Suu's Midterm Review...

[Suu]

So, since I've been back in school now for a month and a half. I figured I'd share with everyone how things are going...Not that you all care, but some of you might. Anyone else who wants to review their classes can do so here too.

Monday: German 101.
My teacher is AMAZING. She's from Düsseldorf, and looks like a middle aged Dr. Elsa Schneider. If I was a guy, I'd be all over it. She's a great instructor, and really wants to make sure that everyone is grasping the material. The approach is waaaay different than my previous German classes in high school (immersion and communicative), so I feel like I really am starting all over, even though I can pronounce things better than anyone in the class. I do lie and continue to tell everyone that the reason why I can grasp it so easily is because I took Latin, which isn't totally false. So far every assignment I've done in this class I've gotten very high As. The majority of this class is traditional Juniors and Seniors looking to make up Gen Eds. So they're young, but they're more mature and old enough to drink, so we talk about beer a lot. I like it a lot and I'm looking forward to continuing with it next semester.

Tuesday: Anthropology 201: Human Origins.
My lecture is not much older than me, if not the same age. She's a biological anthropologist with field experience, and had a great sense of humor; often including random Youtube videos into her lectures. The class itself is 50% reading and 50% lecture. We are only graded on our exams and final project. THAT'S IT. There is attendance credit, in which we turn it a little paragraph or in-class assignment every week, but it's not graded. This class has a mixed attendance of traditional students and adult students. But everyone is pretty into the material, which is good.

Tuesday: World Geography 101
*sigh* You've all already heard me bitch about this one. The class is 90% traditional freshman and sophomores, with little work ethic. Most of the class congregates around one corner of the room and talks, the others fall asleep, text, or just bitch out loud. About 3 people in the class other than myself actively participates. The professor is cool, although I doubt the other students see him that way. He does come in late (mostly because he has a class in Kingston before driving into Providence at rush hour), and he deliberately deviates from the topic during lectures to see if anyone is paying attention. I caught onto this tactic right away. We don't go over maps in class, that's our homework and part of our reading, which is a chapter a week. In class, it's more about statistics, and notable people/events within the region.

This seems to piss everyone off EXCEPT me, because, as they're all fresh out of high school, they're expecting the stuff to be force-fed to them, and it's not. He basically reviewed what we needed to know for the Midterm last night, and this kid behind me audibly blew a shit fit. "What?! That's all you're going to teach us for the midterm?! You're cramming in 2 chapters worth of stuff in an hour?!" To which the professor went, "Yes. If you're keeping up with your reading and using the resources I gave you, you should have no problem passing the test." More shit happened last night too, but I'll save that for another time. Essentially, this class is a 3 Ring Circus, and I paid $400 a credit hour to be there. Oh well, I know the stuff, I blasted through the Europe map quiz we had last night, and left before anyone else did. They can bite me.

Wednesday: History 112: Early Medieval Europe from 300-1000
This professor is the essential crazy history nerd. He's awesome. He teaches at the Naval War College full-time, and then does our class one night at week. This unfortunately can leave him a little burned out if he had a long day, and he'll starting flubbing the lecture. He's very passionate about the topic, unfortunately a little TOO passionate, and can forget about watching the clock. The majority of the lecture is him jogging from one end of the chalkboard to the other, writing charts, facts and timelines, and he LOVES in-class participation. This class is a mix of adult and traditional students, but the adults outweigh the kids. Everyone is pretty cool, and most of us are history majors, so we all get nerdy with him. So far in this class, I haven't had to be graded on anything yet. Today is our midterm, which consists of 2 take home essays (I've been fretting over them all week. I'm sure you've seen) and a multiple choice test. I'm falling a bit behind in the reading. The book is very intense and unfortunately pretty dry, which he knows, so he uses the lecture to sorta break it down. This will be my only 100 level History class, so I gotta enjoy it while it lasts.

Next semester registration for Sophomores begins on November 4th.

So far, it looks like my course selections will be...

German 102 (required)
Textiles 103: Textile Products (required for my minor)
History 305: The Renaissance
Classics 397: Greek Myth and Tragedy (I need 3 more literature credits.)


I have open advisement today after I get out of work. I plan to go down there and see what I can do about these pesky writing credits I don't want to have to take all over.

[Cain]

This thread is worthless without German professor pics.

[Suu]

This thread is worthless without German professor pics.

I'll see what I can do. Seriously, she's beautiful...Tall, thin, blonde hair, blue eyes...whole 9 yards.

[Adios]

Sounds like you may actually enjoy this! 

[Suu]

I've always liked school, I'm just getting a bit bogged down right now.

[Jenne]

You're makin' me miss the Ivory Tower, man...

but I'm glad it's pretty much a great ride so far...barring your shitty geography classmates...

[Suu]

Jenne, I've been meaning to ask...since you're a language nerd, what do you think of the communicative/immersive approach to teaching?

[Jenne]

Jenne, I've been meaning to ask...since you're a language nerd, what do you think of the communicative/immersive approach to teaching?

It has its ups and downs.  I'm actually a big fan of mixing approaches according to need.  Let me bump this for now and get back to it tomorrow when I'm BORED with work and not like right now as I'm winding up a 12-hour shift.  (will answer better later)