
Trick
4: Let Your Fingers Do the Walking
1."Set yourself up for success
by getting the best teachers."
2."Learn from other people's experiences,
not your own."
3."Know your teachers before they
know you."
4."Prepare for the obstacles before
you encounter them."
Sometimes
it's better to be lucky than good."During my
second semester of my junior year in college,
I had the misfortune of signing up for an economics
course that was taught by a racist professor."How
did I know he was racist?"Well, after I had
taken one of his tests, in which one of the
questions was "What came first, the chicken
or the egg (no joke)?" and I received a low
score on it, I went by his office to see him."When
I asked him about what I needed to do to earn
an "A" in his class, he bitterly responded,
"You people don't make A's in my course.""Assuming
I misunderstood him, I asked, "You mean our
class?""He sharply responded, "No, I mean your
people...blacks."
Needless
to say I was floored; but I managed to adhere
to the rule I gave you in the beginning of the
book: never ever argue a grade."I just sucked
it up and proceeded to work around him and his
bigotry."It was tough, but my "WHY" was bigger
than he was."After laboring through 16 weeks
of his boring class, I ended up getting a B+,
although I felt I deserved an "A.""By the way,
when he handed back our tests, it really wasn't
the actual test, it was just a score with our
name on it."That's right, I don't know if I
ever got the chicken or the egg question right."
What
does this have to do with Trick #4 and being
lucky?"Well, I couldn't believe what happened
to me with this professor."I was totally caught
off guard to speak."I vowed never to let something
like this happen to me again and not be prepared."I
just didn't know what to do about it."This is
where the luck came in.
One
day I was searching for a friend's number I
had lost."I turned my small apartment upside
down, and I still couldn't find it."Fate would
have it that I ran across a campus student directory."Almost
every university has one."When I picked it up,
I started to thumb through it for my friend's
name."Within a matter of seconds I found his
name listed."The information it had under his
name just blew my mind."I'll change his name
and address to protect his privacy, but this
is basically what I saw:
John Doe
Major: Psychology
Class: Graduate
Student Address: 123 College Blvd.
Jacksonville, FL 12345
Local
Phone: 904-123-4567
Permanent: 904-123-4567
Now
I don't know about you, but don't you think that's
a little excessive?"At least I thought so.
After
I called him, I decided to look up my own name."What do you know, it had the same amount
of information about me."It listed my major, classification, address,
and both my local and hometown phone numbers."Just imagine it for a second."What if I looked your name up in the
city directory, and it gave me your place of
employment, how long you've
worked there, and your work and home telephone
numbers; would you be somewhat concerned?"I know I would
Well
using my "common sense," I took a highlighter and went
through that entire campus directory from A to Z, highlighting
every student who was majoring in communications
(like myself) who was at least a senior."Why seniors
only?" Because seniors are getting ready to graduate,
and they've been through everything and anything along
their four-year journey through college."They probably
know about every professor, their hangups, their hot
buttons, pet peeves, likes and dislikes, and whatever
else you can think of."My question was why re-invent
the wheel? I could learn from their mistakes and save
myself a lot of time and a lot of frustration.
Think
about the racist professor I mentioned earlier."Do you think I could have prepared myself
better for him if I knew about him beforehand?"You bet I could."Or even better, I could have avoided taking
him in the first place; there were other economics
professors available."I just"didn't do my
homework.
Well
after I highlighted all of the seniors in my
major, I drummed up some "courage,"
and let my fingers do the walking through the
campus directory."I called each and every one of those students,
approximately 50-something in all."
Using
the script provided in the action steps section, I was
able to conduct a small research study on every professor
in my department and even a few adjuncts."I even learned
stuff I didn't even want to know about professors, like
who was sleeping with who, what clubs certain professors
usually frequented, who's in therapy and other outrageous
information.
Usually
when I share this strategy, students normally
tell me, "I
do something similar to that now; I ask my friends
about professors." "Understand
me, this is not the same thing."I told you earlier that I contacted more 50
students who were all seniors in my major."Asking a few of your closest friends
about a professor is good, but it's not always reliable."First of all, your friend may not be in the
same major."Your friend may think a professor is
the greatest because she's
interested in that particular subject; maybe
your friend has a slightly higher aptitude;
or maybe there was just some chemistry between
the friend and the professor."
It
also works in reverse if your friend disliked
the professor. "Your friend could have just been lazy that semester
and is satisfied in blaming others."I think you get the picture.
With
my method, if you talk to 25 seniors and five
say Professor Martin is great, and 20 say Professor
Martin is the worst professor they've
ever had, who are you more inclined to believe?"In other words, the numbers don't
lie."My
research study not only proved to be reliable,
it was darn near flawless."The information I got from those seniors
was right on the mark."I never had another problem with a professor
again, even the bad ones."I have a saying that goes, "It's easy to get yourself out of something
if you know what you're
getting yourself into."
Some
colleges and universities now require that student
evaluations (you know those things you fill
out right before finals) be made public for
all students."That's
fine, but if you ever completed a student evaluation,
you know the information only covers course
content and teacher's
ability."This
type of information is okay (and I suggest you
use it), but it doesn't
give you a comprehensive picture of the entire
situation."
On
the contrary, my method not only gets you information
about things on the surface (i.e., course content
and teacher ability), but it also gets you information
below the surface that student evaluations don't (i.e., professor pet peeves, tendencies,
nuances, etc.)."And most of all, it's reliable."These students are in your major, and
they're all seniors."What a deal!
In
the Action Steps, you will find an outline of Trick
#4."You can deviate somewhat from the phone script,
but follow the concept to the letter."Also note: this
is definitely a strategy you want to keep to yourself."If
everyone knew this trick, then it wouldn't work."Also,
the seniors would probably get tired of all of those
underclassmen calling their apartment."Be discreet.
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