There are quite a few things that I am looking forward to in this class. Firstly, I hope to gain better writing skills and to improve my critical thinking.I am looking most forward to working with my peers. With this being my first year of college, and with this year being online, I am finding it hard to meet new people so far. Hopefully, working with others in this class can lead to forming new friendships. I am also looking forward to virtually visiting the NY Historical Society. I have always loved to visit museums, but I have never visited a history museum before. I believe that this will be a very interesting experience.
Time management and assignment scheduling will definitely be two obstacles that I will be faced with this year. College is very different from high school. In high school, classes are usually back to back and teachers remind students almost every day when they have assignments due. However, in college, there are gaps in between classes. I am starting to realize that these gaps are important because I could be using that time to check over the calendar for my classes and make sure that I start assignments or get them done instead of watching television. Professors also give a calendar at the beginning of the semester that lists due dates for every assignment. They expect you to check it frequently to keep up with assignments. Since I am not used to doing that, I tend to forget and end up procrastinating. To work on time management, I plan to write out schedules for a certain day the previous night so that when I wake up on that day, I know what I need to do. My brain functions better in the morning, so I also plan to wake up an hour earlier to get a head start on the day. To help me out, my instructor for this class could have weekly check-ins to make sure that students are doing their assignments in a timely manner and to gauge whether or not the students are feeling overwhelmed by the class.
I also struggle with time management and I think writing a schedule is an extremely good idea! High school is so different from college and doing that my first year really did help with organizing all of my tasks for the week. In addition the check-ins would be extremely helpful just in case there are any slip-ups.
Hi India, I love going to museums and I agree that going to a museum is worthwhile (even if it is virtual). I, too, felt a bit daunted by the way college gives all assignments at once through a syllabus since I was used to the daily distribution of homework in high school. However, I realized that having this resource is actually beneficial. By having all of the homework dates listed, we will be able to judge the weeks where we have lots of homework or none at all and then plan accordingly. Then, maybe on those weeks where you know you don’t have a lot of homework, you can watch television on your breaks. I look forward to working with you more!
I am also having trouble with the particular adjustment of having long breaks in between classes. It is very tempting to use these as “Netflix breaks”, but then my day flies by without me noticing so it is a good idea to stay productive. Another thing I have struggled with so far, is keeping track of my work since not every class meets everyday and professors are not constantly reminding students about assignments. The independence aspect of college has many pluses but it will take some time to get used to.
Hi India,
Weekly check-ins are a great idea! Maybe I will create a short form for everyone to just say how things are going and if there are and questions or concerns.
I’m also looking forward to trying out the virtual museum visit. I love museums normally and find historical museums particularly enlightening—I hope the virtual visit will be at least close to the in-person experience.
Time management is the trickiest part of college life for most people, I think. It sounds like you are already on top of this issue, though, and I just suggest that you check in with your schedule each week and make sure you are on the right track and not forgetting anything. I look forward to reading your writing this semester!