#(like homework or planning curriculum for next semester)

[andypantsx3]

conspire | 4 | confession

pairing: Todoroki Shouto / Reader

length: 13,307 words / 5 chapters

summary: Shouto Todoroki had definitely only asked you out in order to ward off his horde of interested suitors. So why does he keep actually taking you out on suspiciously realistic dates?

tags: romance, reader-insert, fake dating, misunderstandings

warnings: aged up characters, eventual smut

Your confusion only grew over the next few weeks.

Shouto continued taking you out on dates, continued to meet you for homework, and--strangely--continued to kiss you even when you were sure no one was around, though he never found another opportunity to put his hands all over you again.

You found yourself more confused than ever, one night when you were doing homework together, curled up in the lounge of the 3-A dorms. You had mostly separate classes but you shared a core curriculum, and Shouto had proved especially helpful on the subject of literature, which predictably was much less your area of expertise than math and the sciences. You supposed there was something to be said for being raised as a rich boy, when he knew every scrap of classical literature inside and out, and you used him to your advantage shamelessly.

“You know, you don’t need to keep doing all this,” you said that night, pausing over a worksheet.

Shouto looked up from his reading curiously. “What?”

“All these dates and stuff,” you said, fidgeting a little under his watchful gaze. “You don’t need to keep taking me out.”

“Do you not like it?” he asked, brow furrowing.

“No, that’s not--it’s nice,” you said, noting something in the margins of your worksheet so you didn’t have to look at his face. “It’s just, it’s not like you need to impress me.”

“I like doing it,” he said in his characteristically straightforward manner. He set his book down and leaned forward. “I like spending the time with you.”

Your face flamed. “I like spending the time with you, too.”

“Then it’s settled,” he announced imperiously, going back to his homework.

You’d settled back down to your worksheet as well, but something kept bothering you, wondering why he continued to find it necessary to spend so much time with you when the semester was winding down and graduation was rapidly approaching. He had only so much time with his own friends left, and as much as you liked the time you were spending together, you knew it wouldn’t last beyond that.

The thought made you a little sad, now that you were focused on it. Fake dating Shouto had been pretty amazing and you loved the time you’d spent in his company, enjoying all the unexpected ways that he flagrantly flauted what was typically thought of as his sexy ice prince persona. Shouto as a person was actually fun to be around -- smart, straightforward, and more awkward and mischievous than he was given credit for. He was unexpectedly hot tempered but was mostly patient with you, and he seemed to find your tendency to ramble soothing rather than annoying, letting you do a lot of the talking when the two of you were together.

You hoped that you would stay friends past graduation, even if you wouldn’t be spending every spare minute together in the interest of keeping up appearances.

A strange feeling followed you through your next date, a warm spring evening when he took you out for cold soba. You couldn't seem to focus on anything other than how much you enjoyed being with him, how easy the conversation was, how adorable he looked with his cheeks stuffed full of noodles. You couldn't stop thinking about how much you wanted this to last, how much you never wanted graduation to come. You realized with some alarm what it all meant when you returned to your dorm and he kissed you stupid outside the door.

You had feelings for him.

Panic gripped you over the next couple of days and you wondered wildly what you should do about this new discovery. The longer you thought about it, the more embarrassed you were to discover that you’d most likely liked him from the beginning, from the moment he’d sat down to your pair project and launched into a thoughtful question. Of course you’d been willing to go along with his little scheme if it meant you could be close to him, and that fucking senior project was hardly the excuse you’d pretended.

You’d been dating a boy you were maybe in love with for months, only none of it was real.

Finally, one evening in late March, as you were putting the finishing touches on a prototype of Shouto’s support item, a plan presented itself to you. You thought you knew what you wanted to do, but you needed advice.

You couldn’t talk to Shouto about this yet, not until you were entirely sure, but there were people close to him who might be willing to volunteer their opinions. You were certain that Shouto had at least let his closest friends in on his little scheme, so you wouldn’t be letting the cat out of the bag if you talked to one of them.

The next afternoon found you at the 3-A dorms again, having ducked Shouto’s quirk training to come find a potential source of help: Momo Yaoyorozu.

Momo was thankfully downstairs when you arrived, in the kitchen putting together an afternoon snack of biscuits and wielding a tin of very expensive looking tea. Her hair was down out of its usual meticulous, high ponytail, and her long hair made her look somehow even more intimidating and queenly than usual.

She caught sight of your nervous figure and gave you a bright smile.

“Hi Y/N,” she chirped and you gave her a little wave. “Shouto’s not here right now.”

You shook your head. “I actually came to see you, if you have a minute? I need help with something.”

She eyed you curiously, then slowly reached for another scoop of tea leaves. “Am I wrong to guess tea would help?”

You nodded, feeling weirdly like a preteen about to have the talk with her mother. “Sure, thank you.”

She pulled out another cup and added more water to the kettle. You watched her gather everything quietly, trying to figure out the best way to broach the subject. She pulled out another biscuit and poured water over the leaves, finally gathering up both cups, gesturing you over to the lounge.

“Did Shouto do something to upset you?” she asked once you’d settled into the loveseat, warm mug in hand. “He can be rather blunt.”

“No, it’s nothing like that,” you said, scratching a fingertip against the ceramic. “It’s just…” you paused, tentative, then decided what the hell. “I have feelings for him.”

Momo shot you a concerned look. “What?”

“I know,” you agreed miserably, fingers tightening on the mug. “It just happened, I didn’t expect--”

“No, wait,” Momo said, something like confusion creasing her delicate brow. “What do you mean you have feelings for him? Isn’t that normal?”

You threw her a wild look. Was it normal to catch feelings for your counterfeit boyfriend? Had she been in a situation like this before?

“Have you fake dated someone before?” you asked.

Momo’s jaw dropped. “Fake dated?”

A suspicion settled over you like a dark cloud. “Momo, has Shouto not told you we’re not really dating?”

Her dark eyes widened. “Shouto told me he’d asked you out on Valentine’s Day. He’d never said that any of it was a ruse. Why ever would he ask you to pretend to date him?”

“To fend off Himari,” you admitted, embarrassed, “among others. He did it because none of those girls would leave him alone on Valentine’s Day. I was with him when Himari confessed to him and he used me as a cover. I think it’s only until graduation, though.”

Momo looked thoughtful. “He never told me. He’s talked often of your time together but he’s never admitted as much to me. Shouto has always had this problem and it seems strange that he’d try this now, of all times. Are you sure he’s only dating you to fend off girls?”

You nodded. What other reason would he have? You were shocked that he hadn’t told her. “I’m sure.”

She looked troubled. “It just doesn’t seem like him.” She paused. “So, you’re saying that he doesn’t have feelings for you...but that you might have feelings for him?”

You cringed and took a bracing sip of your tea, embarrassment welling up inside you. “Yes.”

She stared down into her tea cup. “And you’re wondering what you should do about it.”

You nodded again.

She sighed. “I can’t pretend to know what the best thing to do is in this scenario. I just can’t believe Shouto would do something like this.”

You leaned forward, steeling your nerves. “Momo, I was thinking of telling him. I know he’d like this to go on through graduation but I don’t think I can pretend to date him when I actually really like him. It’s too overwhelming.”

You paused, fighting down an embarrassed blush. “What I came here to ask was if you think he would still be able to be friends with me, after. I know it might be weird for a little bit, but I think he’s kind enough. I just….wanted to confirm, with someone who’s known him for a lot longer.”

She watched you silently for a long moment, her fingers pale against her own tea cup. “Shouto is many things, but intentionally cruel is not one of them. I can’t promise that he wouldn’t hurt your feelings--you know how blunt he can be--but I don’t think he’d want to stop being your friend.”

A little relieved sobbing hiccup went through you and you quickly stuffed your face back into your tea cup to hide it, washing it down with a steadying sip.

“Thanks,” you said when you felt you could finally manage it. “That’s all I really wanted to hear.”

She gave you a fond smile. “Glad I could help.”

You took another sip of tea and Momo followed, the two of you descending into a companionable silence. A sudden thought weighed on you.

“Momo, do you know why Shouto may not have asked you instead? I know you two are close, it seems like he might have been better off asking you for the favor.”

Momo gazed into her cup thoughtfully. “I suppose he could have. I don’t know why he wouldn’t.”

You considered that. Was there some reason Shouto didn’t want to alter the nature of his relationship with Momo? Some reason that could also play into why he didn’t tell her you were fake dating in the first place?

….was Shouto maybe not trying to fend off suitors, but instead trying to make Momo jealous?

You entertained the thought for about thirty seconds, then dismissed it. Shouto wasn’t like that.

Honestly, after getting to know him as well as you had, it was surprising that he’d even schemed up the fake dating thing at all, considering how straightforward he was. It seemed wildly unlikely that if Shouto did have feelings for someone, that he wouldn’t just come out and tell them.

“I do know he spoke very highly of you after that project you did together. That’s why…when he told me he’d asked you out, it just made sense. Shouto doesn’t usually take to people that easily,” Momo said.

You fought down a blush. Maybe that’s why he’d asked you instead of Momo. He liked you enough but you hadn't known each other well, so asking for your help wouldn’t damage the fundamental nature of a close relationship. It made a certain sort of sense, you supposed.

The sound of foot falls just outside distracted you and you sat up as the door creaked open. Momo’s eyes betrayed a note of panic, and you looked over your shoulder to catch sight of Shouto toeing off his boots at the door. He looked a little unkempt and windswept from quirk training -- his hair a little rumpled and his skin glowing with sweat.

Your thoughts instantly dried up. Damn he looked good.

Shouto startled a little at the sight of you camped out with Momo. Then the small, secretive smile he sometimes wore curled the edge of his mouth. “Y/N, what are you doing here?”

You panicked. Crap. What was an appropriate response? You and Momo didn't even have anything in common other than Shouto. What would distract from being hand held through a romantic crisis?

“Talking shit about you,” you blurted. “I’m putting together a hit squad for what you did with the ice wave the other week. I did promise murder.”

You watched with satisfaction as Shouto’s eyes narrowed a little. Bingo.

He came stalking over, his manner shifting into something predatory. “I seem to recall coming to a mutually satisfying resolution.”

The tips of your ears went hot and your toes curled in your socks. “Uh, must have slipped my mind.”

A strong arm hooked over your waist from the back of the couch and that scent of mint washed over you, slightly muted by the scent of grass and sweat. Shouto pulled you up into his arms, a stern look on his face. “It seems I’ll have to remind you then. Momo, you’ll have to excuse us.”

He didn’t wait for a response, carrying you over to the staircase to the boy’s dorms. Over one broad shoulder, you could see Momo staring after you, her pink mouth parted in shock. She looked absolutely bewildered, her face a perfect illustration of your own feelings. What did Shouto think he was doing?

It took you hours to come back to this thought, or any thought at all. Shouto spent a long time reminding you of your mutual resolution, kissing you absolutely boneless against the sheets of his bed, and then very sweetly walked you back to your dorm. It was only after you'd shut the door behind him and started up the stairs to your own room that you thought back to the look on Momo’s face. It must have seemed to her that Shouto had no idea of the boundaries of a fake relationship; she must have wondered if you had even been honest with her in the first place.

As hard as it must have been for her to wrap her mind around, it was harder for you.

You didn’t know how or why Shouto was behaving this way with you, if the relationship was truly so casual to him that slipping into the mannerisms of a real relationship meant little, but you knew this meant you had to come clean. Shouto had to know how you really felt about him.

One week and you would finish his support item. One week and you would draw up the courage to tell him everything. One week, and you would break things off with Shouto Todoroki.

[thistle-and-thorn]

my goal-setting manifesto

So recently @woodswit wrote a super thought-provoking post about struggling with the benefits of loving feeling fit and struggling with external validation regarding fitness and so this is kind of my reference guide for myself about goal-setting and the way *I* need to remember to think about it.

I minored in a very specific form of organizational management in college and a huge part of that curriculum was goal-setting. We were encouraged to make one-year, five-year, ten-year career plans, we learned how to set SMART goals, how to identify what steps were right for you, etc. Well, babies, I did not need this curriculum because in high school we had done this exact same curriculum. SMART goals, college planning, etc. Bitch, I knew how to plan my life and, bitch, I had it planned. I was a very high-achieving and ambitious student—I went after awards, AP scores, good grades, letters of recommendation. The school system I attended was very typical of an American school in that those things were the primary indicators for success and the “quality” of our grades determined our classes (and subsequently our social groups) and myriad other things. I was a “good girl” and bought into and benefitted from this kind of structure immensely.

Well. I also have struggled with severe anxiety and periodic depressive episodes that significantly interrupt my daily life and ability to care appropriately for myself. These disorders reached a critical mass at the midpoint of my college career and, after two very bad semesters (one of which ended with me getting a tiny sexy scar from fainting into a doorway), I realized I needed to make significant changes to my priorities. More specifically, I needed to examine the method by which I was defining and collecting achievement and validation. So, after much therapy (I love u Claire), soul-searching, several glasses of a very good local hard cider, I decided to write out the way I goal-set now that enables me to actually breathe and not spiral into self-hatred.

Why Do We Need Goal-Setting?

I actually think that goal-setting is deeply important. If you are a dreamer, I would even say that goal-setting is essential. Personally, I’m a planner/dreamer and enjoy setting goals. It comforts me. Getting a little organized around amorphous ideas like “I want to be a novelist” or “I wish I could travel the world” allows those things to become attainable.

