One thing I hate about the first day of classes: teachers always want you to fill out an index card of information, usually including questions to get to know you better.
This week’s stupid question: How are you planning to use this course to enrich your major?
Unfortunately, it’s for a Rhetoric & Writing course which I would not willingly take if you paid anything less than… well, anything at all. I really do not like writing classes. And I like taking classes that I’ve already taken even less.
Granted, it was a “lower division” rhetoric class, according to my advisor, but I had to write research papers with arguments–some of which I had posted back when I took the class–and I really wish I wasn’t being subjected to it again.
But, being the good English that I am, I won’t grumble too much about actually having to take the class.
Now, grumbling about how I hate the work that has to be done? Expect much of that.
The notecard thing isn’t very creative, of course. A lot of teachers make us fill out notecards at the beginning of the semester, mostly because they want a valid email address. The other questions are just fluff. A “what’s your major” question in a class that is a core class for that major? Just silly.
The only creative “get to know you” class starter this semester was actually in my British novel class; we had to make name plaques for our desks with crayons, so that our classmates can learn our names.
Which is just silly. Everyone will know my name by Thursday because I talk too much, and ME’s because she’ll be the one telling me to shut up.
Yeah, I too dislike the whole “get to know you” things. I didn’t have to fill out any index cards this semester, but in two classes, we went around the room giving introductions. These consisted of:
“Hi, my name’s [X], I’m an [X] (freshman, sophomore, etc.), and my major is [X].”
This was done in rapid fire sequence - one person says his, the next person continues. In both classes, there are around 30 of us, so by the end, we’re all just sitting there thinking, well, I certainly don’t have any idea who is who now, even if I did beforehand!
There are much more creative ideas teachers should use… examples include: “tell your name, what you had for dinner last night and your favorite store from this room within 50 miles”.
Josh: we’ve totally done that too, and the teacher told us it was more for him than us; we had to do it three classes in a row so he could learn our names.
Cheryl: of course there are more creative things that could be done. Unfortunately, on the first day of class, most students want to go over the syllabus and leave after 20 minutes. Creativity definitely cuts into that timeline.
I took a Stylistics and Composition course, which was basically a rhetoric and writing course, and it was one of the best courses I took. It provided the foundation I needed to write my senior thesis (which was a lit. thesis).
I took it in French (my “minor”, more or less), but same idea.
Since it’s an upper division course, it could be a lot more interesting.