First Impressions

For the first time in history, I'm actually interested in all of my classes. That is not to say they won't challenge me because I can already tell they will, but at least I will have the motivation for my classes this year (except yesterday when I had to get homework done on my birthday which I will blog about after this weekend). Here's a rundown of the first impressions of my classes!

Argumentation and Debate: This partially an online class, we only meet on Thursdays. I've never tried any class that was even partially online, this is will be a new experience for me. The first day of class I walk in and before it even starts there were people from the earlier class trying to convince and bribe people from this class to switch with them. Sorry, I planned out my schedule perfectly in advance! Perks of being prepared. A lot of people wanted to take this class because the professor is known to be one of the best. From what I can tell he is pretty hilarious having the whole class laughing on the first day. Also, this or any communication class is needed for anyone who is transferring to a CSU school (which I most likely will be doing). So far what I learned is that there are two ways of thinking. System one is thinking with your emotions. System two is thinking with reason. This class is about thinking with reason (logic) in preparation for arguing and debating rationally. Also so students don't get offended!

Reporting/ Writing I: This is the very first college level journalism class I have ever walked into. I know I will enjoy the writing portion of it and that I will excel in that part of it, however I am a little nervous about the reporting stuff. I'm definitely more of a writer than an interviewer, but this class will help with that! We will learn a lot about current events as that is most likely what we will be writing about. When we were writing out things about ourselves on the syllabus, I noticed when it asked if I had experience in writing I ended up having a lot to say! I've been blogging for SBCC, I've taken a couple creative writing and photojournalism classes in high school, I'm in the process of writing an autobiography, I've been in the newspaper, and I've received an award at school before for the best poetry in the class. I also wrote down that I may be interested in writing for the Channels. I collected a few quotes about journalism from him including: "Journalists are active creators of content"  "Writers convey a message and connect with the audience" "Journalism is an art, you're an artist" and my favorite "Journalists have the power to influence" And with that power, I hope to do so!

Graphic Design Basics: I was late to the first day of this class :( It's my only 8 AM and there was construction and traffic from an accident that morning. Of course, when I get to the class every computer I try I couldn't find safari on to join the lecture for the syllabus review. Eventually I asked before we had to take a picture of ourselves to post an interesting thing about us on the forum and a quiz online the first day. I am excited to see where my creativity takes me in this class! I'm not a computer wiz, but I would like to know more since all print writing may all be online one day. We not only have to get the textbook, but pay $20 a month for this this Indesign Creative Cloud program for our computers every month until class is over. This teacher not only teaches Graphic Design, but she also has a separate job involving graphic design as well. I'm excited for the project we will be working on all semester. It's a booklet of graphic designs we will make on topic of our choice. Creativity here I come!

Music Appreciation: The teacher in this class loves what he does. We are learning the basics right now like how to read music, music terms, and how to clap or bang on our desks to rhythms. This is fun for me because I get to remember stuff from when I used to play piano and we get appreciated as a class for clapping our hands correctly. No seriously, he really is like "WOW YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING AT THIS, AGAIN!!! BUT FASTER!!" He understands that we as a generation today are more into EDM music and such, so he makes the class as interesting as possible with his jokes. He also understands that some of us (like me) are taking this for a humanities general ed class. This is the only class I have gone to more than once so far. I knew I'd like the teacher right away once he said that we don't need to get the textbook this year because they are expensive. Instead he put together a smaller, more condensed version of one himself for $7 at the bookstore.