Really awesome Professors

I once had a history professor that was very theatrical and very entertaining...he walked into class the first day and said, "Hey, I'm Dr. Stafford and this is the easiest class in the history department!"

Of course...THAT got a round of cheers from the students.

But hey, it was also a lie...but we didn't know that! He gave us alot of work but was VERY clear about what he tested on, and his tests were hard, lots of essays, and you couldn't BS your way through either....if you did, he would put a stamp on your essay (like they use in gradeschool) of a bull in red...it was hysterical.

I will never forget toward the end of every lecture he would start to tell a juicy historical story, and we would be sitting there with baited breath...and he would say,"Want to know what happened next? Come back next time and I'll tell you!".

He had AMAZING attendance...and he didn't even require it.

THAT is a good college professor

Unfortunately, I haven't had a good one yet. I had great ones in undergraduate and graduate school - fantastic, challenging, intelligent, interested in the give and take and free exchange of ideas, etc. Nursing school, however, has been one big disappointment. The way I see it, I have 6 months left till graduation in May of 2007. Keep quiet, listen to their dumb power point lectures with all the misspellings and incorrect information and graduate.

I'm afraid I am in a similar situation, with one exception. First semester assessment was taught by two instructors, one utterly worthless and one quite brilliant. The brilliant one was the first nursing PhD that inspired and impressed me the way PhDs (good ones) in the sciences and liberal arts have in the past.

She would exasperate my fellow students when her assessment lab would digress into telling us about her research (actual pathophysiology based, not usual nursing stuff) or more detailed medical info than we "needed" at that level (which I loved).

Perhaps her one "flaw" (that I actually quite enjoyed) was that she showed open disdain for the worthless instructor (who was actually in charge of the course) in her presence.

Challenging, brilliant instructors can make a mediocre educational experience bearable.

Unfortunately, I haven't had a good one yet. I had great ones in undergraduate and graduate school - fantastic, challenging, intelligent, interested in the give and take and free exchange of ideas, etc. Nursing school, however, has been one big disappointment. The way I see it, I have 6 months left till graduation in May of 2007. Keep quiet, listen to their dumb power point lectures with all the misspellings and incorrect information and graduate.