Please add a comment to this post introducing yourself to the class. In your comment, write a paragraph (approx. 100-150 words) where you discuss any questions or concerns you have about taking an online writing class. You can mention anything that confuses or worries you. You may also discuss positive aspects (either that you’ve experienced or that you foresee) about online learning.
In addition to reflecting on online learning, if you wish, you may discuss your academic interests, why you chose your major, what you enjoy reading, listening to, watching, and doing in your spare time, or anything else you want to share (include your pronouns, if you wish).
Before next class, please come back and read the comments.
Get to know your classmates! Reply to one of your classmates’ comments. Think of your comments as a conversation with the other student: in other words, if you were in the classroom with this person how would you respond to their questions, confusion, expectations etc. about taking an online course. You could also think about: do you have something in common? Did you learn something? Be kind.
Hi my name is Joselin, honestly I’m a bit nervous since it’s my first year of college and starting class online but I’m looking forward to learning different thing. I choose to major in Architectural Tech because I really love math and I love designing and one thing for sure is I wanna be doing something I love and enjoy in the future. I’m a very shy person but not as much as I used to be.
Hi Joselin!
Welcome to City Tech! What Architecture course/s are you taking this semester? There might be a way to combine what you are learning in architecture with work you do for this class! We will talk about it 🙂
Hi!! Joselin. We have lots of things in common. I’m also a very shy person and nervous about my first year of college. I also love math and my major is Computer System.
My name is Han Ting Hu. I come from John Dewey High School and I am a freshman. The major I choose Liberal Arts, the reason is I still can not find my objective, so when I find my favorite major and I would change the Liberal Arts to another Major. The interests are I would like to listen to classical music and read the comics at the same time. Also, I have worries about the online writing class, do we have met on the app, for example, uses zoom, blackboard, or other apps. I have another question is what type the model of class.
Hi Hanting!
You are doing great so far… don’t worry!
First of all, you are only in your first year of college, so it’s wonderful to keep your options open in terms of majors… I love that you enjoy both classical music & comic books… what a fun combination 🙂
In terms of this class, we will do most of our work via this OpenLab platform. That said, I will find times for us to meet over Zoom or another video platform (such as Blackboard Collaborate) & I will be setting up opportunities for you to collaborate with peers via Google Docs. I will also have office hours via video.
For now, try to keep up with the agenda for this week (the readings etc.) and explore OpenLab. Do not worry though, I will be in touch to help you very soon!
Prof. Miller
Hey Hanting, I feel the same way many things changed at the last minute but I am very glad that many of the professors are reaching out and making sure that we are navigating just fine. I saw that you’re into comics I somewhat read comics as well from the Marvel Universe.
My name is Devindra Subhag. I’m in my first year of college and don’t really know what to expect. I was born and raised in Queens. The positive aspects that I see in this class is that It is not day to day assignments. That means I can work at my own pace with my other classes still in mind and get the work done. I don’t have to worry about time because of how much time I will have at home. I’m majoring in Computer Engineering Technology and it is something that I want to do. I chose it because of my interest in computers such as programming and constricting computers as a whole.
Hi Devindra!
You got on to the OpenLab platform— great work!
I am excited to hear about what you are studying in CET. Perhaps you can find a way to combine what you are learning in that class with writing assignments for this class…
Yes, you will be able to work at your own pace in this class, which is definitely a plus. I will be speaking with the class about the importance of time management & staying on top of the work. It sounds like you are motivated and ready to dig in to your college courses… excellent!
You will hear from me soon. For now, keep up with the work on the “Agenda” for this week and next (which will be posted soon). And keep exploring the OpenLab site so that you become familiar with it.
Prof. Miller
Good Morning everyone, My name is Ekeoma Duru and I am a freshman majoring in Nursing. I aspire to become a nurse because I love helping people in need. English is one of my favorite subjects because I love expressing my feelings and emotions through my writing. I love the way one can really express how they feel through the use of descriptive words. I love how informative writing can be. Sometimes I understand things that are told through writing more than things that are said to me verbally. I just have worries because I have never taken a class where I would have to teach my self essentially, I and am very worried that I will start falling behind because of that fact. I am a face to face learner so all this online shenaneegans is already so stressful. Regardless of that fact I am still very excited to meet you all, and wish you all a successful school year.
