Hi everyone, it's been a little bit! I've been a bit bogged down with finalizing my schedule for the semester and getting all of the details worked out. This has been particularly confusing this semester, since I'm taking four practicum credits. Two of these are for the research study I'm working on with one of my professors, which will expand my capstone study on pro-environmental behavior and COVID-19 behavior. The other two are for a psychology TAship I was offered, which I'll tell you more about later!
Besides the two practicum courses, I'm taking MATH105: Perspectives in Statistics and GEND200: Genders/Sexualities in the US. So far, math has been a review of what I learned in PSY200: Statistics for Psychology, and a refresher for using the program R to analyze data (I first learned about this in BIO141!). I've been really enjoying my gender studies class so far, too. The readings have been really interesting already, and I've really appreciated the professor's efforts to set community agreements to make the classroom a supportive learning environment.
Getting these credits registered with the registrar was kind of an in-depth process, which I knew nothing about until this semester. If you ever decide to register for practicum credits, you'll probably go through a similar learning process! Because the practicum credits are for classes that don't exist yet, I have to develop a course description, learning goals, and grading criteria with my faculty sponsor. When we both sign these documents, they get submitted to the undergraduate registrar, who manually adds them to my class schedule. This is what they look like once they're added!
Besides the two practicum courses, I'm taking MATH105: Perspectives in Statistics and GEND200: Genders/Sexualities in the US. So far, math has been a review of what I learned in PSY200: Statistics for Psychology, and a refresher for using the program R to analyze data (I first learned about this in BIO141!). I've been really enjoying my gender studies class so far, too. The readings have been really interesting already, and I've really appreciated the professor's efforts to set community agreements to make the classroom a supportive learning environment.
All of my classes are online except for GEND200, which is hybrid. I'll have my first in-person class this Thursday! I have somewhat mixed feelings about this given my general anxiety about COVID-19, but I know that LC is doing its best to test students and protect the campus community from the virus.
But related to COVID-19, I've decided to move out of the house I live in with other LC students. It's inconvenient to have to move right at the beginning of the semester, but I feel more comfortable getting my own place so that I can be more careful about what I'm exposed to. This way, I'll only have to worry about the COVID exposure I bring to myself through classes and work, and can decide about my own level of comfort, since I tend to be on the cautious side. I'll be moving into my new apartment in SE Portland next week on Tuesday, and I'm hopeful that this process will go smoothly! My commute will be longer, but I'm happy to make that trade off to feel safer from COVID and to be living in a really cool area of Portland.
So that's what's on my mind starting the semester! I hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy.