No two universities are alike/my experiences so far

So I'm almost done my fall semester at Carleton doing their CTESL (Certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language) program. Not sure what that is? I refer to you one of my earlier posts.

One thing I noticed with Carleton is some of their courses are full semester courses. That is the course you sign up for in the fall will be in that very same time slot in the winter. With that I have to suffer with doing an assignment over the break whereas if I was still going to MUN I would be lying on the couch all day watching movies or maybe trying to get through 1 season of a TV show.

Second thing is the way the schedule operates. I'm sure Carleton has those 3x a week for 1 hour courses but I haven't encountered them in my program so I am uncertain what courses they are (most of my courses at MUN were like that). My schedule at Carleton is filled with mostly two 1.5 to 2 hours courses (meets every Tues. and Thurs for example) with some once a week 2-3 hour courses (meets every Mon. evening). Maybe this is their preferred way of scheduling?

Anyway . . . one of the courses I have to take is a practicum which is basically learn and experience what goes on in a classroom. If you remember in elementary school (maybe some of you in secondary school as well) you may have encountered the student teacher who maybe helps you with your schoolwork or on occasion teaches a lesson. Apparently that is what I have become except my setting was in an ESL classroom.

Now I have two practicum placements for the whole year. I have already completed my first placement and can't wait for the day I get to "choose" (it's first to raise their hand that gets the location) my next one (maybe because I'll hope to encounter a Russian, Croatian, or maybe someone from Turkey). For my first placement I chose a literacy classroom. What is it exactly? Teaching how to read and write. The class I was in was for those who are 1) literate in their first language but the "alphabet" in their first language does not use the Roman alphabet, 2) are illiterate in their first language, or 3) come from an oral culture where there is no written form or a written form is not really used (kinda like situation 2). Who I encountered in my class (including the ones who got promoted to the level 1 ESL classes along the way) came from the following countries: Kuwait, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia, Macedonia, Nepal, Bhutan (Nepali speaking person), Laos, and Burma/Myanmar (Karen people). From this bunch I think I may have an idea who I might expect to see in my next placement.

With the class I did my practicum in there was a routine: The students would write something dictated to them on the board then everyone would copy that into their journals/notebooks. Then the teacher would write something on the board, for example "Did you have a good weekend?" if it was a on a Monday and on another board write "Today there ____ ____ teachers and _____ students" to get them to practice their numbers. Usually the days I'm there the teacher would say something like after copying the first board raise your hand to let <insert my name here here> know you're ready but no one does that, they usually do so once they copied down everything. Not sure why they don't do it, maybe it's because they're more comfortable with the teacher or if they're thinking "I should copy down everything first" or "I need to copy everything". 90% of the time I would be thinking it rude to ask them "May I listen to you read what you have so far". Lesson learned there: assert yourself.

After the journals they would be doing some activity, whether it's a "fill in the missing letters" dictation or a worksheet. Sometime they would be learning something new whether it's through a 10 line story with related activities or a story from a handout. There were activities that would teach them certain concepts like "please speak slowly/louder", "please can you say that again?" I led a couple of activities as well and comparing the two I did I found it difficult to create one of my own versus organizing one that's already made. Also with leading activities it is to be expected that not everyone will be looking at you whether it's out of boredom or maybe they're still struggling with the first thing I said.

So that's what went down in my practicum placement. Someone else doing the same as me would have either a similar experience or something different. Anyway that's enough from me.

My Undergrad in Textbooks (the summer semester to my final (5th) year)

Top: books I used in Russia
Bottom: book I bought in Russia

The Russian department at MUN has a program which runs every other year (well, when I was there it did) in which we could go to St. Petersburg, Russia in the summer and earn course credits at the same time. Out of people who signed up for the summer courses there were only 6 people who signed up for actually going overseas and doing stuff there. Our instructor (from MUN) gave us some reading to do beforehand and it was from the book on the top right (St. Petersburg by Arthur L. George). That book was not easy to obtain as it was no longer published in North America but somehow one of they guys on the trip managed to find a copy in Dom Knigi. I had to get the book online through the rare and used collection and luckily it arrived before the postal strike. I hated how I had to summarize the book as one of my assignments but I did learn a lot of interesting things about Russian history centered around St. Petersburg (Peter the Great liked Dutch things and shipbuilding, the city was named after St. Peter). The top left book was the workbook used for the Russian language classes given to us for free (though I'm sure it was included in the cost of the course). Not only it teaches grammar and vocab but if I purchased the disk it might have helped me with the pronunciation and intonation sections. The book with the robot on it is meant for beginners in Russian but the reason I got it was of the pictures explaining things as well as for practice and review.

