Saturday, September 11, 2004
Week in Review
The first week of Term 1 is now in the books. It was a busy week, and by the end I needed a 2 hour nap on Friday afternoon just to make it to Friday night. Here are my impressions of each class:
LEAD - Our professor in LEAD is former military, he's a graduate and former instructor of West Point, and you could tell from the moment he walked in the room. He runs the classroom very efficiently, and you'd better not make a comment in his class unless you're prepared to back it up. Several people made comments about what they would tell the CEO if they were the case protagonist only to find themselves in an intense role playing session with the professor. Good stuff...as long as it's not you. ;) He's got a very good perspective on leadership, it's been the focus of his career, and I think I'll learn a lot in here.
FRC - This is actually accounting, and we have a great professor. He's been teaching a long time, but has only taught at HBS 3-4 years. He's also head of the audit committee for a Fortune 500 firm, so he has a lot of current information to share. He's got an interesting teaching style, which I don't think I can describe with any justice. He likes to get very close to the student he is speaking, yet in their interaction he uses his "full classroom" voice. It's very amusing, and really brings to life otherwise dull material.
Marketing - I have difficulty in this class, since I don't have any background and it's frustrating to not have any definitive answers. Our professor is a relatively young woman from the Netherlands. She's fairly good at managing the classroom, apparently last year was her first and she was roundly criticized by her section for doing a poor job. She's undoubtedly the weakest link in our stable of instructors, but I still think she has done a good job thus far.
TOM - Our instructor in TOM is a former CEO and McKinsey partner. He's very funny, but also easily the most intense instructor we have. It's funny to go from TOM, where a few brave souls raise their hands, to Marketing, where half the class is willing to comment at any given time. It's clear to me that I will be doing the most preparation for TOM in order to feel comfortable commenting in class, and so I think that I will probably end up learning the most in this class.
All in all, I'm very happy with the group of instructors and with our section. We already had a round of Sky Deck awards, which is when the top row of students give humorous awards to students who did something to deserve them during the week. They gave out five awards yesterday, while some other sections are still debating whether to even allow Sky Deck awards. Section G seems less active than some others outside the classroom, but inside Room 110 we seem to really come together. So far, so good.
LEAD - Our professor in LEAD is former military, he's a graduate and former instructor of West Point, and you could tell from the moment he walked in the room. He runs the classroom very efficiently, and you'd better not make a comment in his class unless you're prepared to back it up. Several people made comments about what they would tell the CEO if they were the case protagonist only to find themselves in an intense role playing session with the professor. Good stuff...as long as it's not you. ;) He's got a very good perspective on leadership, it's been the focus of his career, and I think I'll learn a lot in here.
FRC - This is actually accounting, and we have a great professor. He's been teaching a long time, but has only taught at HBS 3-4 years. He's also head of the audit committee for a Fortune 500 firm, so he has a lot of current information to share. He's got an interesting teaching style, which I don't think I can describe with any justice. He likes to get very close to the student he is speaking, yet in their interaction he uses his "full classroom" voice. It's very amusing, and really brings to life otherwise dull material.
Marketing - I have difficulty in this class, since I don't have any background and it's frustrating to not have any definitive answers. Our professor is a relatively young woman from the Netherlands. She's fairly good at managing the classroom, apparently last year was her first and she was roundly criticized by her section for doing a poor job. She's undoubtedly the weakest link in our stable of instructors, but I still think she has done a good job thus far.
TOM - Our instructor in TOM is a former CEO and McKinsey partner. He's very funny, but also easily the most intense instructor we have. It's funny to go from TOM, where a few brave souls raise their hands, to Marketing, where half the class is willing to comment at any given time. It's clear to me that I will be doing the most preparation for TOM in order to feel comfortable commenting in class, and so I think that I will probably end up learning the most in this class.
All in all, I'm very happy with the group of instructors and with our section. We already had a round of Sky Deck awards, which is when the top row of students give humorous awards to students who did something to deserve them during the week. They gave out five awards yesterday, while some other sections are still debating whether to even allow Sky Deck awards. Section G seems less active than some others outside the classroom, but inside Room 110 we seem to really come together. So far, so good.