Process and Product

I would say that there are two ways of thinking about goals:

1. Product-Oriented: This is the type of thinking that was taught in my management classes and is exactly what it sounds like. If you do these steps, then you will get x-result. An example of a well-written product-oriented goal is, “By Tuesday, I need to complete three research reports.” (This is true, and I completed them today motherfuckers.) It’s concise, attainable, and happens within a set timeframe.

2. Process-Oriented: This type of thinking focuses on what you will learn or benefit from accomplishing an activity. When I was teaching preschool, an example of this would be taking the kids for a nature walk or free drawing, basically doing an activity where there is no expected result. There is nothing to achieve, there is no medal. The work and the discoveries you make doing the work is the reward. A process-oriented goal would be, “I want to learn about characterization from writing this story.”

In woodswit’s example, she talks about the benefits that cardio exercise has on her mental health, how much happier and confident she is when she is doing a certain variety of exercise regularly. She also talks about how she used to do intense sports.

In this case, a product-oriented way to frame that discussion would be, “I want to get back to the weight I was when I was playing sports” or “I want to be able to lift fifty pounds again.” You will take smaller steps to reach that product—changing the way you eat, figuring out a plan for to work up to lifting heavier things. But the product-oriented way is ultimately a binary—you will either be able to lift fifty pounds or not, you will either reach the weight you were or you won’t. But the process-oriented way to think about these things would be, “I love biking and want to do more of it. Every weekend this summer, I will bike a different rail trail in my county.” The process-oriented method is less specific, but it takes that pressure away from your performance—in the biking example, the only expectation that is set is that you’re going to travel to different bike trails, not that you have to go to every rail trail in the county or that you have to complete the whole trail when you go or that you have to do it in a certain time, just that you are going to go.

There is space for both of these methods, and they are best used in conjunction with each other. Product-oriented is useful, especially in financial situations. A goal for 2022 is to visit my childhood best friend in her new home, halfway across the country. Say I want to go in May 2022 and I figure out that it will cost me roughly $2000. I should probably set a goal with steps to save $2000 by May. It’s also beneficial for the smaller steps to bolster your path to your big dreams—When I was a kid, playing piano gave me a lot of discipline and I would like to have that habit again. That is a process-oriented way of thinking about playing music, but you will probably need to set smaller, product-based goals to achieve it—you will need to select a song and learn to play it, within that song you will need to master it measure by measure.

When we are trained to reach for product, it is hard to recognize the value of process-orientation. A phenomenal example is my WIP. The story I am writing now has 3% the amount of kudos as my biggest fic. I also had a goal of updating every Tuesday. By product standards, that story is a flop. It has the least amount of engagement of anything I’ve ever written, and I haven’t updated it in like two weeks. However, why do I write? I write because I enjoy it, I write fanfic specifically to practice new skills. This story has stretched my abilities and I’ve grown from working on it. By process standards, it’s the most successful of my fics.

And in terms of bigger life things? Process-oriented is the way to go. Why? Because if the pandemic taught us anything, it is that life is not linear. It is nearly impossible to set a straight path—be it up a corporate ladder or a fitness goal—why? Because life sucks. Someone dies, you become ill, it rains, you fall in love, you fall out of love—minute inconveniences happen every day. Process takes the pressure off of your performance because you can’t perform all the time. This is essential in fitness goals because our physical state is especially ephemeral. Of course, it happens in other areas of life, too. An example: In the autumn of 2017, I fell into the deepest depression I have ever been in before or since. I could not remember to shower, let alone do my anthropology homework. As a result, for the first time, I was struggling to create the basic products—like, you know, homework—expected in my classes. That was even more devastating. Around the midpoint of the semester, I realized that product was not sustaining me and if I didn’t want to drop out or harm myself when I “failed”, I had to change my approach.

Once my classes became less about “I need to feel my Middle East studies requirement so I can get a History degree and get an A so I can get on the Dean’s List,” and I reconnected with, “I want to learn a lot about the Middle East,” the products came more naturally. They came more imperfectly, too, but I was able to complete the product because I put less pressure on making them to a certain standard. It became easier to recommit to my goal of being a college-educated woman when I remembered the why of receiving a college education. In woodswit’s original post, she acknowledges that the definition of intense exercise is different for every individual. But it’s also different for the individual at different points in their life and recognizing that intensity and success are arbitrary standards is an essential part of reframing your goal-setting as being process-orientated.

How Do I Goal Set Now?

I still goal-set and a lot of my goals could be likely defined as product-goals. However, they are all made with a long view in mind—if I set a goal to run a 5K, what am I going to get out of it besides just saying that I can run a 5K? Here are ways that I stay process-oriented throughout:

1. Goal Periods

I have three times of year when I set goals: January, June, and Lent. I will set a date on the calendar every year to sit down and just think about what I want to accomplish just in the next twelve-month period and what vision I have for myself in three to five years. No more than that.

January is when I set my personal goals and June is where I set my professional ones. I keep a spreadsheet throughout the year of experiences I would like to have. I will look to this list for inspiration. In January and June, while goal-setting, I check in with the opposing goals. So, in June, I checked in with my progression on my personal goals. I rethought if those goals were still realistic and if I was benefitting from them and in what ways. Then I recommitted to them or adjusted them to help me reach them.

2. Holistic Goals

Unless it’s curing cancer, there is no single goal worth putting all the rest on hold for. Each goal is a battle, and your life is the war. This is a deeply privileged example but: the goal of living independently the first two years out of college was probably achievable. But the effort to achieve that one goal meant that, like, six other personal and financial goals would not be met. So, I put off my career goals and stayed at home and taught preschool for two years. It meant a delay while it seemed like my other friends were growing up and achieving at faster rates, but the temporary strain of achieving a particular goal is sometimes worth it when it dominos into other opportunities.

3. Goal Bundling

I bundle my goals now as a part of my goals check-ins. An example of this is: I loved studying abroad and would love to spend more extended time in the country I studied in during undergrad. I would love to go to graduate school. Ipso facto, presto change-o, I should look at graduate programs in that country and see if that is an achievable goal.

This post is a good example of all of this lol. Why did I write it? there won't be an audience for it but the process of setting all of these thoughts on to paper was cathartic, creating a reference guide on this topic for myself when I am depressed is important, and that has to, has to, has to be good enough.

[pastelsandhazelnutcoffee]

Tips for your first semester at university - A Masterpost

So, I know that it always depends on the country you live in, but here in Austria the next university semester starts on the first Monday of October. I have been at University for 3 years now and I remember how lost I was when I came there first. So I thought that I´d share my experience for those that start university this semester.

Important: This guide is written especially for universities and not for colleges of higher education as they have a different system when it comes to lectures and such.

1. Inform yourself as much as possible about your university. 

Nowadays, all universitys have their own homepage. What might be confusing however is that most universities don´t have only one. Big universities normally have a general homepage for all things that regard the university as a whole, like registration, academical celebrations or for example the actions that the university takes because of corona. This page is important for the first steps you have to take, like registration, getting your student ID and also for important news. This page will also show you what your university stands for, how they present themselves (for example if or how they support gender equality, students with physical or mental issues or their stance on climate change and what they do about it).

Often times, there are also one more pages for student services that help students with their questions and are responsible for organisatory stuff. Always check out their FAQ, it might help you a lot and sometimes they even have explaination videos. Most of the time, there are also contact options for you, like a telephone number, mail adress or even (when there is no lockdown) consultation hours in their offices.

At big universites, every faculty has at least one homepage, sometimes even more then one (for example one for students and one for the professors, sometimes another one for the curriculum and such...). And no, all these websites often are not linked to each other, so better safe them with a bookmark in your browser because otherwise finding a certain homepage again might cost you quite some time...On these pages, you normally can find the curriculum and sometimes even the recommended studying path - basically meaning which course you should take in which semester.

2. Find out where the buildings are and get to know them

Many universities have more than one building or campus. When you have to commute between them, it is important that you know how to reach them, how long it takes you to reach them (from home and from another building) and where the most important lecture halls and seminar rooms are. In most countries, the university buildings are open to the public you can just walk in and look around as long as you don´t walk into a seminar or lecture in the middle of it! If you can´t find a certain room, you normally can also ask the concierge for help. Maybe even take notes how to reach each building and the most important rooms so that when you are in a hurry and get overwhelmed by all the new experiences, you have a backup in case you forget something.

3. Plan your time wisely

You have to register yourself for the lectures and seminars you want to take each semester, so make sure you plan your time wisely. If you have to commute between buildings, don´t make yourself a tight shedule! You never know if you have questions for a professor after a lecture, if you want to exchange numbers with other students, if a lecture takes longer than planned or if the public transport arrives on time. Also, your first semester will be way more exhausting than you expect, no matter what you are used to! Never plan a full day at university for your first semester and I would also advice you to register for less courses than recommended. You can still do more in the following semesters and the first one is always the most difficult as you are not used to the new system. Keep days free for the asignments you have to or the notes you need to rework.

4. Get to know the surroundings of the buildings and the reading and studying halls.

Sometimes you will have some time between courses so it is important for you to know, where to spend these breaks. It also depends on what you want to do during this time: Talk to friends, eat, have a nice walk or read/write something for university? Most universities have rooms for studying and reading, where you have to be silent but also some where you can work together with other students and talk to them. Search also for bakeries, take-aways and a refectory so that you know where to get a meal from, if you have forgotten to bring something. Sometimes it is best to walk into some side-streets for normal grocery shops, as they often sell sandwiches and salads but are way cheaper than the refectories and restaurants in and around the university itself.

5. Have a student planner AND a calendar on your mobile phone

If you have a stundent planner, it easier to take notes about your assignments or write something down quickly. It is not dependend on a battery and you have a lot more space than on calendar or to-do-list apps. However, it can happen that you forget it on some days, so always a phone calendar as a backup to remind you of which lectures you have where and when! 

6. Try out which way of taking notes works best for you

There are so many ways how you can take notes during courses, so try out which of them works best for you. I will soon make a special post about the different ways of talking notes and organizing them, so if you don´t know about this topic, make sure to check out the upcoming post!

7. Networking is key

You are not in a normal class anymore. You won´t see the same people in every course, so try to meet new ones in every course. You don´t have to be friends with everyone, but just exchanging numbers and helping each others out with homeworks or when you can´t visit a lecture every now and then is a great help. Also join Facebook, Discord or Whatsapp Groups and read what other students write in them. If there are none - make your own and invite as many students that you meet as possible. Ask other students - especially some from higher semesters - if you have quesions about organizational stuff, rules for thesis papers and recommendations of professors or courses.

8. Document your semester

Don´t spend too much time on it, but make sure to document some important details of your semester. Which professors do like or don´t like and why? Make sure to write down their names too, not only their courses, so you know where to register again. Write down which studying or note-taking techniques work beste for you and which don´t. Write down at which times of the day you are very productive at home and when is the best time for you to be at university. 

10. Read the curriculum and the recommended study path thoroughly

The curriculum includes which courses you have to take, where you can choose and if there are requirements for some of them. It also includes description what you will learn in which course and approximately how much effort it takes to complete a course. Of course these descriptions are not always completely accurate but they will give you a good overview and especially which requirements are needed is very important to know and keep in mind.

Not all but many faculties also offer recommended study paths.These recommend, consdering not only the official requirements but also your knowledge and the efford, which courses you should visit in which semester. Often times, these are really helpful, so ask students from higher semesters if these are helpful and if they agree, then definitely stick to them!

11. Use Apps for students

There are many apps that can help you. Some of them are specifically made for connecting you better with your university by giving you direct access to your account, your mails, your time table and the latest news of your university. Other apps help you focus or keep organized. I will do another post on this topic too, so make sure to check it out too!

12. Don´t get a job immediatelly

If you can, don´t get a (part-time) job immediatelly. If you can afford to not earn money for some months, wait at least until your second semester to get a job. The first semester is challenging enough and no matter how tempting it seems to earn a nice amount of money, it is important that you can find your place at university.

13. Start studying early

I swear to you that during your school time, you never wrote an exam with such a huge amount to study - most likely not even your A levels. So either revise every weekend what you learned during the week or start studying at least some weeks before your finals to make sure you don´t underestimate it.

14. Keep yourself motivated

A semester at university can be very exhausting and challenging. You might not like all the courses you are registered for but also can´t drop out of them. So you need to keep yourself motivated, even in the middle of the semester when the next holidays and the rewards for your efforts seem far away. Keep your goals in mind, reward yourself every now and then for all the studying you are doing and use stationery that motivates you.

15. Bring enough food with you

You won´t always have the time to buy a meal at university and even if you have the time, more often then not they are overly expensive. Bring food from home that you can eat during your breaks, if possible even while walking - you may need to eat while walking to the next lecturing hall. Make sure the food won´t go bad during the day and bring brain food to. Also bring water with you and refill it during your breaks. Bring something like coffee, black or green tea, energy drinks or coffeinated gums too for long days or when you have to start very early in the morning.

16. Keep pencils and some sheets of paper everywhere

Modern technologies like mobilephones and laptops are nice and handy, but they are always dependend on their batteries. Therefore you should keep pen and paper in every bag you use, every jacket, every trouser or wherever you can keep them. By doing this, you make sure that you can always take notes, no matter what else happens. Also make sure you have a drawer or a place near your desk where you can collect these notes so you won´t loose them!

