Short Lived

Well this blog only lasted 2 weeks...I really had no clue how much work being an Art Major entails! I think I might pick this blog up again but not every day, I have way to much work to do. I'm pretty sure I can post a couple times a week and I m gonna include pictures now too.

Anyways, Im nearly half way through my second semester now, I managed to pass the first semester and actually get myself and pretty nice GPA while I was at it.

This semester Im taking three studio classes, Drawing II, Design II and Color Concept/Development, Art History II, English 104 and Snowboarding for Physical Education.

Here is some of my art work from last semester!

Im gonna hopefully take pictures, scan or find some way of getting my work up here on the web, of you can come down to OCC they are fans of hanging my work on the walls and it always more inpressive in person.

Well I got homework to finish for tomorrow...Im try yo keep an eye on this blog here. 

keep in touch

John Leavitt

Week 2 Day 6 at OCC

Well I finished up my homework last night so that it would be on time for today's classes. Today was the first day I've had to hand in home work and it was for my Math class with Professor Mary Crawford-Mohat. Besides just handing in our homework we learned about interesting patterns in numbers, really crazy patterns. So far I've really enjoyed this math class not only is it interesting but it has opened my eyes to the vastness of numbers.

After stopping by the gym to jog 2 miles on a treadmill and pump some weights, I hurried to English class with Professor Patrick Snow. Today we learned more in dept ways to properly structure paragraphs and papers. Along with this structure we learned the importance of forming a good thesis statement; one which is not to broad nor narrow and expressed only one idea. Now I have chapter 19 to read in the textbook!

I'm really tired now, just got back from 5 hours of work after classes...I'll be back up at OCC in the morning for Computerized Design I and 9:05am.

Random Comment

Hey P. Snow if you read this, you might want to figure out a way to add your picture to your ratings page at http://ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=673764  
Rater Comment: - "Definitely the best teacher I've had in 2 yrs! He makes class fun and he cares about his students! As long as you apply yourself you will do well ;P (not to mention great eye candy)"

That comment got me laughing and all the comments seem to agree with my appreciation of how I am kept interested during class.

Week 2 Day 5 at OCC

Hey it's Tuesday again! I woke up late this morning so I had to rush to pick up my friend Mark and get to OCC on time. But I was still ten minutes late for my Math 112 class. Thankfully, Professor Mary Crawford-Mohat was gracious and excused me. There's no way I'm letting that happen again. I find Math 112 really easy but some of the problems can be tricky. Today we did a practice on fully understanding large numbers, and the differences between making guesses and numeric predictions.  Before that and actually right after I joined the class late, professor Mary Mohat asked us how many times we could fold a 8" by 12" paper. Many of the students replied with number eight and higher and I was leaning towards eight myself. Once we actually did fold our papers we were shocked to realize that the maximum number of folds we could make was only 6 or maybe 7. I don't know about the other students, but I was intregued by the number of fold I made, which was 6. I unfolded the paper and counted how many squares made out of the creases were in the paper and there were 64(8x8). Then I folded the paper 4 times and I noticed it made 16(2x8) squares on the paper. Following this I folded the paper 5 times and found that my hunch was right it made 32(4x8) squares. I realized that there is a common denominator between the numbers; 16, 34, and 64 and it is 8. I also saw a pattern that the other denominator was rising by 2 each time the paper was folded. With this information I found I was able to predict how many squares would be made if a paper could be folded 7, 8, 9 and etc. times. All the while the rest of the class had continued on to discuss the difference between guessing and predicting. I raised My hand looking for brownie points for finding a pattern and being able predict the outcome of a problem we had already worked on and over looked in class. 

After getting out of Math class at 10:50am I ate lunch and looked over my math homework in till 12:30 when I attended English class for the third time. 

This class was the the first session of really learning writing skills, besides understanding the commitment we must have to succeed in our writing education so I was really wondering how this would turn out. Patrick Snow, our English professor began by writing the #1 goal of writing on the chalk board, "Clearly communicate a message to a reader." Continuing, P. Snow explained the correct structure or guidelines to follow while writing sentences and paragraphs. Right now I'm trying to follow those guidelines he taught today but I don't know how successful I am turning out to be. I could write the outline of notes I took but it would be very boring since I'm not Patrick Snow who seems to animate the classroom and keep students interested in what he is saying, I don't think its just me. As a discourse community we formed a practice paragraph following the framework constructed by Patrick Snow. Overall I found English, for the first time in my life, to be exciting and even entertaining. All throughout high school I found writing a pain in the ass but now I almost want P. Snow to assign some writing so that I can practice my writing skills. In conclusion P. Snow wrote with chalk the 2nd goal of writing, "All good papers answer a good question."

Class ended at 1:50pm I talked to Patrick Snow a minute and told him about this blog, he like the idea so here I am continuing to write. I really hope I can keep this up for the rest of this semester, though I'm sure blogs will become shorter as I become busier with homework and studies.  

Week 2 Day 4 at OCC

Right now I'm at OCC in the Feronta Hall, I don't have my Design I class (Art 103) till 12:30 followed by Drawing I (Art 101) at 3:30pm. I came in early because my friend Mark needed a ride and I though I could use the time to read more thoroughly my English 103 text book "Strategies for Successful Writing." Although I have already read chapters 15 and 16, I'm going back to answer the questions. Reading these two chapters are not signed until tomorrow or expected to be read until next week, but I might as well be ahead of the game. This last week's homework was to answer three questions on the blog my English professor posted; http://thewritetoolsforthejob.blogspot.com/2009/09/ccc-week-2-sentences-and-paragraphs.html#comments

Week 1 Day 3 at OCC

I attended my first Art Class today. It was Art 142 - Introduction to Computer Graphics, taught by Professor Christopher Madden in the Ferrante Hall at 11:05am this morning, we reviewed the syllabus for about an hour. Our Computer Graphics course teaches how to use the programs; Illustrator CS3, InDesign CS3 and Photoshop CS3 so for the second hour our professor had us get familiar with working on a Mac. and play around on the three design programs to get a very basic feel of how they work. I got our of class around 1:55pm and finished up my homework for Math and English.

Week 1 Days 1 & 2 At OCC

First off I'm going to say, welcome to my blog, this blog will be a log of my experience at Onondaga Community College and how I feel about the courses I am planning to complete.

Today I'm going to do some catch up since today was my second day of classes, and I want this blog to be complete.

Tuesday this week, the 6th of September, was my first day of classes at OCC. The first class I attended was Math 112 taught by Professor Mary Mohat in room 206 of the Mawhinny Hall at 9:30am. The style of math being taught is different than any I have seen before, it's not like the same drugging formulas of Algebra and Geometry, at least not yet. In the this class we played some tricky number games and were given homework to complete, to be handed in the Thursday of the next week. We finished the class at 10:50.

The following class I attended was Professor Snow's English 103 class also in the Mawhinny Hall but in room 192 and at 12:30pm. P. Snows energetic lecturing brought some life to an otherwise boring subject for me. During this first class we reviewed the syllabus and were given brief story of our professors background and some narratives of his more entertaining experiences, lasting to 1:50pm

Now that we are caught up here today's log,

Today, Thursday, I have the same classes and schedule as Tuesday. I attended Math 112 and learned practical but very complicated logic problems, and now I have 5 math questions to solve for homework.

At 12:30pm I attended P. Snow's class again and he spoke more in depth about Discourse Communities and what role they play. He also lectured on the four purposes of literature. Near the closure of our class, the 20 of us students were separated into groups of four, to write reports on Humpty Dunpty which was found to be quite entertaining. After writing and reading my groups report to the class, it was 1:50pm and time to go home.