film text books and sociology
course textbook

My fifth year I didn't spend too much on textbooks as each semester I had three courses. The fall semester I took a course in Russian film, historical linguistics, and anthropology-sociology course on media and mass communication. I have never taken a film course before and a lot of the work in that course, besides discussing the films themselves, involved discussing elements of film like mise-en-scene and the significance of long takes hence the David Bordwell book on film. Film analysis isn't really my cup of tea but after taking that course almost every film I see I seem to do analyses of my own (if anyone sees the movie Limitless, take note of how the lighting changes when Bradley Cooper is on the drug and when he is not). Historical lingustics (the continuation of the 3rd year course now at the 4th year level) reused the same red textbook at times but most of the material was from photocopies and notes the instructor made many years ago. The fall semester was also my introduction to the world of sociology courses (even though I just took the one). The reason I took that course was out of curiosity as well as having something to balance out my schedule (films for my Russian film course were on Fridays from 3-5, the sociology course was on Mondays and Wednesdays around the same time). Not sure how much I've read of the book (but reading it helped in understanding class discussions) but it opened me up to how mass media works.

English Grammar and phonetics textbooks

The winter semester I took a course in phonetics, phonology, and English grammar. Phonology mostly involved signing out books from put on reserve in the library as the instructor provided sheets for us to print off. The English textbook has an interesting cover (it's orange) but I didn't like the book that much (didn't read much of it either). The book was published in 1999 and mentions English as "on its way to becoming the official language of the European Union" and MS-DOS in one of its examples ("The new MS-DOS is incredibly fast (predicative adjective)"). Even though standard English hasn't changed much at least make a revised edition of the book that uses examples that are more attuned to modern times and a younger generation. The phonetics textbook is a great one that I'll treasure. The reason I like this textbook is it gives instructions on how to make the sounds not found in English as well as how human speech is produced.

That's all for my textbooks and it has been quite the journey. At least I made it out alive.

My Undergrad in Textbooks (second half of 3rd year to my 4th year)

"Crime & Punishment"
"Eugene Onegin"
"Fathers and Sons"
"Gogol Short Stories"

Continuing from where I left off . . .
The latter half of my 3rd year was filled mainly with Russian course (3 of them) while the other two were Latin (continuing from the fall semester) and another
Linguistics course (which was basically course notes again). There was a textbook for my Russian language course, Golosa 2, but my instructor for the course again does not like the Golosa books so he made that optional. As for the other two Russian courses I took that semester one was a literature course and the other was a special course that looked at vocabulary building. The only new book I got for that course was the book of Gogol short stories. My uncle did lend me some of his book (another anthology of Gogol short stories and Tolstoy's Anna Karenina) but the reason I got the book from the bookstore had to do with stories being covered in the course. In the end I ended up using both books when I had to do an essay comparing the works of Gogol with Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. I was able to pass the course only having read Onegin, some of Gogol's stories, Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, and a little bit of Crime and Punishment
   

A book on Russian culture
used for vocab building

        For the vocabulary building course there was one textbook (the black one with the bird-like creature on it). The book wasn't used much but what from I've seen of it, it's mostly on Russian culture and the things you would find in Russia and at the same time it would build your vocabulary (there's a page where it names parts of the body as well as a small section on swearing). I still have this book and when I have the time and patience would like to look through it again.

3 Russian textbooks, 2 linguistics text-
books, and a history textbook.

My fourth year was the beginning of the linguistics heavy stuff. The intro to language acquisition was the only course that did not have a textbook as the instructor just e-mailed everyone the notes. I didn't like the history course I took that much, and textbook usage was pretty much "read on your own time and we'll discuss the topic next class". This was also the year that the Russian textbooks changed. The main one was a book that I believe was made in the Soviet Era as the photos seem to be dated and the stories seems to revolve around Russian kids in America. The other books that were for the course were mostly reference/practice materials. The only textbooks that were of use were the phonology and syntax books as I can pick up random words from random languages.

Semantics, Morphology,
Historical Linguistics,
Old Church Slavonic

The second half of my 4th year I somewhat stopped taking Russian language courses because there was none offered that semester. (Technically I challenged that course for credit so there was no set textbook, just whatever materials I had with me). On the other hand I took a course in Old Church Slavonic which happens to be like the grandfather (maybe even great grandfather) to languages Russian, Polish, Belarussian, Ukranian, Slovenian, Czech-Slovak, Macedonian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Serbian, Bosnian, Sorbian . . . and I may be missing one or two but you know what I mean. The textbook was chosen on a basis that more than half the class were not linguistics students (since this was listed as a 4th year level linguistics course) and the book was small and cheap (can't remember the cost though). What sucked about the book was the font used was really small and hard to read the Cyrillic and there were some grammatical errors in the examples (in which I remember the instructor pointing things out). I also had that same instructor for historical linguistics which is basically the change of language over time. I'm not sure if I liked that textbook or not, but maybe if I look through it again I might find something that I like. The morphology book is not bad but I hated using it in the course, mainly because we had to look at the morphology of the language featured at the end of each chapter: Kujamaat Joola. I don't seem to have any interest in Niger-Congo languages could be the reason why and if I had change something about the course, is to do a morphology project on a language of choice. The semantics book is quite perplexing. The course description calls for an "introduction to the study of linguistic meaning" but instead the course had to do with logic stuff (the statement is true if x and y =1) as well as some lambda calculus (don't make me go there!). I'd say that the book is somewhat interesting, minus all the math parts.

