Boy, this is gonna be a looong semester

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Today, I went to my first class of the semester in grad school, ironically one that focuses on issues in teaching special education. The instructor was some doctoral candidate from another state who's also a high school teacher. In going over the syllabus, she was confusing and convoluted, making it nearly impossible to understand how she wanted us to do our assignments for that semester.

Me and two other people were asking each other for clarification on what she meant. Apparently, she was still talking and when she saw us talking amongst ourselves, she says loudly, "I am not going to talk over anyone. I can wait until 8 o'clock" (when class ends).

She didn't have to bust us out in front of the whole class, we weren't talking loudly and it wasn't like we were discussing anything else except the assignments. I thought her outburst was so unnecessary and not conducive to dealing with grad students. I also felt humiliated having attention focused on myself, who's already social phobic.

Why do people make everything so darn difficult?

I had a bad experience. I was returning to art school after being out because of financial difficulties. I hadn't done any work in a long time and was rusty and felt embarrassed. My intention was to go to the instructor after the first class and say casually, " I gotta warn you, I haven't done any drawing in a while." I was so anxious that I got as far as "I gotta warn you" but I was so tense she thought I was preparing to threaten her and she started yelling " You're warning me? I explained myself and then it was OK but Sheesh.
Anyway, I guess your instructor is too used to teaching high school and forgot who she was dealing with.

And hopefully, she picked up on that. Again, I think you did real good. You know, I can sometimes get in the mode of all sending-no receiving (I guess even 'normal' people can do this when nervous). And so, you had a statement prepared to make, and you picked up on that it wasn't going as planned.

I mean, by your expression, she may have picked up on the fact that she over-reacted.

Thanks for the replies everybody.

Yeah, I think she's probably new to teaching grad students and so used to dealing with kids she doesn't know how to differentiate her response. I don't think out of all these classes I've taken, I've had that kind of experience with an instructor. I know my university has made budget cuts, hiring temporary instructors rather than permanent faculty and it doesn't bode well for quality at all.

I hope this lady isn't such a hard-ass she jeopardizes my chances of getting into the teacher program and becoming a teacher. Seems like chances to advance in anything can be so easy to mess up.


Nirrti