Programming Fundamentals

At work my boss is encouraging all of us to get outside training in relation to the products we support, so I'm taking a continuing education class at the local university. It's short only a couple days last week and a couple more this week. It's really wonderful that work allows me to take the time and pays for the class too!

This first class (they're allowing me to take more than one!) is Programming Fundamentals. At work, I've started supporting an automation tool. Basically it's used to automate repetitive tasks in our other applications. The trick is you have to write scripts to make it work. I'm not actually supposed to be writing scripts but I'm finding myself writing them more and more often. I didn't take too many programming classes while I got an art degree in college - go figure. I've picked up a lot at work but it hasn't really felt like enough.

So the class has been a blessing because it's helped me realize I'm far more knowledgeable about basic programming logic than I originally thought. I've also learned a few new things though not as much as I had hoped. But I've got the book which seems to be a great resource.

Being back in school is definitely different for me. I find myself interacting with the teacher and other students. I love taking notes during lecture (and have thus realized that I'm even slightly obsessive about it which is just hilarious to me). I enjoy reading the book. And I even enjoyed doing the homework last night! Yes, I have officially lost my mind. Despite how much I enjoy the class experience and learning, I still find myself being critical of the teacher.

You see, I used to be a teacher. Having studied education and practicing it for a short while, I have become hypercritical of all teachers. In my opinion, it's a curse, because it's holding me back from graduate school. I can't bear the thought of semester after semester sitting in class with teachers who lecture off topic or are monotone or can't give a decent everyday example to save their life.

This instructor isn't as bad as some, but it's also a short class. I find myself getting annoyed that he doesn't go over the material fast enough (for example, today is day 3 of 4 and we're only on chapter 6 in the book). He lingers over examples that aren't particularly important. Occasionally he wanders off track in his lecture. Or he reads straight out of the book, which is a big pet peeve of mine. I think the worst was when he kept the class 5 minutes late explaining how to search for programming tutorials using Google.

See how critical I am? I know how hard it is to be a good teacher; I really, really do. Yet, I'm still unforgiving. I think the solution for me is to take classes that are only a few weeks long. That way I don't have to suffer through any one teacher for very long. Another possible solution might be for me to go back to teaching...I tend to be less critical when I'm actually doing it.