Ah, College
So, a few days I signed up for an Independent and Distance Learning course at my college.
It's not online (very few IDL courses are. For a Big 10 University I am constantly surprised how behind the times this place can be), but you get nine months to do it. Well, it's been three years since Karin's been at the U of M, and she hasn't fulfilled her math credit yet! So, I decided to sign up for their lowest level math class offered. Which was something called "Short Calculus." All right, says I, this shouldn't be so bad.
Instead, this led me to Life Lesson #425 (in no particular order): Do NOT wait 3 years to take a math class, even if you took four years in high school. You'll forget everything.
However, these days there's this thing called "you tube", which did not really exist in my math learning days. I mean, it was there, but you went there for fan vids and people swinging lightsabers and crap, and even then it only really picked up in high school.
I am convinced if it did exist, especially in the wee years of middle school, I would not have been so mystified by math. Case in point, These Guys are my heroes. It's only been one day since I've been working on this Calc course and the algebra review they have on here is great. I might just make it through! (Plus I'm taking it Pass/Fail, which is Life Lesson #206).
Additionally, I have really wanted to spend break trying to catch up on our Arabic class. I finally got to it today!
Rant: The book (Al-Kitaab. Literally, "The Book." That should have been the first red flag "Hello! We have no imagination whatsoever!" If you ever want to learn Arabic, avoid this book like the plague. The problem? It's the "standard" Arabic textbook in America.) is a total piece of crap.
When was the last time you said the word "aesthetics" in English? When I tried to spell it just now, LJ had to correct it! If I don't use the word at least once every 3-4 days in ENGLISH, I shouldn't be learning it in third semester Arabic. Other choice words include: pioneer, to be based on, mission...I could go on and on. The vocab words within a chapter also rarely relate to each other!
It also doesn't help that instruction this semester wasn't very good. At least I'm (hopefully) spending next year abroad.
Stay classy, LJ.
It's not online (very few IDL courses are. For a Big 10 University I am constantly surprised how behind the times this place can be), but you get nine months to do it. Well, it's been three years since Karin's been at the U of M, and she hasn't fulfilled her math credit yet! So, I decided to sign up for their lowest level math class offered. Which was something called "Short Calculus." All right, says I, this shouldn't be so bad.
Instead, this led me to Life Lesson #425 (in no particular order): Do NOT wait 3 years to take a math class, even if you took four years in high school. You'll forget everything.
However, these days there's this thing called "you tube", which did not really exist in my math learning days. I mean, it was there, but you went there for fan vids and people swinging lightsabers and crap, and even then it only really picked up in high school.
I am convinced if it did exist, especially in the wee years of middle school, I would not have been so mystified by math. Case in point, These Guys are my heroes. It's only been one day since I've been working on this Calc course and the algebra review they have on here is great. I might just make it through! (Plus I'm taking it Pass/Fail, which is Life Lesson #206).
Additionally, I have really wanted to spend break trying to catch up on our Arabic class. I finally got to it today!
Rant: The book (Al-Kitaab. Literally, "The Book." That should have been the first red flag "Hello! We have no imagination whatsoever!" If you ever want to learn Arabic, avoid this book like the plague. The problem? It's the "standard" Arabic textbook in America.) is a total piece of crap.
When was the last time you said the word "aesthetics" in English? When I tried to spell it just now, LJ had to correct it! If I don't use the word at least once every 3-4 days in ENGLISH, I shouldn't be learning it in third semester Arabic. Other choice words include: pioneer, to be based on, mission...I could go on and on. The vocab words within a chapter also rarely relate to each other!
It also doesn't help that instruction this semester wasn't very good. At least I'm (hopefully) spending next year abroad.
Stay classy, LJ.