17. Keep the balance

A lot of people think that university means partying and having lots of free time. Others study all the time, having barely any free-time. With most of the exams taking place at the end of the semester, one can easily forget how much studying it takes to complete a course. On the other hand, all the new testing formats and the complex topics can seem overwhelming. Therefore it is very important that you keep a good balance between studying and freetime. Especially outside the finals week, it is good to keep one or two hours free per day that you use only for hobbies and leisure time.

18. Don´t let others pressure you about your grades

Yes, a lot of students like to brag about how fast they get on with studying and how good their grades are. Fact is, that you can´t see their university certificate, so you can´t even know if they are saying the truth or are just bragging. Furthermore, even if they say the truth, everyone goes their own path with their own pace. You don´t have to be the best or better than anyone. Do the best you can but never harm you physical or mental health for your grades!

19. Don´t be scared to change your field of study

In school you barelly get to know the different fields of study. Even subjects you have at school like a language or maths are totally different at university. If you realize that a field of study is not right for you, it is totally okay to change it! There is nothing to be embarassed about. It is important that you do what you like and what you can do - not everyone will be successful in every field. That does not mean that you should give up because one course becomes a bit difficult or because you got a negative grade on a final. Throwbacks and some troubles are normal in every study and don´t mean that you´re not qualified for it. But if you realize that it is not what you are interested in, it is better to choose a different field.

20. Don´t expect everything to be interesting

No matter how much you like a field of subject, there will always be some courses that you will find less interesting than outers. Keep yourself motivated when you have to do such courses and don´t give up because of them if you like most of the other courses and lectures.

21. Inform yourself about the types of courses before you register for them

Most faculties offer many different types of courses, all of them meaning a different effort and different ways of performance controls. Lectures normally don´t require you to be present (although it is helpful) and only have one test at the end of the semester. Seminars don´t have finals, instead you have to write a portfolio or thesis paper. Exercise courses normally have at least one test in the middle of the semester and one final plus multiple assignments or homeworks. There are many more kinds of courses, depending on your field of study.

22. Don´t expect too much from yourself

University is actually way harder then colleges or school. It´s the most difficult type of education you can choose, so don´t expect perfect grades from yourself. No matter how good your grades where at school, it is totally fine if you don´t keep them up at university! That does not mean that you became less intelligent, just that university is way harder than school!

I hope this post is helpful for some of you! I will be doing an own post soon on how to go about your first digital semester!

[bettsfic]

We spend a lot of time appreciating you as an amazing writer, but even just from online interactions, it's obvious that you're also a great teacher. If you feel like sharing: any good teaching stories that made you feel great about undergraduate teaching / reminded you of why your work is important?

at the end of my first semester, a student, i’ll call her jessica, sent me an email saying how much she enjoyed the class and how she was planning to be a teacher some day, and she wanted to be a teacher like me. i printed the email out and put it in my journal. it was the first kind email a student had sent me, and i read it over and over.

a couple months later, at the beginning of the next semester, just an hour before i met my new students, i found out that jessica had died over break. it was alcohol and drugs, a party where she left and no one followed her back to her dorm to make sure she was okay. she was nineteen. i looked at her instagram, where her final post was a selfie with two friends, and the caption read, “i love college!” 

it’s hard to say exactly how her death affected me, but i think about her all the time. i think about how fragile life is, and about the toxicity of college culture, and all the pressures and expectations put on students, and how they’ll graduate with mounds of debt that will take decades to pay off. i think about how hard and hopeless it is to be a young person today. i think about the surprised, grateful faces i get when i show students the smallest shred of kindness or empathy.

this is my fourth year teaching and i’ve now had around 300 students. i have yet to meet a bad one. i’ve met students who have been pushed to their limits, who are exhausted, who are in the wrong place and have no idea, who have unchecked trauma, who are utterly terrified, who are lonely, sad, overworked, or just plain overwhelmed. 

once, i did a Q&A for a practicum of new creative writing teachers. i’d given them my syllabus prior to the class. they were surprised to read my lax policies, and one of them asked what i do when a student does the bare minimum, or maybe even less. creative writing is an “easy” class. inevitably you get the “lazy” students who sit in the back and work on homework for other classes, and hand in five dr. seuss sounding poems at the end of the semester.

to that i said, any student who doesn’t want to write is either overworked, afraid, or both. being overworked can’t be helped. college students are working to master their time management skills in an environment that doesn’t allow them to fail. but fear can be faced and conquered. i base my entire class around fear. they have one major assignment: write your biggest risk. i firmly believe your biggest creative risk ends up being your greatest reward. sometimes students aren’t up to the task, but if you build an environment in which they’re eager to show you the dark, ugly parts of themselves because they know you will receive them eagerly and openly, they tend to make amazing things.

i start each semester with probably over half my students utterly apathetic or even flat-out disgusted by the idea of creative writing, and i end the semester with a stack of self-assessments and evaluations talking about how much the class helped them not only see their own creative potential, but also to be less afraid to take creative risks in other environments. 

i had a student, we’ll call him alex, in my composition course last year. admittedly i put less effort into comp than creative writing, mostly because it’s not my curriculum or my primary field of study. alex sat at the back of class the entire semester, asleep, on his laptop, or talking to the people nearest him. he did not participate. he did not do the reading. he did not turn in his homework. he didn’t even know my name. on the second to last day of the semester, he turned in several assignments at once, and came to me before class started saying he’d done most the work, and could he come to office hours so i could get him caught up on the rest?

no, i said. i was too busy working with students who had been seeking my help throughout the semester. he took it well, and said thanks anyway, and in the end scraped by with a B-, mostly due to my lack of a late policy. if i’d had one, he would have failed.

i was surprised the next semester to see him on my roster for creative writing. it was clear he didn’t like or appreciate my comp class. on the first day of spring semester, he came to class high. at the end of class, i have all of my students fill out a notecard with their name and other pertinent information, and on the back i have them draw a picture. when alex turned in his card, he had only scrawled his name across the front, and on the back he drew a bird smoking a giant blunt.

the next class, i announced that anyone who came to class drunk or high would be asked to leave and they would lose their attendance for the day. i didn’t want to call him out directly. honestly, i didn’t know how to handle the situation. my mentor told me to deal with it head-on, but i didn’t heed her advice, and i wish i had. 

alex kept coming to class high. he didn’t do the reading. he didn’t participate in small or large group discussion. he didn’t do the prompt-fills or turn in any assignments. when he’d behaved this way in comp, i wasn’t bothered by it. nobody really likes comp. but this was creative writing, a class i put 200% of myself into and which i expected students to appreciate in kind (and for the most part they really do). 

midway through the semester, i ask students to schedule a one-on-one conference with me. it’s required. they get a grade for showing up, and another for doing a write-up of what we talked about. alex, like the prior semester, did not show up for his conference, or even write a risk draft for me to comment on. he sent me an email an hour later apologizing and asking if we could reschedule. the kicker: he began the email “liz.” i ask my students to call me by first name. i tell them at the beginning of the semester and again in week 5 when they inevitably forget. so alex had now been through 4 of my “the name you need to call me” lectures. and he still called me liz. and he had the audacity not to show up for his conference with no notice, wasting a half hour of my time, and then ask to reschedule.

my mentor was right. i should have dealt with it sooner. i shouldn’t have let myself get as angry as i did. but i replied to his email with a laundry list of things he’d done wrong, and i told him he was out of chances. i wasn’t rude, but i was very firm, and expected him to forward the email to his parents and the department and try to get me fired.

instead, a couple hours later when i arrived in class, he was sitting in the back of the room with his hood over his head. i was surprised to see him. it was the last day to drop classes and i expected him to be gone. he approached me as i was getting set up, and he was weeping. like blubbery, snot-nosed weeping. my first thought was that he was manipulating me somehow. boys who don’t get their way do desperate things sometimes. he told me he turned in all the assignments, and did the reading, and he’d do better from them on, he promised, and could he come to office hours? would i give him one more chance, please?

i told him to see me after class. during discussion, to my surprise, he raised his hand for every question. he was extremely off-base on most of his comments but i appreciated the courage it took not only to show up to class a weepy, tear-filled wreck, but to actually participate through it. after class, he apologized for having lost his shit earlier. he asked how he could make everything up. i told him i’d give partial credit for what he’d turned in, but he needed to come to a conference.

a couple days later he showed up at my office. i asked if he had a rough draft for me to look at and he said he didn’t, not because he didn’t try but because he didn’t know what his biggest risk was. i asked him to write an essay about how he’s struggling in college, and to use it as an opportunity for self-reflection.

up to this point, alex had been a bad bullshitter. before, when i’d confronted him about not doing the reading, he said he couldn’t because he hurt his knee. i asked what a knee injury had to do with reading, and he blubbered through an answer. he even feigned a limp, but later that day i saw him walking normally to another class. he had ridiculous excuses for everything. so when he sent me his essay, i was expecting more of the same.

what he wrote was not bullshit, but a blunt and honest account of all the problems he was having, sans whining or pity-seeking. the boldest statement he made was that he was extremely lonely. i searched between the lines for ways he was trying to manipulate my sympathy but found none. he was flat-out admitting the truth: he felt like college wasn’t right for him, he was far away from home, he thought he would make friends but he hadn’t made any, and his girlfriend was still a senior in high school and he missed her a lot. 

“it feels weird not having a happy ending,” he told me. “i kept wanting to find a positive note to end on.”

“sometimes things just suck. an essay doesn’t have to answer the questions it poses,” i said.

suddenly i got a different picture of alex’s life: he was depressed and alone, self-medicating with weed and who knew what else, and slipping through the cracks of all his other classes, where he had professors who, like me the prior semester, paid no attention to him. 

he told me he really liked the class, and liked me as a teacher, and he would spend the rest of the semester trying to be better. i’d had students say similar things just to placate me and then didn’t follow through, but alex did for the most part. he still struggled with due dates, but he kept an open line of communication with me, and owned up to his failures. he did all the reading and participated in every class. by the end of the semester, he was a different person. he told me his girlfriend had gotten into our school and that she was coming to visit him soon. he revised his essay several times, got an A in the class, and gave me a hug at the end of the semester and thanked me for my patience and understanding.

i think this story stuck with me so much because it’s about my own failure. i do my best to reach out to struggling students, but most of the time if you lend a hand, they don’t take it, and there’s not much you can do. i should have tried to help alex sooner, or be more firm with him earlier on like he apparently needed. i need to learn to be more comfortable with confrontation and own my authority in the classroom. but mostly it reaffirmed my belief that everyone is hurting, and “bad behavior” is nearly always the result of a bigger picture that sometimes we can’t see. 

[its-captain-sir]

Alright, so, kinda need an opinion on something.

My English teacher.... is really not the best teacher. Seriously. There are a lot of things wrong with the way she conducts her class.

I have friends in two other periods besides mine. All the same level class, with the same curriculum and everything. At the end of every day, we have to talk to each other to figure out exactly what is happening in that class. What our homework is, when projects are due, when the next test is, everything. Because she doesn't tell us any of it. Or sometimes she'll tell one period, but not the others. We all have the same assignments that are expected of us, but half the time we don't know what they are. Just today, one of my friends had to go back to the teacher after school was over, ask her what the homework due tomorrow was, and then relay all the information to us because none of us knew.

It's not just homework stuff, it's in-class stuff too. She'll tell us we're doing one thing on one day and tell another class we're doing that thing on a different day. Or she'll just change her mind about it completely.

Now yes, we understand that plans are subject to change, but this happens all the time. This week alone she has said we would be having a discussion in class today that we needed to do all this work to prepare for, only to get to class and do something else entirely different. And when we asked when we would be doing the discussion, she only said "maybe sometime next week". Then she told us today that we're having a test on the book we've been reading tomorrow. She has mentioned a test before, but never gave a date or said much about it until now. (It should also be mentioned that she told none of us what will be on the test) Then she told my period that Friday will be a free reading day since she won't be there, but she told another period that she's gonna have us do essay prep for an in-class essay we're doing on Monday next week. (My class hasn't even heard anything about an essay.)

This is just the stuff that has changed this week so far, and this has happened every week, all year.

And it's not like we can check this information anywhere. She never writes stuff on the board (the few exceptions being pages we need to do for vocab, which half the time doesn't get put up till a day or two before it's due, even though it's often 25+ pages and she has said she'll give us a week to do it). There is a calendar she can put up on the online page for our classroom, but it's almost never updated (in fact, the March calendar is still up right now).

That's another problem too: keeping us updated on grades. It's a toss-up as to when we will actually get a grade for something. Currently, I still have 6 grades that have not been entered in from various points of the semester, including an essay from February 15. Seeing as I may or may not be doing another essay on Monday, I sure would like to get a grade back for that so I can see if I'm doing it right, especially considering I've only done one other essay this year. That one we did in first semester, first week of October, and she didn't grade it until the Thursday right before our winter break (it started the week of Christmas). I had already taken my final for the class when she finally put it in.

Our school actually has a policy on grading and one of my friends has gone through and pointed out instances where she isn't following it:

This is only the surface. There are so many other things like this that happen and honestly? we're kinda of fed up with it. The sheer amount of anxiety and panic we get from this class alone? It's bullshit, and we think we might want to try doing something about it.

None of us want to report her or anything (not yet at least), but we would like things to change. We don't want to personally confront the teacher, but we have a friend not in her class (and who has been witness to our conversations about what is happening in class and multiple freak-outs over this class) who is willing to send an email to her "on behalf of some students in your classes" and maybe address some of the concerns we have? We sort of have the draft of an email started, but there's a lot of uncertainty about if we should actually go through with this, or if it's the right course of action for us to take. Maybe we're just overexaggerating about how bad this because we're feeling annoyed, maybe we should be doing more and taking further steps beyond this, we really don't know.

