Monday, December 07, 2009

strangers in lectures.

my morning lecture today: i'm about to finish an example and i turn to the class to describe the strategy involved. so i turn first to the classroom door; as it happens, a pretty girl is standing in the doorway, smiling sweetly at me.

wow. she arrived really late to class.
it's at least half over now.


then she waves at me.

this is weird, i think.
she doesn't seem to know me: probably not a student, then..

i wave back and say, "hi. who are you?"

(i imagine that, at this point,
the class has stopped taking notes.)

she then brandishes a thick folder. "i'm from ΟMET [1]. you requested a survey to evaluate your teaching?"

crap: it's today? it's now?!?
huh. that explains it;
i never pick up women in classrooms, anyway ..


"right," i reply, "just give me one more minute to finish this example."

as i'm walking back to the chalkboard, a random thought occurs to me. i pick up the chalk and then say to the evaluator: "you know, it's almost lunchtime. it would have been really cool if you were a pizza delivery guy instead."

the class erupts in laughter.

i never did get to see the look on the girl's face, because i'm sketching out the example at top speed and talking out the details as i pack my notes and belongings into my backpack.

i wonder if that will improve my teaching evaluations at all. (-:


on a somewhat related note, it seems i'm not an easy instructor at all. on the other hand, apparently i also rank a chili pepper. q-:


[1] i.e. οffice of measurεment and evaluatiοn of teaching.

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