by Author Name Withheld 231

Created on: October 14, 2010

There she stood at the foot of a short stairwell, this woman. This short woman with short hair, short gestures, and short sentences. She was the lead accounting professor and the business chair. She gave us a quick tour of her wing of the school and the rooms in which she'd be professing to us. She answered questions in quick sentences, quickly diverted eye contact, and seemed to want to be done with us, quickly. At the end of the tour, she quickly shook our hands, made sharp, quick eye contact one last time, flashed a quick, awkward smile, nodded quickly and, of course, spun around and quickly stomped off to get on with her seemingly too-important-for-us day. I was left standing there wondering: "What in the hell is wrong with this woman, and how am I supposed to get through a year of her tutelage?"I considered dropping all classes then and there, but decided to give it a try

First day of class, she handed out her syllabus and explained the manner in which she professes all of her courses. She was completely detached and seemed to have little interest in her students, if any at all. You have to be punctual, she communicated outside of class only by e-mail, you can't miss class, and there will be home work every single night. You don't have to do the homework though, that is for your own good. 10 percent of your grade is due to attendance, 10 percent of your grade is due to class participation, the remaining 80 percent was good, old tests and quizzes. There was no extra credit and if you missed a test, unless it was a dire, verifiable emergency, you lost 15 percent of the grade immediately. Thus far, she was exactly what I didn't want in a teacher.

She was a clear, concise teacher. She was robotic, but always there to help you with a question or spend extra time with you if you needed tutoring on the side. She gave us all the necessary tools to not only pass her courses, but master the procedures at hand. She was good at her job and wanted her students to do well-she began to grow on me. The first semester began to march on and, by the third week, 30 percent of the students had dropped the classes either because she was too demanding, too unflinching in her strict policies, or they had personal issues to deal with. After these individuals were weeded out, she began to open up to us all. Slowly

She has two masters degrees, she has one daughter, and she is married. She lives 30 minutes from the school. She also teaches classes for another school on-line, which

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>