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Apr. 9th, 2012 01:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
csi_sanders1129So, I just realized that the semester is more than halfway over and I never talked about my classes. This is my last semester, graduating on May 19th. This semester is laughably easy after last semesters hellishness. Oh! On that note - Capstone professor? Is apparently being let go. In part because of our Capstone reviews. Other professors in the history department have apologized to us over how that class went. His other classes weren't going to well, either, evidently.
Anyway. This semester. I'm taking 5 classes. Mostly because I need 15 credits to have enough credits here to qualify for Graduation, since most of mine were transferred in. One is a stupid online class. They're called IDIS (Identity and Difference) classes. 2 of them were required but I filled them both with stuff from my old school. But it was an easy option and an online one at that. So now I have to type of responses to song lyrics and write papers about Glee episodes. So very stressful. I did, however, get all caught up on Glee, though.
My other pointless class is Adolescent Lit. This is teh only class I have with anybody I know, so there's that. All we do is read books and kind of talk about them in class. Redwall, Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban (:D), Ender's Game, Fruits Basket (lol, hello anime phase!), Slam!, Dancing on the Edge (I'd never read this one before and it actually kind of sort of made me cry). We're on To Kill A Mockingbird now. And then there's two other books. And we have a project to do at some point between now and the end of the semester that we don't have much intel on yet.
Psych classes are the ones I actually need. Research Methods is with the same Prof as last semester's Animal Cognition & Behavior class. That class is pretty boring. Just how to set up experiments and such. We have to do a group project (HATE THEM) and write the first two sections (Intro and Methods) of an APA paper. I could do that in like 3 hours, but it's so much more involved with more people (T_T). Plus, half the class are idiots and are slowly driving the prof insane.
Child Development is cool. The prof is fun and we get to do fun things as a result. We got to color and do puzzles on day. We've learned how to keep babies quiet and signs of maltreatment and watched Super Nanny and yeah. Tests are easy and no papers!
Last is Drugs & Human Behavior. This is probably the best class this semester. The first day of class we went through the intro course stuff and then the prof told us to get up and make a circle and we played a giant game of 'Never Have I Ever...' which I had learned how to play like 2 days prior. I won? Which I guess is bad, but whatever. The prof likes telling stories (though sometimes he repeats them) but he gives crazy amounts of EC. Presently I have 130%? Got 10 EC points for our group winning a game about the ASAM levels of care, got another 20 from 'Name That Drug Tune' which was a bunch of 60's-70's-80's rock music interspersed with some country and rap. Tests are awesomely easy and only one more paper for that one!
As for outside of class stuff - I love my friends. I'm going to miss them. Some of them are moving to grad schools out of state (IL, TN), others are staying here and the rest are spread out across the state. Makes me sad. We've been doing a lot of stuff for history club. Making shirts and doing bakesales. We've done a conference already - I presented a paper on Revolution Era Anti-British Propaganda and I'm presenting it again in 2 weeks. We're going to a club in Morgantown on Friday and maybe to DC on Saturday. Maybe Gettysburg or Antietam at some point, too. Doing Relay 4 Life stuff, setting up banquet and graduation stuff and yeah.
It's all going so fast.
Anyway. This semester. I'm taking 5 classes. Mostly because I need 15 credits to have enough credits here to qualify for Graduation, since most of mine were transferred in. One is a stupid online class. They're called IDIS (Identity and Difference) classes. 2 of them were required but I filled them both with stuff from my old school. But it was an easy option and an online one at that. So now I have to type of responses to song lyrics and write papers about Glee episodes. So very stressful. I did, however, get all caught up on Glee, though.
My other pointless class is Adolescent Lit. This is teh only class I have with anybody I know, so there's that. All we do is read books and kind of talk about them in class. Redwall, Harry Potter & the Prisoner of Azkaban (:D), Ender's Game, Fruits Basket (lol, hello anime phase!), Slam!, Dancing on the Edge (I'd never read this one before and it actually kind of sort of made me cry). We're on To Kill A Mockingbird now. And then there's two other books. And we have a project to do at some point between now and the end of the semester that we don't have much intel on yet.
Psych classes are the ones I actually need. Research Methods is with the same Prof as last semester's Animal Cognition & Behavior class. That class is pretty boring. Just how to set up experiments and such. We have to do a group project (HATE THEM) and write the first two sections (Intro and Methods) of an APA paper. I could do that in like 3 hours, but it's so much more involved with more people (T_T). Plus, half the class are idiots and are slowly driving the prof insane.
Child Development is cool. The prof is fun and we get to do fun things as a result. We got to color and do puzzles on day. We've learned how to keep babies quiet and signs of maltreatment and watched Super Nanny and yeah. Tests are easy and no papers!
Last is Drugs & Human Behavior. This is probably the best class this semester. The first day of class we went through the intro course stuff and then the prof told us to get up and make a circle and we played a giant game of 'Never Have I Ever...' which I had learned how to play like 2 days prior. I won? Which I guess is bad, but whatever. The prof likes telling stories (though sometimes he repeats them) but he gives crazy amounts of EC. Presently I have 130%? Got 10 EC points for our group winning a game about the ASAM levels of care, got another 20 from 'Name That Drug Tune' which was a bunch of 60's-70's-80's rock music interspersed with some country and rap. Tests are awesomely easy and only one more paper for that one!
