#course selection

🌀the website will not crash🌀

🌀my courses won’t somehow already be full🌀

So I stepped away from tumblr for about a week to really focus and get some good work done. Took some good notes, watched some documentaries, and took a few midterms. I’ve been pretty busy.

The last week before spring break went really well. I’m doing good in my classes and I’m confident about starting the next semester.

I’m currently on spring break, but I do have some education related goals to achieve. 

HST-102 Paper Readings

PS-141 Paper Readings

Duolingo and Drops Spanish 

Resume and Internship Application

Coursera? Maybe?

When I get back Monday, I have a huge day. A full day of classes, a field trip for one of my classes, I’m supposed to do a mentoring thing, and I hear back if I got the RA job I applied for. I’ll also have to take a covid test, but that’s no big deal.

I also have to start picking next semester’s classes, and I have a few picked out, though I’m not sure if all of them will be available. 

SP-102: Elementary Spanish 

EC-102: Principles of Economics II

PS-232: Criminal Law 

PS-260: Introduction to Political Thinking

HST-345: History of Northeastern Europe

HST-329: American Women’s History

This semester I’ll be taking:

Shakespeare with Naomi J. Miller

Asian American Women Writers with Ambreen Hai

Race and Education with Lucy W. Mule

Introduction to the Study of Women and Gender with Jina Boyong Kim

English majors are required to take either Shakespeare, Milton, or Chaucer, so I’ve decided on Shakespeare! However, I really enjoyed reading Milton in English 200 last year, so I might take Milton as well.

I took my Servants in Literature and Film seminar with Ambreen Hai last fall, and absolutely loved it! Professor Hai is an amazing professor, so I’m really excited to take another class with her, and the authors we’re supposed to read look great.

I’ve been hearing a lot about Race and Education since I first started at Smith. Tons of people have told me that it’s one of the best classes they’ve ever taken-- so it’s a no-brainer for me. I’ve also wanted to take an education class for a while now as I’m definitely interested in teaching English literature after college. I also met so many of the professors in the department while working as an office assistant and social media liaison last year, so, all in all, this is really exciting!

As for Intro Swag, I’ve been meaning to take it since my first semester at Smith, but timing has never worked out! So, I’m really eager to finally take it.

The Art of GPA Boosters

It’s course selection season at my university, so I thought I’d put this together for anyone who is also struggling to fill their electives!

nothing fill me with more adrenaline than course selection with everyone else in your year at the exact same time, in order to get into popular courses with a small amount of spots.

Here’s the scene: I’m at a faculty meeting, and The Principal is explaining what we’ll do in the event that there’s a coronavirus outbreak in our district. Note: I teach in rural, northern New England; the area’s isolated, there are no cases in the whole county.... but I’m glad that The Powers That Be are making sure that we’re prepared for the worst case scenario, that’s really important. Thing is, though, I’m also incapable of keeping my smart-ass mouth shut during meetings, so when one of my colleagues asked if the the district had crafted a message we should be telling our students, my contribution was, “I mean, ‘Wash your hands and stop making out in the hallways’ would probably be good.” 

I’m helpful.

Soooo that’s how the day ended. It began with me giving the first half of an AP practice exam (the multiple choice questions) in APUSGOV. It’s wicked challenging, and I know students were nervous about it, so I kept reminding them to breathe, shake their hands out, and have faith in themselves as I marked the time. They’ll do the FRQs on Thursday. 

In World, I gave students time to read the books they chose for the Asia Book Project, and checked in briefly with each of them about how their reading is going. Then I introduced the new mini-project I wrote yesterday; students, working independently or in pairs, have to research at least three aspects of the culture in a country in central or east Asia (selected randomly- I put a slip of paper with each country’s name into a cup and had students draw one). Then they have to put the information they find into some form of presentation with proper citations. I showed an example on India so they could see what level of detail I’m looking for, and then I let them get to work. They’re wicked enthusiastic- mainly because this project was their idea and they’re happy I’m letting them do it- so I figure the next few classes will be a lot of fun.

i’m currently a sophomore in high school, and our junior year course selection was about two and a half weeks ago. we were given the date a couple weeks before, so i pretty much obsessed over getting my schedule Just Right for the next couple of years. i felt like i should log it somewhere other than a light blue index card sitting on my desk. i requested:

ap us history

ap physics i

ap psychology

ap statistics

ap language and composition

honors pre-calculus

spanish IV

teacher assistant

mythology

that’s seven 10 credit classes (5 ap 1 honors) and two 5 credit classes.

i’m also trying to plan out my senior year courses. i have most of it figured out, but a couple things will depend on my junior year performance.

current plan is: 

ap government

ap biology

ap physics ii

ap calculus bc

ap literature

ap spanish

criminalistics

economics

walking pe

that’s another seven 10 credit classes (6 ap) and two 5 credit classes. i might swap out ap physics ii for something else if i hate ap physics i. i also might decide to take ap economics, and bump walking pe out of my schedule, i haven’t decided yet.

one of the main reasons i’m taking so many ap classes is that i’m trying to shoot for valedictorian for the class of 2022 at my high school. if i get any b’s in any classes my junior year, i might drop a few ap’s my senior year, since i’ll be pretty much completely out of the running anyway.