Hello everyone!
Guess who’s sick again? Ha, I bet you heard that one coming. I have been sick three times this fall/winter already, which is a gross overestimate of my usual sickness rate. Ah well, I’m adjusting—or mostly just staying up later than I usually do. Sleep is good everyone! Go to college and sleep!
However, this has been a marvelous week. Far from being the stressful hurried rush to study and still stay on top of everything else (this is what midterm weeks are like), finals period has a lot of time to study, and a lot of activities to do. Wellesley puts on a lot of study breaks and appreciation parties during this period, and the last two days have actually been my favorite part of the year. I wake up, I study some, I go to a party, I study some, I go swimming, study some, go to bed. Marvelous, marvelous. Of course, what I get in fun I lose in productivity, so there is a caveat to this academically excellent lifestyle…
But anyway, I did get sick, so you know there’s some kind of stress going on ;). That was due to the first couple days of this week, when a lot of things were due at once. I had a writing paper I was supposed to finish (I did finish, but it was kind of a close call), a history paper I was supposed to plan for (uh, didn’t accomplish this one. Our teacher left on Tuesday due to personal reasons, so we wouldn’t have access to his knowledge until today (Friday), and then only by email, so I was trying to get an outline done to show him. It didn’t get done.), and then there was the usual chemistry and math homework. I fell behind on chem a bit ago—not outrageously behind, but maybe six hours or so, so I had to make that up. And then I was teaching swimming lessons (fundraising for our trip to Hawaii!), working at the library, swimming, the usual. I have said before and I will say again that when major assignments are due in only one class, everything goes crazy. And unfortunately, my anxiety level ramps up during those periods and I usually sleep less. Ah well. They all pass!
In other news, a recruit came to visit us on Monday! And unlike how it works with the normal prospective students, recruits don’t stay with one person for the whole time they’re here: they are shared by the whole swim team. Kendra hosted Elise (that was our recruit), and a few of us went to a concert with her, and then she went to classes with several people. Elise went to my history class with me, before we went to the team lunch, and then Grace and I accompanied Elise to the admissions office for a tour, which was conducted by my friend Sebiha (who happens to be in my chemistry class.) I feel so connected :). Then we walked her back to be picked up, and then went to practice. It was great having you, Elise!
Tuesday was our last writing class of the semester, and it was the best class ever. We turned in our papers (which was wonderful in itself. I had 34 citations. That took over five hours to compile. The two other girls I talked to had 6-8.) and Professor Johnson brought in doughnuts and coffee and bagels. Then we presented (performed) the first paragraph of our paper 4 (we had just turned in paper 3), which we had also written for Tuesday. The topic for paper 4 is our personal musical history (like a musical memoir), which is completely different from paper 3, which was a research project. Thus we had a lot of creativity, and the coolest thing was that we were “highly encouraged” to make our presentation of our first paragraph of paper 4 musical, so almost all of us brought in our laptops to play songs, or even better, musical instruments. Sarah brought in a complete compilation of all the musical theatre she had participated in, beautifully edited with pictures and everything, which was very impressive. Graeme played the fiddle for us, several played the piano, Audrey shared one of her songs that she had composed, played, and sung (which is absolutely amazing. Gah. I can’t believe I didn’t know about all these wonderful passions of my classmates!), and all fifteen of us had beautiful paragraphs to share. Professor Johnson pointed out that she could see in all of our paragraphs the culmination of a whole semester about writing to her about music, and that she now knew our writing styles, our themes, and a good part of who we were. Though Professor Johnson was receiving the twice-weekly paragraphs from all of us, and I was much less exposed to my peers’ writing, I too was able to recognize some persistent traits, and like Professor Johnson commented, it was wonderful to see it all flow together. Then we talked as a class about what could be done to make the class better (since this was the first year Music and the Ineffable, my writing 125 class, was offered), and ate and left on our way. A wonderful writing class, where I felt connected to the people (both peers and teacher) I sat with everyday around the rectangular table, and a wonderful end to my writing 125 class.
Tuesday was also my last day of Education class. Professor Hawes decided that we were actually going to get some work done before we reminisced about what we had learned in his class, so we had a debate about social and emotional learning in the classroom for the first half the class. He too had brought in doughnut holes and apple cider, and those all were eaten very quickly. The second half of class we discussed what we had learned from this class, which ranged from pessimism about the future of education, to mostly determination to succeed as teachers or to learn more. I think six members of our class were thinking about going into teaching by the end of the semester (I asked :)), and said that they were inspired by this class because they realized all the difficulties that successful education faced, but also how so many solutions were being generated that could help make education better. Erica in particular said how reading about all of the U.S.’s educational failures made her more determined not to give up on those students who currently weren’t being reached, and that she felt that, through all of the examples of successful small-scale reform we had read over the semester, individuals and she could make a difference. Professor Hawes expressed that he didn’t want any of us to feel hopeless about the end of the course, but to feel what Erica adamantly expressed: hope for the future along with recognition of the challenges. My peers inspire me; I don’t know how else to put it. Many of the students who want to be teachers haven’t advertised it throughout the whole semester. But Erica’s quietly-expressed statement, a short burst exposing an earnest fire to teach, to help others, is important. It is hope. It is found in students in every one of my classes, and it is what makes me want to cry sometimes, because this calling exists, is here, is within everyone.
