Saturday, May 29, 2004
Thursday, May 27, 2004
Wednesday, May 26, 2004
Hey there everyone,
So I'm back! Hopefully for a while. I really want to keep writing, and I also want to have a place where friends and family can see what I'm up to.
Quick update on what's been happening in my life ...
School - I'm at UC San Diego, majoring in Cognitive Science (cogsci.ucsd.edu). I will (hopefully) be graduating with my BA in August of this year - only 3 months from now! Right now, I'm taking four classes -
Cogs 101c: Understanding Language(http://cogsci.ucsd.edu/~faucon/101/description.html),
Cogs 102c: Cognitive Engineering(http://hci.ucsd.edu/102C/),
Lit some high number: Comparative Ethnic Literature,
and I'm TAing for Cogs 18: Intro to Programming for CogSci majors.
The 102c class has been great (although very time-consuming). The whole quarter is one long group project about redesigning a system. My group of 11 people (Hollan's 11) decided to study group scheduling and try to make a software program that would facilitate it better. I've made some great friends, and definitely learned more about working in a team.
TAing for 18 has also been a great experience. I've led 2 review sessions before tests, and students have told me that they learned more in those review sessions than all quarter from the teacher. It's nice to hear that :-) Hearing those comments and enjoying this experience has made me think more about teaching. Most of my childhood, I thought I wanted to be a teacher, but last summer and fall, I taught dance classes for ages from 3 up to 10, and it changed my mind. I enjoyed the 3-5 year olds class, but trying to get the older girls to concentrate and actually learn dance steps frustrated me. Thus the idea of teaching elementary or middle school faded away (if I get frustrated trying for an hour a week, I'd go crazy trying for 6 hours 5 days a week). But college students don't need to be made to concentrate, and if they're not paying attention, they usually do so silently without disrupting everyone else. So basically, I either need to teach preschool or college. Anyways, I've been pondering continuing on with some sort of grad school so that I can teach either in community college or universities.
Work - So as you can see below, I did buy the dance store! I am the owner of Applause Dancewear in Encinitas, CA. Right now, with school being really busy, I'm putting in about 5-10 hours a week at the store, ordering new inventory, restocking inventory, paying bills, updating Quickbooks, etc. I have three employees who are great, and right now, they're working all the open hours, so there's no time that I absolutely need to be at the store, which is really nice. I'm liking this having my own business thing. Although the store is not making money yet, which kinda sucks, but with recitals coming up and then back-to-school, we should be profitable over the summer.
Life - Frankly, I don't have much of a life :-) School and work take up a lot of my time. I live with my boyfriend, Mai, so I see him a lot, but unfortunately lately I haven't had time to hang out with some of my other friends (people at Red Zone, new friends from CogSci, etc.) Although I did get the chance to see Michelle up in Pasadena a few weeks ago when I was up there for a conference on using video games in education (I'm sure I'll be writing more on that conference/idea at a later date.) Anyway, I probably won't be putting much personal/emotional stuff up on the blog, so if you want the juicy stuff, you'll have to talk to me directly.
I think that's it for now!
So I'm back! Hopefully for a while. I really want to keep writing, and I also want to have a place where friends and family can see what I'm up to.
Quick update on what's been happening in my life ...
School - I'm at UC San Diego, majoring in Cognitive Science (cogsci.ucsd.edu). I will (hopefully) be graduating with my BA in August of this year - only 3 months from now! Right now, I'm taking four classes -
Cogs 101c: Understanding Language(http://cogsci.ucsd.edu/~faucon/101/description.html),
Cogs 102c: Cognitive Engineering(http://hci.ucsd.edu/102C/),
Lit some high number: Comparative Ethnic Literature,
and I'm TAing for Cogs 18: Intro to Programming for CogSci majors.
The 102c class has been great (although very time-consuming). The whole quarter is one long group project about redesigning a system. My group of 11 people (Hollan's 11) decided to study group scheduling and try to make a software program that would facilitate it better. I've made some great friends, and definitely learned more about working in a team.
TAing for 18 has also been a great experience. I've led 2 review sessions before tests, and students have told me that they learned more in those review sessions than all quarter from the teacher. It's nice to hear that :-) Hearing those comments and enjoying this experience has made me think more about teaching. Most of my childhood, I thought I wanted to be a teacher, but last summer and fall, I taught dance classes for ages from 3 up to 10, and it changed my mind. I enjoyed the 3-5 year olds class, but trying to get the older girls to concentrate and actually learn dance steps frustrated me. Thus the idea of teaching elementary or middle school faded away (if I get frustrated trying for an hour a week, I'd go crazy trying for 6 hours 5 days a week). But college students don't need to be made to concentrate, and if they're not paying attention, they usually do so silently without disrupting everyone else. So basically, I either need to teach preschool or college. Anyways, I've been pondering continuing on with some sort of grad school so that I can teach either in community college or universities.
Work - So as you can see below, I did buy the dance store! I am the owner of Applause Dancewear in Encinitas, CA. Right now, with school being really busy, I'm putting in about 5-10 hours a week at the store, ordering new inventory, restocking inventory, paying bills, updating Quickbooks, etc. I have three employees who are great, and right now, they're working all the open hours, so there's no time that I absolutely need to be at the store, which is really nice. I'm liking this having my own business thing. Although the store is not making money yet, which kinda sucks, but with recitals coming up and then back-to-school, we should be profitable over the summer.
Life - Frankly, I don't have much of a life :-) School and work take up a lot of my time. I live with my boyfriend, Mai, so I see him a lot, but unfortunately lately I haven't had time to hang out with some of my other friends (people at Red Zone, new friends from CogSci, etc.) Although I did get the chance to see Michelle up in Pasadena a few weeks ago when I was up there for a conference on using video games in education (I'm sure I'll be writing more on that conference/idea at a later date.) Anyway, I probably won't be putting much personal/emotional stuff up on the blog, so if you want the juicy stuff, you'll have to talk to me directly.
I think that's it for now!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)