As for outside of class stuff - I love my friends. I'm going to miss them. Some of them are moving to grad schools out of state (IL, TN), others are staying here and the rest are spread out across the state. Makes me sad. We've been doing a lot of stuff for history club. Making shirts and doing bakesales. We've done a conference already - I presented a paper on Revolution Era Anti-British Propaganda and I'm presenting it again in 2 weeks. We're going to a club in Morgantown on Friday and maybe to DC on Saturday. Maybe Gettysburg or Antietam at some point, too. Doing Relay 4 Life stuff, setting up banquet and graduation stuff and yeah.
It's all going so fast.
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no subject
Date: 2012-04-09 05:31 am (UTC)Totally psyched for you!! \o/
Kinda surprised about your Capstone professor. I mean, I remember you saying he wasn't all that great, but he was that bad? Though, if you don't have tenure and all your students give you shitty evaluations, I suppose you'll probably get tossed out on your ass.
Glad you've got some easy classes this semester! I took 15 credits my last semester too, but aside from my seminar, and putting in all the hours for my internship, it wasn't a lot of work until I had to do my final papers. Adolescent Lit sounds kinda fun, I mean you get to read Harry Potter for class!! Your drugs class sounds awesome. I've taken a couple (hazard of being a criminal justice student, I suppose) and they were pretty good too, but no games, alas.
Going separate ways from friends after school is always sad. =( at least there's better technology to keep in touch now than there used to be (like when I left high school...I haven't seen or talked to most of my high school friends in years, but it was phones and email, and now it's Facebook, Twitter, Skype, and fifty other things I've probably never heard of, along with email and phone)
So what are your plans for after school? I kinda remember you saying grad school was probably gonna be on your plate...
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Date: 2012-04-09 05:41 am (UTC)Yeah, we were all surprised, too. He just got his doctorate like last year and he like stalking about theory and concepts and blah blah blah but he doesn't understand any of it. He doesn't like when students know more about something than he does (which is, sad to say, often) and yeah. Leaving all of the graded work until the last day of the semester pretty much told all of us that he didn't actually read anything and ugh... I feel bad for him, but it's no loss to the history department.
Yeah, I'd imagine final papers would be a pain. I don't really have that many papers this semester (and after last semester the ones I do have seem laughable (4-5 pages after the 38 page monster capstone?)) and the tests are pretty straightforward. ALit is cool - the books a quick reads and inexpensive (hoorah!) and Drugs is just my favorite non-history class ever.
We already have some plans to visit - Birthdays and breaks and stuff, but we'll see if those things happen when we're all spread out. Definitely true on the technology bit, though.
I'm thinking I'm gonna take a year off and save up some money (I paid for most of this semester myself so I depleted my savings pretty effectively) and then try for some sort of Grad School. :)
no subject
Date: 2012-04-09 05:56 am (UTC)Wow, dude, that's totally not a good way to teach. If you're gonna talk theories and stuff, you better know the theories you're talking about, and if your students know more about stuff than you, that's saying something. And leaving all the grading to the last minute is a dick move. =\
Yeah, my final papers were a pain because I'd put them off til the last little bit and I was putting together a combined total of roughly 10000 words across 5 papers and roughly 8 days (my seminar paper was 3600, took me 18 hours the night/morning before it was due including a good chunk of the research and was on whether or not the US should join the International Criminal Court...I wanted to shoot myself for picking that topic to be honest)
Yay! Plans for visiting is a great idea =D it helps to have a plan in place for things like that.
Taking a year off is a great idea. I recommend just taking any job you can find, to be honest. Reception work doesn't suck and pays not too badly. And if it wouldn't suck horribly, and both you and your parents are amenable, I'd recommend moving back home for the year, because rent is outrageous (well, here it is, but I don't know about your area, I just pretend rent sucks everywhere because it makes me feel better!) and then you can save up more money for school. =D
no subject
Date: 2012-04-09 06:04 am (UTC)Yeah, all 13 of us emailed him as he was posting grades. I lost points for reviewing a paper (that I wasn't supposed to review - friend asked me to read over my paper, he read over mine, too, but I posted my comments on his discussion page because it was easier) for not being thorough enough! WASNT SUPPOSED TO DO IT! DID EXTRA WORK. but got an A. So whatever.
Yeouch. That's a lot of words in not a lot of time. I can relate though. I procrastinate like mad like 95% of the time. It's weird. I'm compulsively early for everything, but I wait til the last minute with projects. Also, that topic does not even sound fun. xD
I actually have a job when I'm home. I take every opportunity to go home and work on Friday nights as I can, but they don't come often. I worked most of my Spring Break they sent me home one day cause they didn't have anything for me to do. I work with my Mom in Medical Records in a hospital, so it's interesting. I do a lot of legal stuff, too - not fun. Pays pretty well. And parents are cool on the living there thing, too. So it just makes more sense to save up a bit. :)
no subject
Date: 2012-04-09 06:15 am (UTC)Dude, he took points off for you doing an extra review because you weren't thorough enough? What an ass.
Yeah, it was a lot of words, but one of those papers was writing up my internship experience and one aspect of it as it related to my major, which was super easy (and I'd been spitballing it all semester), so despite being 2500 words, it only took me like most of a morning and afternoon. All of it together was just time consuming, and well, my seminar paper was enormously hard, but that was my own fault (plus, longest paper I've ever written)
Oh, that's awesome that you have a job when you're home. And it sounds like a cool job =D The legal stuff would be even cooler, at least to me, but I'm a nerd like that. ;) But yeah, I totally think living at home is a good move if it works, because grad school is expensive (if I get in, I'll be going to state school, and I'll probably be going about $50,000 into debt for my master's, but that's almost entirely living expenses because I can't live with my parents anymore...too much stress there)