And there's more to cover. Up next: my summer course and final year

My Undergrad in Textbooks (1st year to half of my 3rd year)

Greetings you who happened to stumble upon my blog post. It's almost official. I'm done my undergrad. The reason I say almost as I still have that pending status next to my application form. Anyway it took me 5 years, yes 5 years, to get here and if anyone hasn't picked it up, I switched from a bachelor of science to a bachelor of arts degree hence the amount of time spent there.

My first year I took the 3 core science courses (chemistry, physics, biology), calculus, and English in the fall semester and in the winter I traded biology for French.

English textbook, French text-
book, Russian textbook

The majority of my first year textbooks were sold as when I took courses the next year there were better books that came along. I also remember buying the majority of them new as the textbooks that were used that year were new editions or new course texts and in order to follow along my way of thinking was I should get the new books. One book I didn't really have to get was my first year English textbook for the fall semester as the instructor for that course only used like 2 or 3 short stories and poems out of there while the rest was from some other books he had. I pretty much kept this book for the stories and poems in case I feel like I want to read some of them one day.

My second year since I fulfilled my English requirement I decided to fill that slot with Russian. I did continue on with chemistry and French, redid a math course, and for a little while did some more physics (I eventually dropped the physics course). That year I bought two of my textbooks used from the student union run used book sale (even for used books they were not cheap as there was a commission added to the asking price of the seller plus tax) and one thing I noticed about science textbooks is the more advance the course the thicker and heavier the books become. I think I remember trying to sell my French textbook but I don't think anyone bought it (maybe there wasn't an instructor that used the book at the time I was selling it). It does have nice colourful pictures and if I want to review/expand my French I guess I could always go back to it. As for the Russian textbook, I kept that until a new textbook was required for the second half of the second year level Russian course. I remember my instructor (which I had for every Russian course I took except the film one) calling this book "crapola" at one point and saying that the book is meant for those who have some rudimentary knowledge of Russian along the lines of "enough to communicate with your Russian-speaking relative." This was also the year I took my first steps into linguistics. The course I took (introduction to phonetics and phonology) did not come with a textbook but instead a course notes package.

Linguistics textbook (on the English
language), Latin textbook, Irish-English
dictionary

My third year at university was when I switched over to linguistics. I didn't take very many linguistics courses that year since I was sort of starting anew (technically the Irish language course was offered by the department of linguistics of overall I took 3 linguistics courses, 1 Russian and 1 classics). Since arts degrees required a minor (a subject of secondary concentration) I chose Russian as I did very well in the 1st year level courses. I could've made Russian my major but linguistics seems to have more career options so I went along with that. Textbooks that were used/reused were for my Russian and two of my linguistics courses. The red textbook pictured was kind of interesting not in the terms of content but that it had pages missing. They weren't torn out but something went wrong during the printing of this particular textbook. The Latin textbook was bought new and is also a keeper because I enjoyed learning it and maybe one day might want to re-educate myself. Also the textbook has some interesting fun facts and mentions Monty Python at one point. The Irish course I only took it in the Fall semester as in the winter I'd wanted to keep the same Latin instructor and I wasn't all too interested in learning Irish (yet I ended up doing well in the course). The textbook I had for the instructor that year was just a dictionary as she provided the worksheets.

And since I've babbled too long on here, I'll post the rest of my undergrad through textbooks in another post.

30 Day Blog Challenge: Days 29 & 30

Day 29 - Tell us about the most interesting person you have encountered at school or around campus.


I don't think there is a single person that can take this spot. I have met a lot of interesting people, a couple of them I have already mentioned in posts during this challenge (Latin instructor and the people who suggested to change my major). Then there are people I've encountered from joining up with the fencing club and the tall guy I had a wee bit of a crush on. 


As for instructors there are a couple (technically 3) of them I can add to this list. There is one of my linguistics instructors who taught me historical linguistics and Old Church Slavonic. He recently just retired from teaching but he's a great guy to listen to and speak with. The second is my Russian instructor I had for 3 years. In a way I can describe him as Major Major from Catch 22 (not there when you need him, there when you don't) but he's a bit of an important guy with Canada-Russia relations which explains him being away most of the time. He has an unconventional way of grading people but again is an interesting guy to listen to when he recalls his stories of Russia and past students. The third is an instructor I had for a film course. The course he taught was a course on Russian Film after 1992 (and also keeps a blog on Russian film too though most of it caters to his students). Again a great person to talk with.




