GARG. Garg, I say.
Oct. 27th, 2004 11:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
framlingemNick told me to come see him if I need advising in course selection for next semester. Keith's (the physical geography half of the department, and the guy who teaches the ski class. Nick's the human geographer. Which makes it sound like Keith's a rock. Whatever.) nominally my advisor, but I trust Nick. This is the advantage to a small college, and the disadvantage. The teachers know me well, but on the other hand... our Geography dept. has two people in it. Yup. Diversity, right there.
Unfortunately, the Kinetics and Recreation dept. only has one prof, and it's... yup. Dave. The kayak professor? The one who says 'nucular' and 'kavalar' (how you get that from kevlar, I don't know), and talks about 'inoculated' fronts (as opposed to 'occluded' fronts, which are distinguishable from 'inoculated' ones in that they exist) and got all excited when I mentioned tonight's eclipse. "I always watch ellipses!"
Yeah. As an old professor told me to describe it when speaking with such people's colleagues, his teaching style does not mesh well with my learning style. (My learning style demands competency, the ability to pronounce words, and the willingness to admit one is uncertain of something). I do like the man as a person. He's a great and sincerely nice guy. But as a teacher... I come out of his classes with a headache from where my brain has battered itself against the inside of my skull in an attempt to escape.
So I will be going to see Nick tomorrow, to figure out what the hell to do. Because Human Kinetics and Recreation 3565 is necessary, and fits with my schedule, but I honestly can't do more than one Dave semester in a row. It's gotten to the point where I am considering taking a creative writing class, because it FITS THE TIMETABLE! I do not want to take a creative writing class. "This is how to be creative" never worked for me. On the other hand, it would be a bit of an ego boost to get in, because one has to submit samples beforehand. But... while I would be the first to admit that outside input is a good thing, and while I firmly believe having a competent editor cannot do anything but improve my work, I like the way I write. (Caveat - my fiction does not sound at all like my journal does. My journal is written the way I speak. My fiction is written... well, the way I write).
I know I'm going to be taking EVST 3001, which is the sequel to the Geographic Information Systems class I'm taking now. It's a Nick class. Yay!
I also know I'm going to be taking EVST 3000, which is a study of how the field of economics deals with environmental issues. (The reason I love my major is that it's so cross-disciplinary. This connects with this connects with this to make this, which is related to this... awesome). Gabriela S. is teaching this one, and I like her very much as a person and a teacher. She's the first teacher that I ever really passed economics with (I passed high school econ, numerically speaking, but only because the teacher thought I was having a nervous breakdown and took pity on me).
Then there's GEOG 2220, which is a Keith class, and focusses on the use of quantitative methodology (aka statistics on steroids and speed) in geography. I'm not big on stats, but since I've already done QM classes (hey, there's a thought. *makes note to see if can get an equivalency*), it should be fairly easy.
Beyond that.. I don't know. Nothing that works towards my major or minor is available that fits with the classes that I absolutely MUST DO next semester, because they aren't offered every year. There's a distance course in anthropology being offered by the same guy who's doing the one I'm doing now, and if I can get the same marking scheme on it, I'll take that. (I'm all about my marks coming from exams. ExamsRus. ExamsIsMe. Love exams. Papers suck the suckiest suck that ever sucked.) I'm also considering taking French classes... but for some reason they won't give me equivalencies and let me into the higher level ones, and the lower-level ones... *blech* I do not need to learn to conjugate verbs in present infinif, thank you very much. I have been doing that extremely well since I was seven. (Now, conditional tense on the other hand). I wonder if I could sign up for the class to get the credit, and speak with the teacher, and just do the homework and exams? Seems a waste of money and credits, though. I'd rather earn credits for learning something, rather than demonstrating competency in something I already knew. What's more, I've heard (from Nick, who I consider a reliable source) that Dr. D. (the french professor who handles the course at the moment as the other prof is on sabbatical) is a stereotypical Frenchman who looks down on Quebecois French, and, while I can tone down my accent, it's still recogniseably Quebec. I couldn't sound like a French person if I tried for a hundred years. The phonemes themselves are different. Quebecois is hissier, faster, less mellow, harder. It's an older form of French. I have greeted this French teacher in the hallways, and he's just looked down his nose at me, even though my accent's nowhere near as strong as a francophone's would be. (For example, I give you![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
scrunchions!)
