Today is the last day of class before Spring Break. Again, we are watching YouTube videos of different musicians from what sounds like the 40s-60s? I am not sure what we are quite talking about, but all I know is we are learning about different musicians and talking about a guy named Sid Nathan. So, now that we are about halfway through the semester, I can confidently say I have no idea what this class is about and what we have talked about so far this semester. I feel like I don’t want to come to class because I am just so confused, but if I came to see you during your office hours, I still feel like I wouldn’t understand. I enjoy you as a professor because you are extremely outgoing and energetic, but I don’t understand the course, so it is hard for me to learn about this class since I am not interested in it or understand it.

In today’s class, we talked more about music and I have mentioned it before, but this is one of my biggest questions – why do we jump from topic to topic instead of discussing one topic at a time (e.g. music)? I feel like I cannot contribute to the class discussions we have in class because I have no clue what’s going on. I try to take in everything you are saying, but since there are barely any notes given and only YouTube videos shown, I cannot take in much. For me, I learn at a much slower pace and need visuals to learn, so whenever you or my classmates are speaking, I can’t take much in.

Today, I unfortunately did not go to class today due to being sick, so I can’t talk much about what went on during class. However, in previous classes, I don’t understand any of the material or the purpose of the class, so I feel like if I did go to class, I would still not understand. Is this class solely about music, or what? For most classes, the topics mainly are revolved around music and subcategories of music, but for other classes, other topics are discussed. I am trying to get an insight on what the class is going to be for the rest of the semester. Will there be any other forms of notes we can have regarding class?

To be completely honest, I still am confused what the course is about and not sure how I can help myself at this point. It is almost halfway through the semester and if I don’t understand anything now, not sure how I am going to understand anything at all. I review the material and the YouTube videos, but there’s nothing to really base it off of or guide me into what we talked about. I don’t know how to respond to the class material if I don’t understand anything I am learning about and I ask one of my friends in the class if she understands and she doesn’t at all, so my only other option is to come to your office hours.

I am having trouble looking up the class notes, so I don’t really understand what’s going on. I feel like I say the same thing in each of my blogs, but I REALLY don’t understand this class AT ALL. I’m trying to understand the best I can, but it’s difficult when nothing makes sense to me and I can’t get access to the notes. However, whenever I did have access to the notes, I still don’t quite understand anything we are talking about. I don’t get this course and from the looks of things, I don’t think I ever will really understand. I pay attention in class when I am there, but the class is so fast paced and discussed in class versus PowerPoints that it’s more difficult for me to understand anything. When I do take notes, I don’t know what I am taking notes of because there really is no outline of this class.

I feel this class jumps around too much and isn’t very organized. The first couple of classes, we talked about music, then we went into other topics, now we are back on the topic of music. I don’t get the layout of this class and I think it needs to be organized better with dividing the course topics into same categories. However, I am not the professor, so I cannot judge how the course is supposed to lay out, but to me, it just makes more sense to organize it into specific categories. I want to be able to participate in class more, but I am so confused on what’s going on that it makes it difficult to chip in.

Today was my first day back to class since my friends passing, so I was trying my best to get back into a swing of things. I was confused for the most part because I have yet to catch up on the notes from the past two classes and since I never heard back from you via email about what I missed, I was confused. I didn’t really understand the topic talked about in class because one, I haven’t been mentally focused and two, most of class is discussed with each other and there aren’t a lot of notes given to us. I really think the class would be better to understand if there were slideshows with thorough notes, rather than always in class discussions, since it is difficult to type or write everything down that is being discussed.

Unfortunately, my friend who was in a coma passed away and I did not come to class. It has been a difficult week for me dealing with his passing, so once again, I have not been over the notes yet. I do not like struggling and feeling behind, especially in a class I already do not understand, so I feel like this is going to be a major setback for myself. I emailed you twice now and have not heard from you, so I can talk to you after class next class because I am planning on coming, or I can come to your office hours. It would be nice to hear back from you because I don’t want to fall behind or not understand what the class went over, but I will also reach out to my classmates.

Two days ago, a close friend of mine went into a coma and is in critical condition. I decided not to go to class today due to wanting to go to the hospital and spend all the time I can with him in case anything drastically changes. I will try my best to stay on top of the notes and slides, but as of now, that is not my priority, nor am I in the right state of mind to focus on school right now. I don’t have much to say about today’s class, considering I did not go, or look over notes. Again, I will try my best to stay on top of my work, but I am struggling with it as of now.

In today’s class, we discussed the book, The Shallowsand to be honest, I didn’t have much to say or give feedback because I didn’t finish the book. I said in my first post I thought it was a tad ridiculous to read an entire book within a week of the course starting because we had to one, order the book, which could take multiple days to be delivered, and then, at that point, we only had a few days to read it. Not making excuses, but for me, I am taking five other classes than this one and work two jobs, so I don’t have all the time in the world to focus on this one class and finish a book in a week. Also, I thought it was strange how we didn’t have an assignment to go along with the book, so how do you know if everyone read it or not? Sure, we can talk about it in class, but I feel like the same five people give their feedback, so I feel like there should have been an assignment to go along with the book, or just not assign the book readings at all. To be completely honest, I feel people will not read the books if it’s going to be the same thing with this book, just discussing it in class.