Day 30 - What are your favorite and least favorite things about college?


Time goes by so fast. That fills in both positions for favourite and least favourite things. Unlike high school which for me the semester still continued after winter break before the second semester, a semester at my university lasts about 14-16 weeks. It seems like plenty of time but once that date of that final paper approaches it's hard to believe that you made it this far (unless you decide to drop out and change paths).


And from now on no more blog challenges since I don't come here often.

30 Day Challenge: Day 27

Day 27 - Tell us about your worst experience from your college years.


I'd say my first two years. The first year is and can be rough as it involves some adjustment to new territory and faces. I sort of went in with a bit of optimism but after that year I became a little less optimistic about things. My second year was a bit more rough as it taught me that as much as chemistry can make pretty colours I just couldn't handle it. Day 7 explains pretty much why I switched out.


As for the personal stuff my first year was a bit rough due to my very first roommate. Because of that roommate I came up with the intro post to my first year guide. This roommate didn't last long (all of the fall semester and a bit of the winter) and I had a new roommate a week later. The old roommate and I didn't get along much. She wouldn't get earphones whenever she'd play music or a movie at 2 in the morning when I was trying to get some sleep. I was sick when I arrived and coughing like mad and it annoyed her. I couldn't help it, it's my body's way of fighting the sickness.


Besides the roommate problem the reason my first year was rough was being sick during the first few weeks of my first year. I tried to show enthusiasm at times but I just felt gross inside.


That's pretty much it.

30 Day Challenge: Day 26

Day 26 - What is something non-academic that you’ve learned at college?


Life skills. I guess I can say this is pretty much true for anyone who lives away from the parents. If you have them wake you up each morning reminding you you're going to be late, that's not gonna happen (unless they call you to make sure you get up. As much as they love you let them know you're an independent adult). 


Laundry, if you haven't done it before, you learn how to do that (unless you save your laundry for your trips home. Save you from saving up coins for the machine but you need to know how to wash your clothes on your own, even if it means losing your favourite sweater from forgetting that you are doing laundry).


Cooking. Unless you are spoiled by dining hall or constantly visiting a fast food place nearly every day eventually you will find a way to make food, whether it's from the box or from scratch.


reasons why not to do things on an empty stomach. I have seen someone pass out from doing a combination of alcohol and weed and not eating beforehand. you have to make sure the person is still breathing and not choking on vomit.


that's all I have to offer for this post

30 Day Challenge: Day 25

Day 25 - Which did you enjoy more: high school or college?


In terms of class schedules: college. I mean how else can I sleep in until noon on some days? I'll admit that during my last year of high school I had 2 spare periods divided between my two semesters and technically got away with sleeping until noon a couple of times. I had no homeroom class so whenever the school had a liturgy service I had the option of not showing up.


Another thing I enjoy about college better than high school is I don't have any major projects due after the break. Sure high school semesters are longer but at the same time I got slapped with a project of some sort (which I most likely got little done during that time) as well as preparing for finals which came 3 weeks later. 


As for social life . . . I won't mention here. Maybe I should post something about 'fear of rejection'.


Anyways I enjoy college more. Even though time is short I find there is more freedom for stuff.

30 Day Challenge: Day 15

Day 15 - Share about the first boy/girl you’ve had a crush on since being in college. Where did you first see them? Where did you first talk to them? Did you date?


Well, I did have a crush on a guy and it was the guy I mentioned here. Turns out that a couple of days ago N our mutual friend got the message of him now living in another part of the country so it's safe to assume that he's  alive and well.


As mentioned in my story I met him during my second year. We mostly talked to each other during the fall semester as I would see him at fencing and at dining hall. The most time I talked with him was for an event for service learning day (which is basically a day for volunteering and reflecting on how one contributes to the community). The second semester usually was either through contact or msn or facebook as he decided to get off the meal plan and not return to fencing.


As for the dating aspect, no we did not. We went to a couple of events together such as our end of the year formals and his valentines day party (which I found something about him which wouldn't have made us a couple).


Thus ends the story of my one time guy crush.

Residence Laundry Room Etiquette 101

The moment I'm typing this I a waiting to do my laundry. Now the laundry room has more dryers than washers so when it comes to washing clothes and a number of the washers don't work this can be a problem, especially when someone (or a group of people doing their laundry at the same time) has a lot of laundry. Here are some things to consider on laundry day whether you live on campus and have to use the laundry room or maybe a laundromat:

• Sort your clothes out before doing your laundry
  This saves time so others after you can use the washers quicker.
  
