Class of 2013: Freshman Blog

In my previous post, I mentioned my class schedule in brief – that I am taking two history seminars and that I am consequently reading a lot this semester.  In this post, I would like to expand/elaborate on my current coursework, which I’ve been very pleased with thus far.  This could be because I only have two midterms, and they are two weeks apart (Note: Cate W, fellow blogger, had like sixty in a day or something insane like that; I felt/feel bad for her).

I began this semester with the average load of fifteen credit hours, which translates to five classes, a typical load for a student here at Hopkins.  All but one of my classes, Elements of Microeconomics, is writing intensive, giving me a really hectic March and May (in particular) to look forward to.  Realizing this, I decided to drop one class, Introduction to the History of Modern Philosophy, to allow myself to more fully invest in my other classes.  Some people have seen this decision to drop as a sort of weakness, laziness on my end, but I believe it will result in a happier GPA come May, better retention of subject matter, and generally a more lax me – and I do care about my sanity.  I must say, however, that I did quite enjoy philosophy, and I hope it will find its way into my schedule come another semester.

Without further adieu, here are the classes I am taking this semester:

Introduction to Fiction and Poetry II

Stephen Kampa, Instructor

Introduction to Fiction and Poetry II (IFP) is the follow-up course to IFP I, which I took last semester, and is offered in the Writing Seminars Department, our creative writing branch, if you will.  Greco, fellow blogger, is also in my section.  The course’s objective is to have students understand the methods and thought processes of celebrated, recognized authors and poets as they write pieces of their own.  Each section is taught by one instructor and is capped at no more than twenty students, if that.

The course is divided into two sections: one on fiction and poetry.  At present, we are wrapping up our unit on fiction.  For homework, we have many, many reading assignments, and we spend class time either discussing the reading assignments in terms of how we can adapt writers’ strategies, or we workshop each other’s works, a process I find very useful, since it is often beneficial to have many eyes view something like fiction or poetry.  The class’ format, I expect, will not change as we transition from fiction to poetry, since the end remains the same.

In addition to writing assignments, which we currently have bi-weekly, we are expected to maintain a journal of sorts, in which we write page-long entries on matters assigned to us.  To give you a better idea of what is expected, I have included a few of our actual journal assignments below:

(1)   Collect ten exemplary first sentences. They should be a mixture of sentences you have found and ones you have written.

(2) For your second journal entry this week, I’d like you to write a description of your fiction aesthetic. What do you look for in a story or novel? What do you strive to do in your own fictive work? What are some of the things that make you put a book down immediately? What are some of the things that you (think you) will never do in prose? Try to be as detailed as possible in your analysis of your own tastes and preferences.

(3) Compile a list of twenty-five contemporary slang words and/or expressions. They can range from the cute to the crude. The goal here is to amass a working vocabulary of the living language so that [a] your writing does not become lexically moribund and [b] you have the raw material for believable contemporary dialogue.

(4) Write a brief anecdote in the voice of your favorite movie.

Overall, I do enjoy this class a lot.  IFP is a great way to explore yourself creatively and emotionally; it is really the only academic opportunity to write on matters that are near and dear to me, etc.  Also, my instructor, Stephen, is great, which makes the experience all the better.  If you are ambivalent about taking the course should you enroll here, I would wholeheartedly recommend it.

Elements of Microeconomics

Bruce Hamilton, Professor

Kati Simmons, TA

Elements of Micro (henceforth called just ‘Micro’) is a general survey class taken by many, as it is a required course for several majors, including International Studies and, of course, economics.  Consequently, it is very large, with somewhere around 400 students, making it by far the largest class I will ever have at Hopkins (I also believe it may be in the running for largest class AT Hopkins, too).  A lot of my friends are in it, including JHU_Keith and Miranda, fellow blogger, to name a few.  It is my only class with a teaching assistant.

Because of its size, Mirco is broken up into two segments: lecture and section.  Twice a week, Professor Hamilton gives the class’ lecture in a large hall, Hodson 110.  The other class meeting, which we call section, is referred to as section.  Section is much smaller, normally at or below ten students (my section, for example, has about six) and is led by a teaching assistant – mine, as the header suggests, is Katie, who thus far has been great.

