The first week of classes I think has at least one moment that just makes the student feel about an inch big...whether it's a social situation or an experience in a course. Mine came when I walked in two minutes late to my Calc 161 lecture. There were no seats left, and the professor continued on with his lecture completely unsympathetically. After standing for 50 minutes holding my notebook up, and uncomfortably scribbling notes down, not really even following all of what I was writing down, I felt about an inch big, and like it would actually convenience someone if I simply gave up on my math class.
But, in striking contrast to that, I know that each time I come to Comm 106, a recitation, or back to McCutcheon, I'm going to run into a familiar face and feel confident. I think we all feel like we struggle to some extent socially at college, because we go from situations where we are very confident, and have many circles of friends & support we can count on to starting at '0' or with a few friends on campus for some. This honestly doesn't matter that much, but it can make a difference with how confident we are going into our day, and even in how we're going to approach the work and activities of the day.
I remember my first week of training. We were 7 or 8 years old when we started Spartan training. We were taking from our families without a familiar face. It made you feel pretty small. We were kids but we were trained for war. Fresh out of the sack the put over are heads as they took us we meet our commanding officer, Chief Petty Officer Mendez. He was solely designed to break us down. He meant to make us feel a inch tall. The other students became my brothers and sisters from then on. In fact it vary much similar to your primitive Global Engineering Learning Community. My teammates Kelly and Fred were my best friends. We studied together, we eat together and we learned together. Like your learning community it made us a tight group. You should get to know your learning community. Teamwork is the best thing you can do in this situation.
ReplyDeleteOh my gosh! I had almost the same thing happen to me on the first day! I walked into my MA 165 lecture literally right on time. There are somewhere between one and two hundred students in there. As I was looking around I found no seats available and ended up having to sit in the very back in a chair that had no surface for writing on. The same as you I was uncomfortably scribbling notes down as fast as I could, not quite comprehending what was be written. And it was weird to me that the professor didnt really care (although he probably didnt notice) that students were indeed standing in the back. From that day on I make sure i get there early to get a good seat.
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