Wednesday: More History and MATH.

So, back to history. Professor is still nice and friendly. Kid is still wearing his tail, douche is still a douche.

Sit in class and take some notes. He gives us an assignment to look up some events, we have a choice of The Great Awakening or Bacon's Rebellion and write a short essay in class as a quiz grade towards the end of class. No big deal. I think I can handle that.

So, history lets out and I make my way downstairs for Algebra. I'm a little nervous, because I have not been able to find ANYTHING on this teacher. I've checked ratemyprofessor.com to see what people are saying about my teachers and everything has been positive so far. This guy is nowhere to be found on any website or anything. Which leaves me wondering if this is a bad sign. Oh well, I didn't have a choice. I need to get this class out of the way.

We settle down and Mr. Math comes walking in. Young guy, probably about my age. He waits patiently for everyone to get in, and has us sign a sign in sheet. No big deal, not the first teacher to do this. As we're signing in, a blind gentlemen comes in with a helper that helps him get through his class. I think it's great that he's taking this on. Good for him!

After the sign in process, he wanted everyone to move up into the first few rows. Sitting in the row ahead of me is the blind man, and his helper. She tells him everything that is going on. Even though she is whispering, I have to listen through her to hear what's going on with the teacher. This might not work out.

So, we get our syllabus and I start reading ahead. You've got to be freaking kidding me. This isn't your typical classroom. Most people in here are better than 25 years old I'd say, and he's lined this out like we're fresh out of high school. Here are some highlights-

-You have ten minutes from his arrival time to get to class, after that he locks the door. (This is because it's distracting to him mainly, but also the other students)
-You must sign in and out of class (If you fail to sign out, you are absent)
-Your belongings must remain at the front of the classroom during exams.
-No make up tests
-You cannot use ipads or computers in class.

Regarding the arrival time, it raised a question, so I raised my hand.

Me: "So, the door is locked ten minutes after your arrival?"
Him: "That's correct."
Me: "Ok, I'm in another class before this one that ends at 6:50. If that class runs long and you get here at 6:45, I'm late if I show up right at 7?"
Him: "No, it'll be ten minutes after 7."
Me: "Ok, thanks."

So, we finish up with the syllabus and that's the end of class. Then I remember... oh crap, I have that quiz at the end of class next week. I'll email him in the morning and let him know I might have a time issue.

So, I write an email to him today. Asking him if I can move one row back, to avoid the distraction from the interpreter/helper lady for the blind guy (which he was fine with), and then I wrote this:

"Also- I do have a class prior to yours on Wednesday nights. Next week I have a quiz at the end of class and I'm hoping it does not run late. If it does, I would appreciate your consideration in letting me into class should I not make it quite on time."

I got this reply to that part of my email:

" I do remember you telling me that you leave class at 6:50pm and well my class starts at 7pm giving you a a 10 minute grace period, thus giving you 20 minutes to get to class.  Make sure you time yourself accordingly so that you do not arrive late (after the 10 minute) grace period.  Good luck on your exam."


Luckily, I didn't reply back to him immediately, or I might not be enrolled in his class anymore. Seriously? You're going to talk to me about time management? Pretty sure I've got that under control, friend. I'm not fresh out of high school, I'm 30, and I think I may have picked up the importance of being on time when I was in the Navy FOR FIVE YEARS.

Time myself accordingly? It takes less than one minute to get down the stairs from my other class and get down the hall to your room. I was trying to be respectful to his time rule, but I'm not going to sacrifice a grade in my other class just because this guy wants his class to start on time. If he didn't want me to take this remark as an insult, he shouldn't have made it sound so condescending. I'm not looking for a break, just for him to be reasonable and aware of my situation. It's not like I'm asking him to leave the door open so I can sleep in and show up whenever the hell I feel like it.

I'm debating if I should say something to him face to face, email him again, or just bide my time and mention this on his course evaluation. If I do the eval thing, I'm going to save the text that I put in the comments block and email it to him with a "by the way, this was me" email after finals are done.