First Assignment – Introduce Yourself

Your first OpenLab assignment is to introduce yourself to your classmates.  This assignment is due Friday, January 31 st, at the start of class. Late submissions will receive partial credit.

Assignment. Write a comment in reply to this post (scroll to the bottom to find the “Leave a Reply” box).  Your comment should be at least 2 paragraphs in length.  In the first paragraph, introduce yourself in whatever way you wish (what do you want your classmates to know about you?).  In the second paragraph, choose ONE of the following two topics and write a response. Don’t forget to tell us which topic you chose.

Topics (choose ONE).

  1. Was math ever your favorite subject? If so, when was it? What about math made it your favorite? If math has never been your favorite subject, what about it do you not like?
  2. Sometimes people can recognize a time when their opinion of math dramatically changed either for the better or the worse. Tell us about it.

Extra Credit. For extra credit, write a response to one of your classmates’ comments. Do you feel the same? Did you learn anything? Do you have any advice? Be kind.

20 thoughts on “First Assignment – Introduce Yourself”

  1. Hello everyone. My name is Yanely Tejada. My major is CST and this is my senior year.
    I hope this semester we all can do great in this course. Math was one of my favorites courses until things got very difficult for me. This is my second time taking this math class, and I hope it will be my last. Sometimes what makes math difficult is the way some teachers teach us, and also the time that we need to dedicate to each class and due to work or personal stuffs we can’t. I’m not that great at math, but it any of my classmates needs help or need to discuss any math topic count on me.

  2. My name is Alexandr Koziar, and I’m a full-time student entering the third term majoring for Mechanical Engineering while also maintaining a part-time job at Dunkin Donuts! It’s not easy getting things done for classes when you have so much time on your hands and all you are doing is just running in-between going to school and then going to work, get home to sit down in front of a textbook and sleep little hours (and then repeat), but I get it done. I suppose that, while I favor more in completing tasks on time or even early, I tend to work more efficiently when under pressure. After all, I don’t really have it easy, let alone give myself a break!

    To be fair, history is actually my most favorite subject, but I don’t have it wrong with math; Like going into a relationship, you’re gonna have your moments when you don’t know what you’re getting yourself into until you start to understand things. For me, that’s the principle I go by when it comes to math, and I suppose that’s what I enjoy most about it. It’s when it stares right back at you in the face and you know deep down you don’t have to bother, but instead, you force yourself to study it fluently until it comes naturally even in your sleep. I recall even back in 4th grade, you could never convince me to do my best in math because I still hadn’t understood how to do simple divisions! But rather it’s the motivation I later picked up, or perhaps just being tired of not knowing how to do it, I just put in enough effort to come out with an A+ for that class. Since then, it’s always an unspoken passion for me to learn more about math so I could gradually get better and better until I can say, “I don’t need a calculator for this, thank you”.

  3. Hello my name is Joseph Carbone, and I am 20 years old. I am a junior at city tech. I am a CST student. This is one of the 5 class I am taking this semester. I like to watch/play basketball, play video games, and watch movies.

    Yes, math was my favorite subject in high school. I liked it in high school because I understood everything much easier and the material was easier. The classes were not hard classes like discrete algorithms which I hated taking last semester.

  4. Hi, my name is Mahmoud. I’m Egyptian and I like material art.

    #2
    when I was younger I didn’t pay attention to school and because so I was bad at math, but when I get to high school I knew I needed it to pass my math regents so I studied a lot of math used different website to study it also, join a math p reap. After I get the score that I wanted I took math 1275 as a college now at laguardia college. However, I don’t know how bad or good my math is right now

  5. Hey guys, my name is Saad Tariq and I’m in my 3rd year of college right now. I’m studying finance and minoring in marketing. You guys will most likely see me in suits every other week and if you ever wonder why that is, is because I Work in the suit industry, so if you ever have any questions, please feel free to ask.

    The question I’ll be choosing is if math was ever my favorite subject, I’d have to say yes to that. math was and still is my fav subject. I figured it was one of my fav subjects when I got happy solving a two page problem back in my BC calc class in high school. The reason why i like math is very simple, because it’s a language on its own and you can always find different ways to solve a specific problem.

