Online Education Review

I've taken several online classes throughout my college experience and some of them have run incredibly smoothly while others were much less effective. I like taking online classes because it cuts down on the amount of time that I actually spend in class. As a science major, I take one or two labs each semester, and the majority of them require that I am in class on campus at least 7 hours per week. When I've taken two labs in a semester it doubles, and basically that is really just a lot of time to be in class. I like that online classes give me some freedom in that respect.

One of the biggest problems that I've found with online classes is that some professors of online classes don't seem to make themselves very available, and many don't really spend time into developing a class that is effective and engaging. I think it can be so much harder to be engaged in an online class because there is no face time, and it's really hard to get to know the people in your class, or to get to know you professor. When I struggle to feel engaged in a class, I typically don't do as well/don't learn as much than I do in classes or with professors who really seek to engage you in the material. The other problem that I've noticed in most of my online classes is the lack of feedback. In the majority of the online classes I've taken, when I turn in an assignment, I get a grade, and no type of explanation or feedback into what I've done well, what I did wrong, ways to fix it. It can be really frustrating and makes the class that much harder to succeed in and enjoy.

Something that I've really really loved about this class is the amount of communication. I feel engaged and connected to the people in this class. I've never really felt lost about what to do or wondered how I could improve on something. The feedback in this class really is awesome. I like that we get comments and feedback from both the professor and from our classmates. This class has just been so easy to be engaged in. Each assignment is so clearly laid out and explained, and I have felt like there were resources for every single little thing. Making a website, and setting up a blog could have been really hard and confusing (particularly for me because I am not technology adept) but there really were step by step instructions that were essentially dummy proof, not to mention Laura Gibbs (I feel like I should maybe just say "you" since you're reading this?) is so crazy helpful. It's seriously practically impossible to be confused in this class, and also practically impossible not to enjoy this class. There is so much freedom in this class, but it still manages to be so structured and easy to navigate. Honestly I talk to my sister MacKenzie about how much I love it all of the time (she is still mad that she graduated and can't take your class again) and have recommended this class to everyone that I know.

Please say you've watched Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. If
not, please do so immediately. It's hysterical.

Seriously this class rocks, and is hands down the best, most fun, and most effective online class ever. Honestly its probably just one of the best classes ever in general.

Week 15: OU General Education Review

Michael Scott (honestly do we even need a caption?)

Some of my very favorite classes that I've taken at OU have been to fulfill my gen. ed. requirements. As a science major and particularly as a pre-health student, I basically eat, sleep, and breathe science. Sometimes it literally makes my brain feel like jelly... if anyone else took O Chem II, biochem, microbio and microbio lab all in one semester, you know what I'm talking about. Being surrounded by so much science makes taking classes that are completely opposite of that so refreshing.

I really love european history and  have a particular fascination with ancient Greek culture. Most of my gen. ed humanities courses have been involving those topics. I took European history 1500-1815 with Judith Lewis. AWESOME CLASS. I could literally listen to her talk about history all day long. Her class felt like story time all of the time. I learned so much, and she made the class so enjoyable. Her tests were all essay based which I actually really loved because I felt like I learned more and I was able to express my opinion about so many different events in history, particularly about women's roles in European history. 

I also took Greek Tragedy in English Translation with Ellen Greene. Another totally awesome class with a totally awesome professor. Her class was discussion based, and I loved that I was able to get to know and interact with my classmates. It was really fun to hear other people's interpretations of different pieces of literature, and to understand some of my favorite and also least favorite (looking at you Agamemnon) characters from different points of view. 

This class has been another class that I've loved because there is so much interaction with the other classmates, and I have gotten to read so many different people's versions and interpretations of awesome stories throughout a variety of cultures.

My gen ed experience at OU particularly with humanities courses has been incredibly positive. These classes have been some of my absolute favorites and I feel like I've been able to broaden my horizons and really immerse myself in subjects that are very different from my chosen field. Because I had so much freedom in choosing my classes for my humanities credits, I was able to find classes that really interested me, and ones in which I would feel motivated to learn and participate, and as a result the things I have learned in these classes have and will continue to stick with me.

