Thanks to everyone for their advice. I was able to locate a battery that works in the camera at this store called Bulbs and Batteries (or Batteries and Bulbs) for that Sears/Ricoh SLR. It appears the meter is working. Accurate may be another thing. Anyway, I just purchased an M42 lens off Ebay for it so I think I'm all set for the class.
Again, THANKS SO MUCH for everyone's input.
SB
Yay thats great news, did the Sears camera not have the original lens with it? What did you go for? Don't forget that if the meter is under or over exposing slightly you can always correct it if its scanned in or indeed dodged/burned via an enlarger. Its amazing how much of an image you can bring back after you scan them in though and correct the levels slightly.
Here is the process I go through when shooting (I am still a newbie) for an SLR:
1. How much depth of field do you want? - set the aperture first to what you want
2. How fast does the shutter need to be at that aperture setting? - set the correct shutter speed using the exposure meter
3. Ensure that the light meter is recording the correct part of the scene - its usually centre weighted and also averaged so if you want detailed sky point the middle of the screen at the sky etc
4. Is this shutter speed ok? - If is below around 1/30s then its too slow for hand held - does depend on the focal lenth though
5. Adjust aperture if needed to allow for a useable shutter speed (usually have to increase the aperture for additional light
6. Compose the shot in the view finder being aware that there will be some additional image outside of what the viewfinder can see - viewfinders usually show 95% of what will be exposed on film.
7. Wait for the moment you feel is right to take the shot, release the shutter and hold the button down once pressed so you don't shake the camera by lifting your finger off.
This is usually why you will find more photographers have their cameras set to the aperture priority mode (if not on auto) as its more useable. Shutter priority is usually used for sports or faster events when you need to freeze time, but you won't be a 1/4000s shutter speed to take a photo of a landscape, its not moving that fast
Here is how to take a photo on the Olympus trip:
1. Set to A
2. Point it at something you like
3. Press the button
Let us know how you get on - try and run a basic roll through to check everything is working ok before using a roll for something important and also check that everything stops down and fires correctly before loading film.
you will have a large collection of old film cameras before you know it 
