Today marked the last full week of class before Christmas break. Being in Spain @ ECA is my first real "school environment" I have actually been in since college. I have always envied Adam and his two weeks of break while I drove to work every day to bring home the bacon :) So, now I have the privilege to experience the academic breaks so longed by all the business world.
This week wraps up my semester long class of Practical Math. We studied salaries, taxes, loans, budgets, credit cards, insurance, investments, resumes, and wrapping it up with interviewing skills. My five students have been patient with my "first year teaching" woes and probably laugh at me constantly behind my back (even though I try to face them most of the time). It's ok though...I'm preparing "revenge"...jk. But no really, I have to make the final exam, and I do feel a little evil. I guess this is how all my teachers felt when writing the final exam. Mwah hah hah...100 multiple choice...take that!
There is something rewarding about writing exams though. Even though many individuals will argue that they are not the best way to measure intelligence, I do feel they do a good job of evaluating my teaching ability and the student's comprehension. I really get sad when a student misses a question that we've gone over many times, and it reminds me of those days when I hated walking into a room and taking a test. One of my greatest college memories happened during my Accounting 101 final. Now you must know some background about this class...it was taught by my favorite professor of all time - CJ Skender. It was a class of 400 at 8 am every M, W, F. And to top it all off, our exams started at 7:00am so we could have 2 full hours to take our exams. It was nerving and crazy, so imagine how a 100 multiple choice final exam made you feel at 7:00am. It was my last exam before going home to Christmas break, my stomach was a wreck...I was so nervous. I really wanted to do well on this exam. I entered the 400 seat auditorium promptly at 6:50am to review a few more things before taking it. Upon opening the doors, the Carpenter's, "Merry Christmas Darling" blasting, and I start laughing. My mom sings this song loudly every time it's on the radio at Christmas time. She's even called and left a voice message of the song. Upon hearing that, my nervousness went away and I silently thanked CJ with all my heart for making me feel less nervous. I ended up with an A- on the exam - thanks to the Carpenters and a great professor.
While I'm no where near the teacher CJ was, maybe next Tuesday will be a good day to pull out some Christmas music before the exam...
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