Even though I participated in the UGA 2009 graduation in May, I don’t technically graduate from college until I have passed my final two classes. I had one last English elective to fill and that gave me the freedom to choose which genre I’m interested in opposed to being forced to fill a pre 1800 requirement! No Beowulf or Chaucer for me this summer! Thank goodness! Instead, I choose a class focusing on the writing of Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, taught by one of my favorite professors at UGA. Dr. Vance’s classes focus more on the small details of the works and then tests rather than numerous papers! Even though this class starts at 9 am four days (it’s supposed to be five days per week but he informed us today he doesn’t want to meet 5 days a week) a week, I’m still really really excited about taking this class!
Anyone who knows me is aware that I am petrified of taking foreign language classes at UGA. My first Spanish class was a combination of level 1 and level 2 that I had four days a week Spring ’08. Fortunately, I had a great experience with my professor and other class members and passed it with a B+. Spanish 3 gave me even more anxiety! Once again, I was so fortunate to have one of the most AMAZING professors I have ever had for any area in college courses. Having a great professor makes a class so much more enjoyable and I was able to get a B+ in this course also. When signing up for Spanish 4, I didn’t get so lucky! I stupidly thought that because I was taking the fourth class immediately after taking Spanish 3, I would be absolutely fine! Boy was I WRONG! Technology provides us with so much information but unfortunately I didn’t use that to my advantage the first time I signed up for Spanish 4. Instead of checking my professor grading scale online and looking up other students comments on him, I just walked blindly into a classroom with the worst professor ever. Trying to be brave, I stuck it out in that Spanish for about a month. Slowly slipping behind, I just gritted my teeth and tried to keep my head above water. The breaking point came when I took my first test for the course. Normally I’m a pretty speedy test taker (if I don’t know it the first time I read the question, then I’m probably not going to know the answer if I stare at it for another 20 minutes) but on that day I ended up staying 10 minutes after class was supposed to be over. I hesitantly handed my test to my professor, made it to my car, waited all the way until I got back to my apartment and then I burst into tears! The entire weekend I was anxious and upset just waiting for my professor to post the grades like he promised he would do before Monday’s class. Being the horrible teacher he was though, he failed to post the grades and waited until we were all in class together before letting me know that my intuition was correct in assuming I had failed the test. Never in my life have I made below a C- on a test, but I managed to make a 69 on this test. Once again I went home and burst into tears and then sent my professor an email basically begging him to let me drop his class with a W instead of a WF (withdraw/ withdraw failing). The only kind and helpful thing he did for me the entire class was allow me to drop his class while I was considered passing!
All of that debacle left me extremely nervous about signing up yet again for Spanish; however, I went at 1 o’clock today for my first class and was relieved to discover that my teacher seems to be a very nice man AND I was actually able to understand almost everything he said (you’ll know that this is an extremely huge deal if you’ve ever taking a foreign language)! Whew! What a stressful day of anticipation! I’m so thankful today is Friday and I don’t have to go back to classes for another 3 days!
Anyone who knows me is aware that I am petrified of taking foreign language classes at UGA. My first Spanish class was a combination of level 1 and level 2 that I had four days a week Spring ’08. Fortunately, I had a great experience with my professor and other class members and passed it with a B+. Spanish 3 gave me even more anxiety! Once again, I was so fortunate to have one of the most AMAZING professors I have ever had for any area in college courses. Having a great professor makes a class so much more enjoyable and I was able to get a B+ in this course also. When signing up for Spanish 4, I didn’t get so lucky! I stupidly thought that because I was taking the fourth class immediately after taking Spanish 3, I would be absolutely fine! Boy was I WRONG! Technology provides us with so much information but unfortunately I didn’t use that to my advantage the first time I signed up for Spanish 4. Instead of checking my professor grading scale online and looking up other students comments on him, I just walked blindly into a classroom with the worst professor ever. Trying to be brave, I stuck it out in that Spanish for about a month. Slowly slipping behind, I just gritted my teeth and tried to keep my head above water. The breaking point came when I took my first test for the course. Normally I’m a pretty speedy test taker (if I don’t know it the first time I read the question, then I’m probably not going to know the answer if I stare at it for another 20 minutes) but on that day I ended up staying 10 minutes after class was supposed to be over. I hesitantly handed my test to my professor, made it to my car, waited all the way until I got back to my apartment and then I burst into tears! The entire weekend I was anxious and upset just waiting for my professor to post the grades like he promised he would do before Monday’s class. Being the horrible teacher he was though, he failed to post the grades and waited until we were all in class together before letting me know that my intuition was correct in assuming I had failed the test. Never in my life have I made below a C- on a test, but I managed to make a 69 on this test. Once again I went home and burst into tears and then sent my professor an email basically begging him to let me drop his class with a W instead of a WF (withdraw/ withdraw failing). The only kind and helpful thing he did for me the entire class was allow me to drop his class while I was considered passing!
All of that debacle left me extremely nervous about signing up yet again for Spanish; however, I went at 1 o’clock today for my first class and was relieved to discover that my teacher seems to be a very nice man AND I was actually able to understand almost everything he said (you’ll know that this is an extremely huge deal if you’ve ever taking a foreign language)! Whew! What a stressful day of anticipation! I’m so thankful today is Friday and I don’t have to go back to classes for another 3 days!
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