I hate this time of year. I have a feeling I'm going to give poor Nick a headache tomorrow. Boo. Hiss. Oh well. I've got lots of things written down, so that should help. *makes note to do something nice for Nick. Get him a Christmas card or something. Or would that be stalker-ish? Bah.*
Unfortunately, the Kinetics and Recreation dept. only has one prof, and it's... yup. Dave. The kayak professor? The one who says 'nucular' and 'kavalar' (how you get that from kevlar, I don't know), and talks about 'inoculated' fronts (as opposed to 'occluded' fronts, which are distinguishable from 'inoculated' ones in that they exist) and got all excited when I mentioned tonight's eclipse. "I always watch ellipses!"
Yeah. As an old professor told me to describe it when speaking with such people's colleagues, his teaching style does not mesh well with my learning style. (My learning style demands competency, the ability to pronounce words, and the willingness to admit one is uncertain of something). I do like the man as a person. He's a great and sincerely nice guy. But as a teacher... I come out of his classes with a headache from where my brain has battered itself against the inside of my skull in an attempt to escape.
So I will be going to see Nick tomorrow, to figure out what the hell to do. Because Human Kinetics and Recreation 3565 is necessary, and fits with my schedule, but I honestly can't do more than one Dave semester in a row. It's gotten to the point where I am considering taking a creative writing class, because it FITS THE TIMETABLE! I do not want to take a creative writing class. "This is how to be creative" never worked for me. On the other hand, it would be a bit of an ego boost to get in, because one has to submit samples beforehand. But... while I would be the first to admit that outside input is a good thing, and while I firmly believe having a competent editor cannot do anything but improve my work, I like the way I write. (Caveat - my fiction does not sound at all like my journal does. My journal is written the way I speak. My fiction is written... well, the way I write).
I know I'm going to be taking EVST 3001, which is the sequel to the Geographic Information Systems class I'm taking now. It's a Nick class. Yay!
I also know I'm going to be taking EVST 3000, which is a study of how the field of economics deals with environmental issues. (The reason I love my major is that it's so cross-disciplinary. This connects with this connects with this to make this, which is related to this... awesome). Gabriela S. is teaching this one, and I like her very much as a person and a teacher. She's the first teacher that I ever really passed economics with (I passed high school econ, numerically speaking, but only because the teacher thought I was having a nervous breakdown and took pity on me).
Then there's GEOG 2220, which is a Keith class, and focusses on the use of quantitative methodology (aka statistics on steroids and speed) in geography. I'm not big on stats, but since I've already done QM classes (hey, there's a thought. *makes note to see if can get an equivalency*), it should be fairly easy.
Beyond that.. I don't know. Nothing that works towards my major or minor is available that fits with the classes that I absolutely MUST DO next semester, because they aren't offered every year. There's a distance course in anthropology being offered by the same guy who's doing the one I'm doing now, and if I can get the same marking scheme on it, I'll take that. (I'm all about my marks coming from exams. ExamsRus. ExamsIsMe. Love exams. Papers suck the suckiest suck that ever sucked.) I'm also considering taking French classes... but for some reason they won't give me equivalencies and let me into the higher level ones, and the lower-level ones... *blech* I do not need to learn to conjugate verbs in present infinif, thank you very much. I have been doing that extremely well since I was seven. (Now, conditional tense on the other hand). I wonder if I could sign up for the class to get the credit, and speak with the teacher, and just do the homework and exams? Seems a waste of money and credits, though. I'd rather earn credits for learning something, rather than demonstrating competency in something I already knew. What's more, I've heard (from Nick, who I consider a reliable source) that Dr. D. (the french professor who handles the course at the moment as the other prof is on sabbatical) is a stereotypical Frenchman who looks down on Quebecois French, and, while I can tone down my accent, it's still recogniseably Quebec. I couldn't sound like a French person if I tried for a hundred years. The phonemes themselves are different. Quebecois is hissier, faster, less mellow, harder. It's an older form of French. I have greeted this French teacher in the hallways, and he's just looked down his nose at me, even though my accent's nowhere near as strong as a francophone's would be. (For example, I give you
scrunchions!)I hate this time of year. I have a feeling I'm going to give poor Nick a headache tomorrow. Boo. Hiss. Oh well. I've got lots of things written down, so that should help. *makes note to do something nice for Nick. Get him a Christmas card or something. Or would that be stalker-ish? Bah.*