Week 13: Famous Last Words

This is me in Arezzo eating delicious gelato.
Trying to pretend I'm there right now.
Taken by my friend Tara.

This week I've really been struggling with inspiration for one of my stories for my storybook project. I am supposed to be writing about Andromache and her marriage to Hector, and I'm about half way through the story and I just am not feeling inspired. I am really disappointed because Andromache and Hector are one of my favorite couples in Greek mythology. I love that they had such a happy marriage. I am really just a huge Hector fan. I'm hoping that by the end of the night, I'll feel a spark of inspiration and really be able to finish the story.

I may be struggling because this week has been so incredibly stressful. I had two projects due for my major microbiology classes and both of them were ridiculously hard and time consuming. This week I have barely had any sleep, and I have just felt completely brain dead since. Not to mention our capstone independent projects are winding down and I have an intensely long paper to write so that I'll be able to graduate looming over my head. Not really a great combination that is conducive to writing. Hopefully though I'll be able to finish it tonight and be happy with it.

One great thing did happen this weekend. My mom came in town for Mom's weekend! I was really excited to see her and have a girl day. We didn't do much, but we had such a fun time. We went to Chuy's and had margaritas. The prickly pear one is back, which is my absolute favorite! Then we went and looked around at houses for lease in Moore, which is where I plan to live with some roommates next year while I attend medical school at OU. It was really fun. She's coming up again next weekend too for my little sister's birthday, so yay for more mom time!

Extra Reading Diary: Europa's Fairy Book

Okay obviously I love this unit because it is more stories that are so familiar to me and that I really love. I really like reading different versions of stories that I know because it is so cool to see how the differ across different cultures. This week I read the Italian fairy tales and several of the stories were very similar to the stories in this unit, however they each had their own different details. It was so cool to be able to compare some of the Italian stories to the stories in this unit (Europa's Fairy Book).

The cool thing about reading this unit this week is that I got to read another version of Beauty and the Beast, one of my very favorite stories. This version of Beauty and the Beast was more similar to the story that I remember from my childhood, but still had some differences. It was really cool to compare it to the Italian version though. In this version the Beast is an actual furry beast unlike in the Italian story. In this version though the beast dies, and when Bella sees this she runs to him crying saying that she had come to love him. It is with her declaration of love that the beast comes alive and changes into a prince and they live happily ever after. I loved this version of the story, because Bella fell in love with the Beast of her own volition. In the Italian story I did not like how the monster persuaded him to marry him so that he could be lifted from the curse. I liked the idea of Bella and the Beast actually making an honest connection.

Cinderella the Movie

I also really liked the story The Cinder-Maid. Obviously this story is a version of Cinderella. I really loved this version. It was very similar to the story of Cinderella that I know which includes the step sisters cutting off their toes or heels to try to fit into the slipper. I liked how this version of the story didn't include a fairy god-mother really, but instead the hazelnut tree and the birds in it helped to get Cinderella ready for the ball. I also really liked how this story featured three different balls. It was cool to see the repetition and progression of the story that some of the childhood versions of this fairy tale leave out.

Reading Diary B: Italian Popular Tales

The stories in the second half of the unit Italian Popular Tales are a little bit darker than the first half. The first half was filled with fun and engaging fairy tales. Each of the stories had a happy ending. The second half of this unit is not like that. The stories do not all have a happy ending. I still really like them though. They are really interesting and a lot of them have religious backgrounds.

Pilate looking about as creepy as the story
would suggest (Happy nightmares to you)

One story that really stayed with me was the story An Incident in Rome. This story kind of gave me the creeps honestly. It was pretty cool at the same time. It definitely had an air of mystery all throughout it. The image I had of the carter coming across a man deep in the ground, reading over and over a piece of paper and not responding when he was spoken to was so weird and creepy. I thought it was even more mysterious when he finally answered and wrote his name on the carter's back. The idea that the carter came out of the cave looking like he had aged fifty years was really kind of scary. It indicated to me that the man in the hole had done something bad, and that going down there had almost sucked the life out of the carter or something... really creepy. Of course this story ended up having a religious background when the man in the hole was revealed to be Pilate. This story was so weird, but it really stuck out in my mind because of all of the mystery that surrounded it.

