Tuesday, September 11, 2012

New/old

Last night I had my first class of a Harvard Extension School course I'm taking. For those who don't know, pretty much anyone can take a Harvard Extension School class, and the professors aren't necessarily Harvard professors, but the courses are still apparently very good. Mine is Financial Accounting Principles*, and I'm doing it so that I can be better at my job. I have not been in a classroom actually learning stuff for a grade for thirteen years (I did take a few grad school classes in child development and counseling after college, but that was long long ago). Here are my positive thoughts about what happened:

  • The professor seemed approachable, and interested in adults with real lives doing well in his course
  • He practically guaranteed that if we work hard we will do well
  • There is extra credit
  • Class/teaching technology seems not to have changed much since I was last in a class
  • Not everyone was taking notes on a laptop, which I thought would be happening

and, things I had less positive thoughts about:

  • There were about 130 students in the class - that's more people than I like to be around
  • More students means more people wasting time and saying stupid/repetitive stuff
  • The seats are in rows of 5 that are attached together and the guy next to me was fidgeting the entire two hours which made me vibrate for two hours
  • The "desks" were those tiny attached ones that are only on the right side and I am a lefty so I was uncomfortably stretched the whole time

The good thing is that with a few minor adjustments (always sit on the far left of a row of people who don't seem like fidgeters), I think I can solve some of those issues. I'm not looking forward to the fact that I have twelve more two hour sessions, but I do expect to learn a lot and that should help me be better at the financial planning stuff I do at work. So. Adult education! WOO. HOO.

*I KNOW. Stop being so jealous of my life!

2 comments:

The Perfect Space said...

SO, now that you're a finance wiz, I have a question. Should I opt to contribute to a 401k or to a pension plan at my new job?

die Frau said...

You thought it would be like the end of that scene in Real Genius with only Mitch writing notes in the classroom, didn't you?

Good luck!