So, How's School Going?
Sep. 16th, 2009 12:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offbalanceAs most of you know, I started the paralegal program I'd previously mentioned on the 8th. (Although, if you want to get technical, I started it during my vacation to Provincetown Labor Day weekend, because I had a shitload of reaidng to do before classes started).
How's it going? It's interesting so far. What basically happens is I show up to the same room 2-3 times a week (more on that later) and we have a different instructor each night, depending on the topic. We also get a few repeaters, which is cool. Two of the dudes I've had so far are awesome and excellent, one I'm not sure about, and only one I'm actively worried about. Not bad so far. The guy I had for the intro session, will have for contracts and Criminal Law is a genuine performer, but he makes the material accessible and interesting. It's not easy to sustain interest for 3 hours and 45 minutes, but he did a pretty good job. The other guy is less of a performer, but he knows the stuff inside and out, has a cutting sense of humor (always a plus in my book), but is extremely approachable, and surprisingly easy-going about things. He demands a lot (I will be SO happy when his section is over and I can do other things besides the reading for his stuff, which is massive), but he will stop everything and explain it to you if you did the work and don't get it, which is good. I'm going to have him again, so provided he doesn't load us down with as much reading, I'll be looking forward to more of his classes as well.
The third guy I had for the first time on Monday. He's funny as well, but I have the suspicion he's sneaky laid-back. He suggested/required a textbook and mentioned topics we'd be talking about from it, and provided a vocabularly list (more on that in a minute, too) yet did not assign reading. He did tell us about our exam in detail, and apparently that's all scantron/short answer/true-false. So, it looks like I'll be looking up words and filling up that vocab sheet to prep for the test. And check out the sections of the book that seem relevant-ish, and hoping I don't get nailed on the exam, even though he swore and swore it wasn't his intention to do so, and he curves, and all that. We'll see. He's at the very least tolerable, if not pleasant, so that goes a long way towards making the hours pass.
The fourth guy is the instructor I have for the Research and Writing Class. The program I'm in touts the research and writing we're supposed to learn how to do to be the best in the land. At orientation, we heard all about how we'd leave the program with real-by-gosh writing samples to show ACTUAL EMPLOYERS (zomg!) considering us for jobs. All fine. I was supposed to have the guy who'd been doing it all this time, who was well-respected by the other instructors and whom I'd heard great things about.
Then I got transferred to the other section.
The evening classes started out as having so many students that they had to split research and writing into two separate sections. One had the Established Guy, one had the New Guy. Now, as someone who survived many writing classes as an English/Journalism student, I can tell you from experience that you never, ever, ever want The New Guy. The New Guy may know the subject. He may be well meaning. But he's green. He's never taught people before, most likely, and more than likely doesn't have the slightest gibbering notion what he's doing. It takes years, seasoning, practice, mistakes, and successes to truly learn the ropes of What Works and What Doesn't. It wouldn't be an issue if all the material were in a big general textbook that I could read if I felt the Guy was lacking. But, alas, there really isn't much in the way of a textbook in this class.
I could have planned the first lesson better (I really should have a Hermione icon, shouldn't I?). We went through some basic definitions and things mentioned on the syllabus, but that was it, and we were done by 7:30 (class is usually done at 9:45). We have homework and things to read, so I'll see what happens next time. It was like they pulled him in off of the street. He kept hemming and hawing (I should have kept an "Um, Ah" tally), and, I kept thinking of other things he could have touched on, given us examples of, or gone over in class and have had them reinforced in the homework. For example, we've already had legal citations mentioned to us in the reading for the introduction class as well as the class itself, AND in our CiV Pro class. There was no reason he couldn't have touched on citations and how they work in class yesterday. Or, provided us with more than one example of a document, or gone into greater detail of the document he DID give us. He would take too much time on some things, and race through others. None of the topics were terribly difficult to understand, but there was both room and time for more detail, more examples, and more reinforcement. I'm going to talk to some of my classmates who got The Established Guy and see what he covered the first day. Believe me, I'm not knocking getting out two frigigng hours early, but I'm worried about the rest of the semsester.
When I got the email that I'd been switched to the other class (which is the only one not in the room I'm usually in), I told the Manager/Assitant of my program that I really wasn't pleased about it, that I'd heard great things about Established Guy and was really looking forward to his class. There'd been a large number of people who'd dropped the program, and they'd hired this dude (whose full time job is with Legal Aid) so they could split the classes up, and most of those people were in his section, so they had to transfer a few people over to fill in the gap. The Manager/Assistants response was that New Guy was "a fine instructor." Maybe. I'm sure that Legal Aid would give him a great perspective on Criminal Law, Appeals, or the Court System, but nothing in the credentials he presented us demonstrated to me that he had any kind of genuine background in writing instruction, which is concerning, especially when that's supposed to be the cornerstone of this program. Agh.
Trouble is, he seems like a nice person. He has an Irish accent and looks vaguely like a balding Graham Norton, and seemed genuinely excited to be there. Still, he's not found his groove yet, that much is obvious. Unless his second class is a major improvement on his first, this Simply Will Not Do. I'm paying good money to learn things, damn it, and I will NOT settle for incompetence, inexperience, or anything else that will prevent me from getting the most out of this.
In general, it's weird having restrictions on my schedule, both because I have class and need time to study. The hours are killer, and I feel like a member of the walking dead (I've been averaging 5.5 hours of sleep a night, a radical drop from the 6.5-7 I'd been enjoying previously). And I'm trying to make my brain retain all of this, which it seems to be doing. I've been good at planning and managing to bring both lunch AND dinner, hopefully that will last. Right now, it's all learning how to manage time and energy, as much as information. I've been even nipping little tiny servings of caffiene here and there just to keep me continually functional. Not easy.
