Friday, October 03, 2008

The training train has left the station. Again.

Along with this little 20 hour a week part time job of mine, I am supposed to keep up with 20 hours a year of additional training.  Not much, granted, but I really didn't agree to giving up weekends chasing down individual 1 hour training sessions at the local Jr College.  So last year I just didn't do it.


OK, I wasn't being quiet that stubborn.   I intended to finish up the training hours.  I just never got around to it. The school pays for the classes and pays for the time spent training, but life is already busy enough and it isn't like CPR or first aid training, that might save a life.  (I stay current on those classes, now.)  These trainings usually present new theories on preschool classroom management or new craft ideas for 3 year-olds.  Not stuff that I chose to worry about on Saturdays.

I realized that I needed 16 training hours to catch up for last year.  The school director was really worried about it.  Me?  Not so much.  She suggested that I find an online training.  Bingo!  I found one online class, good for 20 hours of training.  The school paid for the class and I collected a week's pay for sitting in front of my computer for a few evenings.

After I finished up the "class", I sent in my score sheet.  Then I found another 20 hour class that I can do over the Winter Break, to take care of this year's training requirement.  Thank, internets, for making my life easier.

One little problem.  I didn't pass the first training.  

There were 6 sections on the score sheet.  I needed 70% on each section to pass the entire training.  I missed 6 questions out of 120 or so.  Not bad, I thought. In fact, I aced 4 of the sections.  I missed one question on another.  But I missed 5 questions on a section that only had 15 questions.  Garnering myself a 66% for that section.

They mailed me back my answer sheet, instead of a nice little certificate to prove that I was current on my training hours.  But these people must be preschool teachers at heart.  They don't want students to feel bad about themselves, so I was allowed to correct my errors and mail my score sheet back in.  

That correctly answered sucker was back in the mail in about 20 minutes.  Technically, I only needed to correct HALF an answer, to pass that section with a 70%, but I don't like to push my luck, so I corrected all of the errors...

And now I must wait another week or two to prove that I am worthy of chasing little kids around a playground for 4 hours a day.  Even though we all know that is really ALL I am good for.


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

technicalities... technicalities...
lol

Ginger said...

Ughh! I hate having to make time for training also. I had to sit through 3 hours just this week for one of my volunteer positions!

Anonymous said...

Ah, open book tests. It'show I got through Spanish.

No wait...I cheated in that class.

Nevermind...