Well. I’m not sure how to transition out of that paragraph, but we can’t always be running around sobbing with happiness due to increased understanding and recognition of the value of our friends ;). Though this is something I am valuing more and more, and you can expect more about it from me in the future :). However, moving on to some more about education class, I’d like to warn that when I was complaining about not being busy enough, and needing that fifth class, and how come the counselors wouldn’t let me take it? They were right. I’m so glad I’m only auditing it—I have two major papers I still haven’t turned in. I think what I’m going to do is finish all of my other papers and tests (I have two papers and two tests) by the end of reading period, and then during break I will write those two papers and send them to Professor Hawes. Since all my work doesn’t really count for anything, I suppose the dates won’t matter either, though of course I owe to Professor Hawes his generosity in reading and commenting upon the papers when school is out :). I haven’t asked him yet, because I’m not sure when those papers will get done, but since I have already done all the research for one of them, and I really do like education and all we’ve talked about, I want to finish those papers eventually. Remind me sometime during break—I’ve also decided I will be posting then, so I’ll be available for comments. (comments comments comments! Please talk to me; I love… uh, emailpals!)
Another thing about the last days of class—in education and writing we talked about the things that could have been improved, but not in history, chemistry, and math. This is because there exists this obligatory set of essays called the “SEQs”, which are Student Evaluation Questionnaires. All Wellesley students answer questions about each course and each teacher they’ve had during the semester, and these responses are submitted anonymously and after all the grades have been submitted by the professors. They impact whether professors are fired, kept, promoted, or get merit reviews, and are thus very important. I’m very happy that student feedback plays such a large role at Wellesley College (another part of what we learned in education), and apparently it’s not unusual for students to write a few pages about what they disliked or liked about a class. It seems to be taken appropriately seriously, and the consequences are serious if you don’t complete them: no online grades unless they are done on time. I think it’s a great idea, and it also explains why not all of our classes have a session at the end where they review the course (though we never had anything like this in high school. I wish we did; I think everyone should do it.)
The ends of my other classes were a bit less revelatory. In history we finished up with our short unit (ha, as if we had units. It’s kind of flexible…) on microfinance, in chemistry we went through a sample final (oh god. I really, really need to review everything that we have done during the semester.), and in math we did optional material (calculating volumes via the shell method! Good thing I already did this during high school.) It’s just like in high school, when we worked right up to the AP tests, which happened to be a week closer than usual last year in Minnesota (it sent all of the teachers into fits, because there really wasn’t a lot of time). Ah well, perhaps labor day falls in a better place this year (since from where I come from, school doesn’t start until after labor day.) and all the teachers have an extra week to help us out when we get really confused.
Moving on to Wednesday though! Wednesday was our last day of class, and also much fun. I went to class until 11:10, had a quick lunch with adults for once, watched Tiffany play something amazing on the piano (my memory fails me as to the name; it was classical, and it was famous ;)), ran to an instructional meeting on operating the Wellesley network (it was almost done by the time I got there, unfortunately), and then got to site a bit and get work done. I’ve planned my days so that I have two days for each subject: Wednesday was a random day, so I mostly did chemistry, but Thursday was Chemistry, today is math, tomorrow is history, Sunday is writing (and I just realized that writing is due on Wednesday, so I’ll only get one day for this), and then the cycle repeats. I have my chemistry test on Tuesday, a self-scheduled math exam (so I can have it whenever! Wellesley runs on the honor code, so we can go in during one of the three times tests are given out from Tuesday-Friday and take a test.) I’m planning on Wednesday though.), the writing essay due on Wednesday, and the history essay due on Friday. I plan to work most of the day on Thursday and Friday, since I’m staying later than most (I’m leaving on Saturday, which is when the residence halls close.) and I expect to be done with the history essay by then. Then I have optional swim practice at 4-6pm every day. It’s actually very hard to stay focused, since there is still a lot of (fun) things going on, and studying takes a tremendous amount of focused concentration. Yesterday I didn’t get enough done, so I worked from 11pm-1am since I was not focused for the majority of the day. It kind of makes me angry at myself, since I keep getting distracted by things and I can’t study as well as I usually do. I’m also eating more unhealthily due to the stress of trying to get things done and being frustrated because things aren’t actually getting done as effectively as I want them to… but that’s another situation, and one I’m still working on. I got a fair bit of math done today, though of course I’m still upset that I didn’t do more. I learned how to study very well in high school—someone needs to bang me on the head, stick me in a completely silent room for 8 hours, and then set me loose.
But I should tell you about what’s making me distracted :). After swim practice on Wednesday, I went to a Admissions student worker party, where everyone who works for Admissions (I write this blog, obviously :)) got to participate in a Yankee swap (ie, White Elephant swap, if you’re from the Midwest like me), ate a ton of reasonably healthy food (and very unhealthy wonderful desserts), and got a present! It was very nice, and I now have cookie mix and lotion to show for it (plus a happy stomach :)). Then I worked from 8-9:30 as usual Wednesday night, and did some work before bed.
