First Year Courses

What I like about teaching a first year course is that, beyond the topical introduction, is the broad perspective on getting them in a good place for the beginning of their college career. [It's] sort of like training wheels to just, kind of - you're not getting throw into the big, big 'Macalester life.' Helping them with their writing, their plans for courses, their study habits. Professor Kruse is a great consultant for really honest opinions about what courses I'm taking and she's good at telling me if I'm taking on too much or if I can handle the challenge - which is useful in an advisor. I intentionally design the course so that it samples what I feel is pretty good representation of the kinds of assignments, activities and expectations that they're going to experience but I can do it in a way that's really scaffolding them towards success. Today we're talking about competition versus cooperation and specifically pertaining to some ideas, like Maslow's hierarchy of needs, where you start with needing to satisfy your big base before you can reach out to academic concept and self-actualization. Our class is just really close to one another; we've developed really great friendships in this class. It's an important feature of the first year course to build a sense of community; to have it be a place that you are safe in a time period where you may feel kind of frightened by all the newness, and you have a steadfast foundation and group of peers and a professor who you can trust. You get acclimated to college writing or aware of what's going on in campus or opportunities to explore, do different things classes and club wise it's a really great opportunity. I've really enjoyed having this experience.