It's going to be an interesting trip towards December 17 (my last class/exam).
How's it going? It's interesting so far. What basically happens is I show up to the same room 2-3 times a week (more on that later) and we have a different instructor each night, depending on the topic. We also get a few repeaters, which is cool. Two of the dudes I've had so far are awesome and excellent, one I'm not sure about, and only one I'm actively worried about. Not bad so far. The guy I had for the intro session, will have for contracts and Criminal Law is a genuine performer, but he makes the material accessible and interesting. It's not easy to sustain interest for 3 hours and 45 minutes, but he did a pretty good job. The other guy is less of a performer, but he knows the stuff inside and out, has a cutting sense of humor (always a plus in my book), but is extremely approachable, and surprisingly easy-going about things. He demands a lot (I will be SO happy when his section is over and I can do other things besides the reading for his stuff, which is massive), but he will stop everything and explain it to you if you did the work and don't get it, which is good. I'm going to have him again, so provided he doesn't load us down with as much reading, I'll be looking forward to more of his classes as well.
The third guy I had for the first time on Monday. He's funny as well, but I have the suspicion he's sneaky laid-back. He suggested/required a textbook and mentioned topics we'd be talking about from it, and provided a vocabularly list (more on that in a minute, too) yet did not assign reading. He did tell us about our exam in detail, and apparently that's all scantron/short answer/true-false. So, it looks like I'll be looking up words and filling up that vocab sheet to prep for the test. And check out the sections of the book that seem relevant-ish, and hoping I don't get nailed on the exam, even though he swore and swore it wasn't his intention to do so, and he curves, and all that. We'll see. He's at the very least tolerable, if not pleasant, so that goes a long way towards making the hours pass.
The fourth guy is the instructor I have for the Research and Writing Class. The program I'm in touts the research and writing we're supposed to learn how to do to be the best in the land. At orientation, we heard all about how we'd leave the program with real-by-gosh writing samples to show ACTUAL EMPLOYERS (zomg!) considering us for jobs. All fine. I was supposed to have the guy who'd been doing it all this time, who was well-respected by the other instructors and whom I'd heard great things about.
Then I got transferred to the other section.
The evening classes started out as having so many students that they had to split research and writing into two separate sections. One had the Established Guy, one had the New Guy. Now, as someone who survived many writing classes as an English/Journalism student, I can tell you from experience that you never, ever, ever want The New Guy. The New Guy may know the subject. He may be well meaning. But he's green. He's never taught people before, most likely, and more than likely doesn't have the slightest gibbering notion what he's doing. It takes years, seasoning, practice, mistakes, and successes to truly learn the ropes of What Works and What Doesn't. It wouldn't be an issue if all the material were in a big general textbook that I could read if I felt the Guy was lacking. But, alas, there really isn't much in the way of a textbook in this class.
I could have planned the first lesson better (I really should have a Hermione icon, shouldn't I?). We went through some basic definitions and things mentioned on the syllabus, but that was it, and we were done by 7:30 (class is usually done at 9:45). We have homework and things to read, so I'll see what happens next time. It was like they pulled him in off of the street. He kept hemming and hawing (I should have kept an "Um, Ah" tally), and, I kept thinking of other things he could have touched on, given us examples of, or gone over in class and have had them reinforced in the homework. For example, we've already had legal citations mentioned to us in the reading for the introduction class as well as the class itself, AND in our CiV Pro class. There was no reason he couldn't have touched on citations and how they work in class yesterday. Or, provided us with more than one example of a document, or gone into greater detail of the document he DID give us. He would take too much time on some things, and race through others. None of the topics were terribly difficult to understand, but there was both room and time for more detail, more examples, and more reinforcement. I'm going to talk to some of my classmates who got The Established Guy and see what he covered the first day. Believe me, I'm not knocking getting out two frigigng hours early, but I'm worried about the rest of the semsester.
When I got the email that I'd been switched to the other class (which is the only one not in the room I'm usually in), I told the Manager/Assitant of my program that I really wasn't pleased about it, that I'd heard great things about Established Guy and was really looking forward to his class. There'd been a large number of people who'd dropped the program, and they'd hired this dude (whose full time job is with Legal Aid) so they could split the classes up, and most of those people were in his section, so they had to transfer a few people over to fill in the gap. The Manager/Assistants response was that New Guy was "a fine instructor." Maybe. I'm sure that Legal Aid would give him a great perspective on Criminal Law, Appeals, or the Court System, but nothing in the credentials he presented us demonstrated to me that he had any kind of genuine background in writing instruction, which is concerning, especially when that's supposed to be the cornerstone of this program. Agh.
Trouble is, he seems like a nice person. He has an Irish accent and looks vaguely like a balding Graham Norton, and seemed genuinely excited to be there. Still, he's not found his groove yet, that much is obvious. Unless his second class is a major improvement on his first, this Simply Will Not Do. I'm paying good money to learn things, damn it, and I will NOT settle for incompetence, inexperience, or anything else that will prevent me from getting the most out of this.
In general, it's weird having restrictions on my schedule, both because I have class and need time to study. The hours are killer, and I feel like a member of the walking dead (I've been averaging 5.5 hours of sleep a night, a radical drop from the 6.5-7 I'd been enjoying previously). And I'm trying to make my brain retain all of this, which it seems to be doing. I've been good at planning and managing to bring both lunch AND dinner, hopefully that will last. Right now, it's all learning how to manage time and energy, as much as information. I've been even nipping little tiny servings of caffiene here and there just to keep me continually functional. Not easy.
It's going to be an interesting trip towards December 17 (my last class/exam).
