Thursday, August 25, 2005
Constitutional Law
is going to be interesting, to say the least. There are 32 students registered. Only 5 of us have had any type of legal research. 2 of the students aren’t even in the legal studies or paralegal program. The course satisfies a multi-cultural requirement so they’re taking it for that reason. As for the others…what were these people thinking? This is an upper level course that is normally taken at the end of your requirements.
Most of what I’m blogging about today are thoughts that I want to go back to later in the term to see if things pan out the way I feel they will with the class, so I’m going to ramble.
Prof M didn’t waste any time in laying out the ground rules and setting requirements to pass the course. I’m so glad, because I suspect it helped to lean out the class a bit. You could just feel the “oh-shit” emanating around the room when she was talking about all the legal research that would probably be required to write the paper that’s worth more than 30% of our final grade. Not to mention the “yikes” when told they would have to brief 2 cases, from the book, orally to the class. Rather hard to do that if you’ve never IRAC’d in your life.
After she scared the crap out of the newbies over the paper, she proceeded to try to explain how to write a legal paper and do legal research. Yawn…okay, not that bad, I did take notes to refresh my memory, but geesh! I wanted to get into the meat of the class…the arguing! LOL She did mention one thing, that I want to clarify in front of the class next week. The experienced researchers are expected to cite to Blue Book where she wasn’t going to hold “them” accountable for correct citation. Um, excuse me, isn’t that discrimination, and isn’t that one of the things we’ll be discussing this term?
As for us “old timers” she gave the first chapter briefs to us so we could show the newbies what she expected. Oh joy, oh rapture! At least that means I’ll have one of my 2 out of the way rather quickly. Another thing she had us to was to introduce ourselves politically. She called on us quite frequently last night and since I was 1 of 5, that mean my opinion on matters is out there already.
The young lady that sat next to me last night is new to the program. I asked her if she was taking legal research this term and she said that she couldn’t because of her new job. She about flipped out when I told her it was only offered once a year, and that she would not be able to take legal writing (also only offered once a year in Spring) without the research requirement. Oh, and you did notice that your required computer class is also only offered once a year, at the same time in the same term as legal research. No, she didn’t. Don’t these people look at what their requirements are? So, unless she’s taking the computer course or research course this year, she’s going to be going to school at least 3 years because of these 2 classes. She takes her notes on her laptop, trying to type verbatim what Prof M is saying. She’s going to be exhausted by end of term if she sticks it out because Prof M loves to lecture. She never opened her books last night and a lot of what Prof M said was quoted straight from both texts. Hello highlighter!
I’m awful. I know I was new once too, but I always knew where I was going and how I was going to get there. I’ve known all along what the requirements were and when I had to take whatever course to benefit me in the next one. It seems like the past 2 terms have been filled with lacidasical students just trying to get by, who have no priorities. I feel it holds those of us back who have gone the route the way it should be taken. I want half the class to drop, including my tablemate. I want my space. LOL
Stitching…nothing in the mailbox. More auctions outbid. Only one item left. Another .8 hrs of stitching yesterday.
And here's a funny about my dad. He loves reading the comics and will frequently see his kids in some of them. He'll white out the captions and make up his own and fax them or email them to us, including the sons-in-law in the military (Beetle Baily is his favorite). The other day he asked me if I had been following Blondie. They're getting ready for an anniversary party and other comic characters have started showing up at their home. He mentioned in his email that he needed to find the Blondie website because he could not remember how long the comic had been around. I sent it to him.... www dot blondie dot com (I gave him the proper link). Well, dear sweet dad, typed in www dot blondi dot com and was immediately taken to a porn site. He now thinks his oldest daughter is trying to corrupt him and has asked to borrow my credit card. I think I need to call mom ;)
Most of what I’m blogging about today are thoughts that I want to go back to later in the term to see if things pan out the way I feel they will with the class, so I’m going to ramble.
Prof M didn’t waste any time in laying out the ground rules and setting requirements to pass the course. I’m so glad, because I suspect it helped to lean out the class a bit. You could just feel the “oh-shit” emanating around the room when she was talking about all the legal research that would probably be required to write the paper that’s worth more than 30% of our final grade. Not to mention the “yikes” when told they would have to brief 2 cases, from the book, orally to the class. Rather hard to do that if you’ve never IRAC’d in your life.
After she scared the crap out of the newbies over the paper, she proceeded to try to explain how to write a legal paper and do legal research. Yawn…okay, not that bad, I did take notes to refresh my memory, but geesh! I wanted to get into the meat of the class…the arguing! LOL She did mention one thing, that I want to clarify in front of the class next week. The experienced researchers are expected to cite to Blue Book where she wasn’t going to hold “them” accountable for correct citation. Um, excuse me, isn’t that discrimination, and isn’t that one of the things we’ll be discussing this term?
As for us “old timers” she gave the first chapter briefs to us so we could show the newbies what she expected. Oh joy, oh rapture! At least that means I’ll have one of my 2 out of the way rather quickly. Another thing she had us to was to introduce ourselves politically. She called on us quite frequently last night and since I was 1 of 5, that mean my opinion on matters is out there already.
The young lady that sat next to me last night is new to the program. I asked her if she was taking legal research this term and she said that she couldn’t because of her new job. She about flipped out when I told her it was only offered once a year, and that she would not be able to take legal writing (also only offered once a year in Spring) without the research requirement. Oh, and you did notice that your required computer class is also only offered once a year, at the same time in the same term as legal research. No, she didn’t. Don’t these people look at what their requirements are? So, unless she’s taking the computer course or research course this year, she’s going to be going to school at least 3 years because of these 2 classes. She takes her notes on her laptop, trying to type verbatim what Prof M is saying. She’s going to be exhausted by end of term if she sticks it out because Prof M loves to lecture. She never opened her books last night and a lot of what Prof M said was quoted straight from both texts. Hello highlighter!
I’m awful. I know I was new once too, but I always knew where I was going and how I was going to get there. I’ve known all along what the requirements were and when I had to take whatever course to benefit me in the next one. It seems like the past 2 terms have been filled with lacidasical students just trying to get by, who have no priorities. I feel it holds those of us back who have gone the route the way it should be taken. I want half the class to drop, including my tablemate. I want my space. LOL
Stitching…nothing in the mailbox. More auctions outbid. Only one item left. Another .8 hrs of stitching yesterday.
And here's a funny about my dad. He loves reading the comics and will frequently see his kids in some of them. He'll white out the captions and make up his own and fax them or email them to us, including the sons-in-law in the military (Beetle Baily is his favorite). The other day he asked me if I had been following Blondie. They're getting ready for an anniversary party and other comic characters have started showing up at their home. He mentioned in his email that he needed to find the Blondie website because he could not remember how long the comic had been around. I sent it to him.... www dot blondie dot com (I gave him the proper link). Well, dear sweet dad, typed in www dot blondi dot com and was immediately taken to a porn site. He now thinks his oldest daughter is trying to corrupt him and has asked to borrow my credit card. I think I need to call mom ;)