I'd say that the past few weeks have been hectic and full of studying, but in all honesty, this was life:
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| A little bit of studying at my desk |
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| Some studying at the mall |
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| All of Ouran High School Host Club (the anime) |
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| Every episode of Smiling Pasta |
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| Half of One Litre of Tears (I kinda RAN OUT OF TISSUE) /TooPoorToCryOneLitreOfTears. |
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| Brave (which was a fairly good movie) |
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| And Rise of the Guardians (which was, like, one of the best animated movies I've seen in a long time) |
As with last semester, I kind of feel obligated to make a teacher evaluation, so ... LGI LET'S GET IT, LET'S GO (I've also been on YouTube WAY too much...)
This semester, I had ENGL 101B, PSCI 110, FR 152, PSYCH 207, and CLAS 104 (Online). ENGL 101B, also known as Intro to Rhetoric, was my favourite class this semester. My professor, Kathy Acheson, was awesome. Her lessons were short, succinct, and often times funny in one way or another. She has no qualms about joking around, and I loved that after each lesson, she would get us to work through what we just learned and apply it to analysis and rhetoric activities. Unfortunately, she's going on sabbatical until Fall 2014, but if you have the chance, take her class, you won't regret it~
Next we have PSCI 110, Introduction to Politics in the Contemporary World. My professor, Jingjing Huo, was... interesting. At times he was hilarious, but somehow managed to maintain an eerily straight face that killed me more than his jokes. I just didn't understand how he managed it. Overall, he was a good prof, though his class just wasn't my thing. I'm into politics, but more of the actual issues more than the theoretical side of it all. Also, sometimes his accent got in the way of my learning, though it also didn't help that Dee kept mishearing stuff he said. However, if we're rating the teachers, I'd give him a nice 4 out of 5.
Alright, for FR 152, i.e. Gr 12 French, the expensive version, I had Aurelio Ayala as my prof. Unfortunately, in the future, he'll be teaching History (which I'm not that interested in) at Waterloo or French over at York U. I absolutely loved him as a teacher. He was always enthusiastic about teaching us, and actually listened when we asked him to change something about the way he was trying to get the information across. He was really fun, and always talked about beer, bacon, South Park, and the Simpsons in his examples. Honestly, one of my favourite profs of the year (and TAs, as he was my lab and tutorial TA last semester). I loved that he was relatable and didn't seem... teacher-ish, like my English prof. Neither had issues with joking around with the class and sometimes just fooling around or doing funny things. Best prof, imo. If any of you find him in the future, let me know, 'cause I'd seriously like to keep up with him~
Next, we have cognitive psychology, PSYCH 207. I was not pleased with this class. The textbook was expensive, the class was boring, and I gained nothing from waking up at 7am in the morning and dragging my butt to AL 116 every Tuesday and Thursday morning. So halfway through the year, I didn't. My mark went up ten percent. Normally, I wouldn't condone this, 'cause honestly, going to class is really important, and you're paying for that seat that your butt warms for an hour and twenty minutes every Tuesday and Thursday. However, I fell asleep more in this class more than I learned, so I figured I might as well just stay in bed for that extra hour and half. I didn't hate my prof, Jonathan Fugelsang (though spelling his name is a feat). There was nothing really wrong with him. He was funny, his voice was loud and clear, blah, blah, he was fine. There was just something about the WAY he taught that bothered me. I think it was his PowerPoints. They were virtually useless, and he'd also ramble a lot so I'd sit there, take a nap, and then miss the actually information I needed, and catch his stories about other professors or people that are semi-relevant to whatever we were learning. This bothered me a lot, and I ended up not learning much in class at all.
Lastly, there was Classical Mythology, aka CLAS 104. This was my first online course ever and honestly, I liked it and hated it at the same time. Each online course is unique and you really have to get the syllabus to know whether you'll be able to handle it or not, but this course, when I saw the syllabus, I died. Basically, there was a quiz every week, plus five discussion weeks, plus two midterm projects, as well as an analysis, AND a final exam. I had my work cut out for me, but I took it in stride, and I learned a lot from my professor's "lectures" (which were like typed up version of what he'd say) and he was really active on the discussion boards, getting back to students really fast. My prof, Andrew Faulkner, worked hard to make sure that we managed to finish all of our work on time, and helped out as much as possible. Though some of his assignments were quite vague, I really enjoyed having him as my invisible prof. Albeit, not all courses are as well spread as mine, nor are all profs as helpful as mine. My suite-mate had one course that had a final exam worth 100% of the course mark, while her other online course had 2 tests worth 25% and a final exam making up the rest of the mark. With online courses, check out the syllabus first, and make sure that you can handle whatever it's throwing your way. Sometimes, it'd benefit you to wait until you can take the class in the actual classroom. My overall experience with online courses was good and it was fairly enjoyable, though Learn ticked me off A LOT... but that's a different story for another day.
This semester, though a lot more work in comparison to my first semester, was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed something about each one of my classes (including psych), which I thought was awesome, hehe ~
But yeah, overall, uni life has been good ~ I actually can't wait 'til next year (after a beautiful summer off) (:
-Alikiya
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