11-17-09

I figured I should post something to let you all know that im still alive and doing well. I am done with my official teaching job here. I will be staying around to help Cooper transition until Andy comes down on the 29th though. I offered to continue teaching, but he wanted to start with fresh material so I let him have at it.

The testing went well, Cooper went to San Jose to pick up a package for a few days at the end of last week which made reviewing a little stressful, but overall it went well. I didnt have a mutany with this group so that was a plus too. The grades didnt really turn out the way I had wanted them too. I was hoping for a fair number of As and a majority of B´s´but it ended up that everyone that I expected to get an A did and the rest of them ended up with C´s. I thought about curving the test for a while but I never appreciated that approach to grading as a student so I ended up figuring the grades based on the numbers (sans probability curves). Some of the officers were dissapointed with recieving C´s, but my grade will be averaged with those of the other volunteers to give them a composite which should mean no one will get below a B. Im not really sure why we had to give them grades, but oh well.

Last night was Coopers first night trying to run the class, instead of helping me review material they already knew. I think it was quite eye opening for him. He is taking a year off from Brown and has to provide detailed sylabi to prove that he taught during his time off. Going into last night he had high expectations about what he could get communicated succesfully in three hours. I have been telling him since he got here that he shouldnt expect to much and needs to have a great deal of flexibility built into his lesson plans. Before last night his response had been that if they dont get the material they will just get a bad grade and he will just move on to new stuff teh next day. Which might be a good approach if youre teaching apathetic High Schoolers, but for middle age police officers who get easily frustrated it wasnt the best game plan.

So last night he had a pretty ambitious lesson plan (I wouldnt try to tackle the information with them in more less than 3 days), but his Spanish is amazing so he can communicate ideas to them much easier than I can. We started the lesson at 6 pm tico time (so 645 give or take 30 minutes). It was tough watching him just writing things on the board and expecting the police to just pick up the information. I could tell that the police were getting really frustrated, but I figured that the best way for Cooper to realize the pace at which they learn was to experience it first hand. He managed to get through the whole lesson plan, but by the end I think he was starting to realize the limitations of teaching here. I am looking forward to seeing what he does tonight and hoping that he can slow down, even if he has to lie to Brown about what he taught here.

In other news I am getting ready to sign up for classes. My registration window is tommorow after 6pm and as of right now I can still get into all of the classes I need to in order to get closer to graduating. I have already had a friendly conflict with my advisor, reminding me of how much I hate college and giving me that drive to just put my head down and get through the personal hell that I have found to be ¨higher learning¨. It was a bummer watching my hawkeyes and steelers lose this last weekend, but hopefully Iowa will finish strong against Minnesota on Saturday. I look forward to being cold with all of you very soon. Pura Vida