• Lessen your laundry load
  Instead of having 6 or 7, make it 2 or 3, especially if your laundry room doesn't have a lot of washing machines. Also this will save you some money for the dryer if your clothes don't dry completely
• Don't take over the whole laundry room
  
  Other people have to do their laundry too so if you have like 6 or 7 loads of laundry and only 6 out of 9 washers are working, maybe just stick to 1 or 2 machines. It takes longer to do but at least other can get their laundry done. Also refer to bullet number 2.
  
• Do not remove someone's laundry from the washer or dryer
  This is one way your favourite shirt can get lost if someone else take out your laundry and places it on top of the washer or dryer just so they can get their laundry done. In relation of that . . .
  
• Remember that your are doing laundry
  Leaving your clothes in the washer or dryer and forgetting about it can result in clothes getting stolen. Also this takes up precious laundry time for those waiting to do their laundry.

And just to make sure the washers and dryers don't break too often:

• Do not overload the washers or dryers
  Washing machines can only handle a certain load capacity and doing so will at least damage the machine each load it is being used.
  
• Do not trick the coin machine
  I think most washer and dryer units are equipped with a card reader but for those that still have to use coins you may or may not heard of a tricking the machine. I believe this is done by using a condom and whatever coin(s) is required for the machines. Time it well and the machine will be tricked into thinking that it has accepted the coin but if timing is off the machine will break. I advise against doing this and I don't think the repair person would like seeing a condom in the machine.
  
• Put the proper liquids in the proper containers
  Not much of a break the machine issue but more of a 'your clothes won't turn out nice' issue. Front loading washers require liquid detergent and some people use powder in them (if it says liquid detergent only, do not use powder)

Just something to put in mind. Also if you plan on using the same washer or dryer after one load, leave something a like a bottle of detergent. One of my earlier habits during times of limited laundry machines I'd put in my next laundry load after my previous one but I did not notice that someone had staked their claim on the washing machine I was using and this person was pissed. Or you can be courteous and wait for another free washer or dryer and let someone else use the unit after you.

30 Day Blog Challenge: Day 7

Day 7 - What is your field of study? How did you come to this decision, and how many times have you changed your mind?

I study Linguistics as my major with Russian language as a minor. Anyone who doesn't know what linguistics is, it is the study of languages but not in the sense of how many can I speak. Linguistics is mainly the study of language structure. I initially started university wanting to do pharmacy (as mentioned in the first post) but I felt my grades will not be good enough to get into the program so I switched to chemistry. Again thinking that my marks will be good enough I switched to an arts major with chemistry as my minor (it's a crazy combination I know). It was near the end of my second year I came across a linguistics course that I initially took as an elective but at the same time I was suffering with my course load as I wasn't passing any of my midterms for the 2 chemistry courses I was taking at the moment. I spoke with one of my chem professors and she advised me to start off fresh. There's also this guy who gave me the advice of "if you enjoy Russian and Linguistics, go major and minor in them. Before the semester ended I made the switch to Linguistics I seem to be doing better. In total I changed my mind three times.

30 Day Challenge: Day 4

Day 4 - Describe the best party experience you've had so far.

I'm not much for wild parties, though I would like to go out clubbing with some people for once. Anyways I'm not sure if I would call this a party but it's more of a club social, and very few people showed up. It was the first time I've witnessed someone pass out. Apparently this guy didn't eat much before arriving and during the social he had almost 3/4 of a 750 mL bottle of vodka and toked whatever was passed around. I'm not sure if he drank something before arriving but chances are he did. He was feeling unwell so he stepped outside but as soon as he came in he passed out on the porch. Luckily he didn't vomit in my boots.

Also the host made awesome chicken wings.

Okay so this sounds kinda lame but I consider it the best so far as it opened me up to new experiences.

30 Day Challenge: Day 3

Day 3 - If you live away from home, share your moving day experience. If you commute, do you feel like you are missing out on a true college experience?


I live away from home and I live on campus. Even after 5 years you'd think I'd find a place off campus. That requires me having some sort of income since the rent for some places around St. John's average about $400/month.


Anyways I have mentioned that I was ill when I first moved into residence so my moving day experience wasn't the greatest. Also it was very confusing at first since as soon as I arrived I had to go sign in and pick up my i.d. card. The line was long but as soon as I was close to the front one of the workers there said "anyone who has sent in their photo can move up to the front" (more or less along the lines of that). If I'd paid any attention to that earlier I could've moved through things faster and not have to suffer from the weight of my laptop. Besides that all first years during my year at my house had to have their picture taken for some odd reason. Being sick = not really in the mood for doing anything.


Moving day experiences were different each year. My second year I returned to the dorm housing but the thing is my plane arrived late due to the weather so the housing office was closed and I couldn't pick up my keys. Luckily a lot of people were moving in and out and my room was unlocked but I was pretty much trapped there for the rest of the night until the housing office opened (they work union 9-5 hours during the opening of residences yet around the last 3 days of exam period they have 24 hour service for key returns).