Since the class is so typical, I really will not give as much detail as I have, say, given for IFP.  As you may expect, there are two midterms and a final – nothing terribly exciting – as well as the odd quiz.  Overall, Micro is not my favorite class, but that may just be because I do not care too much for the discipline, etc.  It is not a class I am taking for academic exploration but one for general knowledge, etc.  That said, I am not like hating on it.

Freshman Seminar: Abraham Lincoln and His America

Michael Johnson, Professor

Right now, one of the things I love most academically about Hopkins is the option to enroll in freshman seminars, classes designed for and exclusively offered to freshmen that are taught (normally) by full time professors.  They are a great way for freshmen to have an opportunity to interact with a full-time member of the faculty and are a breath of fresh air from the at-times large general survey classes we all will have to take.  Notably, freshman seminars are capped at about fifteen students, which helps to create an intimate classroom environment.  By the end of one, you cannot help but know everyone in the class.

Lincoln and His America has two objectives: 1) to provide a holistic, whole view of Lincoln’s life and presidency; and 2) to contextualize the life he lived and the America/societies in which he lived.  To do this, the course is typically broken down into two sections, which is easy to do because of the class’ schedule: we meet once a week for about 2.5 hours.  About halfway through, we take a short, 15-minute break, so it is not a big, sudden change when we switch gears.

Normally, we spend the first half of class working on contextualizing Lincon’s life with the societies in which he lived.  To do this, we have a little bit of homework: to read contemporary newspapers and write a short, one or two paragraph response to something we found interesting or learned from the papers.  For example, one week I chose to write a response on the typical formatting of obituaries during the period and how that they were more of a death announcement than biography, as they are today.  The papers we are assigned to peruse change weekly and are based on the time/location we are studying.  For example, when Lincoln was living in Springfield, we read papers from places like Springfield, from St. Louis, or from New Orleans.  In class, we go around the table, and every student shares this little bit of knowledge – while we do this, we work on creating a synthesis of the points brought up.  Truthfully, this is one of my favorite things I have done here yet in a classroom, perhaps because it is the most creative or the most interesting.  It is nearly always interesting to see what someone will dig up.

The Early Caribbean and Atlantic World Seminar

Philip Morgan, Professor

This class is my test case, if you will.  It is an upper-level course, listed at .488, and I am the only enrolled freshman.  I wanted to take this course because it is on a subject I enjoy and because I wanted to take an upper level history class to see if I like it before formally declaring my major.  Like all seminars, it is particularly small, with about 14 people (if memory serves).

The course readings are a pretty even of primary and secondary sources.  For example, one of the first reading assignments we had was the voyage records of Christopher Columbus.  We supplemented this with a few academic essays on Columbus’ voyage and the hyperbole for which he is famous (allusions to dog-faced people, for instance, in Hispaniola are just silly).

We meet once a week for 2.5 hours and discuss our readings for a majority of the time.  Each week, we prepare an outline of the week’s readings, taking note of particular authors’ arguments, observations, etc, that we share and then discuss in class.  It is a lot of work, reading and synthesizing these sources, but I am learning a heck of a lot.

Professor Morgan leads the class’ lectures.  I really like him and his teaching style, furthering my appreciation of the class.  Ironically, he taught me a little least year in Making America – we were assigned to read one of his articles.  I find it pretty cool that my professor in a lecture of 14 is the author of course readings.

That concludes my course schedule.  One thing that is worth noting is that I only have one TA and that the rest of my courses are 1) capped at about 15 people and 2) mostly taught by full-time, tenured faculty.  This is something I did not entirely expect when looking at Hopkins, yet, I’ve found, small courses (at least in my chosen academic path) are really the strong suit of the University.

Something more exciting, though, is that Muse played Baltimore in the past week.  I am a huge fan of theirs, and Matt Bellamy is no less awesome live; in fact, he is better. And yes, I do think he’s wearing teal leather pants… It was a gloriously trippy show — SO GOOD.  Here is a video of their show in Baltimore (not taken by me; I was three rows of people from the stage haha):

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I’m in the middle of spring break right now, so look for a related update when I feel like being productive :)

Thanks for reading,

Daniel

(Photo credit where it’s due)