Getting the new professors organized

After a week of being back at Texas State, I have to say I’m getting used to college life again. My roommate and I get along well (now proud parents of three small fish because the other three we found dead the next morning), I’ve gotten used to the cafeteria food and I’m starting to run again but the only concern, or specifically five concerns, are my professors.
The first day of school is always nerve-racking for me because every class is different - the professor, the material, the classroom and especially my peers. As I walked into my first class, Managerial Accounting 2362, I was glad to see some of my friends. As we sat in the second row, the professor came in and I was excited to get the year started. She began to upload pictures to the projection screen. As the slideshow began, my professor told the class about her summer. One of the things I found amusing was that she had pictures of her and her sister making martinis because one of her relatives had never tried them before. She had many pictures of her family gathering around the campfire with ice cold beers in their hands. I assumed that this professor was probably laid back and wouldn’t be difficult to get to know better. She also showed us pictures of famous landmarks of different states she visited. She made it clear that she and her sister were in a competition to see who can see all fifty states first and she intended to win.
I call this professor, “The Drinker.”
After Managerial Accounting, I rushed downstairs through the ridiculous amount of business students to my Intermediate Accounting 3313 class, the one I’m worried about the most. Even though I went to the wrong room at first and had to fight through a herd of students to get to the door of my classroom, I managed to get a seat in the front row. I came in thinking I wasn’t going to know anyone because it’s a junior level class, but before I sat down I happened to see someone I knew. Even though I don’t talk to him as often I’ll definitely talk to him now. I’ve heard many things about this class beforehand.
“It’s hard. . .”
“Good luck. . .”
“YOU’RE TAKING MANAGERIAL AND INTERMEDIATE AT THE SAME TIME?! YOU’RE CRAZY. . .”
Despite all these things, I tried to keep a positive attitude and pray that this class was going to be bearable. But once the teacher began speaking it seemed that I didn’t pray enough. She introduced herself and how the class was structured, which was not unusual of professors on the first day of instruction. But then she started with her classroom statistics . . .
The Professor said with a smile on her face, “I’m really excited to teach people who are interested in accounting but I have to say that the average grade in my class is a “C” and most of my students fail and have to retake this class. . .”
I could swear my blood turned cold and my heart had dropped to the floor.
So I call this professor, “The Scary One.”
After an hour and twenty minutes of Intermediate Accounting, and not managing to introduce myself to her, I ran back upstairs to the same lecture hall where I had Managerial for my QMST (statistics) class. I saved a seat for my two friends and we waited as the rest of the few students walked in. This man walks through the doors with black jeans and a t-shirt and I thought, “That can’t be our professor. I’ve never seen one dressed so casual before.”  But it turns out he was, and the cool thing about him is that he had an accent from somewhere near Israel (I don’t remember where he is from). He began to speak and I could already notice some students were struggling to understand him but they probably shouldn’t have been in the back of the room anyways. He seemed relaxed but someone that won’t deal with foolishness, so he seemed like a good professor. After explaining the syllabus and the course, he began to lecture. He began to explain how we were to use “X” in the statistics class and most of us were all clueless to what he was saying. Although it took me two tries to understand, he had to repeat himself five times in order for the class to comprehend the concept of “X.” I can already tell that it won’t be the accent that’s a problem but the way he teaches to the class.
This professor is called, “The Rookie.”
The next morning, I walked into my eleven o’clock class with a smile inside because I had hand-picked this professor due to the many good things his past students had told me. He walked in and started to pass out the syllabus and began to introduce himself as our professor for Economics: Money and Banking 3311. He was quite young so I expected him to be like my QMST professor, but it turned out he was actually an aficionado of Economics and had an extensive knowledge of the financial and economic markets. He was so excited about teaching the class that I forgot I have an extreme dislike for economics, and he wanted us to read a novel about the Federal Reserve and write a five page report and a two page update. We began the lecture with a video called, “The House of Cards” and were handed a take home quiz due the next class day. The video was actually interesting so I’m excited to watch the other half of the video in a later class.
He’s called, “The Cool One.”
(A day later after typing this column on my couch I started to print out the assigned articles that we were to read before the next lecture. His definition of light reading is four articles that are ten pages long and one article that is forty pages long. I hope his title doesn’t change soon.)
After having lunch with my roommate, I returned back to the business school for my two o’clock Management with Multicultural Emphasis 3303. This was my last new class and I was glad to get it out of the way but I was nervous because I had also received bad comments about this professor. It was the only class time that would fit in my schedule so I was forced to take it. One of the comments from students that I heard was that her hand motions while talking were distracting but I had no idea what they were talking about until she walked through the door.
My tall and fragile management professor began to speak and I couldn’t even hear her monotone voice from the corner of the front row. I began to inspect her thoroughly and I began to see what her previous students meant by distracting hand motions. Her arms and hands seemed to have a life of their own and waved up and down while she spoke. I couldn’t hold back my laughter in front of the half full lecture hall filled with peers older than myself. She talked about her past experience and her many travels throughout the world and how she became a professor at Texas State University.  But to tell the truth, I could not stop looking at her neck and head that seemed like an ostrich and her unsettling arms were probably fanning the person in front of her. She tried to make jokes but they made the classroom feel socially awkward, and she continued to escalate the awkwardness by making us introduce ourselves to the class. I’m not the best at public speaking so I was the second one to volunteer because I wanted to get it over with.  But it was actually interesting to hear more about my peers and we even had some good laughs. She began the lecture, and she seems like a straightforward professor who sticks with the lectures and uses videos and examples to add more interest.
I call her, “The Ostrich.”