Wednesday, January 27, 2010

My first week back to college classes were actually pretty exciting as oppposed to depressing. My new schedule of college classes is very different from my fall semester's. The only class I'm taking at the City Center is called Great Books 2. At the campus building, I'm taking Medical Terminology and Psychology, so I can get some basic pre-requisites for my Exercise Science Degree.
Great Books 2 is taught by Professor Santirojprapai. Our first lesson of the year was to pronounce his name correctly, with my guess being pronounced "San-tee-roodge-prah-pul." That made him laugh, seeing as the correct pronnunciation is "San-tee-roach-prah-pie."
The class so far looks to be a winner, except the name of the class itself is misconstrued in many odd ways. The first day back, as I walked in to the City Center, a kid asked where "Awesome Reads" was. I wanted to say, "probably the same place 'Gnarly Novels' is," but it was the first day back, so I refrained.
Medical Terminology is taught by Professor Rigney, who is my favorite type of teacher- strict, but fair. She came out front and said the first day that she doesn't care how well we do. She presents the material and it's our job to learn. She doesn't fiddle with grades, and theres a quiz everyday. It's gonna be a dry class, but very important for all of us going into a medical field. Psychology is in the same league as Medical Terminology, the professor is very clear of how everything will go, and the syllabus tells us exactly what we're going to be learning. Four exams will basically comprise our grade in that class, with small amounts of extra credit filtered in.

Monday, January 4, 2010

One semester down. One to go.

Well, my first semester is over as is my Christmas Break from high school. I don't return to classes at Kent until January 19th, which is a huge extension compared to going back to United today. My first semester at Kent, looking back on it now, was nothing I should have worried over, which I did for a while before I went there the first day in September. The City Center environment is not a sensory overload, as it would've been if it were at a larger campus with hundreds of college kids. It turned out to be exactly half-way between college and high school; a more professional atmosphere, but in an old high school. Legit Professors, but students that are still in high school. Less class time, more homework. College credit and G.P.A. responsibility for those credits, but with a little more active support from the professors. And for the majority of the S2S students that don't live in Salem, it felt like, and was, a commute.

There's a lot of freedom in doing Seniors to Sophomores, as I've mentioned before. In high school you couldn't stop at Subway to eat, or pick up something at Wal-Mart before returning to school. I got a lot of errands done over the semester between morning classes and high school, and had my biggest crash course of the semester in time-management. (Hint: Use working clock, and daylight savings is all about falling BACKWARD.)

Being the rebel I am, emboldened by Senoritas, I did skip a couple days. And it didn't hurt me one bit. I missed days I could catch up on notes and not have to turn anything in. I wouldn't encourage it, but used with precision and in moderation, it's a strategy just like anything else, in my opinion. I missed two days. I'll leave this subject hang by saying another person I know skipped 5-7 days and failed a class.

Just like any high school class, or even any college class, each was different per the professor; you really have to wait and see what teachers you have and go with the flow. That said, nobody in the program had the exact same experience as anyone else. I can safely say that there are no major drawbacks to doing seniors to sophomores that I came across, and I'm just as glad I did it as I thought I would be when I entered the program.