Thursday, January 24, 2008

Coldness Does Not End!

The weather has been cold, and I don’t see the end of it any time soon. I hate the cold weather! One advantage of the new parking lot at Berkeley is the how close it is to all the buildings. This way I don’t have to spend a lot of time walking outside to get to class. I love it!

Today I took my first online test for my New Product Development class. It’s that time in the quarter where all the professors start giving tests, so it feels like a bunch of work is piling up all at once. It’s not so bad as long as you stay organized and on top of things. I like that when we have a test online, the professor does not assign any other work for that week. It allows you to concentrate on your test and get a good review in.

Yesterday I made my schedule for the spring. I tried to make it as soon as possible because online and night classes fill up FAST! This is because online and night classes go up first so that you can schedule those and then the day classes go up after. I ended up taking one night class and two online classes. With an internship, I wanted to get online classes so that I can still work my regular job in case I can’t get a paid internship. I like to be prepared! When I got my e-mail that I can schedule my online and night classes there was a little attachment saying that now we can schedule our classes through e-mail. Advisement then gets back to you and tells you what you need to do and what kind of classes you need to take. With the large number of additional students on the campus this definitely helps with scheduling for classes and not having to wait on line.

On Tuesday we had another SGA meeting with all the members. Some people were not able to make it but we still managed to get a lot accomplished. The plan was for Advisement to join us this meeting but unfortunately they could not. I suspected that they might not be able to make it because I didn’t hear any response since the meeting 2 weeks ago. We came up with some comments and suggestions for them to discuss at the meeting, but maybe we can just e-mail our ideas to them instead. We really want to involve the student body in our meetings, so we’re trying to come up with different ways to get them involved. We even made a MySpace account for the SGA! I would strongly recommend joining our meetings and getting your ideas out there!

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Another Dose of Berkeley

Ready for another dose of Berkeley? I hope so because as of Tuesday, January 22nd registration for spring classes begins. On Tuesday you can only schedule your online classes as well as night classes. Registration for day classes will come at a later date. Because I’ll be doing an internship next quarter, I’m going to try to jump into doing two online classes and maybe one in school class. If I do this, it will be easier on me to make time for my internship. I am hoping to get a paid internship, but if it so happens that I can’t, I will still be able to work and do my internship at the same time.

As I do more for my online classes, I am starting to like them more and more. One very beneficial thing I noticed is that you can do your work ahead of time. For example next week I have to leave early in the week to help someone move. I won’t have time to do my work during the week because of my prior commitments but because I can submit all my work early, I will do everything this weekend. This way I am free the rest of the week and my work will be all done!

The Leadership Retreat is coming fast. I can tell the buzz around campus is going on and people are becoming interested in participating next year. Last year we went to Baltimore, MD and this year were staying local (Princeton, NJ). I heard everything has changed from last year and were going to have all different activities going on. I’m really interested in the karaoke night I have been hearing about. The hotel has an indoor pool as well as a gym that students will be able to use during their 3 day stay at the hotel. I can’t wait! I will bring back great pictures.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

New Parking Lot Making Me Happy

Yesterday was our second meeting for the SGA, and the first meeting where students were able to join us. We had two new members and two members who couldn’t make it to the meeting. We’re growing slow but it’s important that we get things done. We talked about things such as student concerns, activities we are planning and how we can run them. The next activity we have planned is called Winter Warm-up. We will have hot chocolate, coffee and tea. This event’s purpose is to try and get more members as well as for students to get to know each other. It should be very fun and exciting to meet new students. Our next meeting is on Tuesday at 3:30pm in the multimedia room. Everyone is welcome!

Today I parked on the new parking lot for the first time. It looks so nice! I love that they have new sidewalks and little pathways leading to the campus. It’s at a great location where you’re close to all the buildings and don’t really have to walk far. It’s my new favorite parking spot.

This past weekend I went to a place called “Grounds for Sculpture.” This is a beautiful park with many sculptures and art from a large variety of artists. I wanted to go to this park because right now I am taking a class called Arts in the Contemporary Society. I took a ton of pictures, made a slide presentation and applied the experience to my classroom activities. I ended up posting the presentation on my class homepage for the students in my class. I thought it would be nice to share my experience with them. I hope they liked it!

Thursday, January 10, 2008

Answer to Jim's Question

Today I saw that I got a comment from a man named Jim. I thought the comment was a very good one and I would post my response as a blog because I’m sure more than one person is curious about the answer. The comment read:

Alex, may I call you Alex? Hello my name is Jim. I am currently reflecting on returning to school. The online classes initially seemed like the way to go. After reviewing your brief synopsis of online classes, you have me thinking twice. Do you think online classes are good for a full time employee?

Well, dear Jim,
I think you should definitely return to college and if you are a busy man, online classes are definitely the way to go. I am not going to lie, seeing online classes for the first time I got very overwhelmed and I didn’t know where to begin. I am also a busy person as I’m sure you are. I work two jobs, I go to school full time as well as I am the president of two clubs on campus. Online classes offered me an opportunity to do substitute teaching and work on my classes. Now that I have gotten used to them I love them and I hope I can take online classes when I am doing my internship. I realized that I would normally spend about 3 hours in a classroom a week but the work that you do home with reading, assignments, and discussion boards don’t even equal out to the same amount. You save some time between travel, traffic,and waste of gas having to come to a campus.

One thing I noticed with online classes it is a lot more personal than a class in a classroom. When students gather on the discussion board they express themselves in a way they would not in a classroom. Everyone gets a voice. If you are the shy person who never speaks in a class, now you have your chance to open up and express yourself. People are more open online because they do not fear of people judging them. I have never seen a negative response or comment from other students to something someone has posted on the discussion board.

