Seems Cool. Nice Guy. Overall, Terrible.

My more loyal readers will remember that I once received some negative feedback from a few--well, more than a few--angry students. I am happy to report that I have not repeated that experience. Selling out is a small price to pay for a good review.

That's a joke, by the way.

Still, I continue to have a low rating on ratemyprofessors.com, that nefarious online soapbox for yellow-bellied students who have nothing better to do than ruin teachers' lives...anonymously.

Here are the two negative things that have been said about me, neither of which is very original or clever:

"Got and NP [NOTE: that's kind of like an "F," but not really] for no apparent reason. Really hard on grading compared to other professors I've had. We're not all in English majors, and seems to completely disregard that fact. Overall, terrible."

and

"Seems cool. He is a nice guy, but he is really hard. He expects a lot from his students, like everyone is in an english major."

Ironically, the first review--which I think is the more angry of the two--rated me as "average quality," while the second review--which is shamefully passive-aggressive in its attempt to compliment me--rated me as "poor quality".

The one good review that I got says this:

"requires a decent amount of work, but if you put in a good amount of time and work, you will do well."

Of course, this review is something of a Pyhrric victory since its author forgot to capitalize the first word of the sentence. Still, I'm glad he or she wrote "you will do well" rather than "you will do good". That nearly justified my continued existence on earth.

Obviously, I don't take ratemyprofessors.com seriously. In fact, I don't care what people write about me on the internet.

It's not like anyone important gets on the internet.

Besides, I really shouldn't take anything to heart that was written by someone who was bored enough to log on to ratemyprofessors.com, seek out my name, and slander me and my posterity.

Good grief!

One thing that does bother me about my reviews on ratemyprofessors.com, though, is my "hotness" rating. "Just for fun," the website offers students the option to rate their professor's appearance as "hot" or "not". When professors are rated "hot," they get a red-hot chili pepper icon next to their name. So far, I don't have a chili next to my name.

I guess my students didn't see that part of the survey.