Sitting in Cognitive Psych class - kind of bored. Well not really 'cause I can blog, but I hate this classroom - 422 Murchie Science Building, UM-Flint. I have 2 classes in this classroom this year so YUCK. For some reason this room makes me sleepy, it messes with my sinuses and it is always too damn cold. Plus the professor’s voice is somewhat hard to follow. I can't describe it. He has a Boston accent (he has said ‘draarariiings’ quite a bit today), his pitch is kind of low, kind of sounds like his nose is plugged (which mine is now, ha) and he kind sounds like a cartoon character but I can't place which one. He is hard to pay attention to. UGH, he is also the department chair and so focused on research. I am worried about this class because this professor also gets very bad reviews. All grading is based on tests and he admits his tests are hard. So we'll see.
I have a full semester this fall - 17 credits! Yikes, I didn't even realize how much when I signed up for everything. Plus I added Wind Symphony. At first I wasn’t going to take Wind Symphony; kind of wanted to but not sure how I could fit everything in. Well the symphony needs trombone players, even ones that play as ill as I do. So far so good though.
Sitting in Intro to Clinical Psych now – 329 MSB, UM-Flint. I don’t like this classroom much better but I love the class and the professor, Dr. Douglas. I have my internship with him also. He is awesome! He has a PsyD not a Phd and his main focus is counseling which of course I want to be my main focus. I love his class because he is funny and he actually gives us useful information like the difference between a PhD and a PsyD in psychology, how to get into grad school, and financials. Dr. D is a busy, busy man. In addition to teaching at UM-Flint, he has clients that he counsels (some for free, he also works with vets for free) and also does public school assessments. I have only worked with him while counseling but I think I will also learn to do school assessments. So far I love the counseling part. I always thought I would but it is good to have it validated. Dr. D works a lot with (young) children, which I wasn’t particularly interested in but I found out I love it. I just need to learn more about the disorders/diagnoses.
I have an internship class which only meets once every 2 weeks, off weeks on a discussion board, in addition to at least 10 hours a week actually on internship. Believe it or not you have to pay for your internship – 3 credit class. That part kind of sucks and the work load too. The prof. that oversees internship, while nice and helpful, is big on assignments and taking on extra work. Her assignments are super detailed and multi-parted also. UGH! On one hand I like her but on the other hand she really annoys me.
Ahhh, my nose is clearing…422 IS bad for me.
My killer class this semester is going to be Advanced Writing and Research in Psychology. So far I really love the professor. She is a neuropsychologist whose main focus is on drug addiction and how it changes neuro pathways/structures in the brain. She is from England; I love her accent and voice, I do not really love the class though. Research is my weak spot – well research design and statistics. Right now we are reading a couple boring research articles and have to write reviews, pretending we are reviewers for a psych journal and looking at if the research was designed and performed correctly and also if the stats are correct. UGH! Later in the semester we are going to be researching and designing are own research project as a group and on an individual basis. Mine is on obesity. This class will actually span over 2 semesters. O joy! I guess this is the alternative to having to write a thesis in order to graduate.
I also have an English composition (advanced) class. I like the professor, I like his ideas. I just don’t write well for male professors. I am not sure why. I guess perhaps because I am afraid they might find my writing silly and emotional. Something I have to work on getting over. He wants us to write every day of course so we have to keep a blog(s) (one specific topic of our choice) for his class as opposed to a journal. I love blogging so I hope this won’t be too hard for me. Finding the time to write is my main obstacle. I actually created 2 new blogs because I wasn’t sure what to write about. I chose weight/obesity as a topic for one blog and being stepmother for the other. So far I have only started working on the weight blog. I have not decided if I want to connect my new blogs to this one yet. This blog is varied and more like a journal or diary, although my writing style (outside of research stuff) is always personal.
I went on a field trip this morning with English class. We all had to go to the Farmer’s Market and experience it. I have been to the Flint Farmer’s Market once. It is a cool place. It just won an award as being one of the top ten farmer’s markets in America. I looked around and kind of chilled – had a spinach and feta croissant and tea for breakfast. All the veggies looked great and there is a great cheese market there. I couldn’t really shop though because I had to go back to school. I want to make an effort to shop there. In addition to great veggies, I hear the meat is really good. There are other little shops there too – wine, used cds & books, and jewelry. My English prof. wanted us to get a sense of place and see how different people experience the same place.
http://www.flintfarmersmarket.com/
Well time to get the heck out of school for the day. I have all my classes save Wind Symphony on two days a week, which makes for a long, full day. Long days, full semester.
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