Third year I switched to the apartment style residences. The building doesn't loop so it took me a while to find the apartment and by fourth year everything went smoothly.

30 day challenge: Day 1

I might say something about my trip to Saint Petersburg when I have the time, but for now I'll try this blog challenge. Also my blog turned a year old sometime in August. Yay!

Day 1 - Which college was your number one choice? Are you going to that school? If not, how did you handle the rejection? If so, is it everything you always thought it would be?


I initially wanted to do pharmacy or European studies. I applied to four universities in Ontario and the one and only university in Newfoundland and Labrador. The ones I applied for in Ontario were University of Toronto (U of T), York University, Queens University and Carleton University. Out of what I applied for my ranking was like this: 

1. U of T/York/Queens (any one of these as long as I was away from home)
2. Memorial University
3. Carleton (as this was in my hometown)

I was rejected by those in 1 because of my grades, even for an arts program at York. I think my acceptance to Memorial University arrived last out of all of them so I thought my hopes were getting dim when out of all the universities I applied to in Ontario only Carleton accepted me.


That pretty much answers the questions. That's all for now.

Advice for the young grasshopper starting university -- Course Instructors

Course instructors. I use this term in this post because whoever is teaching the course will not always hold a Ph.D (a.k.a. be Doctor such and such of whatever subject). Your instructor could be a grad student who is a candidate for either the Ph.D or a masters degree and in the case of some language courses your instructor could be someone who has completed a undergraduate course or obtained a certificate that allows them to teach whatever language.

Instructors come various ages and backgrounds. I personally find that the older the instructor the more likely their teaching methods are similar to what mom and dad might have experienced at our ages and still use chalk/the white board while teaching. That's not the case for all old geezer instructors as I have seen them using PowerPoint as well newer teaching methods. I can't really vouch for that as personally one of my parents went to university in another country and the other parent went to a different, Canadian university back in the 70's.

New instructors depending on how long they've been teaching vary in their styles as I think that they're still exploring how to connect with the students. You might get someone who constantly reads off his or her notes to someone who makes frequent eye contact. Since these guys are new try not to give them a hard time and this is where I find those instructor feedback forms coming in handy. That way if they actually use the advice off of them it can help in improving their teaching skills.

Universities hire instructors from everywhere. If there's life on other planets my guess is that they would do the same to extraterrestrials too. Your instructor may speak English as their first language but at the same time carry an accent just as those who speak English as their second, third, fourth fifth, etc. language. Yes sometimes their accents can be funny at times but out of respect try not to make fun of it. If you have a hard time trying to understand what the instructor is saying don't be afraid to ask to repeat something.

The same applies to T.A,'s or teaching assistants though the majority of T.A.'s are grad students. T.A.'s are there usually running the tutorial classes, assisting you in labs (though some senior undergrads can do this too) and marking your assignments. So if you ever get something marked wrong on an assignment it's not always the instructor's fault but hey, they're still human.

Not sure what else I can say about instructors. It's really a hit or miss in terms of getting an instructor that's really enjoyable (unless you read stuff off of ratemyprofessors.com). I should also mention some instructors are visiting instructors from other universities. They're there either to temporary fill in a position when the regular instructor is away on something (sabbatical or doing a research position at another university) or are looking to apply for a position at your university. These ones may not turn up on the site so unless you know someone who had the instructor before it's a hit or miss.

Your instructors are usually experts in their field may have written your course's textbook.

Other than that if there's anything that I've missed or something you want to say, be my guest.

Advice for the young grasshopper starting university -- Instructor feedback and the final exam

Last week of classes brings about two things:

• Exams are coming up
• Instructor feedback forms

The instructor feedback forms (called CEQ's at my university which stands for Course Evaluation Questionnaire) are meant to be use to gather information on how the course you are taking is being taught. From these things the instructor can either change the way the course is taught (like changing the textbook which changes how the course will be taught in the future) or continue on teaching the way he or she has been for the past who knows how many years (I will be saying something on instructors in my next post related to this series).

Be careful what you write on these forms. The instructor may recognize your handwriting so if you have something negative to say about the teacher do not write it down and keep it to yourself. As for funny comments . . . I guess I could leave it up to you but I suggest that you keep your comments to the point or don't comment at all and just rate the course.

