Hello everyone and welcome back. Just a couple of reminders for current Berkeley students. Registration is still ongoing so if you haven't registered, get moving because classes are filling up. Next Wednesday from 11am to 12pm Bergen County campus is having a bake sale so if you love baked goods head out to Bergen County Student Center. In the Midtown campus HOLA is having Hispanic Heritage Month planning meeting next Tuesday and Thursday 3-5pm in the Student Center. For more announcements check Blackboard or your Berkeley email.
On to some wisdom that i wish to impart on High School students that are either entering college this year or going to be entering soon. College is going to provide a lot of new experiences. Some of those experiences will be great such as clubs, frats and sororities. Others will be challenges such as professors, course work and exams. The key to any good college experience is the ability to balance both of those extremes. I will impart what I know but most of it will have to be learned on your own.
One of the biggest issues i have seen in my collegiate life is the frustrations students can have with professors. Frustrations can range from the inability to understand what they are saying due to an accent or the way they actually go about teaching the material. I have had the luck of the draw to have either great or OK professors. Professors will definitely have different methodologies when it comes to the subject matter that they are teaching. A lot of stereotyping of professors occur because a lot students think older professors are either boring or have built tenure so doesn't really care. That maybe the case in some instances but more than not it isn't. People confuse the professors methodology for the inability to teach effectively. Many professors that are older have developed their system of years and countless number of student bodies and figures that this works best. It also doesn't help them that every year or so a new edition of the book comes out and they get little time to decipher the new book into an effect teaching strategy. It then becomes the onus of the student to figure it out as well.
I see this occur a lot with night students as they feel they have some right for the teach to spoon feed them the information and just give them exams. That is a common misconception that will doom any night student to education ruin. No professor day or night class will ever spoon feed you anything. It is a 50/50 battle and sometimes the student has to work a little harder than usual to get the info they need. I currently see this occur in my psychology class. The professor is a great lecturer but not totally great at drawing and putting notation on the board. Now freshmen you will learn there are two types of professors, ones that can lecture and write notes on the board well and those that can only lecture. This professor is the later in my opinion which doesn't sit well with a couple of students. I have students complaining that they dread the class because they don't understand what is going on. Yet these are the same students that talk through out class and not focus. This is week 8 and you should know by now the professor is going to talk more than write so you should pay attention. Not only do they not pay attention but when students ask them nicely to be quiet an attitude and anger is what that student gets in return. In my opinion you don't like the class, drop it. Freshmen you will know with in 2 classes how the professor is going to run things, if you don't like it drop the course and take it next semester, or swap.
The biggest question that arises and I here a lot during the complaining is that it is a requirement for their major. So what! There is nothing in the rule book that says you must take it this semester. Most major requirements are given often because it is a required course, so don't worry. If you decide to grind it out, then grind it out. Don't complain every class because that is not going to get you anywhere and it is annoying for the students that actually want to be there. I am a student that doesn't need to study much and doesn't really look at notes so being in a class without much talking is key for me to hear the professor. Unfortunately this semester I am stuck in two class, psych being one of them where that is not the case. Everyone has their trials, things to do and places to be but once you made the decision to return or go to college that meant you had the time and ability to do it. Freshmen as you embark on your own collegiate experiences remember what i wrote here today. It will definitely save you a lot of angst and frustration that does nothing but waste time and energy. Everyone has the ability to succeed and if you have to do a little more work to counteract what you believe is a shortcoming of the professors, then so be it. He/she is human like all of us and they will definitely make some mistakes.
Anyway on a lighter note it is time for the Rebecca and Jose corner. Rebecca continues to grow and mature as fast a one year old can. She loves to give hugs and kisses especially to her brother. Jose is still battling some Acid Reflux issues but hopefully some new strategies that me and my wife have come up with will work. So far after a day and a half his spit up has dropped significantly and he is sleeping better. Anyway that is all for now, catch you guys later.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Primetime Shoutout
Hello everyone and welcome back. Hope everyone summer is going well and those that are taking class I hope they are going well also. Just a reminder registration is still open so if you haven't registered yet, what are you waiting for? Anyway now onto bigger and better stuff.
Nothing much has occurred since my last post. I have only had one class since then and that was my Web Design 2 class, which all i did was work on one of my pages. Since there is not much to discuss I decided I wanted to have a little talk with all the Primetime students out there. Have you ever wondered why there is not many school wide events that are available for Primetime students? The biggest answer is that more than likely we would not show up to any event because of our hectic schedules. I mean who can find time between work, school, family and personal down time? It is a very difficult task indeed and I am one that shares in all of them. I am a full time employee, full time student and full time husband and parent. I barely get a minute to myself but I do fight for those minutes but I digress. As I walk through the halls and stairwells of Berkeley I see signs and advertising for a whole bunch of events that I think Primetimers would go to if it was available during times in which we can.
