Tag: communitycollege

December 2020

Lone Star College

I finished this semester and my grades were A, B and C. An A in Mathematics for teachers, B in General Psychology and C in Statistics. The interesting part is I spent the most time on the statistics, the class I received the lowest grade and I spent the least amount of time on Mathematics for Teachers. Psychology was pretty straight forward, read the chapter, do the quiz, then do the unit test. As a student, it would be nice to get all A’s, but the most important part is what did I learn from the class.

What did I learn from my statistics class?

I learned that math or data is valuable. I rewatched the film, Moneyball, recently and using data and statistical analysis the Oakland Athletics were able to create wins by looking at baseball differently than the way previously viewed. This concept can be applied in many different aspects of the world. I learned how to gather data, read it, and see if it had any correlation with other variables/factors. I also learned how to create graphs, boxplots, histograms, and scatter plots with a programs called jupyter.

What did I learn in Psychology?

Like I said above, the class was straight forward. I would read the chapter, take the online quiz, then take the online unit test that would cover the last 3 chapters. There was a zoom class every week, but my zoom/webex wouldn’t work the last 4 weeks. It wasn’t a big problem. What I learned…? Psychology is an important part to life. blah, blah, blah. I don’t care about the entirety of the class. The most interesting part about it was the education part. How we learn skills? As a future educator, this part was fascinating. Learning about operant conditioning and classical conditioning concepts was very interesting. I teach kids jiu jitsu, so I can see when my students learn techniques they didn’t know before. I can also see them forget the techniques they learned before(extinction). Which is frustrating. I will look into these concepts for the future.

What did I learn in Mathematics for Teachers?

The most important thing I learned from this class was teaching math to younger students may not be as straight forward as people think. Here are some questions that are in my assignments. What concepts are in this problem? What problems or confusions do you think your student can have when undertaking this equation? How would you solve this? (Please keep in mind you may be teaching this to a K-8 student.) I never really thought about math this way, or even teaching. For example, 5x= 10. Obviously, x=2. First, is the concept of numbers, second the concept of multiplication/division, then the concept of x being variable for another number. Then I would have to think as if I never saw this before. To look through the eyes as a student again. This kind empathy is interesting because it is very difficult to forget that 2+2=4. This is just an example. I feel like this course is necessary for students that haven’t taken college math before.

In conclusion, I’m glad I finished this semester. I also learned a few things about the class.

Next Post- My Goals and what I’m reading

Move forward

I’m in this cross roads in life.  I should either get a job or go back to school.  An unalterable fact is that I’m going through physical therapy for my ACL surgery recovery for the next 6 months.  I had to decide fairly quickly so earlier this week I went to my local community college and applied.  It is fairly daunting to go back to school, especially being 34, but if you put all the anxiety behind you everything will work out.  I took a pretest for my basic college skills.  Basic math and pre-alegebra, English reading and English composition.  I did horrible at math and English composition.  I understand that I suck at math, I hated it in school.  But English!? It’s my mother tongue.  I also write constantly in my journal, text, letters, and postcards, but rarely on this blog.  It’s honestly something I avoid trying to be good at, or even average at, because I didn’t need to write well in any of my jobs that I’ve had. (Navy Eval writing doesn’t count.) Regardless of my skills I need to improve on these subjects if I want a better life.  Not just to be good in school or avoid remedial classes.  If that is the result I will accept it.

I bought a cliff notes my review book and I’m going to read some English writing books I had on my book shelf.  My test is in 11 days. I’ll be using this blog to be an experiment of sort for my writing improvement.  I thank everyone and anyone who actually reads my writing, I know I should proofread and organize my thoughts better.  I don’t do it well because I never really was taught how to write a blog.  I usually type in a stream of consciousness way.  The way I usually write letters, postcards, or journal entries. 

I have this feeling that school gives me a new excitement for life.  A new chapter.