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John’s Quotes #10

[206-220; 224-237] For the rest of my classes, I have Mechanical Engineering Dynamics. My professor is very understanding and passionate about how he teaches. I really like the way he teaches. The very first day, I introduced myself to him, because I want to make that a habit. I told him about my mental health. He listened and simply stated, “I hope you feel comfortable in this class.” Not only that, but whenever somebody asks a question, he answers it thoroughly. This professor goes in depth and tries to answer everything concisely, so I’m not afraid to ask a question in class. He usually writes on the board. He has his own website where he posts certain things and programs some simulations for us to use. That’s really fun. Just being able to see some of these concepts. He has so much energy in every class that its contagious and makes me interested because he’s doing it in such an interesting way. Every time I go into the class, I feel engaged. I don’t feel like I’m just writing down stuff to write down. When I have a homework assignment from him, I can get through it and learning something really important for me. The other two classes I have are mostly math-based. I have Engineering Economics, which is interesting with a lot of math. I have Differential Equations. It’s my second favorite just because I have a good study group. I’m excited to work through those problems, just because I have a group that I can share it with. I feel like I understand Diff Eqau more than Econ at this point, even though I felt like at the beginning of this semester it was going to be the opposite.

[241-251] There’s this one person who I’ve been studying with since my freshman year. We’re more than just study partners. We’re really good friends. Spending time with them is fun. It’s also easy to study with them because I know them. Getting a study group together is hard because it’s about establishing a time and place, scheduling, and all the logistical stuff. I also have my girlfriend in the class, so I can study with the both of them and overall it’s during that time it’s fun and it feels easier to me to express my ideas.

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John’s Quotes #12

[86-98] I enjoyed my dynamics professor because he was very engaged, very engaged. He made his own website with a bunch of simulation-type games, where you could test out your theories. For example, if I have acceleration in one direction and speed in the other direction, the simulation game could help you determine how long will it take to get to zero, and whatnot. You could test all those things out with the software that he made, that he programmed. He made his own videos for that website about the stuff that he was teaching, kind of like Khan Academy. Basically, that same style of video, just with him. And in class he wasn’t just relegating everything to his website or to his videos, he was actively teaching. If there wasn’t a participant in class, then you weren’t going to get much out of it because he wanted you to participate, and that’s when he started teaching. He wanted to hear all the ideas, even if they were flawed, and oftentimes he would rather go over time discussing things rather than just getting straight to his answer. He was very engaging, he had the right amount of difficulty, not because the class itself was taught in a way that was difficult for me but because the coursework itself was engaging, but it was a difficult subject. He didn’t make it harder than it was, he made it easy to teach, easy to digest, and he gave us work that we had to work for, answers that we needed to work for.

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John’s Quotes #14

[156-162] I valued my art professor because he cares about me, genuinely. Over the summer, I ended up teaching a summer camp for 3D modeling. I taught an entire day of that camp in his classroom. He even gave a little, not lecture, but he showed up, he did an interview with the kids and whatnot. He’s shown me ways where, even though he’s mostly an artist, he still has to deal with a lot of the problems that engineering does, mainly because his designs are just how to get around that. What else? He’s funny. He has one-on-one sessions with every one of his students in his intermediate class. He knows everyone’s strong suits already or he knows that there’s things that people […] I feel like I’m rambling. He’s very good at his job.

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John’s Quotes #15

[34-40] My other course is mechanics and materials. It’s really giving me a hard time, not to the point where I think I should not be in engineering, but it’s just the course. The way my professor teaches the course, it’s rough. There’s very little online help that he could provide. All of his notes are in person, and they go by super-fast. It’s not very helpful for me, where I like to instead of looking at my notes, because my notes are not always the best, I like to just look at the slides, whatever extra material, over and over again just so I can get it right. The way that he teaches, it’s just not very helpful for me. I’ll probably retake that class, which I don’t mind. Yes, I don’t mind retaking a course that I actually really need to know.

[168-181] I’ve had the mechanics and materials professor once before. However, this professor, it’s hard for me to understand what he’s teaching because he doesn’t read the room very well. When people ask questions, he doesn’t understand the question all the time, so when he’s trying to answer the question, it kind of makes it more confusing. He’s certainly not a bad professor, he’s just not one that I’m more accustomed to, or I’m predisposed to. I guess, because I don’t like taking notes. It’s been a bad habit of mine since high school where I just can’t take the best notes. Combined with that, in my classes I’m shy, so I don’t have the guts to talk to people around me and ask what I miss. It’s not entirely the professor’s fault. I went to his office hours, I talked to him about some of the things that I’ve been struggling with, and he was very, very kind. He even loaned me his book when I couldn’t get a copy, the same edition that he wanted, so he ended up loaning it to me. I was going to take pictures of the homework that I would need to complete. I don’t think I ended up doing that because I think I was going through some mental health stuff then. But overall, he’s a good professor. He’s not my type of professor. I’ll really need to rethink how my classroom habits are so I can go to this class again next semester.

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