Events such as last month they had a meet and greet the SGA Members and it was an info session on the available positions. Not that any of us would run for SGA but it would be nice to know who our student leaders are. That would have been one event that should have been done at a time when some Primetime Students could have gone. There is a movie shown every week, I guess during club hours that is for day students. I think having a movie time maybe once a month may be productive especially if you allow it to be family orientated. These are just a few examples of things that could be good for Primetime but currently aren't geared towards us.
This is a call to action to all Primetime students. I hear a lot of students complain and whine over different short comings of Berkeley. Instead of complaining just to your friends, get out there and do something about it. Learn who your fellow student leaders are, push for more events and things for Primetime students. People don't realize that they are paying for school and for that reason we have a lot of say on how our money is used. Many students just decide to go to another school or move on if they don't like the school, but that only hurts you in the long run as it takes longer to get your degree. Lets face it Primetime students don't have time to jump from school to school so since your here fight for what you believe is necessary to improve the school.
I work as a blogger for the school and our advisor told me that Primetime is a relatively new program. That means it is up to us to help them shape it into a more conducive and great place to attain an education. I have voiced my own concerns and I personally have to do more and find the people that can help. This little tirade of mine also comes on the heals that I was a government officer. I used to belong tot he Student Advisory Council in LaGuardia, which was the governing body for the clubs. I also was on the Academic Standing Committee which shows students really do have the power to make changes. I remember a story from LaGuardia where a student went to the information desk because the Bursars office closed early. The president of the college just so happen to be within ear shot and went with the student to check it out. Now the student did not know that the president of the college was with them, but that little mistake on Bursar made for a radical change. The president next day ordered the Bursar to be open until 8pm,it used to be 7, and cannot close until 8 pm on the dot. Now you may say well the student was lucky because the president was there, true but I am sure if there was enough complaining it would have been changed anyway. All I am saying is Primetime students we need to go out there and fight for what we believe is needed to enjoy your time at Berkeley. We are paying $6000+ a semester, I think we have the power to do more than people think. Find out who your activities person is on your campus, who deans are of specific departments. Find out the chain of command how to get your needs met as a student. One voice is not enough, we need all Primetime students to be active in order to make Primetime successful for us and those coming in. Remember new Primetime students are in the same boat as most of us, should we help us and them out also?
Anyway enough of my rambling its now time for the Rebecca and Jose corner. Poor Jose has not had a good week. Apparently he suffers from Acid Reflux and that causes him a lot of gas and stomach ache. Don't worry they usually grow out of it but it is making for some sleepless nights. It appears though that the past three nights he has slept better on the formula that is made for A/R babies and the drops that help with the gas. More sleep is just around the corner. Rebecca continues to love her baby brother and always has her eye on him whenever she can. Anyway I will see everyone in the future.
Nothing much has occurred since my last post. I have only had one class since then and that was my Web Design 2 class, which all i did was work on one of my pages. Since there is not much to discuss I decided I wanted to have a little talk with all the Primetime students out there. Have you ever wondered why there is not many school wide events that are available for Primetime students? The biggest answer is that more than likely we would not show up to any event because of our hectic schedules. I mean who can find time between work, school, family and personal down time? It is a very difficult task indeed and I am one that shares in all of them. I am a full time employee, full time student and full time husband and parent. I barely get a minute to myself but I do fight for those minutes but I digress. As I walk through the halls and stairwells of Berkeley I see signs and advertising for a whole bunch of events that I think Primetimers would go to if it was available during times in which we can.
Events such as last month they had a meet and greet the SGA Members and it was an info session on the available positions. Not that any of us would run for SGA but it would be nice to know who our student leaders are. That would have been one event that should have been done at a time when some Primetime Students could have gone. There is a movie shown every week, I guess during club hours that is for day students. I think having a movie time maybe once a month may be productive especially if you allow it to be family orientated. These are just a few examples of things that could be good for Primetime but currently aren't geared towards us.
This is a call to action to all Primetime students. I hear a lot of students complain and whine over different short comings of Berkeley. Instead of complaining just to your friends, get out there and do something about it. Learn who your fellow student leaders are, push for more events and things for Primetime students. People don't realize that they are paying for school and for that reason we have a lot of say on how our money is used. Many students just decide to go to another school or move on if they don't like the school, but that only hurts you in the long run as it takes longer to get your degree. Lets face it Primetime students don't have time to jump from school to school so since your here fight for what you believe is necessary to improve the school.
