Maybe it’s a no-brainer for others, but my undergraduate experience was in semesters and ten-week classes are surprisingly short for me! In the MAT program, things move quickly: one unit per week. There are several iterations of the information each week, however, with readings, asynchronous forum posts, 1.5 hours of class time, videos to watch, and an analysis paper. Each unit is fast, but thorough.
One lesson I have learned from the pacing of these classes is to ask questions, raise concerns, and seek clarification immediately. My goal for my new classes starting January 25th is to attend more of my professors’ office hours. There is nothing like being confused about an issue for a whole week and coming to class only to realize that everyone else has moved on. Our professors have the time and the knowledge to fill in the gaps (and believe me, there will be some gaps), and they are readily available to email and video chat. I say, take advantage of it!
When I mention the fast pacing of these courses, I do not mean to say that I feel lost or that information is brought up once and then abandoned to move on to the next topic. In fact, I have found that the opposite is true. We are constantly drawing upon previously learned knowledge to construct new meanings, and I often find myself referring back to articles, videos, notes, and discussions from other units and applying them to new information.
For example, this week two other students and I completed a group analysis paper in which we analyzed an article from the beginning of our Understanding the Social Context for Urban Schools: The Community course within the framework of three learning theories we studied in our Application of Theories of Learning to Classroom Practice course. We formed a study group on 2SC, met a few times to discuss our paper, synthesized ideas, and created new meaning across two courses (and from opposite sides of the country, too). Very cool.
Fight On!