So please, if you have an opinion about this or an idea for what we should do, please tell us. We could really use the help.

[measuringlife]

Measuring Me: Grad School 2.0

I went straight from undergrad into grad school without any break. I kept summer employment at my undergrad the summer after a graduated (that included housing) so when it came to going to grad school I moved straight from my college summer apartment to my grad school apartment. Most of the others in my Masters' cohort were fresh out of undergrad too.

For me, grad school was a secure next step (that also gave me two years until I had to start paying back my college loans). I also knew staying in a “student” headspace would likely help my academic performance as opposed to taking time off. One semester bled into the next. I was already used to 1x week classes since a big chunk of my communications classes were 1x week. What I was not used to was APA style writing and bibliographies, this was not part of my broadcast journalism curriculum. I pushed through my 42 credit masters in 4 semesters and when it came time for graduation in May 2007 I was DONE.

I also knew to continue on to a Ph.D. wasn’t going to be in the cards for me, for a whole host of reasons, particularly my concern about how long higher education as we know it will continue to exist. I had my sights set on getting to the “Director” level and seeing how that went. I’m closing out year 3 as a Director and at age almost 36 I know I don’t want to spend the next 30 years here. I also know higher education is not adapting quickly enough especially for Millenials like me that thrive off of flexibility. For the past 6 months or so as I forecast the end of my full-time higher education career I’ve spent a lot of think thinking about what’s next and what I can do now to help me get there. Taking “free” classes at a university where I’ve been employed has always been on the table, but I never took advantage of it.

Last year a colleague mentioned finished a certificate and it got me wondering what certificate programs the university I worked at offered. Pretty quickly I found the Nutrition Education certificate through the Health Studies department in the College of Arts and Sciences. Coincidently this is also the department that I adjunct teach Urban Hiking through. I applied back in November, but it was too late for Spring admission. I knew there was a lot of red tape regarding tuition remission so I was pleased that my department chair reached out to talk through my interest in the program. The plan is to start with taking a Nutrition course and a Behavior Changes for Health Promotion course in the fall then a Sports Nutrition class in the spring. It sounds right up my alley.

I know I have a lot on my plate as it so, so making time for classes 2 nights a week in the fall plus homework is going to be a test. Fall thankfully in my quieter season so I’m hopeful. I think Summer is too busy for me to spread a class over Fall, Spring, Summer for the next two years. There are also financial implications. My tuition is “waived,” but I would need to pay taxes on the class for anything over 3 credits, which would be the tune of $5,250 for each additional class each calendar year. The certificate is 18 credits total. However, my department chair mentioned that if I was enjoying the certificate program I could add 12 more credits to round out an MS in Health Promotion Management. I’m not so sure about that, but it’s good to know I have options.

I am trying best to channel my “workaholism” positively - both financially and developmentally. My group fitness instruction plays nicely into my coursework and pet sitting allows me to have some solo study time which I made the most of when studying for my group fitness instructor certification. All of this is building and I’m getting really excited about what the next few chapters hold.

[quicksilversquared]

How to Fake a Marriage Ch. 17

(ao3) (FF.net)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9  10  11  12  13  14  15  16             

Unfortunately, even the best planning in the world couldn't stop Adrien's schoolwork from taking over his life as they neared the end of the second semester. Professors added on extra homework and pushed on through their lessons, wanting to make sure that they had covered absolutely everything that was in the curriculum so that the students would be prepared for their exams. On top of that, the pressure was on for Adrien to get all of his assorted projects completed. He didn't want to slack on them at all, which meant that instead of riding the bus or the tube with Marinette to explore sections of the city they hadn't been to yet, he was taking the bus over to the school library.

It wasn't quite as exciting.

"At least we have another year to explore together," Adrien said as he and Marinette headed to bed one Friday night. Marinette's university-aged neighbor was once again throwing a late-night rager, like they did nearly every Friday despite the flurry of noise complaints that they got every time, and so she had come over again. "I know I want to go back to the museums again, and there's a zoo that Aaron just mentioned to me the other day that sounded interesting. I haven't been to one of those in ages."

Marinette raised an eyebrow at him. "Really? I think Nino and Alya go to the zoo in Paris, like, six times a year at least."

"Yeah, well, that's because they got together there," Adrien pointed out. "And because Alya's dad works there. Most people don't go that often."

Marinette's lips twitched up into a smile. "Uh-huh. And I take it that your not going there that often has nothing to do with any irrational fears about loose panthers and giraffes?"

Adrien just spluttered at that. "How- what- no, why would you think-?"

"I overheard Nino mentioning it to Alya once when you turned down a trip to the zoo with us," Marinette admitted. Adrien made a face at that. He had told Nino that in confidence, darn it. "So why the change of heart for this particular zoo?"

"It's different," Adrien said, shrugging. "It has some species that the Paris one doesn't. The setup is different, too. And I've grown out of any irrational fears I may or may not have had about giraffes and panthers," he added, making Marinette giggle. "And you can tell Nino that, too."

"Uh-huh. If you say so."

Adrien stuck out his tongue out at Marinette and decided to change the subject. While Marinette had mentioned that she was going to be sticking around for another year, they hadn't really talked much more about it. "Did it take Madam Rosalie long to decide to extend your internship?"

Marinette shook her head, thankfully not questioning the change in subject. "Not at all. I think she knew that I had been considering it before. She did ask that I put in a request earlier if I want to extend it again next year, just so she knows for sure how many interns to hire."

Adrien perked up. Was that even something Marinette was considering? It would be great to have Marinette next door for the entire time that he was in London. Once he got to his final year of university, he probably wouldn't have the time to go back to Paris to visit his friends and from what he had heard, he might even get so busy that he would forget to socialize. Having Marinette right next door would mean that he would get to see her, at least, and she could probably pull him out of study mode every once in a while so that he wouldn't forget to have fun.

"I'm not thinking that far out yet, though," Marinette added before Adrien could get too excited. "I just- it's hard to tell where I'll be in a year, if I happen to hear about or see any job openings at fashion companies in Paris."

"Right, I wouldn't want you to miss a chance to get a permanent job in Paris," Adrien said quickly. "Do you think you would ever go for a spot at my dad's company?"

Marinette had to pause and think about that. "I- I don't know. Maybe? I mean, he definitely focuses more of an elegant style than what I'm doing right now at Madam Rosalie's, but I think I would enjoy working with that kind of style, too. At least for a bit." Marinette paused and yawned, then continued. "And, I mean, I haven't exactly heard the best things about, y'know, not being yelled at for small mistakes and whatnot there. I got lucky with my internship with Madam Rosalie. She has high standards, of course, but she understands mistakes. She's open to critique. And she's a really good teacher, too. If we don't understand something or why something doesn't work, then she stops and explains it."

"And my father doesn't do that," Adrien finished. "...actually, I don't think he even interacts with his employees most of the time. He goes in sometimes to double-check that things are running smoothly and to check up on people's progress, but most of the time he's just working from his office at home. It probably helps keep the employee turnover down if they don't actually have to see him."

Marinette giggled.

"So you would just work there until something better comes up?" Adrien asked as they slid into his bed. He paused for a moment, feeling like he might be forgetting something, then shook the feeling off and refocused on what Marinette had said. From what he had heard, that was a fairly common strategy among a large portion of Gabriel's designers. There were a couple that had been there since Adrien was a child, but others stayed from anywhere from a few months to four or five years before leaving. The turnover didn't particularly bother his father.

As long as the work got done and people didn't question Gabriel's authority, he really didn't care about the turnover. The designers that he liked the most, the ones that really made Gabriel shine- they ended up sticking around, probably because they got preferential treatment.

Well. As preferential as Mr. Agreste got, at least. It usually involved pay raises and less yelling at them.

Marinette shrugged. "I guess. There's a couple smaller design houses based in Paris that would probably be a better fit for my design style and that would have a way better working environment, but it's impossible to tell until I've actually worked there for a bit or talked to people who have worked there. They might be smaller than Gabriel, but I don't mind that, really. You get to know everyone then."

"If there was one thing you could change about Rosalie Fashions, what is it?" Adrien asked, curious about what Marinette was looking for. Marinette rarely complained about her work, and when she did, it was mostly about a design not turning out quite right or something else going wrong by chance, not the working conditions themselves.

Marinette just took a few seconds to think about it. "Location, I think," she finally said. "If it was based in Paris instead of London, it would be perfect. I'm enjoying being here, of course, and having to set up my own apartment was an important experience, and I'm glad I get to spend time with you, of course- "

"Obviously," Adrien chipped in, grinning when Marinette kicked him under the blankets.

"But I couldn't do it long-term," Marinette finished. "I couldn't live that far away from my family and friends permanently. It's easier with phone calls and video chatting, of course, but I got used to seeing people in person a few times a week, and being able to just go over and visit my parents whenever, you know? I can't really envision leaving Paris permanently."

Adrien could understand that, at least partially. While he wasn't close to his father at all, he was close to his friends. He had a whole network of people to talk to in Paris if he was having trouble with something, while in London he only had a handful of people that he knew, and even fewer people that really understood him and who he would be comfortable sharing his problems with.

On top of that, Chat Noir was most at home in Paris, where he could run and shout with Ladybug in full view of the city instead of staying hidden all the time.

"I'll definitely be returning to Paris as well once I graduate," Adrien said, realizing with a jolt that he hadn't responded to Marinette. "I get what you mean, with not wanting to be away long-term. It's fine now, but sometimes I find myself going 'Oh, I'll just pop over to see Nino tonight' or 'maybe our group should get together this weekend' or something, and I realize how much I miss Paris."

They both fell silent for a moment. Being homesick wasn't something they had really talked about much before, probably because it wasn't really a big problem. Sure, there were times that Adrien wished that he could call Nino up to hang out somewhere and then he was let down when he remembered that it wasn't possible, but then he would remember that he had a study group with Paul to look forward to, or a video chat with his friends on Sunday evening and this time Juleka and Max would be able to join in with Nino and Alya. It was different, but not necessarily bad different.

"I'm glad I came to London, though," Marinette said, breaking the silence. "It's nice to see what else is out there and to see how much I can do on my own without my parents to run to for help. Not that they haven't helped," she added, shrugging. "When I first arrived, there was some problem with my credit card and I had forgotten my checkbook back in Paris. My dad paid my first apartment bill and called up the credit card company to get things figured out and my mom sent my checkbook. I would have been in real trouble if they hadn't helped."

Adrien hadn't heard about that particular incident before. Knowing that Marinette, who always had seemed so on top of things, sometimes slipped up at well... well, it helped to know that she wasn't above mistakes sometimes.

"It's nice to be able to ask for help," Adrien agreed. While he probably wouldn't go to his father, he knew that Nathalie would help him out if he ever asked. In fact, she would probably have his problem resolved within a minute of receiving his message.

Her efficiency was a little terrifying sometimes.

Actually, come to think of it, the efficiency of all of his father's household staff was a little terrifying. That was probably a requirement for employment.

"I'm always happier when I don't need to ask for help, though," Marinette finished, settling fully into bed. "It feels like more of an accomplishment if I can solve problems on my own instead of calling people up, but sometimes it would just take too long for me to figure things out on my own." She yawned, then shuffled a bit more to get comfortable before closing her eyes. "But anyway. Good night, Adrien."

"G'night, Marinette," Adrien replied through a yawn of his own, turning over and flipping off his lamp light. He stayed awake for a few minutes more, listening as Marinette's breathing evened out as she fell asleep. He could hear the faint sounds of music from Marinette's neighbor coming through the walls still, but Adrien couldn't find it in himself to be irritated about it at all. After all, it brought Marinette over to sleep next to him, and for whatever reason, Adrien had always been strangely comfortable around Marinette. But right now, he was feeling jittery, itchy, like he had forgotten something.

It was probably nothing. And even if he did forget something, there was no reason it couldn't wait until morning.

  Marinette woke up earlier than she would have liked Saturday morning, but she didn't immediately get up. She was comfortably warm under Adrien's sheets and still a bit sleepy yet. She was sure she would fall back asleep for a few hours if she just stayed where she was.

It was Saturday; there was no hurry. She had a couple fabric pattern designs that she wanted to clean up, but they could wait until the afternoon. Right now, sleep called to her.

"ADRIEN! Adrien, it's an emergency, we're out of Camembert!"

...unfortunately, the universe had other ideas.

Marinette groaned and buried her face in Adrien's pillow to try to block out the loud voice, positive that she was dreaming. Surely the voice would go away, obviously it was just a dream, because why else would it be so weird-

"We ran out of my Camembert yesterday, and you didn't leave out anything for me to eat last night. It's an emergency, we need to go grocery shopping now-"

"What the hell-" Marinette started as she woke up completely and realized that the voice wasn't a dream, fully intending to chew out whatever weird friend Adrien had that had somehow gotten into his flat, because clearly that was what was going on. Really, it was ridiculous that someone would barge in, complaining about Camembert cheese, of all things. And how had someone gotten close to Adrien so fast that they had already somehow gotten access to a key to his door without Marinette knowing about it? She had been positive that she knew all of Adrien's friends.

Marinette pushed herself up, ready to snap at whatever idiot had made their way into the apartment. But when she turned towards the source of the voice, she came face to face with a small, floating, catlike sprite.

What.

"Whoops," the black thing said.