Thursday was when reading period officially started. I woke up late (so odd, that), went to a presentation by someone who is in the Peace Corps (I’m still deciding if I could do it. That and TFA (Teach for America) would be very enlightening gap years. Then again, I really don’t know if I have the personality for it… then again, they are both service for the country, so what personality I have doesn’t really matter… like I said, I’m conflicted, but I’m reading up on and learning about both whenever I have the time, like during this information session.), went to lunch, did some work, and then went to the Chemistry Cookie Party.
The Chemistry Cookie party gets its own paragraph because it was awesome. First of all, cookies. I saw girls grabbing cups and putting 6-7 cookies in there, and I myself probably had seven different kinds of cookies, and this makes me happy because girls aren’t usually so grabby with fattening material. But it was good. Second, and even more exciting, we had a sing-along! I was the only person who showed up to practice singing early with Professor Flick Coleman, who pretty much runs this thing as far as I could tell. We get spam before events, but Professor Coleman (he seems to go by Flick, which I’m not sure if I’m allowed to use, but it’s such a cool first name… ah well, I’ll be proper and call him Professor Coleman) had the best spam ever. I wish I could attach some of the videos he sent us; cookie monster, law and order, swirly letters, music, etc. Anyway, though I was the only one who showed up, at the actual event Professor Coleman roped lots of people into singing. He played the guitar, and had made up chemistry words for Christmas songs over the past 30 years he had been teaching (the words were pretty sophisticated.) Further, this year for the first time he was able to project the words while we were singing, so that everyone had no choice but to sing along ;). So we were all stuck in this very crowded room, singing chemistry Christmas songs, surrounded by cookies. It was absolutely, fantastically wonderful.
Afterwards, I tried to get a picture of Professor Coleman and his guitar, but he didn’t want one, so that was that :). I did manage to snap quite a few of my Chem 120 class though, since it’s much easier to grab them since they already know where all the pictures are going :). It’s very inconvenient to walk up to strangers and ask if I can take their picture to put on a public blog that’s supposed to represent Wellesley, versus just walking up to the twins (Audrey and Katherine :)) and asking them to pose. They always do the best poses, as you can see at the end of the post, and in previous posts :). Lots of fun, very squished, lots of singing and great environment. I’m so glad I could make it—I’m totally taking chemistry the first semester of every year so that I can be invited again!
So after the cookie party I ran over to swimming (where I almost threw up because we were racing, and I had just gorged myself on cookies. This was a not surprising result.) The Wellesley alumni association was doing an article on Keelin (our star swimmer—check her out as NEWMAC Swimmer of the Week!) on Thursday, so during practice there was a lot of moving around so that she would look good for her pictures :). What I really liked was that we were supposed to look “dense,” so halfway through practice the whole team got shifted into four lanes and were instructed to swim so that there looked like there was a lot of us. I enjoy acting dense, and hopefully they got some good shots of Keelin’s freestyle ;).
Afterwards, since I started late (due to running from the cookie party), I had to make up some yardage after everyone was done (this would not be acceptable during normal practice, but since these are optional practice I can come within a half-hour window.) Tiffany waited for me ( 🙂 ), and then we did some Powerblasters (arm exercises) and helped Katherine, who’s a diver, with her swimming and swimming diving, because she felt like being a swimmer for a bit ;). Then they went off to dinner while I went to a lecture which was FANTASTIC. It was called “In Fact and Fiction,” and featured Deborah Treisman, the fiction editor at The New Yorker (Gahhh! Excitement) and authors Hilton Als and Aleksandar Hemon. I learned a bit of what it was like to be an editor and an author, and unfortunately I’m running out of time here so I can’t really elaborate, but they were very inspiring, especially the stories about how each of them got to place they are today. I think it was filmed—if it was, I very much recommend watching it, because they are some very special people, and the questions asked by the audience in the end were very intelligent as well. One of the best lectures/conversations I’ve gone to—make me happy to be at Wellesley ;).
After that you know the story—ate dinner (vegetables needed), went back, did some work (I was so inspired I wrote my English essay, but it ended up being stream of consciousness, and it needs a LOT of work), did some messing around (e.g., the English essay. I was supposed to be working on Chemistry. Plus I did some actual messing around on the internet), ended up working late (on CHEMISTRY, finally ;)). I woke up at 10:30 this morning, did some work, did weights, am writing this, am about to run to swim practice :). It has been a great week, all considered, especially the past few nights. Tonight after swim practice I have a special surprise swimming pasta party to attend, and then I need to redo Assignment 20 for math, and do more work. Reading period is awesome, at least this week (before it gets crazy with actual deadlines next week :)). I’ve also heard the ED decisions (Early Decision letters) get mailed out today—GOOD LUCK POSSIBLE WELLESLEY STUDENTS! As always, I am here for questions or for expressions of sadness/happiness!
Have a wonderful afternoon, and good luck to those of you who are ED high schoolers!
Monica
