Thursday, August 31, 2017

My Precious Laptop, My Baby

Another busy day today. I hadn't anticipated such a busy first week. I'd thought it would be all syllabuses and introductions, but it's proved to be a lot of work so far. Yikes. I'd better work hard to stay on top of things and not fall far behind.

We had our second of two lessons on Joseph Smith in Institute today, and then I went up to my Research Methods class. We broke into groups and were told to search the Internet for the answer to the question, "Is Botox good for migraines?"

I was on the end of our group of three, and after a few minutes my teacher came over to scold me about "not including everyone in our group in the work", since I was the one using the laptop. I had to think about that for a second. I was leaning pretty far over so everyone could see the screen. But okay. Sure. I handed my personal Chromebook brimming with tabs that I was using and not ready to exit yet off to the girl who sat between me and the quiet guy on the other end. She took good care of it and didn't drop it over the edge of our thin, counter-like table to the floor, though, so that was great.

From there it was my measurements class, which seems to be a lot like a stats class. There are tons of formulas and strange concepts to learn, and we're supposed to write up a summary sheet at the end of every class about what we learned (and hand it in the next time we come in). Then the teacher collects them. He says he'll give them back to us for notes when we take our exam, which is great, but... you have to make sure you have another copy of your notes if you want to study.

We also haven't done any actual mathematical calculations. It's unclear as to whether we'll be expected to do such things on the test... or if our test is on SPSS... or why we're learning these things. It's a confusing class. I'm trying to keep up with it. There are six exams throughout the semester and the two lowest are dropped, so I'm just trying to do the best that I can and hoping I get the hang of things as we continue. Funny- I always thought I wasn't big on kinesthetic learning, since I hate working in groups and usually when you do hands-on projects, you get assigned to groups. But this class is very much a lecture class and I try hard to follow along with the oodles of formulas and strange new terms, even though it makes my head swim a bit. Eep.

I went to lunch, again at the Marketplace because it's just not worth it to go all the way back to my apartment with all the construction and stuff. Then I had my behavior class. Things are going well. I called up Mom again tonight, got some homework done, and just relaxed and enjoyed some alone time. College is certainly busy, but I do like having my own apartment and living by my own schedule.