Marinette furrowed her brow as her brain tried to catch up with the scene in front of her. The sight of the black thing rang a bell for some reason, like she had heard about it before.

Small floating black cat...small floating black cat...small floating-

"CHAT NOIR?"

Next to Marinette, Adrien jumped, finally startled awake. He flipped over with a groan, nearly landing on Marinette, and squinted up at Plagg. His expression became somewhat alarmed as he looked between his kwami and his startled friend.

"Uhhh..."

"You're Chat Noir," Marinette breathed again, staring at her friend. How had she missed that? She spent practically all of her free time with him, and looking at him now, with his messy bedhead, the resemblance to Chat Noir was really strong. Looking back, she should have made the connection- he was missing or late when she was, he had the odd tendency to show up near akuma attacks after they were finished, she had never seen him and Chat Noir at the same time- ugh! Oh, she definitely should have guessed, just from the times Chat Noir had inexplicably vanished when Adrien had to make an appearance. She had thought it was strange at the time, but she hadn't ever entertained the notion that Adrien might be Chat Noir, even once she got to know Adrien and his ridiculous sense of humor.

She had once grumbled to Tikki about how the boys in her life all had an awful sense of humor- and loved puns far too much- but she hadn't made the connection. Tikki had giggled about that for forever, which made sense now. She probably knew, the little imp.

"I guess the cat's out of the bag," the black kwami said, floating closer. "Hi, I'm Plagg. I need cheese, and we're out. Do you have any Camembert in your fridge?"

"Er, no," Marinette responded, glancing back at Adrien. His eyes were wide as he mouthed something at his kwami. She was guessing that it was something along the lines of 'WHAT ARE YOU DOING?', but she couldn't tell for sure. For all she knew, he could be cheering the kwami on.

"Pity." Losing interest, the kwami floated over to Adrien. "We need to go to the grocery store now. I'm starving. And this idiot forgot to give me any cheese last night. I'm going to wither away and die."

"You- you can't-" Adrien had regained some of his voice but clearly was still at a complete and utter loss for words. "You can't just do that! What-? You said no one can know-"

"She's fine," Plagg said with barely a glance at Marinette. "Besides, you were the one who brought her in here last night without warning me and then forgot to feed me. Now can we get my cheese?"

Marinette was suddenly very, very glad that she hadn't gotten Plagg. Tikki was much nicer.

"She- what-"

"Breathe, Adrien," Marinette suggested, reaching over to rub his shoulder. The shock of the reveal had worn out for the most part, and now she needed to focus on her panicking partner. "It's okay-"

"It's not!" Adrien exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. "No one's supposed to know who we are, even now that Hawkmoth's been defeated! Plagg can't just come waltzing in here and expose me to a civilian-"

"Not exactly a civilian, but okay," Marinette said helpfully, figuring that if she knew Chat Noir's identity it would probably be fine if he knew hers, especially since she now knew that he was one of her closest friends, but Adrien didn't seem to hear her.

"You can't tell Alya," Adrien suddenly blurted, swinging around to face Marinette. "I mean, I love Alya and all and I want to think that she wouldn't publish anything, but she's just been a huge fan for so long and then there's the Ladyblog, and I don't want her trying to score interviews on demand because that would be just exhausting, and-"

Marinette tuned him out as she scanned the room, looking for any signs of Tikki. A flash of red caught her eye, and she spotted a big blue eye staring back at her. She beckoned, and Tikki flitted up just out of Adrien's sight. Marinette raised an eyebrow, mouthing "Can I?"

Tikki paused for a moment, exchanged a glance with Plagg, and then nodded furiously. Marinette scooped the kwami out of the air and brought her up to sit in her lap while Adrien jumped out of bed and paced up and down the room, running his hands through his bed-mussed hair. His hair was really sticking up all over the place now, and he wasn't paying attention to her at all as he freaked out.

"-and at least Hawkmoth is gone so I don't have to worry about him and I won't have to make up lame excuses whenever I want to go out and run into Ladybug- I mean! Not that Ladybug is necessarily in London, I meant once we go back to Paris to visit people then I can run into Ladybug- not that she's necessarily there right now either-"

"Can we take bets on how long it'll take him to catch on?" Plagg asked as he perched on Marinette's knee and watched his Chosen with interest. "I'm guessing it'll take him at least five minutes."

"That would be rude, Plagg!"

"It's funny!"

"-and maybe someone finding out was inevitable but I didn't think that it would happen today and I kind of thought that Ladybug and I would probably reveal our identities to each other first- I mean, you're good too, of course, but- EEEEK!"

"Like I said, not exactly a civilian," Marinette said dryly as Adrien continued to gawk at Tikki as she sat in Marinette's lap. "Are you done freaking out now?"

"B-but that's a kwami!"

"My name is Tikki," Tikki piped up, waving up at Adrien. "It's nice to meet you properly!"

"You're Ladybug's kwami!"

"I've had her since collège," Marinette said helpfully. "She likes cookies. Especially chocolate chip ones."

"You're Ladybug!"

"Are we done pointing out facts now?" Plagg asked dryly from his perch on Marinette's knee. "If so, great. If not, I'm hungry."

"You're always hungry," Tikki pointed out. "And there's some Gouda in the fridge, I saw it yesterday. Unless you've eaten it already-"

"I wanted Camembert." Plagg flew into the air and straight into Adrien's face. "Can we go grocery shopping now?"

"Maybe we should give him some time to adjust," Tikki said after a moment. She flew up and grabbed Plagg by the tail. "C'mon, let's give them some space."

"But what about my Camembeeeeert?"

Plagg's whining faded away as Tikki forcibly dragged Plagg out of the room and down the hallway. Adrien's eyes tracked his kwami until he vanished from sight, and then his eyes snapped immediately back to Marinette. They were the approximate size of saucers as he gaped at her. Marinette waited, waited some more, then finally decided that she would have to say something if she wanted to jolt Adrien back into responsiveness.

"Um...hi?"

Adrien only blinked.

"Adrien? Chat Noir?" Marinette waved a hand in front of his face. "Kitty?"

That seemed to knock him out of his daze. Adrien blinked, shook himself, then breathed, "You're Ladybug."

"Er. Yes?" Marinette tried for a smile. "Uh...surprise?"

"I had no clue," Adrien breathed, shaking his head. He finally seemed to be snapping out of his startled daze. "Just- wow."

"I already knew that Chat Noir had to be someone in this building," Marinette admitted, figuring that she might as well admit it now that everything else was out in the open. "Because you had said that you saw me- well, me as Ladybug- go past your living room window once, and I had literally just headed out and the only windows I had gone past were the ones on this building."

It took Adrien a moment to remember what she was talking about, and then it clicked. "Oh! Right, last fall! I wondered what on earth I could have possibly said to make you make that face. I thought I had said something horribly offensive."

"No, I was just startled." Marinette let out a short laugh. "Imagine what my expression would have looked like if I had only passed your windows that evening! I probably would have fallen off of the roof in surprise."

"I guess I can't even fault you for the funky expression back then when I froze up for an entire minute," Adrien said, shaking his head with a short laugh. "I can only imagine what my face looked like when I saw Tikki and put things together."

Marinette giggled. "It was pretty funny. But I'm sure I was just as bad when I woke up with your kwami right there."

Adrien froze, and then his lower lip jutted out in a pout as he let out a whine. "Aww! I didn't even get to enjoy your expression! That's no fair!"

Marinette could only giggle.

"I was too busy freaking out over you discovering me to appreciate your face," Adrien grumbled, flopping back down onto the bed next to Marinette. Then he sent a sly look her way. "I mean, not that I don't always appreciate your face. It's a fine face, after all. Absolutely gorgeous."

"Aaaand he's back," Marinette teased, reaching over to boop Adrien's nose. He automatically wrinkled it at her. "Flirty kitty."

Adrien shrugged, utterly unabashed. "Honest kitty."

Before Marinette could think of a response (and before Adrien noticed the color rising fast in her cheeks because how was she supposed to stay calm and collected when her kitty- who was Adrien- was saying she was gorgeous), Plagg popped back into the room. "Are you done being sappy? Can we get my cheese now?"

She had never seen Adrien whip around so quickly. Color rose fast in his cheeks. "P-Plagg! I- I'm not being sappy- I mean, did you really have to come in right now? You couldn't wait a few more minutes?"

"I haven't been fed since yesterday afternoon," Plagg complained again. "I'll waste away if you spend all day making gooey eyes at Lady Luck instead of feeding me."

"It's not exactly like I find out my partner's secret identity every day," Adrien argued, deciding to recline further on the bed instead of giving in to Plagg's demands. "Give me some time to get used to the idea, why don't you?"

Plagg scoffed, folding his little arms. "Uh-huh. You say that like you don't spend every waking minute that you can glued to her side."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Adrien demanded, perplexed. "Sure, we hang out, but what does that have to do with me finding out that she's Ladybug?"

"Yeah, Plagg," Tikki piped up, reappearing in the doorway and looking smug. "What does that have to do with how much time they spend with each other?"

Plagg scowled. "It means that they shouldn't be that surprised! C'mon, hurry up, I want my cheese!"

"I like how Tikki is waiting patiently and not harassing Marinette and I," Adrien shot back. Tikki smirked and preened at the praise.

That only served to make Plagg scowl more. "Yeah, she's fine because her Chosen didn't forget to feed her last night! Marinette left out cookies for Tikki to eat, and where did you leave my cheese? Locked away in the fridge, that's where, and I wasn't about to phase through the door to eat in a cold, dark, smelly fridge then, and I'm not about to do it now, either, just so you can cuddle with Ladybug when you do it all the time anyway!"

Marinette was trying really really hard not to laugh now. Adrien looked so ticked off, and Plagg clearly didn't care.

"Maybe if you just got him some normal cheese he would agree to back off for a couple hours," Marinette suggested when the stare-off between Adrien and Plagg didn't seem like it would end any time soon. "And then you can go shopping for, uh, Camembert later on."

"I like her," Plagg decided. "For now, at least. So whaddya got for me to eat?"

Adrien only sighed.

[programics]

buckle up folks because I can already feel this is going to be a long one.

i think i was very lucky because i was able to experience both community college and university. I was accepted as a Spring Admit at my current university so that means I would enter as an incoming freshman in the Spring Semester instead of the Fall like a typically freshman. Therefore, in the fall, I decided to enroll in my local community college to get a head start on some credits.

Here is my opinion on the pros and cons of both.

M O N E Y

COMMUNITY COLLEGE 

cheaper (duh) 

I qualified for FAFSA so they paid for all my classes and I was able to pocket the rest which as almost 2,000 

UNIVERSITY

my university costs approximately 72,000 this year; yikes 

I still qualify for FAFSA so I get financial aid from my university 

they offer 100% financial aid need - so if I cant pay it, they pay it 

homegirl got scholarships - I have a yearly scholarship of 12,000 

so in the end, I end up paying approximately 10,000 which is completely doable for my family 

there’s a lot of ways to make university free; don’t let that stop you from going 

Its very common to go to community college first and then transfer to a university for the next two years. Which leads me to my next topic of transferring.

T R A N S F E R R I N G

Attending CC first then transferring to a University only works in some cases. 

COMMUNITY COLLEGE 

Trying to find CC courses that were transferable to my university was very difficult. 

The curriculum of Texas and California are very different and they did not accept all courses.

If I wanted to avoid taking the dreaded freshman writing course at my university, I would have to take two writing courses at my CC.

So two writing courses at CC was the equivalent to one university course.

UNIVERSITY 

if you plan on going to CC and then transferring, the best way is to go to a CC and University in the same state! 

Universities are more willing to accept courses from CC that they recognize! 

Also, public state universities are more likely to accept CC credits over Private state universities.

H I G H   S C H O O L   C R E D I T

I know in high school AP scores and dual credit (college and high school credit) is stressed as being able to get you a head start on university courses, but this is NOT TRUE. 

COMMUNITY COLLEGE 

CC will accept any AP scores with a 3 or higher and dual credit that was done through them 

UNIVERSITY 

Universities will only accept some of your AP credit! 

I took AP US History, AP World History, AP Human Geography, AP Macroeconomics, AP Lit, AP Language, and AP Spanish that did not help me AT ALL.

AP credit that I know has been accepted at my university: AP Physics C (E&M & Mechanics), AP Calc, AP Stats, AP Chem, and AP Bio, but you have to get a 5. 

I got a 4 on my AP Stats exam, but I still have to take Statistics. 

Take into consideration that I go to a private out-of-state university. 

My friend is graduating a year early because she was able to transfer all her dual credit, CC classes, and AP scores to her public state university.

T I M E

COMMUNITY COLLEGE 

I had so much time on my hands! I only had one class a day so I went for one hour or two.

except for my 6 hour lab/lecture on fridays rip me 

As a result, I was able to spend all my time focusing on my classes! 

I spent so much time on calculus that I was probably one of the best students even though I was the youngest in my lecture.

UNIVERSITY

I feel like I have no time! 

Some believe that you have three things to balance at uni; sleep, school, and social. this is false. 

you have to balance so much more; sleep, classes, social, extracurriculars, networking, food, office hours, applying for internships, and on-campus job. of course some of these things are optional like job and extracurriculars but if you want to be a well-rounded student then you need all these things.

S O C I A L

All of my high schools friends went to university at least 3 hours aways from me so basically, in the fall I didn’t have any friends.

COMMUNITY COLLEGE 

You make some friends in CC from your classes, but you only ever see them in class. 

