I just got home from mei CCRI classes and.... I can breathe again! Hooray for notes... they saved me. My composition teacher graded our quizzes, then scanned our notes and decided on a grade. 10 pages or more of copious notes get you an automatic +1 to your grade!!! So I have a 101% average. (!!!) Since everyone did so well on the quizzes and notetaking, he decided to just stop giving tests altogether. Notes get you extra credit, though.... they take a while but they're worth it!!! Imagine passing a class with over 100% average. I know I probably won't, but the idea tickles me nonetheless.
Every class, he writes a quote up on the board and we have 5 - 10 minutes to freewrite about what it means to us. Sometimes it's a question we have to answer, other times it's just thoughts to expound upon and whatnot. Tonight this was the quote he put up: "What is the difference between a duck?"
He wouldn't let us ask any questions, and we had to sit there and try to come up with something. Only two people wrote anything down. One person gave some deep, psychological answer that went something to the effect of "the question isn't asking for a specific answer... it's whatever you think it should be". (*blink* He used a bunch of long words, but that's what it amounted to in layman's terms.) But the other fella gave an answer that I thought was pretty clever: "It's braver than a run." (Explanation: "ducking" is braver than running away. Somehow. *blinking again*)
Spanish class is going well. I wrote a report on a Guatemalan musician and there's my picture from a Spanish painter that I'll be writing about soon. Our teacher is really nice and has a great sense of humor. It's the neatest thing to be able to understand every single thing she's saying in Spanish - she has a knack of keeping things challenging, but not beyond what we can follow. She talks a mile-a-minute and has a really strong RI accent... sometimes it's harder to understand her English than it is her Spanish!So... I'm getting the hang of it... sorta. At least now I know how to start a roster or whatever they call 'em. When you pass the paper around for everyone to sign that they are present... you know. That thing. The first week I had no idea what to do... I had to ask the girl behind me!
