8:45-9:50 Introductory Physics II:Honors - PHYS 016 01
The class is about half the size of the physics 15 class; most of the missing are taking physics 14 (the easier version of this class) either now or in the spring. The prof (Yeong-Ah J. Soh) has very good english pronunciation but not as good grammar (the opposite of prof Chernov in math 13 last term). She doesn't seem like as good a lecturer as prof Barett and the material defiantly looks harder. In addition, winter term is apparently only 8 weeks (instead of 10) and she will be gone all of next week, so it looks like we will be using our 9:00-9:50 Thursday X-period every week. If this class is really unpleasant (which it undoubtedly will be), I can drop down into physics 14 with a little bit of schedule shuffling, but I intend to stay put and just deal with it.
10:00-11:05 Introductory German - GERM 002 02
The class is quite small and most people had taken german 1. The prof seems nice but it has the overall feel of highschool. The prof is still speaking quite a bit of english (although she said she would stop) and we filled out index cards. She also employs familiar teaching techniques such as having people toss a ball from person to person and having the receiver and transmitter say something. In because of this 8 week term, we will be using our X-hours every week. In addition there will be drill 4 times a week (at 5pm or 8am) staring 1/10. We are also using this drill computer program developed by the language department and so far, it sucks. I was assigned 80 sentence translation problems for tomorrow with it. However, it doesn't appear to be too bright (things can be translated in more than one way, but it is looking for only one (or possibly a handful) of ways) and it provides no feedback on how you screwed up (even though it gives you 3 chances). I can see this software working well for other types of problems (change this sentence to another tense or fill in the blank) but this is just horrible (not to mention time consuming). The good news is that I seem to know more than some people in the class (not just that I at one point knew more, but that I also know more now) and I answered a bunch of questions directed at the class. Right now we are covering stuff that is old hat, but I don't know how much longer that will be true for.
12:30-1:35 Expository Writing - ENGL 005 02
This is the one bright spot in the lineup, but it also looks to be a lot of work. Because of the 8 week term, we aren't doing any Nietzsche (as originally advertised) but it still looks like we are going to be covering good stuff. The class is small (18 people) and the prof seems quite energetic (he also seems to know what he's doing), but we're going to be doing 5 5-7 page papers. Also, the class reminds me of high school english (not that this is a bad thing) and will have a lot of in class participation and peer editing. To add insult to injury, it looks like we will be meeting this Saturday because of (you guessed it) the shortened term.
The unexpected regular X-hours may to put my squash playing in jeopardy. The German X-hour starts at 12 on Thursday and the Physics ends at 9:50. The squash sessions are an hour long and start at either 10 or 11. I signed myself up for the 10 (along with 10 other people so far, with a limit of 16) but getting from physics to squash may be a trick. I'll soon find out.
This term will not be easy... perhaps it is a good thing that it is shorter; i'll be over with it sooner.