I was the youngest and one of two girls in my Calculus II class so i didn’t really talk to anyone

You meet so many different people at CC who have different lives from yours

a lot of my classmates has children and i just couldn’t relate lol 

Some people know each other from the surrounding high schools

but I didn’t go to a normal high school so 

Some friends you keep in contact with! 

I met a girl at orientation who I ran into at the mall so we see each other sometimes there 

and we follow each other on instagram 

UNIVERSITY 

in university, everyone knows everyone. 

Well not really, but basically.

Everyones is connected somehow and you meet lots of people from your housing, classes, job, and extracurriculars.

You might not be best friends with everyone you meet but it’s nice to see a familiar face

I’ve had lots of classes with people who i’ve never met, but i know of them and see them all the time 

D I F F I C U L T Y   O F   C L A S S E S

I know people say that the classes at uni and CC have the same difficulty, this is also false. 

COMMUNITY COLLEGE 

the classes at CC were very similar to my high school classes so it felt like a continuation of high school.

 I got A’s in all my classes except writing (bc i suck) and I felt like i didn’t have to work that hard for it.

My homework was usually online for some classes (chemistry and math) so I had multiple chances to get an answer right

Classes are heavily curved and my math professors dropped our lowest test grade

A TEST GRADE!!!!!

I took one online class and literally as long as you do all the work, you should get an A 

UNIVERSITY 

the struggle is real y’all 

Classes vary by your major

As an engineering student, we are asked to practice theory. so first we learn everything and then we actually have to do it unlike some majors that write a lot of papers. 

Last semester, I had 9 hw assignments of algorithm design and 5 coding projects plus our group project. yikes 

Classes are curved but not always. 

each professor curves differently 

some curve exams

and others curve final grades

some professors curve down!!! 

the business classes at my university are so easy

they don’t want everyone getting an A so they curve down 

[amieyhko]

Privilege

jan 2020

Hello my dearests,

I don't know what your sky looks like on your little area of the globe but mine has been gorgeously cerulean over an amber sun in the morning and mysteriously dark at night with starlight gleaming down (stars in Taipei City?!). Let's just say my 2020 has been off to a refreshing start — weather, heart, body, and soul. A couple of years back, I started to give names to each new year: 2018 aka pioneer, 2019 aka mearcstapa, and this year God's reminding me of the definition of the word privilege. 

This word entered my lexicon at the end of my junior year in high school. Backstory: I attended an international boarding school and the dorms are set up on the foundations of family, connection, and honor — a big part of me was shaped during these years within the bonds of this community. Being in dorms meant there were rules, seemingly unfair at the time but looking back were clear boundaries for being a person of integrity. Light outs, breakfast check-ins, and permission to "go to the village" were rules that could be waived once you became a senior: they were called "senior privileges". One spring afternoon Aunt Sharon sat us three rising seniors in the dorm for tea and munchies to explain what it really meant. She first asked us what we thought was a good leader, then what we thought the correlation was between responsibility and privilege. I don't recall the exact words spoken but looking back, this system of privilege was setting us up for the years following graduation. She reminded us with her steady eye contact and a sip of tea that privileges can be taken away when we're not living them out responsibly. We still had to clean our rooms, do our homework, take part in chores, attend extra curriculums, have a life, build relationships, apply for colleges, and on top of that we were challenged to be leaders to the younger dorm brothers and sisters for the coming year. I definitely did not get enough sleep senior year but I remember it being memorable among other adjectives. As I reflect on the ways Aunt Sharon lived, I see that her definition of leadership meant setting up the atmosphere. She was a mother who appreciated ambiance, seasonal decorations, good food, and contagious laughters. At the beginning of senior year, she met with us to discuss how we were to lead. My roomie and I planned on cooking breakfasts for the whole dorm, leading evening devotions once or twice during the semester, and hosting a kidnap party for the newbies. 

These were all examples and legacies she has been building with the previous generations of seniors. Eighteen-year-old Amie didn't have the words for this, but now I see that privilege creates an atmosphere of honor when done with a heart of service and love. I get to do this. I'm not entitled to any of this.

So 2020, my year of privilege looks like a few plane rides, an abundance of ask-and-you-shall-be-given, and a stunned repetition of "wow, I get to do this?!" After the long anecdote down my memory lane, here's finally a segue into a more detailed plan of what my time at Kenya actually entails. All words have a purpose.

KENYA SUPER TEAM 2020

This team really is quite super. Annual Super Teams in our church network exists for a very specific and crazy purpose that is wildly different from intimate small teams which I much prefer. But when it comes to missions like these, it's not about me — it's about the God we serve and the people we go to bless. This is the second time our church is going to Comido School in the slums of Nairobi, Kenya. Last year (I didn't go but the stories are crazy), the team set out to build a playground, decorate the school walls, and install a computer lab with the most modern system. The weather forecast warned of heavy rainfall the entire time the team was there but not a single drop fell until it was time to leave the school in all its glorious upgrades. This time, we're planning to bring 4000+ books, 1200+ pieces of stationery, tools, treats, toys, and goodies to build a new library, teach the children about finance, install a hydroponics system, build a second playground, and visit people in the settlement. I am in children's ministry once again, privileged to be working with my veteran beloveds Esther, Ina, and Tiffany but also absolutely thrilled to see so many first-timers and new faces. I've been putting on a lot of hats lately, one of them is to affirm Esther, our team leader, when she is being crazy and to keep her decisions at peace — we're inevitably very close after 2+ trips, being roomies for a week, and just being around each other. Ina has asked me if I could be the contact person for our team members who will be joining us from Hungary, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. I felt like I was perfect for the job because I know most of the people on that list. Then I decided to give myself more mischief to manage by making myself the organizer for the productions team that will support whatever is going on stage during our big team meetings. Preparation is not my strong suit. I love spontaneity and being highly adaptable. I'm learning to be a part of the team — to obey my leaders and trust that every detail we map out will come to pass during the trip. But I also know that we'll be improvising almost every moment of the trip; I somehow look forward to that more than this process. I'm using up a hundred percent brain power here then saving up another hundred of all other energies to spend over there. I just need to accept that all processes are beautiful and they matter more than the results.

wrapping up yet another long update

I believe that I have overwhelmed you enough for this month's worth of updates. Hungary informations will come at its own time, hopefully in the next update. I'm just grateful that you are connected to my journey through these words.

If you enjoy the way I create through words and other mediums, please do consider becoming my patron on Patreon. You will be receiving content from me on a more consistent basis & also get to fund me on my many projects (I plan to self-publish a book!). Pledges come in tiers and the lowest is just 1USD a month. Please do go check it out at http://patreon.com/amieko

As always, I'm open to to receiving questions, comments, or feedback. I'm privileged to know each and every one of you. Before the next update rolls around, you can pray for me in these areas:

Mental health, oh-so-many things are happening all at once

Financial needs, not just for my trips but in every aspect

Creativity and wisdom in navigating through this process

Divine connections, daring to dream bigger, finishing well

Love, Amie Ko

[paperrater288]

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Sample Papers Hearing your work learn out loud makes it easier to detect errors and see better ways of writing your paper. The common time taken to put in writing a 5 web page paper is about 10 – forty eight hours. The reply is one web page single spaced or two pages double spaced. Now, relying on how you've got setup your document your page count might differ barely, but with Arial or Times New Roman 12 level font and standard margins you need to see related results. 500 word essays are very common all through middle and high school English curriculums, particularly as book reports, or summaries of present events. Make certain you understand what plagiarism is and do all that you could to keep away from it. If you are struggling to word your sentences in a unique means, ask for assist from your professor or faculty writing center. Plagiarism will really get you in trouble together with your professor and the college as properly. Increasing automaticity of abilities is required to increase total writing automaticity for a pupil. The next step is to integrate purpose and which means to generate enjoyable and lead to enthusiasm for writing. This is a spot for folks and college students trying to find help for points in school. Problems with grades, transfers, planning, transitioning, and extra. The extra you rewrite the better your essay becomes. A quick approach to rewrite is to learn aloud to yourself and make adjustments as you read. He has worked with students, households, colleges, and different professionals for greater than 10 years. He focuses on understanding why students can find yourself doing poorly in college, as well as what may be done to address the problems. Thankfully, for individuals who do not like writing, there are programs that by design haven't any writing. Mathematics courses such as College Algebra, lessons like Microeconomics or Macroeconomics, and Computer Science normally mean no writing. Unfortunately, Professors make up for this by assigning tons of homework, often within the form of drawback units. Some of these lessons might have end of term tasks (vs. papers), especially Computer Science, so that you won’t fairly escape these finish of term deadlines despite the fact that there isn't a writing. From working with college students directly for many years at massive and small colleges, as well as public and private ones, I may give you a better idea of what to anticipate past the report. Make certain your work is your individual and not the work of another person. English one hundred and one is an entry-stage English class that the majority college college students take their first semester in school. Read on to study extra about what this class entails and tips on how to work to cross the course. You can simply verify web page count in word processors like Microsoft Word and Google Docs, but for a fast reference use our table under. Finally, keep in mind that what you say and the way you say it's far more important than whether or not you've 550 words or 650 words. The argument you make in your paper ought to reflect this major concept. The sentence that captures your place on this major thought is what we name a thesis statement. The objective for these students is to cut back the frustration, struggles, and feeling of risk. The thesis will inevitably change as you revise and develop your concepts—and that is okay! Start with a tentative thesis and revise as your paper develops. You should present a thesis early in your essay -- in the introduction, or in longer essays within the second paragraph -- so as to establish your position and provides your reader a way of direction. Every paper you write ought to have a primary level, a primary idea, or central message.

[clevelandstate]

Teaching in a Remote World

Education has changed drastically over the last two months, for students and teachers alike. Faculty across Cleveland State University have come together to attack this challenge and create new innovations that can ensure students get the best education and training possible in a suddenly remote and social-distanced world.

“This has certainly been a challenge for all faculty, particularly given the accelerated timeline we faced in getting remote learning up and running,” notes Emily Rauschert, an assistant professor of environmental science in CSU’s College of Sciences and Health Professions. “But as tough as it has been for us, in many cases it is tougher for our students, so we have focused on helping them address the challenges they are facing and ensure they have all they need to succeed.”

Given the hands-on and laboratory focus of many science courses, Rauschert and her colleagues in the College worked to transform the some of the curriculum to put more emphasis on data analyses and activities that are easier to conduct remotely. They also utilized tools such as Zoom and Blackboard Collaborate to continue virtual classroom sessions with students to review homework problems, engage in discussions and address issues that might arise. But given the number of students who have other responsibilities, Rauschert and her colleagues also recorded lectures and set up one-on-one sessions with students who needed help at different times. Research mentoring, a critical component of teaching science, has also continued remotely through virtual lab and individual meetings. 

“It’s a balance between providing as close to a ‘normal’ course environment as possible, while also providing the flexibility necessary so everyone has the opportunity to participate,” she adds.

Humanities classes had different but equally challenging issues to address as remote learning began. Stephen Cory, professor of history in CSU’s College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, wasn’t even in the country when the pandemic struck. Cory was serving as a Fulbright Teaching Fellow at the University of Jordan and had planned to be there for the entire spring semester when the Fulbright program closed, and he needed to return home.

“We actually got stuck in Jordan for a few days after the commercial airports were closed before eventually being able to fly back to the states on a commercial plane chartered by the U.S. Embassy in Amman,” he recalls. “It certainly gave me a clear sense of the global impact of the pandemic and how it is affecting everyone.”

Cory is continuing to teach his class, Islam and Contemporary Issues, remotely using Zoom to hold virtual discussions despite the unique challenges brought by global Internet connections and working with non-native English speakers. But he does emphasize that his previous experience teaching online courses for CSU has prepared him well for this effort and his students are eager to continue learning despite the issues that arise.

“We are all learning on the fly and making changes as we go,” he adds.

Shelley Rose, an associate professor in the Department of History who teaches in the Social Studies teacher education program, also emphasizes that previous efforts to develop on-line learning models on campus has greatly enhanced the transition. For example, she worked with CSU’s Center for Instructional Technology and Distance Learning to develop a pilot role playing model for general education courses set up in Microsoft Teams. When the remote learning transition began, Rose helped turn the pilot into a model that could be used by teachers across campus to increase interactivity and engagement in gen-ed classes.

“The Reacting to the Past pilot program made it easier to transition to remote learning and gave faculty a tested tool that was immediately usable,” Rose says.

She also weaves Google applications into her courses, which is the main platform many school districts are currently using for remote learning. This gives future social studies teachers the chance to get familiar with the technology and learn how it can assist in remote teaching prior to taking positions with local schools.

“It’s extremely likely that the demand for remote learning will increase, and we need to make sure our next generation of teachers has the skills necessary to succeed in this environment,” she adds.

Rauschert, Cory and Rose all hope that on-campus education can return in some form as soon as possible. However, given the continued need for some level of remote learning they also hope the innovations made through CSU’s current effort will enhance the quality of online education as well as learning at all levels.

Rauschert, Cory and Rose all hope that on-campus education can return in some form as soon as possible. However, given the continued need for some level of remote learning they also hope the innovations made through CSU’s current effort will enhance the quality of online education to improve learning at all levels.

[srta-jax-blog]

NTPRS Day 4 & 5 (This one’s gonna be a long one!)