If you are motivated Jim, you will do great. The trick with online classes is to be organized and be able to meet deadlines. If you can do that you will get A’s in your classes. With Berkeley College if you decide you want to try a class on campus it’s not a problem. Berkeley lets you mix classes on campus and off without any extra fees or loss of credit. If you have an opportunity to go to college, take the opportunity because you never know what life may throw your way.

Hope I answered your question!

Club Convention

Today’s Club Convention went great! My main goal was to get members, and decorate our table so that it was the flashiest one in the room. And it was! Everyone was working so hard to set everything up especially Ms. Young and Mr. Maher. Since it was a bit chilly out, the Club Convention was held in the Community Room. The tables were set up all around the room, and students got to walk around and sign up for the activities that they were interested in.

Mr. Maher was outside with the loud speaker announcing to all the students that the Club Convention was going on. We hung up balloons outside to make the students interested in what was going on. It was great to see that not only clubs participated in the convention but so did departments such as the ASC center, library, Admissions, Advisement and many more. This was a good idea because incoming students may not know the things Berkeley has to offer. By seeing them at the convention, they get an idea of what they can take advantage of. They even served hot chocolate and coffee!

I tried to make my tables very pretty. For SGA we used a blue tablecloth, balloons, pictures of the officers, and a suggestion box for students to share their ideas about Berkeley. I went to the Admissions department to see if I could have some goodies with the Berkeley College logo on it to give away to students. They were very happy to help and provided us with a bunch of chapsticks and pens to give away.

Here are some pictures!

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The outcome of the Club Convention was great for us. I was running the International Business Club Table along with the SGA. For the International Business Club, we got 10 new members and for SFA 12 new members. We are having our first meeting on Tuesday at 3:30 in the Community Room so I hope everyone can make it in!

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Club Convention is Tomorrow!

Week two of being back in school is not going too bad. I’ve learned to really like my online classes and my day classes as well. On Tuesdays I have Placement Seminar which is a class that prepares you for your internship. Yesterday was my first class and I was really shocked to find out that I need 600 hours of Internship experience in order to graduate from Berkeley. In case you don’t feel like doing the math, 600 hours equals out to 25 hours per week for two quarters at Berkeley. I am excited about the internship, but worried at the same time. I’m worried that I will not be able to get a paid internship because I need to work in order to maintain my life like many students at Berkeley. Currently my Career Service advisor is away on Jury Duty, so I could not go to him yet to talk about my problem.

Yesterday was our first official meeting for the SGA. Tomorrow is the Club Convention which I am really excited about. We prepared flyers, a suggestion box, and even came up with a new slogan for the club! It goes “SGA, We Listen to What You Say… and Take it All the Way!” I’m really happy to see that we have a really great team on hand. Ms. Young was amazing at helping us come up with ideas and guide us in the right direction. I’m glad to see that Edgar (Vice President) and Travis (Secretary) are very motivated and reliable. Travis took amazing notes during the meeting to make the minutes.

The Leadership Retreat is approaching. I filled out my application and sent it in last week. I’m very excited about the retreat because this is a little closer to home and I know a lot more people than I did last year. I strongly recommend students to apply for the retreat. You get to learn new things, meet so many amazing people and make memories you will never forget.

Friday, January 4, 2008

Overwhelming Online Classes

Ok, so I’m not going to lie, online classes are a lot of work! As I said in my previous blog, I got overwhelmed when I first saw all the writing and lectures from the professors. Yesterday I took a day off from everything and I finished all my work but it literally took me ALL day! When you look at all the information it’s confusing to differentiate assignments, from comments etc. What I did was take a pen and piece of paper and write down all the things I have to do in order. Example, first I have to read the lecture, then I have to read the book, review the PowerPoint slides, do the discussion board and then do the extra credit. When I put everything in order I checked off everything I did to make sure I did not miss anything. Another thing you could do if overwhelmed by all the work is print it out, and highlight the things you need to do. It really helped me a lot!

On Blackboard students are able to make their own webpages for each class. This was one of our assignments in my New Product Development class. This is an online class for me. I like this idea because even though you do not spend time in a classroom with the students, you still know who they are and things about them. You can even upload your own picture and view those posted by others to see the faces behind the names. When reading things on the discussion board, I like to see the picture of the person I am reading a post from. This makes the experience more personal and fun.

Wednesday, January 2, 2008

Were Back In Business!

Well, the break is over, and it’s time to get back to work! We had 2 weeks off, but it flew by in no time. Over the break I had gotten some e-mails that mentioned Blackboard has been updated and some changes were made to make navigation better for the students. This excited me because I have to take two online classes this quarter!


I have never taken an online class before and I have to admit, at first I was a bit overwhelmed. I logged into blackboard during the break and saw all this reading material! At first I didn’t know where to even begin because I saw so much writing, but I took it step by step. Blackboard allows you to check off what you have read and what you still have to go over. This helped me slow down a little and get things in order. I realized that the main parts of the courses are doing the discussion boards, reading lectures and submitting your papers. I have done all those things before separately, but never all together. I took some time to learn all the navigations I’ve never really used before, now I got the hang of everything. Now I’m excited about doing things at my own convenience!


Today was the first day of classes. I only had one class today so I offered to help the Student Development Department run the Orientation for the incoming students. I like listening to the orientations because things change for the better year by year and I get to hear all the good changes each quarter. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves because Mr. Maher made it very interesting and fun. After the initial talking we got to play some ice breaker games! I love running those and getting to know everyone. I know everyone had fun and the new students will love Berkeley College!