best and worst college profs

I'm taking a course in college teaching and one of our online discussions involves sharing stories about our best and worst teachers. Here are mine. Let's hear yours!

Best - Dr. Gary Poole, Psych 100, Simon Fraser University

The best and most memorable prof I ever had was Dr. Poole. http://www.batesandpoole.ubc.ca/garyBiography.html

He was my Psych 100 prof back in Fall 1994 at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, BC, Canada. From what I heard, he appointed himself teacher of this 1st year psych course to inspire new students to love learning. His class was held in a huge theatre with a few hundred students, larger than Knuth Hall. The text for the course was heavy and dense but he broke down every principle and theory into simple terms and used humour and personal examples to demonstrate each. To this day, I remember a great deal of what I learned in that course.

He was funny without being offensive, cheesy or over the top. He took examples from situations with his own family and friends. He actively moved around the stage and employed his whole body in his lecture. And he had a full house for every lecture. In fact, I think some students brought friends. The theatre was silent (except for laughs) and every student sat on the edge of his/her seat through the whole 2 hour lecture. On the last day of class, the entire theatre thanked him with a huge standing ovation. It was as if he had said something, or maybe many things, that touched each and every one of us and cast away any doubts we may have had about attending that school. I found out later he is nationally known for being an outstanding instructor, but remains humble and even almost embarrassed with every standing ovation, semester after semester.

Worst - Can't remember his name. Some cranky old bearded asshole who wore cheap tweed suits. Taught CMNS 375 Magazine Publishing, 1999, Simon Fraser University

I don't remember his name but the instructor for my Communications 375 class Magazine Publishing taken around 1999 was by far the worst teacher I've ever encountered.

He was not a faculty member but rather someone who works in the publishing business. My school did this sometimes to get people from "the real world" to teach some of the upper level courses.

He took no interest in the students and used every class to boast about his success in the publishing business. He went on and on about how his business (some small publishing company that focussed on something rather obscure like Canadian Native art) ran its operations. He answered questions with a condescending tone and tended to brush off questions he didnt have an answer to. Everything he talked about related to his own personal success and wisdom. We essentially listened to this grouchy man brag about himself 2 hours at a time for 12 weeks. He made no attempt to do research to broaden the content of the course to stuff he was unfamiliar with and never asked for input on what we wanted to learn.He also reminded us each class not to bother trying to get a job in magazine publishing but it would just lead to an unrewarding life of poverty. He was so ridiculously negative and egotistical I spent more time fantasizing about strangling him than I spent paying attention. Attending the class was torturous and a good many students just didn't show up.

There were only about 50 people in the class but he made no effort to learn anyone's names. Our biggest project was a group proposal and production of the premiere issue of a magazine. He randomly assigned us to groups of 7-10 people (way too large). I had the group from hell. Half of the people were hoping to get away with doing the minimum work possible to pass, a few of us were working full-time, one girl lived 3 hours away and one very incompetent woman with the worst ideas ever wanted to run the whole project. He refused to mediate group problems and conflicts and offered no one-on-one guidance with the project.

I hated him, his lectures, and his assignments so much it stressed me out to attend class. At the end of it all, I learned nothing about magazine publishing.