I also read The Story of Crivoliu. This story was also weird. Within the first two lines there was a mention of incest... gross. I kept reading however, and was really intrigued. It ended up being a story with a religious background as well. When Crivoliu found out the circumstances of his birth, he being a man of faith, left his home of his adoptive parents and went to go do penance for his parent's sins (incest, seriously, gross). Long story short Crivoliu ends up becoming the pope, and his parents come to confess their sin from long ago, and Crivoliu says that he is their son, has spent many years doing penance for them, that they are forgiven, and should come live with them. Really nice and pope like of Crivoliu, but honestly kind of weird. The whole basis of the story was just so weird that it stuck so heavily in my brain. This unit definitely took a strange turn from the Beauty and the Beast story.

Reading Diary A: Italian Fairy Tales

Beauty and the Beast

I love these fairy tales in the Italian Popular Tales unit! These stories are exactly the type of stories I think of when someone says the words fairy tale. I really loved that several of the stories were familiar and that I got to read Italian versions of some of my favorite stories like Beauty and the Beast. There were also several stories which were completely new to me, but they all read very distinctly like the fairy tales I read as a child.

One of my favorite stories was the very first one Zelinda and the Monster. It is the Italian version of beauty and the beast, which is one of my very favorite fairy tales. I loved getting to compare this story with the Beauty and the Beast that I know and love. There were no dancing and singing teapots like in the Disney movie, but there still was the air of magic in the palace. Zelinda and her father were served dinner by invisible hands! The beast is different in this story as well. Instead of being a big hairy bear like beast, the monster looks like a dragon. What a thing to imagine! 

I also really liked the story How the Devil Married Three Sisters. This story was funny and really clever. I loved that the third sister was able to outsmart the devil and save her two older sisters in the end. I would definitely be interested in rewriting my own version of this story, maybe from the youngest sister's perspective. I really liked how this story had a happy ending that didn't rely on a woman being saved and married by a prince or a king. Instead it is a story about a smart girl who is able to outsmart her devil (literally) husband.

College Writing Review

As a second semester senior, I have done a LOT of writing throughout the last four years. Because I am a Microbiology major, the writing I do is often tailored specifically to scientific manuscripts. Writing in a class like this one is a lot different than writing for my science classes. Writing in microbiology is governed by an insane amount of rules. Sentences must be kept succinct and detached, practically everything must be cited within the text and in an intensely tedious manner. All of it is very formal, very informative, and really incredibly boring to do (haha, but really).

Most of my labs for my major have been pretty writing intensive, so I've had a LOT of practice with scientific writing. Outside of my major I haven't taken a lot of really intensive writing classes (because all of my other classes are already so intense and I don't fancy the idea of making my class schedule any more miserable than it already typically is, haha). This class and a classics class I took called Greek Tragedy (everyone should take this, Ellen Greene is the best and will change your life) are probably the two classes outside of my major that I have had to write the most for, and I've actually really enjoyed both. It is nice to get to escape from the monotony of science writing and get a chance to explore writing creatively.

I have especially loved this class because it has allowed me to explore and rewrite so many of my favorite stories. I don't often get a chance to be creative like this, so the storybook project has been really exciting, and such an awesome experience. I would love for everyone to have the opportunity to create a storybook like we have in this class. It is such a great way to explore your interests, your creativity, and to learn about stories all over the world.

On another note, I was actually thinking just last week about having a required writing class for science majors. We currently don't have anything like that, which honestly is pretty stupid. Science writing is really hard because there are so many rules, and it has such a distinct style (distant and terse) that most people are not used to writing with. When you have to write your first scientific manuscript, it's really hard, really scary, and you feel completely lost because you've never really learned what to do. Your professors give you a brief little presentation, tell you the title of some microbiology writing standard books, and send you on your way. It's really overwhelming, and not super helpful. I think providing a class that distinctly focuses on how to write science manuscripts, review articles, etc. would be so helpful, and an easy way to increase student success, especially because it is such an important part of classes and the real world of science.

Sheldon Cooper (also RIP Leonard Nimoy)