I’m putting these two days together because Day 5 was a half day and both days consisted of one-hour sessions addressing special topics. On these days, presenters like Mira Canion, Bryce Hedstrom, Jim Woolridge, and many others presented, and I consider myself very blessed to sit at the feet of more experienced professionals and learn from them. I went to sessions with Von Ray, Bryce Hedstrom (2x), Clarice Swaney, Scott Benedict (2x), Nathan Spencer, and Mira Canion. Thursday was also when Dr. Bill VanPatten gave the keynote speech, which was mind blowing. (I’ll address BVP’s address separately, because this is already a very long post!)

The first session was conducted by Von Ray. (I guess I didn’t get enough of him the first three days of the conference!) He presented on the value of developing good improvisation skills, which he pulled from “Truth In Comedy: The manual of improvisation” by Charna Halpern, Del Close, and Kim “Howard” Johnson. It was during this session that Von said that “Bad TPRS is better than good grammar” and that “Anything worth doing well is worth doing poorly in the beginning.” I think the best pieces of advice that I got from this was that I should try to be funny/make jokes, I should embrace the unexpected, listen and make connections, and make the students look good.

Blaine Ray sat in on this session, and he gave a ground rule that he uses in Storyasking: Once I state the fact, you cannot contradict that. This was in response to someone asking about students adamantly trying to change the details of the story to suit themselves. This is one of the concerns I’ve had, but having a succinct rule like this will be very helpful.

I went to two sessions with Bryce Hedstrom because he had two topics that I really wanted to know more about: passwords and student interviews. The passwords session was first, and it was really helpful. Bryce gave great tips on how to introduce and teach the passwords, and gave some tips for how to get through them in a time crunch. After the morning sessions, I did go buy his book on passwords, just so that I could peruse the material at my leisure again and again. The book also has lists of passwords that can be used at different levels, which is helpful for me to have handy. I can’t wait use these in my classroom (and I’ll probably even make my administrators say the password when they come to visit!) He also talked a little bit about how he handles late students. They don’t have to say the password, but they do have to say “Lo siento” (I’m sorry) and the class responds with “Está bien” (It’s okay.) His reason for this, which I thought was beautiful, was that the students need to learn to forgive and also that they can be forgiven, which is a concept that so many students are unfamiliar with these days. Bryce also gave some neat little tidbits about things he does in his classroom… but you had to be there. ;)

I tried doing student interviews last semester, but the students didn’t seem to get super into it. In the second session I went to with Bryce, he explained his Special Person Interviews (we discussed the unfortunate naming, and someone suggested Selfie Talk to match with other CI terms like Picture Talk and Movie Talk) and demonstrated how he handles them in class. He said that this all stems from his personal philosophy of helping students realize who they are, what they are about, and what they want to do so they can realize Ikigai. In other words, he is using the target language to help his students become better people. He has posters with his Special Person interview questions (and sentence frames for answers) up all year round. This is an easy way to differentiate for varying processing speeds.

In this session he also addressed quizzes based on the SPI, free-writing, do nows, and how he organizes it all in a composition notebook and grades the various things within. I really liked how he organized it. I was planning on having my students get binders, but I may have them get composition notebooks and use those as well to develop a portfolio of writings throughout the semester. (I’ll be having mine keep their composition books in the classroom.)

I think part of my problem last summer was that I did not do a good job of asking follow-up questions, and I limited the questions they were asked too much. In his demonstration, he showed how he was able to get a lot of follow-up questions based on the answer to the question ¿Qué te gusta hacer? (What do you like to do?) This year, I plan to stick closer to his script for the questions that are being asked.

Which leads to the first of the two sessions that Scott Benedict presented. Both of his sessions were very helpful (and I had originally only planned on going to one of his sessions), the first one addressing using the Super 7/Sweet 16 verbs as the basis for a world language curriculum and the second regarding grading and flexible seating.

Scott explained how the Super 7 (Dr. Terry Waltz) and Sweet 16 verbs (Mike Peto) give our students the ability to communicate pretty much every idea they need to if they can use them in the past, present, and future tenses. The students will not be able to say everythingthey want say in the exactway they want to, but they will be able to circumlocute (talk around) pretty much every concept they can be expected to talk about. In Scott’s school district, the main focus of Spanish I and II is to get the students to “own” these 16 verbs across all persons in the most common present, past, and future indicative uses, although they are introduced to other tenses.

The big takeaways from this session:

1) less is more-If I focus on teaching and repeating a small set of words-the Sweet 16 and personalized, releveant vocab, the students will retain that and then some.

2) Focus on the Super 7 first, but teach “disgust” before “gust” so that the reverse construction doesn’t confuse them too much.

3) We are language parents, not language teachers. That’s actually a Haiyun Lu quote, but the point is that we need to talk to our students like we would talk to a little kid. In general, a parent corrects their child by restating their statement with correct grammar, not making them parrot it or lecturing them on grammar.

4) Shortrunposters is the cheapest website to get posters made for your classroom. Scott has made posters of the Sweet 16 verbs in a number of languages using the most common past, present, and future forms of the verbs for free on his website, and he had them blown up, printed, and laminated for his own classroom. I have done the same for the 9 I’m sure I’ll need from day one as well as 2 pages of Bryce Hedstrom’s Special Person Interview document. (In a few weeks I’ll do another order to get the rest of the posters made, because even though each 17”x22” poster was only $5.50, I’m still not made of money.)

In the second Scott Benedict session I attended addressed classroom layout and gradebook layout. This was an accidental session for me, I intended to go to a different session, but couldn’t find it. I had already planned to go deskless and begin implementing alternative seating, but this session really helped me feel better about that decision and get a better idea of what that could look like.

The benefits of a deskless classroom:

1)   There’s more space. Chairs, yoga balls, and bean bags take up a lot less space in the room than the traditional chair-desk combination. This helps me stay close to everyone, which improves classroom management and lets me have a bigger staging area.

2)   I can rearrange and group students easily.

3)   Desks are a barrier to conversation and give students a place to hide illicit activity (phones, food, etc) or disengage by putting their head down.

4)   It’s easier to implement alternative seating. There is only so much space in a classroom, having to accommodate a yoga ball next to a chair-desk or a table takes up a lot more room or makes it almost impossible to reach everyone quickly.

Scott doesn’t implement alternative seating until a few weeks into the school year, and lays very clear guidelines for the use of alternative seating.

Scott addressed how he uses various posters to develop his classroom culture, including classroom rules, a word wall, his Sweet 16 posters, question words (I like that his don’t have the English on them, but rather are illustrated with pictures), and behavior warning posters. He uses a clothesline to hang his collection of funny hats to be used by student actors (or student behavior problems) and some shelves to store realistic animal plushes that he gets at zoos all over the country. (They look amazing, and I want to start similar collections!)

Finally he talked about how he sets up his gradebook. He divides his into Speaking, Writing, Listening, Reading, and Culture categories that contribute to the students academic grade, but he can/does track things like participation, homework, effort, etc in a 0% category for documentation purposes. The percentages he uses align with blooms taxonomy and range from 10%-30%. For his level 1s, there are no speaking and writing grades in quarter 1, but he has them for the full school year, and he gives three grades per category per marking period. Two are formative, one is summative, and he assesses all the categories in one exam at the end of the quarter. This means he’s giving 15 grades/quarter, and is taking at least 1/week. He recommended staggering when grades were taken among classes, especially for the formative assignments to reduce the amount of grading done at any one time.

I don’t think I will implement this exact system next year, at least in terms of percentages, but we shall see.

Mira Canion spoke about assessing reading comprehension. She pointed out that we need to be doing this consistently because it tells us what our next move is. We discussed the ACTFL and WIDA standards for comprehension on the different levels, and how they are only somewhat helpful in guiding what assessment should look like. One of her more brilliant points was that by using the target language to teach content using Comprehensible Input Methods, we can bypass arguments about explicit grammar teaching because we aren’t teaching that.

Mira then talked us through reading strategies we could teach and then use to assess our student’s reading comprehension.

Strategy 1: Read the text, comment on it/make a prediction/ask a question/clarify something, and reread it if you are completely unable to do one of those things. We can have students write these down, and then sort them to assess.

           -Deep questions/comments get an A.

           -Simple questions/comments get a C.

           -If it is between the two, it’s a B.

           -We need to model asking deep questions in L2 (the target language) in order to help our students do the same, then supplement the ones who do with more complicated texts, and we can do that starting in Level 1.

Strategy 2: Have the students make a web of information around a topic based on a reading.

           -It’s important to have the students drawing this web, not just filling information out.

           -Have them sort whether statements pulled from the text are linked to the main idea or detail, and explain why the details support the main idea.

           -We need to really teach students how to find the main idea, not just have them read a text and then ask “so what’s the main idea?” Sure they should have learned that in their English/Language Arts classes before they get to us, but odds are good that they haven’t.

Strategy 3: Students find the story structure.

           -If a students can find and talk about the various elements of a story structure, then they understand the story.

           -You can give them a chart with columns to support them creating sentences. Ex: Somebody/wants/but/so.

R Clarice Swaney’s session dealt with doing Picture Talks. I’ve done Movie Talks with varying degrees of success, so I understand the concept of a Picture Talk, but it was still good to go to a session that specifically addressed doing them and reinforce what I already knew. The big takeaways for me was to make sure that my picture was interesting, I used creative cropping to create interest and build suspense, set clear expectations from the get-go, and have a loose plan of questions to ask that blend talking about the picture and talking about the students.

I really like the way Clarice phrased her expectations:

1)   Nothing on your lap, nothing in your hands. (She’s deskless too!)

2)   One person speaks, all others listen.

3)   Professional posture

4)   Use the Target Language, make interesting suggestions.

5)   Demonstrate understanding or ask for clarification

If a student breaks those rules, Clarice doesn’t make a big fuss, but acts like she didn’t go over the rules and refreshes them.

I really liked the suggestion of using Picture Talks to introduce or examine things of cultural reference. Working more culture study into my classroom is a personal goal for this year, which means I will have to be more diligent about researching culture in various countries, but not all of my Picture Talks this year will be about culture. I learned so much in on these two days, and I wish I could have gone to more individual sessions! I have a ton of new methods and strategies in my teacher toolbox that I can’t wait to use this year!

[silhouetted-beauty]

My Dear Teacher

Word Count:2,098 

Warning: Smut 

A/N: This is my very first story and I hope you enjoy it. Thank you bangtans-baby for the revision! 
 
 

Jin sighed to himself before he walked into the classroom. He placed his book, notes, and dry erase markers on the table and faced the class. Twenty four faces stared back at him and he quickly took notice of the empty space at one of the front table. The spot where "you" normally would sit. Relief washed over him as he began to teach his class. 

"Good morning everyone. I hope you read over the assigned chapters because we are going to have a quick class discussion followed by the exam." ~ 

Being a teacher was always a dream of Jin's. So when he landed a teaching position at the university, he easily accepted. He became one of the most talked about teachers at the school because he focused more on the curriculum and thought of fun ways to help his students learn. They enjoyed the class just as much as he did and even recommended his course to others. Jin was on a winning streak. He hasn’t had one bad semester, that is, until you enrolled in his class. 

 You always sat in the front and focused solely on him. You didn't give a damn about the course or the class work. You made it your mission to get under his skin and make him uncomfortable. Little did you know, it was working perfectly. Every class, you would show up wearing something revealing and tease him relentlessly. Sometimes sucking on your pens and pencils, making sure to show off your tongue ring. Other times wearing loose clothing so you could easily expose yourself to him. 

Jin tried his best to ignore you by skipping over your raised hand and questions, assisting other students, or diving more into his work. But at the end of the day, he was still a man and his body was reacting to your torture. Once class ended, he would walk out the room trying to disguise his hard-on. There were lines that teachers shouldn't cross when dealing with students and with the direction they were headed, their exchanges were definitely considered inappropriate for school. But as much as Jin didn't want to admit it, he also didn't want it to end. He had asked for help from a few colleagues, leaving out a few details. 

"You could drop this student from your class. You know, show them who's boss." His good friend, Namjoon, suggested. He was a professor in the science department. 

 "I don't want to fail or drop anybody. It reflects on the teacher." Jin groaned, running his hands through his hair. 

"Yeah but everyone already knows what a great professor you are. I'm pretty sure one student isn't going to change that." Hoseok spoke up. 

 "I guess you guys are right. I'll bring it to their attention as a warning before I drop them." The next day, Jin had every intention of warning you of your behavior. That is until you walked into the classroom wearing a mini skirt and a button up shirt that was loose at the top. You had captured every male's attention in that room but you were only focused on one man. You sat in your usual front seat and when Jin's attention fell on you, you slowly spread your legs. You wore a thong with the words "eat me" printed on the front just for him. You smirked when Jin gulped and had a hard time tearing his eyes away from your crotch. When you closed your legs was when his trance ended. Jin face turned red and he had trouble answering a question a student had asked him. 

"Fuck! How the hell am I supposed to talk to now her and I was just gaping between her legs?" He thought to himself. 

Jin spent the remainder of class avoiding your face, too embarrassed to say anything. So it didn't come as a surprise when class ended, he let you walk out of the classroom. 

"Enjoy the rest of your day, Professor Kim. I'll see you next time." Your sultry voice spoke out. 

~ 

With your fingers buried deep inside your pussy, you came extra hard. You couldn't stop thinking about Kim Seokjin. You had heard from a few other females students in the girl’s bathroom how your teacher was rumored to still be a virgin. There was no way he was still a virgin! A tall, gorgeous, generous man like Jin had to experience wetting his dick in pussy before, he just had to. Curiosity got the better of you and you decided to see for yourself if the rumors were true. By asking around, you found out that he was never married, doesn't have any children, and wasn't currently dating. 

