Questions of School: Part Three

Q3: What is your schedule?

Monday: 7:00-13:00, Sociology, Prob/Stats, Health Sciences, Artistic DEVELOPMENT, Biology, Mexican History

Tuesday: 7:00-14:00, Sociology, Law, Psychology, Abilities DEVELOPMENT, Biology (Lab), Mexican History, World History

Wednesday: 7:00-14:00, Law, Prob/Stats, Tech Ed, Humanity DEVELOPMENT, Biology, Mexican History, Psychology

Thursday: 7:00-14:00, Sociology, Prob/Stats, Tech Ed, Physical Motor Skills DEVELOPMENT, Mexican History, Health Sciences

Friday: 7:00-12:00, Law, Health Sciences, Tech Ed, Biology, World History

There is a break for breakfast after “Third” hour every day. We are allowed to walk anywhere we want to on campus for FIFTY minutes! Because this is a university campus, there are many varieties of ¨cafeterias” to choose from, and all the buildings stand alone with cute little paths between. It´s fun to walk. I guess that´s how you get to build a school when you don´t have to worry about snow….

I don´t expect anyone outside of my immediate family to be especially interested by my schedule, but I´m going to elaborate a bit on each of the classes:

Biology: Thanks to a year of Hon Bio, and a semester of assorted Conserve science classes, I am able to track in this class. It is almost entirely (Read: completely) composed of lectures and individual work. If I go slowly enough, I can understand the text. I really enjoy it. Also, on lab days we get to wear legit white lab coats. I feel like a mad scientist.

World History: So far we have covered: The Industrial Revolution, The French Revolution, The Russian Revolution …oh and WWI. This is week four. I grew up in a house of interesting Home school History Curriculum, and the pace of this is kind of killing me. We skip a LOT. My teacher described Rasputin like this: “He was a religious man, but still exuded large amounts of sexuality.” That was it, new subject. I am really glad I have run into this material before….

Prob/Stats: Math has always been my academic weak point. But here, I am able to track. We are learning how to turn information into bar graphs. It has taken us two weeks to get to the point of actually drawing the graphs. Ok, so maybe my ability to track isn´t THAT impressive… :)

Sociology: I have a hard time with this class. It is entirely lecture based, but not the kind with notes on the board. When I can´t see the words, It´s harder for me to “get” them. I think with time I will get more and more out of this one

Law: I honestly have a hard time distinguishing this class from Sociology. The teaching styles are identical, and I´m not with it enough to see how the material differs. It´s a good thing there are different teachers…..

Health Sciences: This actually feels more like an Anatomy/Biology class. We study the human body and physical illnesses that affect it. None of that wishy washy “Emotional Health”, “Stress Management” or “Healthy Living” junk we tackled at WHS...Once again, It´s good to see a different way of looking at the material, but I´m glad I´ve encountered it before

Mexican History: This was originally an English class for me, but once it was established that “YES” I have sufficient English vocab, I was swapped. I now go down to a lower level of the school to study History with the 3rd Semester kids. This experience will pop up in my blog later this week, so for now I´m just going to say: “There is a different style of classroom management” Yes, that sounds nice.

Tech Ed: During this class, my teacher writes a series of “codigos” on the board. We then copy them into a “Bloc de Notas”, save it as an html, and ooh and aah at the pretty web pages. I quite enjoy this class. It is literally just copying, and the web pages ARE pretty.

Psychology: Again, this class occupies the same shelf in my brain as Sociology and Law. Tuesday mornings feel like one LOOONNNNGGGG class. I look forward to being able to differentiate

…..DEVELOPMENT…..

Artistic: This is more of a culture appreciation class. Right now, we are making a cultural guide to Tabasco. Because of this, I spent last Wednesday with my friends in a Children´s Museum, painting pictures and interviewing people in funny costumes. I wish we had more homework for this class. Or met more often. I think every exchange student should have to make a culture guide for their new state.

Abilities: I THINK that this is a math/logic class, but I really have no idea. I don´t know what is going on at ALL during this. On the first day, we were told to define a “Problem”. I used all of my artsy/creative skills in Spanish to come up with a detailed response about interpersonal conflict, resolution, and frustration. The example answer next class period was: “A problem most often appears in math books and worksheets. Problems must be completed clearly, with work shown, to receive full credit.” Let´s hope my name wasn´t on that paper.

Humanity: In this class we come up with plans. To improve the world. We then take said plans, place them in a folder, and forget about them. Because of this, I will always think of last week´s “Culturization of Children” Plan as part of a dark yogurt making scheme. On a scale of “one” to “Practical” This gets a “Nice try, Ron”.

Physical Motor Skills: Sorry, too much to say about this one. Another day.

So, that´s my day! I actually enjoy these classes quite a bit; it is pretty easy to stay engaged now that I understand more and more of what the teachers are saying. I can´t wait to jump into discussion. When I am not trying to pay attention, I am steadily plowing my way through “Harry Potter 3” in Spanish. Sometimes I write letters.

I can do most of my homework now. It´s almost all what I used to consider “busy work”. At one point in time, I thought such assignments were below me, but now I find myself gratefully copying paragraphs verbatim from the textbooks. There´s still a big part of me that wants to measure my “progress” with something tangible, like grades. But I´ve had to adjust my standards a lot. I know it may be a long time before I bring home any shiny “A”s, so for now I proudly accept a “Good Effort” and move on with my life.