A Look Back at My First Week of Classes

All I have to say is I'm really glad I'm only taking two classes. Although I have spent more of my life in school then I have spent out of it, getting back into the habit of doing homework and being prepared for class is still something that I'm going to have to get used to again. I am happy to report that I successfully made it to my classes the whole week, and I only got lost a hand full of times. Thankfully, people are very helpful and Midge and I are learning more about the campus each day.

Now that I've reassured everyone that I can get to my classes, I'm sure you're wondering how I feel about these courses I'm taking. The answer to that question is that I'm looking forward to learning a lot in my Introduction to Education class, and I'm not looking forward to all of the brain hurting that is going to come from my Math for Elementary School Teachers class. Here's why I feel the ways I just described.

Education, and our educational system is something I'm passionate about. I think this course is going to help me learn more about why we teach children the way we do, and it's going to help me explore my own philosophies to decide what kind of teaching strategies I'm going to want to use with my students.

My math class on the other hand is going to just be tedious. Although the math is not nearly as complicated as my calculus class was, the kind of math we're doing is very spacial, and when you can't see what you're doing, the math becomes that much more challenging. On Friday I did my first set of homework problems with my class assistant and I felt frustrated because I knew that if I could see what the problem was, I would be able to solve it a lot faster. I'm actually considering getting the text in braille for next term even though my nemeth braille skills are not unto par. Just having the diagrams in a tactile form may be enough for me to not feel as overwhelmed. For this term, I will use the method I used when I was getting my undergrad which includes me writing down the problem and solving it on paper. Even though I can't read what I've written, and neither can anyone else, this helps me understand the problem a lot better.

So that's the basic low down from the first week. I'm really grateful for having a lap top computer since my bus gets me to class 1.5 hours before my class every day, and I'm also grateful for having a guide dog because she makes me feel calm when I'm worried about finding our way.