Setting your plan in motion, you begin the task of teasing him while he was trying to teach. After successfully noticing a bulge in his pants every time, you would follow him home to see what he would do next. You figure he would call up a "friend" to fuck but he never did. He would shower, grade homework, eat, and then sleep. "Maybe he was a virgin." The more you thought about it, the more it excited you. You wanted to be the one to take it, to break him in and give him a piece of what he's been missing out on. After you caught him hungrily staring between your legs, you figured it was time to make your move. The next time you had class, Jin would be yours. 

~ 

Jin shook the past thoughts from his mind. You weren't there so he could finally relax. After the discussion, the exam was already being passed around when the door opened. In you walked, wearing floral dress that stopped mid thigh. You smiled and took your seat. Jin walked up to you, gave you the exam packet, and returned to his desk without saying one word to you. 

"You have until the end of class to finish. Take your time and make sure you check your answers before turning it in." 

The rest of the class worked diligently while you stared at your paper thinking. After a time span of five minutes, you felt Jin's gaze on you. Acting as if you were scratching your thigh, you spread your legs far apart, pulling the end of your dress up. Jin gasped followed by a light cough. He couldn't believe his eyes. Your bare pussy right on display for him. You smiled and bit your lip, getting the reaction you wanted out of him. 

Bringing your hand to your lips, you sucked on the tip of your middle finger. Jin watched as you used your index and ring finger to spread your outer lips. Your middle finger slowly rubbed your clit before disappearing inside of you. He was at his breaking point. He was painfully hard and couldn't take much more. Jin wasn't sure how he did it but he managed to tear his eyes away from you and focus on something else until class was over. One by one the students turning in their test and left out the door. Jin was hoping you would follow behind your classmates but today, you decided to stay a bit longer. You made sure no one remained except for the two of you. 

 "Y/n, are you finished with your test? I have to leave soon." He spoke softly, unsure of what to do. This was the moment he had been dreading. You stood and walked in front of his desk. 

"Well, I have a problem, Professor Kim. I didn't complete my test because I didn't understand it and I was wondering if you could help me?" Jin took the paper and looked it over. 

"You didn't answer a single question. May I ask why?" He stared at you curiously. You bit your lip and smiled. 

"Professor Kim, I think you know that answer. I was distracted by a sexy ass man and I was imagining how his fingers would feel deep in my pussy." 

And that was it. That was all Jin needed to hear before he stood and walked around the desk. He knew what he was about to do was wrong and against the rules. But his fight for control crumbled as he crushed his lips against yours. You held on to his arms as he gripped your face, trying to match the intensity of his movement. Opening your mouth, you easily granted his tongue access. Jin broke the kiss allowing both of you to come up for air. His mouth immediately found your neck, sucking and biting a path down your body. His hands yanked down the front of your dress and latched onto your nipples. Jin was already addicted to the taste of your skin. He pushed you back against the desk until you propped up on it. He pulled your dress up and over your head, leaving you naked to his gaze. The look of desire in his eyes sent a shiver down your spine. 

 "Fuck..." you breathed out. You watched as Jin lowered himself on his knees and brought his face closer to your dripping heat. 

"Ever since you wore those panties to class, I wonder how you would taste on my tongue." 

Jin flattened his tongue and licked up your pussy to your clit. You fell back onto the desk, over your fellow classmates papers as your teacher ate you for dear life. Using his thumbs, he stretched your lips apart and covered your pussy with his mouth. Suck lightly, Jin was able to create pressure on your clit as his tongue teased your opening before it slid inside. Your hands pulled and gripped his hair, pulling him closer to your warmth. The feeling was becoming overwhelming that you couldn't hold your legs up but instead, let them hang over Jin's shoulders. His mouth moved to your clit as he sucked harder and flicked the sensitive bud with his tongue. You were dripping down his chin and desk, his middle finger entered you followed by his index finger. They curled up inside you, hitting that spot making his actions even more intense. 

 "FUCK, JIN!... I'm gonna cum... I'm gonna cum!" You quickly yelled out. The speed of his tongue and fingers were sending your over the edge. You couldn't take anymore as you released in his mouth. Jin removed his fingers to taste as much of your juices as he can. He stood to undress, watching as you came down from your high. The tip of his cock was red and dripping precum. Jin rubbed himself against your clit, watching you twitch from the sensitivity. He was trying to savor every moment with you but pressure to his cock was making him lightheaded. He needed to be inside you as soon as possible. Jin positioned himself at your opening before shoving in. He buried himself balls deep and began pounding away. With Jin filling you up over and over, you felt so full with his big, heavy girth inside of you. He leaned forward to meet your lips. You tasted yourself as his hips picked up speed. Jin squeezed your waist as he impaled you on his stiff cock. Soon he was up on the desk and you were sliding over as he brought you to your peek again. The papers were instantly crushed under two bodies and the room held nothing but his grunts and your whimpers. You chanted his name as you reached your second orgasm, lying limp against the desk in exhaustion. Jin continued to pound away. Once he was released from your death grip, he pulled out. Stroking himself rapidly and cumming on your stomach and breasts. His body collapsed against yours as you both tried to catch your breath. 

"Wow..." you stated breathlessly. "You don't fuck like a virgin." 

Jin looked at your curiously. "Who said I was?" 

"Well I..." you stuttered as you struggle to think of what to say. "I just assumed." He smiled and shook his head. His eyes wandered to the papers under you. "That's right, you still have to complete your test. Since you didn't finish it on time, I'll have to take off a few points." 

You pouted. "But professor, with what we done doesn’t that count as extra credit? Maybe I can make some more, I don't want to fail." 

Your hand found his cock and began massaging it. Jin groaned at his body reaction to your touch. Almost immediately, he was hard in your palm. 

"This is going to be a long day."

~

©2017 Silhouetted_Beauty

[hmrblockhead]

haha gr8 i finally have internet at home and can stop wasting my families data wonderful im so happy

[lewiskdavid90]

50% off #C Programming – Complete Tutorial For Beginners – $10

The course will teach you C language from beginner to advanced level. Will prepare you for your technical interview.

All Levels,  – 12.5 hours,  112 lectures 

Average rating 4.4/5 (4.4 (221 ratings) Instead of using a simple lifetime average, Udemy calculates a course’s star rating by considering a number of different factors such as the number of ratings, the age of ratings, and the likelihood of fraudulent ratings.)

Course requirements:

Download Netbeans IDE (You need to download JDK for this as well) or Codeblocks IDE, I have given video lectures how to install these in your system. Don’t worry I will guide you to download and install them. If you face any issue while downloading or installing necessary software, please go ahead and post it in the discussion forum, I will provide solution as soon as possible.

Course description:

I have been teaching this course to the undergraduate engineering students for last 15 years in class room. This course is well designed and covered almost all the topics that one should know while learning C language. Will not only help the student to build a solid foundation on the topic but will boost their confidence to face technical interviews boldly.

The course contents are mostly video lectures. I would encourage absolute beginners to follow the lectures strictly in chronological manners, please start from the very first video and go to the next one only if you are done with the previous. However, though not recommended, but students with some previous knowledge could jump lectures if they are confident.

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Shibaji Paul

Hi, I have been teaching computer science and programming since 2001. I did my M Tech in Computer Science and remained visiting faculty to the CSE department of Narula Institute of Technology. I have my own training institute where I provide training on various programming languages and technologies to the B Tech students on C, C++, Java, Android programming, Data structure and Algorithm, DBMS, SQL and PL/SQL. In my class room I usually teach 100-150 students per semester on different subjects. With the udemy platform now it is possible to teach and spread my knowledge to thousands (may be more)of students across the globe, Udemy opens up vast opportunity for instructor like me and that with remuneration. I guess it’s going to be a fantastic. When I am not taking class I enjoy learning some new technologies. In my leisure time one could find me enjoying with my kids or gossiping with my beautiful wife over a container of tea. I am a “tea-totaller” (guess the meaning

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[evnoweb]

The Challenge of Connecting in the Age of COVID

I met Kiana Berkman in this traumatic time of moving teaching home through an invigorating discussion on education and how it’s changing. Kiana and her tutoring agency (Berktree Learning Center) were already ahead of the curve on that. I asked her to share insights on how COVID-19 is affecting her students and their passion for learning. I think you’ll like what she and her husband, Daniel (partner in the tutoring business) have to say:

***

There is a popular saying that applies to learning: “you can lead a horse to water, but can’t make him drink.” Any educator knows that you can’t force a student to learn, though that does not stop them from trying anything possible. A teacher could create the most gorgeous lesson plans, and employ all the best known tactics, and there may still be students that don’t want to learn. Yet students are not horses, nor are teachers horse-trainers. They’re both human beings with a latent desire to find and share knowledge. Some students have not accessed this desire yet, and their teachers are trying earnestly to connect with these students on an intellectual level, to release that latent desire. For a teacher, there is no experience more gratifying than helping a student search deep for understanding and watch as they finally discover it!

The Distance Before Distance-Learning

Connecting intellectually with students has always been the challenge addressed to teachers, even before social-distancing. Students face innumerable difficulties in their life that conflicts with regular attendance and consistent attention in the classroom. Many of these conflicts come from a barrage of social challenges, ranging from complex family tensions, lack of accessibility to adequate resources due to financial constraint, or just plain old emotional growing pains. Going to school each day is the most consistent life experience for many students, and teachers try their hardest to make the classroom experience as reliably consistent as possible.

Teachers who have the opportunity to work individually with students get a rare opportunity. Classroom sizes have limited the teacher’s reach to individual students, and standardization has normalized an almost industrial perspective of student pass-rates, as if failing students are merely the result of quality control. The more that students and teachers become statistics, the less that their human qualities are recognized and accessed. Needless to say, society has been widening the distance between students and teachers long before the Corona virus made it mandatory.

The Current COVID Reality

The age of COVID is an age of uncertainty, and the reopening of classrooms is the biggest uncertainty facing education. Every state faces a different reality, yet uncertainty about the future hangs over teacher’s lesson plans like a thunder cloud ready to strike. Schools could open one day, and yet close the next, and districts are struggling to find suitable interim solutions. Some districts have adopted temporary alternative grading systems, which may include draconian measures forcing students to start over a semester. Others have allowed more tolerant “do no wrong” measures, which lets students improve their grade without risk of lowering it. The problem is, these measures are not able to cut to the true challenges facing distance learning.

Teachers tell stories of students arriving late to classes, barely awake. Others scramble with household distractions from family members or others household responsibilities. There’s also an alarming number of students who attend, then merely shut off their camera, or walk away from the camera at ease. These are grim classroom conditions, but in some districts, about one-third of all students never even attend to begin with! This scenario would be much more alarming were it not for the very understandable circumstances. In the hardest-hit cities, some  students know someone who has contracted Coronavirus. Students may also have a parent who is an essential worker, and who can’t help their children connect through the internet. And of course, there are still many students who don’t even have the technological accessibility to even connect in the first place.

Solutions! (Some Assembly Required)

The truth is, these situations are just a microcosm of challenges that already faced our education system. How are students able to take on hours of homework when they’re burdened with sibling-care and household responsibilities? How are students supposed to get emotional support when they have overworked parents, or worse yet, sick parents? How are students able to excel in increasingly technical work when they have limited access to technology? These societal issues are being amplified by distance learning. The most requested solution by teachers, has been and continues to be the same – reduce class size!

With smaller class sizes, teachers would have the opportunity to reach students more often, even under the stress of distance learning. Anyone who has been in a Zoom meeting during this lockdown knows that communicating effectively with a dozen or more people is nearly impossible, and it’s no different in a classroom. Teachers can prepare some of the best presentations of their life, but there’s simply no way to connect with students, on a human level, when the opportunity for interaction is so small.

There are truly some innovative experiences occurring out there, with teachers finding creative ways to use breakout sessions, or occasional small-group meetings, to satisfy some basic level of student-teacher interaction. While these opportunities are still limited in the few hours available in an already shortened classroom time, they are invaluable in our uncertain future. On a basic level, as many educators put it, “some education is better than no education.” Furthermore, establishing and managing classroom norms takes time, even under the best circumstances, and every digital classroom is a new experience that helps define expectations for students and teachers alike.

Despite these few successes, the truth is, if we want to see the establishment of anything close to a normal classroom, we’re going to need smaller class sizes. Teachers need the time and space to actually connect with individual students. They want to excite a student’s curiosity, and urge them towards new discoveries, so that the excitement for learning can continue even with this limited contact. They need the space and the time to simply just talk to their students, and learn how best to reach out to their student’s based on each of their own experiences. In the interim, teachers are correct. Any education is better than no education. It just saddens a teacher’s heart to know that they can’t do more.

About the Writer:

Daniel Berkman is a credentialed educator and professional tutor who co-owns and operates a private tutoring company in South Orange County – Berktree Learning. He is a graduate from the University of California, Irvine with over 15 years of classroom and tutoring experience. Berktree Learning offers online one-on-one tutoring and home-schooling, and has extensive experience with distance-learning. Read more at www.berktreelearning.com

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More on teaching remotely:

10 Tips for Teaching Remotely

Remote Learning: Tips for Thriving in This Ecosystem

Snow Day? 7 Ways to Keep Teaching

An Open Letter to Teachers About Online Classes

Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.

The Challenge of Connecting in the Age of COVID published first on https://medium.com/@DigitalDLCourse