I work as a blogger for the school and our advisor told me that Primetime is a relatively new program. That means it is up to us to help them shape it into a more conducive and great place to attain an education. I have voiced my own concerns and I personally have to do more and find the people that can help. This little tirade of mine also comes on the heals that I was a government officer. I used to belong tot he Student Advisory Council in LaGuardia, which was the governing body for the clubs. I also was on the Academic Standing Committee which shows students really do have the power to make changes. I remember a story from LaGuardia where a student went to the information desk because the Bursars office closed early. The president of the college just so happen to be within ear shot and went with the student to check it out. Now the student did not know that the president of the college was with them, but that little mistake on Bursar made for a radical change. The president next day ordered the Bursar to be open until 8pm,it used to be 7, and cannot close until 8 pm on the dot. Now you may say well the student was lucky because the president was there, true but I am sure if there was enough complaining it would have been changed anyway. All I am saying is Primetime students we need to go out there and fight for what we believe is needed to enjoy your time at Berkeley. We are paying $6000+ a semester, I think we have the power to do more than people think. Find out who your activities person is on your campus, who deans are of specific departments. Find out the chain of command how to get your needs met as a student. One voice is not enough, we need all Primetime students to be active in order to make Primetime successful for us and those coming in. Remember new Primetime students are in the same boat as most of us, should we help us and them out also?
Anyway enough of my rambling its now time for the Rebecca and Jose corner. Poor Jose has not had a good week. Apparently he suffers from Acid Reflux and that causes him a lot of gas and stomach ache. Don't worry they usually grow out of it but it is making for some sleepless nights. It appears though that the past three nights he has slept better on the formula that is made for A/R babies and the drops that help with the gas. More sleep is just around the corner. Rebecca continues to love her baby brother and always has her eye on him whenever she can. Anyway I will see everyone in the future.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Back to School Time Again
Hello everyone and welcome back to the Blog. Hope all is well and everyone passed their midterms and any other exams that you may be taking. A reminder once again registration is open for the Fall and if you waited this long you may not get what you want so register quickly. As we all know for those who aren't taking summer class and also those who are parents that it is Back to School time again. Everyone young and old preparing to return to school for the Fall sessions, which means more crowded and noisy morning trains. Ah well i will have to deal with that when the time comes in about two weeks, but now onto current business.
A lot of stuff has happened in the past couple of days both personally and educationally. I had three exams this week, two in class and one take home assignment that was due today. I did my Fantasy Football draft on Sunday which was nice since i am playing in a league that has a couple of my coworkers and friends. On Saturday i handed in all my textbook assignments for web design and i learned a lot of cool new things and expanded on stuff that i learned in Web Design 1. Our professor made us pair up for the final project on Volunteerism. For those who wish to see what these types of classes are like we will be having a viewing of all our classwork on Aug 25Th in the main building in the Midtown campus. I kinda was resenting having to work with a partner but then i realize that it would cut my workload in half and the only thing we would have to make sure is that the navigation bar works.
Since we had exams on Monday and Tuesday i didn't learn anything new in Econ or Advance Spreadsheets. Oh and the immature kids in Econ did nothing to me nor complained about anything, thank the lord. Today in psychology I learned a lot even though it was a shortened class. We finished the chapter on the physical structure of the brain, which was more biology than psychology. We then moved into the dreams and structure of conscience chapter in the book. We got a good look at the different levels of sleep and we learned about REM sleep. REM sleep starts about every 90 minutes and lasts about 10 minutes. Scientists discovered that people that do not have their REM sleep end up becoming disoriented and spacey. It appears that REM sleep is necessary as it is the brain doing its exercise. Just like a muscle that is not used for a long period of time the brain will also atrophy over a long period of not being used. So REM sleep allows the brain to stay on top of its game.
It is now time for the Rebecca and Jose corner. Rebecca continues to be a great big sister and shows nothing but love for her brother. She continues to make friends with all the older kids on the block and when i mean older i mean around 13 yrs old. Jose continues to grow and is almost a month old. He seems to have some acid reflux so our doctor told us to try some new things to ease his fussiness and acid reflux. Hopefully it will work because he has not slept well in the past two days. Anyway that is for now, catch you guys later.
A lot of stuff has happened in the past couple of days both personally and educationally. I had three exams this week, two in class and one take home assignment that was due today. I did my Fantasy Football draft on Sunday which was nice since i am playing in a league that has a couple of my coworkers and friends. On Saturday i handed in all my textbook assignments for web design and i learned a lot of cool new things and expanded on stuff that i learned in Web Design 1. Our professor made us pair up for the final project on Volunteerism. For those who wish to see what these types of classes are like we will be having a viewing of all our classwork on Aug 25Th in the main building in the Midtown campus. I kinda was resenting having to work with a partner but then i realize that it would cut my workload in half and the only thing we would have to make sure is that the navigation bar works.