Just for fun some students at a university in Singapore wrote comments for some instructor. I'm not sure if any other instructor does this:


Now for the final exam. Not all courses have final exams but out of all the first year courses I've been through there is a final exam. I could say the final exam is like the midterm where you might have a closed book, take home or an essay. Depending on what courses you take there might be other components that are set before the exam period like interviews or dictations for language related courses, but there are some things that make the final exam different than a midterm:

• the final lasts between 2 to 3 hours whereas the midterm is completed during class time
• the final is scheduled some time between the exam period so you might have to write it either on a Saturday morning or a Wednesday evening whereas the midterm is usually completed on a day where you normally have a lecture
• the final covers the major things you have learned over the semester whereas the midterm only covers thing learned up to that point
• finals tend to be worth more than midterms, it could even be worth the whole course if no midterm was ever given in the first place
• the final may or may not be held in a classroom. Most first year finals I've encountered are usually held in some large auditorium or gymnasium while the higher level courses are usually held in classrooms. You will most likely be in a classroom if your class is the only class that is there or if the combined number of people from more than 1 section is small. Also if your class had lectures in a lecture hall it will most likely not be in a classroom.

Like high school you pretty much show up to campus when you have an exam. There will also be other reasons you may show up on campus such as you're still working on that essay that counts for your final mark or you want to get away from some distractions and study at the library. Also you want to keep note of when your exam takes place and where it's located because the exam proctor may or may not be your course instructor and may not be lenient in giving you extra time. If for some reason you cannot make your exam on the scheduled date and time consult the instructor and university regulations as there you can get information on deferring an exam.

Just because the final is worth a lot and can be the make it or break it to passing your course, try not to worry too much. It's okay to feel nervous but just don't let fear take control of you (in the famous words of the bene gesserit: fear is the mind-killer). Same as the midterm don't overexert yourself with studying and do take breaks in between. Try to get enough sleep and eat something too as you don't want your mind to be thinking about sleep or what you want for lunch.

Hopefully this has been of some help. Good Luck! Bonne Chance! Ни Пуха Ни Пера!

Note: I've only seen the Dune movies and may have played some old DOS game so my Dune knowledge is quite limited.

Two essay due on the same day . . . say what?!?!?

 . . . and I make a blog post. Having two things due on the same day, whether it's a lab report, some sort of project or in my case right now two essays due on the same day (though they're for different classes) seems to be a common thing once anyone starts having different teachers for different courses.

Elementary school for some (and at least for me) there were two teachers: one taught almost all your courses (math, sciences, English, religion since I went to Catholic school, visual arts, physical education) and one taught French and one subject, usually history or geography, in French. Sure I'd get homework for almost all of my subject but there would only be one major project going on at one time. Things started to amp up in grade 7 as that was the year I've had more than one teacher and each would specialize in teaching you something (sometimes you might have the same teacher for one or two subject). From that year on I've been getting more than one project assigned as well as homework from each of the classes and that when I started to think that each teacher believes that their course is more important than the others.

I remember back in grade 12 my chemistry teacher believed in the x number of homework hours should be assigned per grade (something like 30 minutes of homework per grade) so she would assign 2 hours worth of homework for the class. That semester I had only three courses and even with three courses I had trouble keeping up with the assignments. Besides school I had music and dance lessons and even though I didn't practise a lot it would still take up most of my after school time. It was also during that same year and semester I had to make two slideshow presentations and both were due around the same time. Somehow I was able to complete those on time. I mean I'm already a 4th year university student so I should be able to do it.

Now back to the present, the two essays I have to do: one for history and one for a linguistics course. The history essay was assigned at the beginning of the semester and had things like a topic proposal, a(n annotated) bibliography and an outline (called a historiography which I have no sweet clue what it is, only taking the history course as an elective) as assignments. With something assigned to you at the beginning of a semester start as soon as you have enough background information to start the essay, especially if it's n x 1000 words (n being a number between 1-9). That way if you're good at essays you have time to make a draft that can be looked over by the prof or some writing tutor or if you're slow at least you're getting things done bit by bit. The essay I have to do for my linguistics course (though the prof mentions it's not but I'll refer to it as one) was assigned just recently so I assume there's not a lot to be done.

Anyways since I've procrastinated too much:

• if something is assigned to you don't leave it until the last minute whether it's a two question weekly assignment or an n page paper
• if you find yourself distracted try to distance away from things that may distract you.
• also if it seems that having too much work/assignments is forcing you to become some sort of hermit you are allowed to take breaks. you're the one responsible for starting/completing your assignment so it's totally up to you to decide when to do these assignments, but make sure it's sometime soon rather than the day before it's due.

Advice for the young grasshopper attending first year university -- the midterm

About now-ish as this is published midterm tests/exams/whatever you want to call them are going on. A semester lasts between 14-16 weeks and around week 7 or 8 the midterm usually pops up. Depending on your course you may not have a midterm or may have one that hasn't come up yet as some courses may like to have 2 tests and have one each month or you only have 1 test and that comes up in November. Whatever the case is here's some advice.

Have you been keeping on top of things? That is you do set aside some time to read whatever notes you have or make your own from the textbook? The midterm usually covers whatever has been covered in class or whatever your instructor says it covers. This is why you shouldn't skip out on classes as there could be valuable information given out. If you tend to skip classes be sure to have someone reliable who can take notes or tell you what you've been missing. Also you don't want to put off they studying till the last minute unless you somehow can remember things in the past 12 hours.

