Punished for Promptness: Part 2

I originally wrote on this last year and shared three instances where my timeliness backfired due to events outside of my control. There was one instance I forgot to include which I remembered later, so I'll share this story now.

When I was a freshman in college, I started taking classes toward my teaching certification my second semester. It was my very first teaching class with a student teaching component. Being the studious person I was, I checked my schedule early and wrote down room assignments so I'd be ready for the first day of classes.

My introduction to teaching class was my first class of the day. On my first day, I went to the building, sat outside the classroom, and waited. There was one other student waiting with me. We were nervously watching the clock. Class started. Nobody else was there. Five minutes passed. We started anxiously looking at each other. Then one of us (I remember it being me) looked online at the class schedule posting again only to find that the room listed was not the room we were sitting outside of. 

Frantically, we rushed to the other building and found the correct classroom where this class was being held. The two of us walked in about 10 minutes late and the professor glared at us. We meekly explained the situation, but I don't think she bought it. After all, 90% of the class made it on time, why didn't we? 

The correct answer to that is I believe we were the special 10% of our kind who had good intentions of being prompt, prepared, and ready. Unfortunately in this situation, it backfired. I do believe I was able to prove myself in the next two and a half years as I had this same professor again the year I graduated. She was one of a few teachers of the first class in sequence and she was the teacher who taught the third class. I was lucky enough to have her for both. We made teaching binders with all of our lesson plans, reflections, and teaching materials neatly catalogued. Each semester, I turned mine in early if not first. 

I've told my professor this story before. I don't remember what she said, but I don't think she remembered it happening. I don't blame her. There's a lot of kids to teach and two late ones for one class don't mean much. 

I still like being prompt. Even if it backfires.