~*~

~*~

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Big Summer Snags

So, over the summer, there was one week in particular where it seemed like my college was trying to sabotage me. There were three big things that happened one after another (there may have been four, but I can't remember the fourth, which is probably a good thing. Maybe I couldn't get into some classes I needed).

My main adviser said he had to stop being my main adviser. I later discovered that this was because he was promoted to head of a department, but he didn't tell me that at the time.
Then an English teacher who I was hoping to have as an adviser said he wouldn't do it. He was too busy.
And third, one of my teachers gave me an incomplete. She never told me about it. If I hadn't stumbled across that "I" on the school website, I would never have even known about it, and not done anything until much later. She has absolutely no reason to give me an "I." She had weeks to give me the changes she wanted to make to my project, and she never gave them to me. Not until I emailed her more than once, asking why I got an incomplete. She told me that she wanted me to change my project.
So I did. I think I got it back to her in a week. And it took her an entire semester to do anything about it. I was stuck with an incomplete almost this entire semester.
Because she gave me an incomplete, I couldn't submit my project plan to the school.
And because I couldn't submit my project plan, one of my classes may have been in jeopardy.
I emailed her several times, over several months. I rarely got any response. And when she did respond, she kept saying she'd work on it. Finally I had to go into her office and talk to her. Now I knew this teacher from before. I had gotten along very well with her so this behavior was a lot more frustrating that it would have been if I didn't know her. And it was even more frustrating that she as very subtly implying that she didn't think my project was going to fly.
It was only a month ago that she finally changed my grade.
I think she just doesn't like my project idea. That's probably why she didn't make my grade higher. It wasn't a bad grade, but I'm certain I deserved higher.
So, yes. Frustrating.

Those three big things all happened within a week. It was very hard to fight the stress of all that, especially over vacation.
But I managed to get through the first two problems after some emails. And the third problem was only completely finalized yesterday, when the school approved my plan (the plan that I couldn't submit for several months because my teacher hadn't graded my class).

Is there a moral here? Yes. I could have panicked that week, and gotten all depressed during my free summer. Instead I managed to keep it together. And I managed to get everything fixed, without any negative consequences (except for delays and the fear of consequences).
Moral #2: If you're a teacher, don't screw your students.

Don't worry about hurdles, guys. You'll get through them. I believe in you!

No comments: