I’m at the lunch break of the first class I’m training since I don’t know when. I finally did manage to knuckle down and do some prep work for today, so I came in feeling like I had a little bit of a handle on what I was going to do. I had forgotten, though, that computer/software training students — especially for a Level 1 class — tend not to have a handle on, well, just about everything. Bringing a bottle of aspirin was all the prep I really needed.

I find that I’m falling back into the flow of teaching pretty easily. I usually connect well with my students and I’m doing that here today. Having a sense of humor helps. On their end, too. But I’m finding that I’m relaxed and comfortable in front of the class and I’m not getting lost in the material like I thought I might. The fact that we’re moving at a snail’s pace is helping. Last night I was worried that I’d go through it so fast that I’d have to stretch and fill; today I’m worried that we’re not going to get halfway through. Part of that is my fault because I tend to over-explain and go off on related tangents, but a few of the students are helping slow us down by asking, um, “basic” questions and “trying things” on their own when they can hardly do what I’m asking.

Also had to be flexible right out of the gate today. I’m training at “a local power company” and about 20 minutes in we lost power to half the computers. Oopsie. They got them back up and running, but I had a group of unhappy campers on my hands for a few minutes there. I joked that it was a good thing it hadn’t been a water problem or we’d all be in trouble.

I had to roll with the punches on that one. Only problem with rolling with the punches is that you’re getting punched.