  6. My name is Noel Caraballo. Im 19 years old and im from the Dominican Republic. Although I was born here I speak both Spanish and English. The major that I choose is Construction Management which is a 4 year bachelor program. I originally went to city college but I was undecided. I then transferred to city tech to do construction management.

    The topic that I am doing is number 1. My favorite subject was never math I’ve always struggled with it. Ever since middle school it has been one that has been chellenging for me. I know math has a lot to do with retaining the way you do a problem. If you want to remember how to do it you keep doing it over and over util you get it. What I don’t like about math is the amount of time it takes to understand a problem if you don’t get it.

  7. My name is Rikesh Maharjan. I’m from Nepal. I came here three years ago. My hobbies are playing soccer, listening to music, photography.

    Math was my favorite subject of all. It was my favorite because I always liked solving difficult equations and also I was very much inspired by my professor. The brainstorming made me like mathematics. Math is one of the subjects where we don’t write a lot and this is one of the reasons what I like about this subject.

  8. This is my second year at city tech, I am majoring in Computer Engineering which has been going well so far. In High School math was a subject which did not interest me, but now in college I managed to get through MAT1275 and MAT 1375 which is an improvement to say the least. I am looking forward to continuing to learn and improve my knowledge in mathematics as it will benefit me with my major as well as other math courses.

  9. Hi, my name is Kevin Amoo and I am a Computer Information Systems major in City Tech. I am currently in my 2nd year there and I intend in transferring to a different school after this semester so as to be able to be on a basketball team. I’d say I’m a pretty tall individual, standing at 6’6″. I’m a twin and my twin isn’t as tall as I am. How funny is that. I hope I have a good semester and that I achieve my goal this semester.
    In high school, math was my favorite subject and I never got below a 92% in any of my quizzes and tests. One thing that made me like maths was that it forces you to think theoretically as well as gives you the ability to try and try again to get the right answers.

  10. Hi, my name is Haoxian Zhao, I am a freshman student, my major is Computer Sciences and I think this class will help on graphic and logic of solving problem with computers. I look forth to learn a lot in this class and I will do my best.
    Math is not my favorite class, it never been, because sometimes it is so annoying to look at numbers that you do not even know how you get it and how can it related to the question, even though I will still try my best to learn in this class. After all, math class is as important as a key to many class which means without math there are many problems can not be solved, everything is related to math.

  11. Hey, my name is Steven Vera and I’m from a small town back in Axocopan, Puebla Mexico. As of right now I’m majoring in Mechanical Engineering so far it’s my second year in city tech. Some of my favorite hobbies is to play soccer and basket ball. I’m also into sneakers which tend to buy all the time but sometimes I would consign them in order to gain profit out of them.

    Math was probably my favorite subject when I was growing up but after high school I fell off because I started to become lazy and I would always be behind because of that. Math was always my favorite subject because it’s easy meaning its common sense to solving problems. If math was in my interests then the word problems would really kill me because I would read pass the important details.

  12. Hi guys, My name is Ryan and I’m a second year at CityTech. I’m a Mechanical Engineer Major and believe it or not this is actually my second time taking Calc 1 even though I should be ashamed of saying that as a potential Engineer. I am however frequently tardy, specifically speaking about 8 am classes and hope to fix that issue. So if I look unapproachable especially in the morning, it’s most likely because I’m still sleeping but only this time, with my eyes open.
    In that regards, I will be responding to the 1st topic. Math used to be my favorite subject, more so because I was very good at it. This was during high school. It was always fun learning new and it still is, specifically Math because there’s always only one Solution but many different ways to go about finding it. While this is still the case or Atleast I hope it is, everything suddenly got turned on the flip side when I started college and I’ve been stuck with 8am Math class every since and I’ve been straying further and further from Math.
    I look forward to a great semester with you all and hopefully I’ll learn to like math again, even a little.

  13. My name is Safia. I’m from Algeria. My major is liberal Art and Science and this is my second semester.
    I love math since I was in elementary school. I always find Math fun and interesting. it doesn’t need much memorization like the other subjects. I love the way it doesn’t require much talking and writing.

