Classes... what?

Sorry for the anticipation! Here's whats happenin'...

Classes started. Such a huge bummer I came here for class. I tend to forget during my 4 day weekends. I actually really like a couple of my classes..  I just don't like the work that comes along with it. I'm taking a few classes that apply a great deal to what I want to do with children with developmental disabilities - learning a lot about ABA (applied behaviour analysis) with a lot of autism examples. So obviously I really enjoy them. Much more so than any class I've ever taken at Northeastern. I am taking:


Understanding and Changing Human Behaviour - which is in the "counseling" department here. This class is a 3 hour seminar on Monday afternoon. The length hasn't bothered me yet because it's my only class of the day and this is where I've been learning the principles of ABA. So basically I feel like a huge know it all (I know you must be surprised) because it's everything I've been doing for the last 6 months at the May. But it's also bad because I can only come up with autism examples in my head for everything he talks about. In this class we're going to be conducting a self change project, where we pick a behaviour we have that we wish to change. I'm sure this will please many of my readers - I'm going to try to stop my picking habits: split ends and hangnails.


Learning and Behaviour - this is a psych class that I would have taken at NEU to be a pre-req for the Behaviour modification seminar I want to take back at NEU. So far I really don't like it because I've learned about the history of behaviourism (barf) and scientific methods.  The lecture is also a 2 hour lecture at 8 am -which isn't a fun hour in any country. Then there is what they call tutorials... or "Toots" which is an hour or two of sitting awkwardly with a small group of people doing presentations or whatever. But my first tutorial for this class the PhD dude did all of the talking. Yawn.


Love, Sex and Relationships - This is the class I took because it's supposed to be easy, interesting, and I was trying to get out of my Thursday class that would have been harder and no fun (I was going to take the biological basis of human behaviour - which turned out to be a lot of science that I'm trying to get away from). This class is very entertaining. We watch a lot of movies and video clips as well. The other day we saw a show on children with sexual identity disorder. So interesting. So scary to have kids.


Assesment and Diagnosis - this is probably going to be by far my most difficult class, that I don't know anyone in. Another three hour seminar, Wednesday Morning. Also the class that I am most interested in. It's all about diagnosing psychological disorders. My professor is the head of the Behaviour Management department, and the best part - the director of the Autism  Research here. Sooo this coming Wednesday I have a meeting with her to see if I can become involved! I think I would even do it if it's volunteer/unpaid (even though I would love the 20 dollar minimum wage). But the sweet resume pays for itself right?

So yes, I only have classes Monday through Wednesday. They won't be a breeze because I decided to take a couple difficult ones, and apparently it's hard to get an american "A" here. All I am hearing is they often grade on a bell curve here and rarely give out "high distinction" which is 85 to 100. Bummer.


The past two weeks have been raining.. down-pouring non stop.
I need to go get ready to travel to Brisbane for the weekend, so I will update more soon!