Lets just say today started off on the wrong foot, or maybe no foot to be exact, when I got up, somehow my foot got caught in my sheet and I tripped. oh well. the rest of the day was better. And it barely hurts anyway
Today was our third day of class, and its starting to get a little bit stressful! We have sixty pages of reading every night, articles to read, and we have a paper due on Friday. This is moving a little bit faster than I had expected. I’m used to the first week or two of class being time to move around your schedule, catch up with old friends, and do as little work as possible. But I guess here, everyone wants to learn, so we’ve gotten down to business. Everyone has a really good work ethic, but no one shuts themselves in a room studying all day either. The kids know how to balance work and play, and usually try to combine the two.
Every night in Risley, the Mind, Body, Health kids discuss the nights reading together, clearing up issues, throwing back ideas, and at the end, we all get emailed the notes from that night’s discussion (I can’t imagine being here before email was invented!) Also, the kids are always willing to proofread someone else’s writing and don’t shy from asking for help themselves.
I think the single best thing the school district could do, would be to hire TA’s, (even if that doesn’t make real sense, because our classes aren’t too much bigger than the size of a section here.) Kathryn, is great during our discussion sessions, because she lets the group talk amongst itself, and share opinions, yet she knows how to steer our discussions in the right direction when the time comes.
Hopefully my essay turns out okay…
-Joseph Young
(I promise I’ll upload more pictures soon!)
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2 comments:
Sounds like quite the day. I'm glad your foot is better. Your suggestion about TAs is very interesting and I'm thinking about how it might be implemented.
Keep rambling.
This thing with your foot just tells us all that you've moved up another rung or two on the evolutionary ladder. As you grow older, you'll learn how to bump into things as you head from your bed to the bathroom stubbing your toes on anything you can. You'll also learn how to spill your food down the front of your shirt and start losing things like car keys and the remote to the TV.
Yes, Joseph, you're growing up.
Reading from you all about the amount of reading you have to do gives me the heebie jeebies. I love reading but never when I'm forced to.
I'm glad you're going through the rigors of higher education where they expect you to hit the ground running on the first day. When I started at Cal back when the Earth was young we were on the quarter system--10 weeks per quarter. Just about the time when you figured out how to pronounce your TA's name it was time for midterms and by the time you recovered from them, a prof was throwing a final exam in front of you. You simply did not have the time to waste in that first week trying to get yourself all situated. You were expected to have read everything and been prepared to ask relevant questions on Day 1. Yeah, it really sucked then and I'm sure it sucks now.
We're hearing nothing but great things about you all so keep up the good work. Keep the prose and photos coming so we can live our dreary lives through what we see on this blog.
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