Back to School!

We started class on Monday! (and yes, I'm actually very happy about it) I'm one of those 'weirdos' that actually LIKES school, especially the first few weeks - I love new school supplies, and meeting new teachers, and getting to write dates down in my calendar, and then checking those same things off that calendar - all of it.

Plus, as much as I love Dannon and the people I work with, the idea of only working 15 hours a week is quite refreshing. My schedule this semester has me in class every day except Friday (just like last semester). So, I'll work all day on Friday, but only go in on Monday and Thursday afternoons - leaving Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons open for fun...I mean homework...*sigh*

Monday was fun, to be honest. Other than that whole getting up really early thing (I hate 8am classes), I enjoyed my day. We haven't really gotten to see everyone this summer, so it was nice to get the class back together and hear how summer break had treated everyone.

I got there a bit early (first day of class compulsion of mine), and, though I could have picked basically any seat in the room, I went back to the same seat I sat in last semester. I am a creature of habit, so that's really not all that surprising. Then, as everyone else started to file in, the confusion began. We had some new non-MBA students in this class, and they, naturally, were unaware that we all had "seats." This caused some returning students to take OTHER seats which furthered the confusion. Nothing too crazy happened, but it was a bit hard to tell if everyone was there simply because I didn't know where to look for people.

The day was pretty standard - we went over the... syllabuses? ...syllabi? ...you know, those things with all the class info on them, and the course matrices (ha! got that one). We went around in both classes and introduced ourselves and then the professors lectured for a bit...nothing too exciting. Oooh, funny moment: the guys on my row (well, all but one) managed to wear the same outfit - blue shirts and khaki shorts...needless to say, people noticed. Made the day that much better. We ended up going to lunch afterwards and (semi-jokingly) decided to all wear yellow on Wednesday...but we apparently didn't tell Brock. We all showed up in yellow today, and poor Brock was the only one on the row in another color. I'm not sure what the class thinks of our row now...though we did provide a bit of a conversation topic.

Anyway, want to know a bit about the classes we're taking this semester? Of course you do...that's why you're here, right? Okay, since it's Wednesday, we'll start with Monday/Wednesday classes (the names are all quite long, so naturally we shorten them. I've included the shorter name for clarification of future posts. You're welcome):

Managing and Leading Organizations ("Management") - George Wibben
Our first class of the day/week. We'll be covering stuff like interpersonal skills, motivation, diversity in the workplace, recruitment, compensation, HR planning, etc. We'll also focus on team building and implementing organizational change - so, it's basically a people focused class - which is new. Up til now, we've mostly focused on numbers/warehouses/supply chain/ANYTHING IN EXCEL...I'm kinda excited to talk about people. As for our professor, "George" as he wants to be called, I like him. He's real. He's been out in the "real world" and can bring that experience into the classroom. Those are always my favorite kind of teachers. 

Accounting for Supply Chain and Retail ("Accounting") - Rien Bouwman
Well now, we couldn't get away from numbers completely, could we? Admittedly though, I don't mind accounting. It's like a big matching game - it's logical, cut and dry, black and white. Not like finance where your decision depends on about a thousand different "what if" scenarios. THIS I get. We'll focus mainly on managerial accounting (i.e. the stuff managers actually look at) instead of financial accounting (the stuff most people are familiar with - balance sheets, income statements, etc). I know enough about a balance sheet to read one (which is all that really matters), but I DON'T know much about managerial accounting, so I'm glad we're focusing on that portion. I've had Dr. Bouwman before, and I liked him, so this should be a good class.

Ethical Decision Making ("Ethics") - George Wibben
This class is set up a bit differently from the others. First, it only meets on Wednesday (so our Mondays are actually fairly short). Second, it's only an eight week class (meaning our final is in October...hmm). Our first class was today, and I'm not quite sure what to think yet. It was a lot of: here's a topic, discuss, but I'm not going to really weigh in on what's "correct." As I've mentioned before, I like black and white, cut and dry. This class will NOT be that way, I can tell already. He even said several times today "ethics is not always black and white." This class could either be really fun or really frustrating...I'll let you know.

And our Tuesday and Thursday classes? Check back tomorrow for info on those (hey, I have to have SOME ploy to get you back here, right?) Til then, readers. Happy Back to School!