With the ninth week of the semester coming to a close, it’s starting to seem , for me at least, like we are getting close to the end of our semester. We had a typical week of bipolar North Carolina weather here in Chapel Hill where I’m currently staying, but it’s nice to see the hints of fall in the air. It was a fast paced week in English 105.
On Tuesday we had received our final grade for Feeder 2.1 and submitted our final draft of Feeder 2.2. Then we could begin putting the pieces together for our UP2, with its first draft being due next class. So during Tuesday class we discussed ways to edit and condense text. This skill will prove to be especially helpful when creating our UP2. We also talked about writing a conclusion so we would be prepared to write strong conclusions for our UP2. Tuesday’s class was very practical and beneficial for the upcoming assignments we had due. In general the class seemed to be doing well today and seemed like they had a good weekend.
The first half of Thursday’s class consisted of a workshop on the first draft of our UP2. My small group all had the same feeling that this week had been very fast paced with deadlines. The workshop was helpful as always, and I think it’s really interesting to read about what my peers are studying. The second half of class turned out to be intriguing when we were sent into our break out rooms to do an impromptu 30 second presentation on how to perform a task. The tasks explained in my group ranged from how to make pasta to how to snap your fingers. My group really enjoyed all the topics, but we chose Will to represent us in front of the class because we thought he had the best and most interesting presentation. When each group representative shared with the class, Will’s talk on how to play a record started a lively conversation in the Zoom chat about his taste in music, and he ended up winning the best presentation out of the whole class. This exercise taught us techniques we can use to improve the delivery of our online presentation of our UP2. It was a fun activity that had a good lesson behind it. Based on our class check in, most people indicated that they had been overwhelmed with school work and were looking forward to the mental health day on Friday. Other students seemed excited for the weekend and the upcoming Halloween season.
In other Chapel Hill related news, a new coffee shop opened on Franklin Street, Summit Coffee. I have not been yet, but I know they were giving out free Lattes for their opening on Thursday. There was a home football game Saturday that I know some students got to attend. And the Tarheels got another victory making us 3-0. I personally did not get to go to the game and watched it on television as I’m sure many other students in our class did. Lastly an important announcement from the administration came out on Thursday regarding the spring semester. It outlined parts of their plan to delay students coming back until January 19th and then to eliminate spring break. I know many students are probably very upset about there not being a spring break because this semester has seemed so condensed without a fall break. The announcement outlined that there will be five mental health days built into the semester for students to have some type of break. However this plan did not say anything about whether the University plans to return in person or online. So while this update was helpful, it still leaves some questions.
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