(no subject)

So, classes are going decently well.

Psych: Pretty fun and straightforward. The Prof is way too fond of monkeys and likes to limit her examples to them as opposed to including other animals. We did get to have fun on Thursday when we got to the cognition chapters - we got to train a couple classmates. We sent someone out into the hall, picked something we wanted them to do (i.e. sit on the floor, write on the board) and then brought them back in and clapped when they got close to doing the right thing. Eventually the both figured it out. The 'sit on the floor' guy was harder. There was a chair near where we had herded him and he kept trying to sit in that, so eventually we were like 'you know, I really don't like that chair. Chairs are overrated.' Twas fun.

Gilded Age: Probably the most interesting class. My opinion on that might change tomorrow when we get our first papers back, though. The Prof remains funny and cool and I'll probably end up asking for his help on Capstone so hopefully I didn't do horribly on my paper or anything.

Capstone: Finally got this one decently worked out. Thesis involves how the technique of dehumanization through labeling typically used in warfare and racial conflict is also used in terms of social conflict such as in the cases of the Haymarket Massacre in Boston in 1886 and at the shootings at Kent State University in 1970. So there's that. Approved, mostly researched...

Revolution: This class is both good and bad. Mostly awful. I feel like we're not actually learning anything. It's the Prof's first semester teaching (at least here) and ughhh. It doesn't help at all that she's replacing the best Prof in the history department. Despite the fact that American Revolution is her area of focus, she doesn't seem all that informed of it. She says things are complicated that are not, she makes really basic mistakes that we've been calling her on. She also is ridiculously fond of group work. It is a 400 level lecture course, the majority of a class period should be made up of lecture, not of group/individual busy work. Everything we 'discussed' in class tonight could have been covered in a 20 minute power point. She asks questions that I think are rhetorical, but are not. I answered 4 or 5 different questions for my group that did nothing but cite an example straight from the text. In one case, she read us a few sentences from the book and asked us a question that was literally in the next line of text. And then she rephrases whatever we answered with as if we were wrong and by slightly altering the sentence, she has better explained it. No. Ugh. This could have been an online class - the tests and quizzes are take home, most of the information we're getting (and by most, I mean like 98%) from the books we're reading. And this is the professor with the 'Most students will not get an A in this class because C is average and that is what most people are' attitude.

On other notes -- roommates are awesome, history club/friends are awesome (we're hanging out on Thursday night after Capstone to watch X-Men), and Saturday we're all going to the Renaissance Fair in Annapolis. Should be fun, I've never been before.

I'm going home tomorrow afternoon and hanging out with kismekilmeluvme and then going to see Matt Nathanson in DC on Wednesday and then coming back out here early Thursday morning. :)

(no subject)

So, classes are going decently well.

Psych: Pretty fun and straightforward. The Prof is way too fond of monkeys and likes to limit her examples to them as opposed to including other animals. We did get to have fun on Thursday when we got to the cognition chapters - we got to train a couple classmates. We sent someone out into the hall, picked something we wanted them to do (i.e. sit on the floor, write on the board) and then brought them back in and clapped when they got close to doing the right thing. Eventually the both figured it out. The 'sit on the floor' guy was harder. There was a chair near where we had herded him and he kept trying to sit in that, so eventually we were like 'you know, I really don't like that chair. Chairs are overrated.' Twas fun.

Gilded Age: Probably the most interesting class. My opinion on that might change tomorrow when we get our first papers back, though. The Prof remains funny and cool and I'll probably end up asking for his help on Capstone so hopefully I didn't do horribly on my paper or anything.

Capstone: Finally got this one decently worked out. Thesis involves how the technique of dehumanization through labeling typically used in warfare and racial conflict is also used in terms of social conflict such as in the cases of the Haymarket Massacre in Boston in 1886 and at the shootings at Kent State University in 1970. So there's that. Approved, mostly researched...

Revolution: This class is both good and bad. Mostly awful. I feel like we're not actually learning anything. It's the Prof's first semester teaching (at least here) and ughhh. It doesn't help at all that she's replacing the best Prof in the history department. Despite the fact that American Revolution is her area of focus, she doesn't seem all that informed of it. She says things are complicated that are not, she makes really basic mistakes that we've been calling her on. She also is ridiculously fond of group work. It is a 400 level lecture course, the majority of a class period should be made up of lecture, not of group/individual busy work. Everything we 'discussed' in class tonight could have been covered in a 20 minute power point. She asks questions that I think are rhetorical, but are not. I answered 4 or 5 different questions for my group that did nothing but cite an example straight from the text. In one case, she read us a few sentences from the book and asked us a question that was literally in the next line of text. And then she rephrases whatever we answered with as if we were wrong and by slightly altering the sentence, she has better explained it. No. Ugh. This could have been an online class - the tests and quizzes are take home, most of the information we're getting (and by most, I mean like 98%) from the books we're reading. And this is the professor with the 'Most students will not get an A in this class because C is average and that is what most people are' attitude.

On other notes -- roommates are awesome, history club/friends are awesome (we're hanging out on Thursday night after Capstone to watch X-Men), and Saturday we're all going to the Renaissance Fair in Annapolis. Should be fun, I've never been before.

I'm going home tomorrow afternoon and hanging out with kismekilmeluvme and then going to see Matt Nathanson in DC on Wednesday and then coming back out here early Thursday morning. :)