Thursday, January 22, 2009

My College Classes

Well, it has been a while since i posted. Seems like my procrastination tendency is creeping in. Last night i went to my college classes for the second time this semester, so it is time to share what i think about them. First of all, let me say that i love going to school only once a week and going late enough (i leave the house at 2) in the day to get Rachel's school done before i leave for mine.

So, my first class starts at 2:30 and it is called Theories of Counseling. It is a distance class, which means we meet once a week for an hour an a half and we do the other half at home. This works out well for my present schedule. The instructor is the same instructor i had for human services and abnormal psychology, so he knows me and i know what to expect from him. This is a relief because although it can take a while to figure out what the instructor is looking for in his students, it is important to know what he is looking for and what his views of excellence are. I happen to like this instructor, so it is all good. This class is all about.....wait for it......different theories that are used when counseling. Pretty self-explanatory. A theory can be Freudian ("Vat have zu been dreaming about, hmm?), Humanistic (We all are born good, we all have the ability and desire to do the right thing ect.), Behavioral (We do the things we do because of what we see other people do around us...), Cognitive (We do the things we do because of our thought patterns) and so on. There are over 400 theories (different beliefs and systems of what makes people do what they do and how to approach problems and problem solving), but we will be studying the nine most popular. I think this class is going to be pretty easy, and the instructor makes it interesting--he doesn't just talk about facts and figures, he talks about his experiences and the most important part of each theory. The only down side is that we need to submit some of our homework on the computer, and as i mentioned before, i am techno challenged, so i am a bit nervous i will hit the wrong button or something and send my work into cyberspace, never to be seen again.

On to the next class. After my theories class, i grab something to eat and go to the college library for 1 1/2 hours to read or do homework. Or i go to walmart and the mall and look around, but that can be dangerous because i am not to good at "just looking". Political science is a trip. The instructor spent the first 3 hour class talking about himself for more than half the class and touching on some political ideas toward the end. He also let out 20 minutes early and gave us a 15 minute break. Last night i was nervous because i did not get around to reading all of the 65 pages he had assigned to us. I did not need to worry because he spent 40 minutes playing games to get us to think outside of the box, some more time talking about things that had not much to do with government, and the rest of the time going over 6 principles of the democratic system...then dismissed us 20 minutes early. I don't see how we are going to get much work done, but i must say he is entertaining. When he does teach, he is interesting, so hopefully this class will be ok too. The text book is kind of dry, which is a shame because it cost over 150 dollars. I actually am looking forward to learning in this class because i am a bit ignorant about our government and it's different branches and systems. I still don't know exactly what congress is, but was embarrassed to ask. I understand the legislative branch and the senate and the house of representative, but what is congress? any answers would be appreciated. ( edited to say-i asked Steve and he explained it...it is the house of representative and the senate put together). All in all, i can just tell it is going to be a great semester filled with fun and learning. I love to learn and study and i love being able to get out of the house for a whole day once a week, but also having enough time to take care of the family and household obligations. It's all good.

Well, that's it about my school. I'll post later about how our first week of home-school went and how Matt is doing in his new high school (much better, thank God)

So, right now i am thankful:
That i have two interesting classes
That i have two interesting teachers whom i can tell love what they do, which is reflected in the way they act towards their students.
That i am pretty comfortable with the people in my classes already, which is good because usually i don't know anybody and we usually have to do group activities that i have never been comfortable with.

1 comment:

  1. sounds great Michele,
    Good Luck with your classes
    Hope to see you tomorrow.
    Love In Christ our Savior
    Debbie

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