  14. Hello classmates, my name is Josmeile. I’m a transfered student from Hostos Community College. I’m currently pursuing a Bachelor’s in Chemistry. After obtaining this degree I want to continue schooling and get my Master’s degree. I’m taking this course because it’s a requirement for my major.
    Math was never my favorite subject, In fact I always hated it. I never thought it was a subject that I would have to use in my daily life. Can you imagine grocery shopping and then having to use y=mx+b? I bet your answer is no. I always thought it was complicated, long, and boring. It wasn’t until I was a senior in high school that I actually started to enjoy math. I remember that the first day of that particular math class, Mrs. Chang stood in front of the class and instead of going right into teaching, she started to explain to us how there was different type of ways in which students learn, or are able to absorb the material they are being taught. There was students that learned by listening, others learned by seeing what they are being taught, and other students learned kinesthetically. That automatically caught my attention. Every lesson she ever gave us she always made it in such a way that each type of learner was able to learn the material in there own form of learning. Ever since that class I had a better opinion about math. I think nobody is bad in math, we are just being taught ONE way, when there is endless ways to teach a subject; because not every student learns the same way. Like Albert Einstein once said “Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by it’s ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.”

  15. Hello, My name is Anthony Parrales ,this is my third year as a student in city tech, As you might figure out i am Hispanic from Ecuador, I guess i am very friendly to everyone. I am not really a morning person so sometime you might see i get late to class but will always be there, Hope we get along.

    Math has always been one if my favorite class, it has been my favorite since i was a kid, the thing that a like the most is that you need to use you critical thinking to solve problems that otherwise would no be possible to solve.If there is anything that i do not like is when i take my math classes in the morning because i am not a morning person it just get hard to grasp the concept of it but i do not really hate anything that is related with math.

  16. Hi my name is Omar J. Abdel-Rahman. I am a full time student and I am studying in hopes to graduate with my bachelors degree in electrical engineering. I currently work at the Prospect Park YMCA as a swimming instructor for children and sometimes adults, and I am currently trying to teach my friend how to swim. I originally was aiming for my bachelors in video game design but I decided that it wasn’t for me.
    One of the things that was nice about my old major was that it required almost no math classes. For the majority of my life I wasn’t that good in math, it just never really connected with me. But when I decided that I wanted to get a degree in electrical engineering I realized that I was going to have to get good at math, which made me very nervous. But I loved my engineering courses because I was finally in the major that best suited me. After using math to help me solve for ever problem within these courses I realized that I was pretty good at math. The only reason I was so bad in the past is because I never wanted to be good at it,.

  17. Hello. My name is Muhammad. I’m majoring in Chemistry. I’m planing on becoming a pharmacist and opening my own pharmacy. I have a lot of connections to succeed in my plans. I’m very outgoing person. I also love to hang out with my friends. I like to eat and smoke hookah. I work at a pharmacy as a manager and I get a lot of experience thanks to this job.
    Math was my favorite subject in middle and high school because it was very easy for me. I like solving problems and working every single questions to get it correct. my favorite part about math is when i get the question correct. it makes me happy. the worst part of math is when you make at least one mistake, you can get the answer wrong very easily.

  18. Hello my name is John Gregorios my friends call me Jay, love to create art most of the time if you cant find me I’m probably at Casa Magazines.
    For the most part math was one of my favorite subject, I always liked the thinking aspect of the object and the multiple ways you can do to actually get the result

  19. Hello all, my name is Nandanie Ramnarain. I am in my junior year at NYCCT and majoring in Construction Management. I’m very open and friendly. I know this class will be hard for me since math is my worst subject. If anyone can relate, I’m down with forming study groups so we can help each other out in whatever the case may be. Let’s try to get the best grade we can.
    I will be discussing Topic 1. Math has never been my favorite subject, it seriously makes me nervous. When doing homework, I’m fine because I have perfectly solved examples from class right in front of me that I can compare to. However, when it comes to tests or quizzes I second guess everything. Since I have nothing to look at to confirm what I’m doing is correct, I just always feel like I’m doing something wrong. Sometimes I don’t even know how to start a problem. The memorization of the rules that are supposed to be second nature are pretty hard for me too. I’m the type of person who likes to do the physical work rather than doing calculations, which is one of the reasons I chose construction over engineering. Nonetheless, to improve I’ll just have to practice a lot and do it mostly without looking at my notes.

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