Since we had exams on Monday and Tuesday i didn't learn anything new in Econ or Advance Spreadsheets. Oh and the immature kids in Econ did nothing to me nor complained about anything, thank the lord. Today in psychology I learned a lot even though it was a shortened class. We finished the chapter on the physical structure of the brain, which was more biology than psychology. We then moved into the dreams and structure of conscience chapter in the book. We got a good look at the different levels of sleep and we learned about REM sleep. REM sleep starts about every 90 minutes and lasts about 10 minutes. Scientists discovered that people that do not have their REM sleep end up becoming disoriented and spacey. It appears that REM sleep is necessary as it is the brain doing its exercise. Just like a muscle that is not used for a long period of time the brain will also atrophy over a long period of not being used. So REM sleep allows the brain to stay on top of its game.
It is now time for the Rebecca and Jose corner. Rebecca continues to be a great big sister and shows nothing but love for her brother. She continues to make friends with all the older kids on the block and when i mean older i mean around 13 yrs old. Jose continues to grow and is almost a month old. He seems to have some acid reflux so our doctor told us to try some new things to ease his fussiness and acid reflux. Hopefully it will work because he has not slept well in the past two days. Anyway that is for now, catch you guys later.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Dog Days of Summer
Hello everyone and welcome to the dog days of summer. As we entered August we have entered the half way mark of the summer session. Reminder to all to register as soon as possible as classes fill up very quickly especially in the fall with the added number of freshmen from HS. I would also like to give a shout out to Prime time Financial Aid and Advisers. I had an erroneous hold that was on my account which cost me at that time the ability to register for a class I needed. They moved quickly to remove the hold and then get me into the class I wanted.
Classes are going well as I am about to go through the first set of exams in all my classes except Web design. I had that exam 2 weeks ago and I got an A and I also got an A in the projects that were done as I completed it today. On Monday I have an economics exam. That is going to be a bit interesting because there are a group of 4 boys in the class that are really obnoxious and kinda told me that I should sit next to them on Monday. Obviously that is not going to happen because I am not that dumb. They may be college students but act like they still belong in High School. They don't stay quiet, come in late and the professor is to nice and wont do anything. We shall see how Monday plays out because we are also supposed to be grouping together for a Federal Reserve Project and I am not grouping with them.
I have an exam on Tuesday in Spreadsheets which I am not to worried about and our take home assignment for Psych is due on Wednesday and will take the place of an exam. I am looking forward to it as it marks that I am almost through my third semester at Berkeley and another semester closer to my Bachelors. In the Fall I am taking Fundamentals of IT, Principle of Marketing, Managerial Accounting and World Cultures. Fundamentals of IT is going to prepare me for the Comptia Network + exam. I am currently trying to see if my company will at least pay for the exam.
It is now time for the Rebecca and Jose corner. Jose went to the doctor today to see if he is growing and is healthy. He's great and is currently at 7lbs 11oz and is 21.5 inches in length. Rebecca loves being a big sister and loves her brother a lot. Always giving him kisses and wants to hold him all the time. She talks his ear off and on occasion tries to grab his hand so she can take him some where. That's all for now catch you guys later.
Classes are going well as I am about to go through the first set of exams in all my classes except Web design. I had that exam 2 weeks ago and I got an A and I also got an A in the projects that were done as I completed it today. On Monday I have an economics exam. That is going to be a bit interesting because there are a group of 4 boys in the class that are really obnoxious and kinda told me that I should sit next to them on Monday. Obviously that is not going to happen because I am not that dumb. They may be college students but act like they still belong in High School. They don't stay quiet, come in late and the professor is to nice and wont do anything. We shall see how Monday plays out because we are also supposed to be grouping together for a Federal Reserve Project and I am not grouping with them.
I have an exam on Tuesday in Spreadsheets which I am not to worried about and our take home assignment for Psych is due on Wednesday and will take the place of an exam. I am looking forward to it as it marks that I am almost through my third semester at Berkeley and another semester closer to my Bachelors. In the Fall I am taking Fundamentals of IT, Principle of Marketing, Managerial Accounting and World Cultures. Fundamentals of IT is going to prepare me for the Comptia Network + exam. I am currently trying to see if my company will at least pay for the exam.
It is now time for the Rebecca and Jose corner. Jose went to the doctor today to see if he is growing and is healthy. He's great and is currently at 7lbs 11oz and is 21.5 inches in length. Rebecca loves being a big sister and loves her brother a lot. Always giving him kisses and wants to hold him all the time. She talks his ear off and on occasion tries to grab his hand so she can take him some where. That's all for now catch you guys later.
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