Life in Smallville

Well, this is the end of the first day of a couple big things. The first day at my new job at HP, and the first day of teaching at PPCC. Overall it was a great day; it was educational, challenging, fun, and interesting. I'll elaborate below.

The day started at 8 am at HP with me meeting my trainer and other classmates. Technically the training start Monday, but I missed that day so I was a little behind. I felt like I caught up pretty quickly though, so I should be able to hang with them. After a lot of learning, we took a short quiz. I turned it in when I finished, but no one else finished for another 20 minutes or so. This always worried me in college. Did I miss something? Were there trick questions? Why did I finish quickly? I started to question my answers, but I felt very confident in them. After everyone else turned theirs in and he graded them and handed them back, I got my answer. There it was, two questions highlighted and "2/9 " circled at the top. I freaked out! I want to do good at this job and impress the people above me. Once I got up the courage to asked if the highlighted ones were right or wrong, I stopped worrying. It turns out he highlighted the WRONG ones and wrote that number at the top. This was not how I was used to things working, but a great relief. And as it would turn out, one that was marked wrong was actually right... Yippee! Made my day cause I think I impressed him with finishing it quickly and correctly.

After work at 5, I had to head up to PPCC for my class at 7. Before class though I needed a few more "school supplies" so I swung by Wal-Mart. Nothing exciting there, but it didn't give me too much time to prepare for my class. When I got to the college I had to use the faculty area to make copies of the syllabus, instructions, homework and all that good stuff. Teachers sure have a lot of work; I might even say they have more than the students! I know that might be shocking to those students out there reading this, but it is time consuming. At least it is for me, I want to be prepared for class and have all the ample material for actually teaching my students.

The class itself was great. I thought so at least. One of by biggest concerns was being able to "talk" in front of a room for 75 minutes. I had never done anything like that for more than 15. Turns out I went longer than the class time, so I guess I don't have to worry about that anymore. The other issue was that since it is a night class, there is a more diverse group. Most of us work during the day, and so some of the students have "careers." There is a high school teacher, two cops, some military people, mothers, students, and restaurant workers. It'll make for an interesting semester.

My biggest concern is being able to have them actually learn something. However, when they sit there and don't respond, it worries me. But I look back to when I was a student and our classes didn't respond too much either. Plus it was the first day, they were just getting comfortable. I'll be sure to fill you in on more down the road. Only 4 people didn't show up the first day, and maybe they dropped it, I wont know until I get an updated roster list.

Thanks for listening.
Ciao

Posted by supermn on Tuesday, August 24, 2004 at 10:58 PM | Permalink