actually learning in school

In school, I’ve always been in classes with 30+ students…in college many of my classes had 300+ kids. The classes I took for the Spanish major were a little better at having smaller class sizes…until they turned many of our upper-division Spanish classes into lecture courses, aka turning our previous 30 student class into a 90 person class…virtually eliminating the conversational portion and replacing this with a lecture from the professor. (and how does this help us learn Spanish…?)

At this point, I became really good at memorizing answers for the multiple choice tests given to these massive language classes…but I’m pretty sure memorizing answers with completely unrelated mnemonic devices isn’t the proper path to language acquisition.

Oh, and at this point too, I’m pretty sure the native speakers were loving the Spanish major because they have been practicing speaking / hearing Spanish at home since day 1, so…for example…the “listening” portion of tests…well, this was a piece of cake for them because they’ve grown up hearing and speaking Spanish so it’s like second nature. However, for those of us who did not grow up with the language…well, let’s just say, by having such huge class sizes and not having the opportunity to converse and practice speaking…well, let’s just say, it was a challenge.

Oh, and let me also say…I hands down learned 100% more Spanish in the semester I spent studying abroad in Mexico, than in the 8 years of Spanish I took in high school and college. Perhaps this is because I had about an average of 5 students in all of my upper-division courses in Mexico and the structure of the program was very much an experiential one. Instead of being talked at, we conversed and did many hands on projects, took field trips, etc. I’ll also note that I earned 2x as many upper division credits during the time I was gone than I would have earned taking classes at UO (I earned ~28 credits abroad and 12 credits is considered a full-time student at UO). I feel safe to say that if I spent 1 year, maybe 2 in that type of environment, I would have Spanish down, backward and forward. But no, I spent 1 semester learning the way kids should be taught, and the other 7 1/2 years…well…still trying to figure out what I got from that.

Anyway, I am digressing…and quickly…the education system is something I could certainly go off on…so yes, let’s end it there for now.

The point I’m trying to make is this. I’ve been taking a Greek class since September. There are four students in my class. I have learned more Greek in the 4 1/2 months (no class in Dec!) than Spanish I learned in the first four years in high school. Perhaps rather than cramming 3 classes into one (like my Spanish classes), we could take one class, divide it by 3, and have kids go to school for 1/2 the time, but actually learn and benefit from the smaller class sizes.

Anyway, this is what we did last class. It’s probably all Greek to you (ha ha ha I’m so funny) BUT, the stuff in this picture is a little story about a classroom and a teacher. And the teacher is learning all the kids names. And one kid forgot his pencil and the teacher became angry with him. And the kid said: well, it’s not like I forgot EVERYTHING, just a pencil!

Learning About Target Markets from Soulja Boy

When I first began partaking in DECA/marketing in high school seven years ago (oh my god, I am getting old), we wrote and presented marketing plans. I remember copying down a list of demographic and psychographic target market ranges – 18 – 24 year old men and women, who attend college. Was this really how advertising was back in the day, or was I somehow disillusioned that there was a formula for advertising?

So anyway, back to DECA (funny – in high school, everyone not in DECA in high school always refered to it as being part of “the cult”. Anyone notice how this is the same exact opinion of us in the ad. program at UO?!)

Ok for real – back to the story: based on this very generic target market information…we wrote a marketing plan and strategy. And actual won a number of categories we/I had entered. Granted, this was a high school competition and we were just beginning our journey into the marketing world; however, point being…when we were first learning about marketing, we certainly did not have the types of resources we have now for market research. I remember I could not get on Facebook as I did not yet attend a college (how it still SHOULD be, p.s.) and social media had not yet exploded…

But I digress. Again. Oops.

Anyway, the point is, I was looking up Soulja By’s ‘Crank That’ on YouTube the other way (as to why I was searching this – well, don’t worry about it (; ) ANYWAY, it is quite amazing,actually, the wide variety of users who have posted content that I could not pigeon hole into a categorized target market (unless the target was: those who love Soulja Boy). I won’t lie – if I was shown the Crank That video in high school and was asked which target market I thought the song was catering to, I would probably say 16-22 year old African American males. Sounds horrible that I would stereotype this, but hey, I’m just being honest and I think a lot of people would have been right there with me.

Ok…so here’s the point. I complain a lot about how social media is ruining the world (and in a way it is), but at the same time, the power of social media is actually is pretty darn amazing. Social media and digital means have provided opportunities to gain an incredible insight and to open the transparency doors to connect dots and form communities that might have never been connected.

Very cool. Check it out:

Waiting For Deb Idea Book

Part A: At the beginning of winter term this past year, Max and I really bonded over sitting outside Deb‘s office, waiting for a few minutes to chat…along with every other J. school Ad. kid in Allen.

Part B: We discovered we both always brought our idea books to pass time during the wait.

AHA moment!: We decided to make a project out of it – insert the Waiting for Deb Idea Book!  We decided to Velcro a small blank notebook under the chair outside of Deb’s office.

waitingfordeb

Over the course of the next 2 terms, any student waiting for Deb could contribute to our collaborative book.  The kicker – Deb had no idea this was in the works (=  A week or so before school concluded, we presented Deb with the book during Ad. Night:

WaitingForDebPresentation

- I’m pretty sure it was a hit (= Between us all, the pages were almost all filled and…you can check it out for yourself, but I think there are some pretty sweet insights within: (=

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