She Liked it?

Today was the end of my second week of school.  After my rough start in Algebra and Composition, I didn't hold out much hope for my academic career.  My husband made a comment today that pretty much sums me up, especially in this regard:

I don't need to beat you up.  You do it to yourself better than I ever could.

Sadly, he's right.  At last I'm consistent.

Yesterday was my second Algebra class for the week.  Although the lead of my mechanical pencil still broke a few times (will I ever get the hang of that stupid thing?), I did much better otherwise.  My practice problems had the correct answers.  I was able to contribute in class.  And I even received a compliment from the instructor!  Definitely a better class than I had on Monday.

My second Wednesday class is Computers.  Our instructor had us take our first online test in class so we could all get accustomed to the way our SAM (Skills Assessment Manager) program works.  That's wonderful, because there were a few people in the class who had difficulty when they tried to do it at home.  I wasn't one of those people.  In fact, I'd already taken that test. And the next one.  So, instead of taking the test, I helped the people around me.  (We were allowed to confer with our neighbors and our books...that's what we would do at home, right?)  I admit, I enjoyed that.  Plus, I even had time to take the 3rd test, which isn't due for a couple weeks.

Today started with Psychology.  We're not even very far into the class, but I'm already fascinated.  And I know it'll get more interesting from here.  I earned an easy 5 points this morning with the "Question of the Day" and breezed through our in-class worksheet.

Finally came the class I've been dreading since Tuesday:  Composition.  We worked in groups today, and I felt like I had a better class.  I was grouped with three young people (one of whom I was certain was less than half my age), and we had fun putting our assignment together.  I paid attention to how the others in my group worked.  Watched how they pre-wrote, how they put their topic sentence together, and how they wrote in general.  I was surprised to find that what they came up with was very much like what I would have done.  A little bit of weight lifted from my shoulders.

At the end of class, the instructor returned our paragraphs from Tuesday.  As she walked around the room, she told us that everybody who turned one in received a perfect score (Whew!).  She approached me, and I held my breath.

She told me that when she got to mine, she had prepared herself to read a narrative, which is what I'd warned her I'd resorted to before I left class on Tuesday.  Then she told me she liked the way, even in a narrative, I was able to still get all my supporting points in there.

Whaaaaa?  That sounded like a compliment!

She handed me my paper, and I looked at the writing across the top.  100/A, it said.  Good job combining narrative with structural main points and detail!  This is focused!

She liked my paper!  Maybe I can do this school thing, after all.