• Don't overexert yourself

Take a break from studying once in a while. Stretch those legs, have a snack, walk the dog, but don't take too long of a break. Time flies when your having fun so if you decide to take a 1 hour break don't make it a 2 or 3 hour break. Also have plenty of rest the night before. If your midterm is in the morning you wouldn't want to feel exhausted from the night before or sleep past your alarm to end up missing writing the midterm. Even if your midterm is not in the morning you'll probably feel tired the whole day. You might want to have some sort of breakfast that's not just coffee in the morning or some sort of lunch at noon time. Writing on an empty stomach will make you think about food unless somehow you can do things on an empty stomach or depending on how the calendar works you're fasting for religious reasons (yet something is still eaten beforehand) or medical if some sort of appointment comes up after your test.

• YOU CANNOT AND MUST NOT SKIP OUT ON A MIDTERM

The only way you can get out of it is if someone in your family dies and have to be there for the funeral or have a medical reason with a doctor's note. Your university should have something outlined along the lines of "if the student misses a test without a valid reason for missing it the student will receive a mark of zero" so if you really care about passing then you cannot miss out on a midterm.

The kinds of midterms you may encounter are as follows:

• closed book 
• open book
• take home
• essay
• online
• interview (a component for a second language course)

Closed book is pretty straightforward: no textbooks or notebooks present. Open book and take home can be the same as you're allowed to look at the textbook or your notes but with the take home you're not sitting in a classroom and your test period lasts 3-7 days. The essay you'll most likely encounter in English where you have to write and essay based on some topics based on whatever material is covered in class. Some other courses may offer the essay exam too but again it's pretty straightforward. Online is also like the take home that you're not in a classroom with other people but the time window for taking this midterm is much shorter so if the midterm lasts from 9am to 9pm on a Saturday and only takes about 2 hours to complete you can complete the midterm anytime during that period (I haven't had any midterms online, this is just from what I hear). The interview is usually part of a language course. Pretty much you're either reading some sort of site passage or answering some questions.

That's all I have to say for now. Any questions, comments, feel free to leave them below.

Good Luck!

Just because it's a first year course doesn't mean it's going to be easy

It's been over a week since I started my fourth year so I'm somewhat settled in now. So one of the courses I'm taking this semester is a first year level history course (courses at my university are usually listed as 1XXX, 2XXX, etc.). The reason I need one is because in order for me to get my BA degree I need some electives in research/writing and a humanities type course. With the rest of my courses being third year level I'm hoping this would be one of the easiest but I'm no so sure on that.

The majority of people taking first year level courses are either fresh out of high school or fresh out of their long break out taking the year off before starting post-secondary education. Then you have people like me who have been in university for some time (at least a year or two) who need some sort of elective or finally have the time to take the course because the other needed courses got in the way. There are also some grad students and adults way into their late 40's and early 50's there two depending on what class you take.

There are three types of first year courses: the first one is no experience required, the second one is hoping that you've done related courses in high school but still okay if you didn't do them, and the third one is you needed to have done theses courses or else you're screwed.

Type one I would put in there the foreign language courses. If someone has taken it in high school before hand it may pose as an advantage but the majority of people taking the course either need it for a language other than English requirement or majoring in it so there shouldn't be anything too hard. Depending on what language you take you will already know some words as they are loaned or mean the same in English (for example кот in Russian means cat, компьютер is computer) or borrowed from the language itself (like apparatchik, vodka). I'm not sure if psychology, sociology, anthropology and archaeology would fit in there two as I haven't taken those courses. Religious studies would go in here too.

Type two would be anything that requires you to write an essay and some science courses. There are science courses that are designed for those who couldn't get into the advanced level first year courses (which are usually required if you're going into the heavy stuff like engineering or physics or chemistry) and for those that need a science credit. Something like history if you have taken it in high school would be very helpful as you can understand what's going on otherwise you have some serious catching up to do.

Type three would be math, sciences, computer programming and music. Though there may be some music courses that don't require you to know anything about music it goes in this category as majors are most likely doing a degree in vocals or an instrument. Math like calculus would require that you've taken a course in it before in high school or a prerequisite university course. I think there usually is a math course specific for those who don't need calculus or some form of advanced trigonometry.  Science courses like chemistry and physics if they are the advanced first year level ones.

So anyways I mentioned that one of the courses I'm taking this semester is a first year history. It's been almost 4 years since I did a history course. Though not much has been going on except for being slapped with an essay due in 2 months I'm starting to think that this course will not be as easy as it looks. Advice/lesson learned from this:

• Try completing your electives not related to your course early or find an elective that fits the categories you need but hopefully it doesn't require knowledge you gave up 4 years ago.