January

I have really enjoyed my classes this semester.
1. Technologies in Advertising and Public Relations. I felt really luke warm about this class. It didn't challenge me in too many ways. We worked on three different programs: PhotoShop, Illustrator, and Dreamweaver. The only program I was not familiar with was Dreamweaver, which is a program for making websites. I like the projects but it was difficult because I had never been formally trained all of these programs, so I had a lot of new terms to learn, and that was my downfall in the class. I now have a greater appreciation for InDesign (the Gazette uses this program) it's so much better than Illustrator. If you'd like to see the website I made it's http://www2.gvsu.edu/~newtonj/

2. Research in Advertising and Public Relations. This was one of my favorite classes. I learned how to research. How boring? Right? Actually, I may have found a new career. I learned about how to research correctly and make the most of materials at hand. I wrote my first major paper of my college education for this class. I wrote it about Country of Origin and why it's better to buy American. It was 10 pages long, I struggled with it for a long time, but I got it done and got an A! My major project at the end of the year was a group project. I joined forces with two other people in my class. We had to chose one paper and then create a plan for primary research for that paper. We ended up doing one on Super Bowl advertising and how effective it is and why they are successful at $3,000,000 per 30 second slot. Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I learned a lot.

3. General Ed. Writing. I wanted to shoot myself the entire time I was in this class. I can't think of a bigger waste of money this semester. The class was four credits and so I had it for two hours, twice a week. I think we stayed for the full two hours once. We also could only miss four classes. If you missed more than four you automatically failed the class and had to take it again. So, I was bound and determined to skip four class periods, I strategized and planned to skip one, it was cancelled, then another, and it was cancelled. I planned to skip six classes, and five were cancelled. The one time class was in session and I missed it was when I went to Kentucky to visit Paul.
My professor was somebody who probably really wanted to go back to the opium den in the 70s. I liked him at first, then I didn't like him, then I liked him, then I didn't. He told us we had to turn in progress reports and he was checking our work and if we didn't do everything on time, we wouldn't be able to use these certain essays in our portfolios. (The portfolio is made up of three essays of different topics.) He also told us we had to show proof of brainstorming, pre-writing, first draft, second draft, third draft, and then the final draft. I kind of kept up with that, but that's a difficult process to show. I didn't write my essays right away and I procrastinated. So toward the end of the semester when time was winding down I didn't even attempt to make appointments with him because he flat out told everyone that if they hadn't started on essays and he hadn't seen proof of work throughout the semester he didn't want to see them. I was one of those people, so I didn't try. Truth be told, I'm glad I didn't. At the end of the semester he didn't require attendance for the last 3 classes. So I didn't go. He had individual appointments with students. One day, in the pouring rain, my friend walked over for her appointment to find a sign on the door that said appointments were cancelled. Then every appointment after that was cancelled, because people weren't prepared. I'm happy I didn't try and do that. So I wrote my papers, edited with friends, corrected, and then edited again. I finished my portfolio the night before and went to turn it in where my professor announces that anyone who wants can have until the next Tuesday to turn it in (it was technically due on Thursday). I turned mine in and said good riddance.
Turns out, he can't give you a grade based on anything else than attendance and the portfolio. So all that bull he gave us about not being able to turn in a portfolio if you don't show proof of work, was worthless. I got an A.

4. Intro to the Middle East
This was probably my favorite class all semester. I felt like I learned so much. My professor was an interesting guy. He grew up in Germany, did his doctoral studies in Saudi Arabia, lived in Russia sometime in his life, speaks French, Russian, Arabic, German, English, and I think Spanish, but I'm not sure. Anyways, really smart guy. We covered both modern and historic Middle East and that gave a very broad perspective. It's something I'd really like to study more. My final paper in that class was on the Yezidis. Now, for those of you who don't know who they are, The Yezidis are a very secretive religious and ethnic group that resides in northern Iraq, Iran, Turkey and that surrounding area. Point being, they are a secretive bunch of people who have been accused of worshiping the devil. I had a very difficult time with this because The Yezidi people are separate, each region has different ideas and no one agrees on how this group came to be. Which made my job very difficult. They do, however, agree on their caste system. No one can marry outside of their caste system. They all agree on that. I really enjoyed the class.

5. College Algebra
I liked this class. My professor had a sense of humor like Mr. Pearsons and he always tried to speak Spanish. I met some really cool girls and that always makes things more fun. The class was also extremely easy for me because it was a mix between advanced algebra and calculus. I had both in high school. It made my life easier.