Good Morning everyone, My name is Ekeoma Duru and I am a freshman majoring in Nursing. I aspire to become a nurse because I love helping people in need. English is one of my favorite subjects because I love expressing my feelings and emotions through my writing. I love the way one can really express how they feel through the use of descriptive words. I love how informative writing can be. Sometimes I understand things that are told through writing more than things that are said to me verbally. I just have worries because I have never taken a class where I would have to teach my self essentially, I and am very worried that I will start falling behind because of that fact. I am a face to face learner so all this online shenaneegans is already so stressful. Regardless of that fact I am still very excited to meet you all, and wish you all a successful school year.
Ekeoma!
Don’t worry!
I agree that these “online shenaneegans” are stressful. But… good news… I will be available to you via email, Google docs, and over video for office hours. AND I am planning to get you together with a few peers over video conference and/or Google docs so that you can collaborate. In addition, there will be opportunities for me to meet with a few of you at once (via video) to discuss your writing.
I understand your worries– I am an English professor and a theater professor (and a playwright), so I am all about being IN PERSON with students and audiences! But we will get through this together, and I am right here for you.
While you will be in charge of your own time management, you will not be alone in teaching yourself. We will all be working together (teaching and learning from each other)…
You will hear from me soon.
Prof. Miller
You are now officially a member! Great.
Hello, my name is Sophiya.
I’m a freshman and I’m really nervous since it’s my first year of college. I came to US 4 years ago, and I’m multilingual (I speak Russian, Kazakh and English). I really worry about writing those long essays
since I’m not so fluent in English. I am majoring in nursing, even though it’s not in my passion.
My favorite subjects at school were history and psychology. I took AP English language in school, but that class didn’t really help me since pandemic started. In my class, we mostly read Shakespeare’s plays like Othello, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. Honestly it was kind of difficult for me to read those plays, since it was written in old English. I am really worried about completing assignments on time because different professors use different websites.
*My previous comment was cut off for some reasons.
Hi Sophyia!
You are doing great so far… thanks for posting so honestly about your concerns. We will work together, I think you will have an excellent experience in this class — even though it’s online. For now, spend some time with the OpenLab site just getting familiar with it.
I am somewhat new at OpenLab as well… so we will be learning how to use it together. I will be providing plenty of opportunities to get help (via video conferencing and Google docs), so you will feel supported by me and by your classmates as well!
I look forward to working with you this semester 🙂
Prof. Miller
Good afternoon to everyone, my name is Shakeem Herman and I am a freshman majoring in human services. I plan to work in the field of human services because I always enjoyed helping and working with other people. I spent my summer of 2018 as a camp counselor working and doing fun activities with students at sleep away camp. I am a bit nervous however since it is my first year of college I’m not very sure of what to expect in my classes. English has always been one of my favorite class even though I sometimes have trouble putting my thoughts on paper. I’m excited to meet you all and motivated to doing my best in this class.
Hi Shakeem!
Welcome to the class! In addition to spending time discussing readings, we will spend a lot of time discussing and figuring out strategies to become better writers! Believe me, you are not alone when it comes to having difficulty getting your thoughts down on paper!
I look forward to working with you 🙂
Prof. Miller
Hello, my name is Melanie and I’m a freshman majoring in communication designs. I’m sort of nervous since it’s my first year in college and I’ve never done online school. This class being online would be a good thing in my opinion since it’s not day to day so I can work at my own pace and comfort. I chose communication designs as my major because art is something I’m good at, have been practicing for a long time, and enjoy doing so I’d want to do what I’m good at as a career.
Hi Melanie!
Yes, this semester will be a learning experience for all of us!
I look forward to hearing more about your major. There may be a chance for you to write about your art and how you approach that aspect of your education.
Take some time over the next few days to familiarize yourself with the OpenLab site. I’ll be in touch soon with other information about how to meet me for a video conference (office hours) etc.
Welcome to the class 🙂
Prof. Miller
Good Morning Everyone, My name is Krista and I am a freshman majoring in Dental Technology. I chose this major because I majored in it 2 years priors to coming to NYCCT while I was a high school junior. I am a tad bit nervous about the whole online thing and how I will fair with it but overall I believe I will do just fine. I would much rather have lectures and labs in person on campus so I can interact better with peers and teachers alike but due to the pandemic it has made any interactions early impossible. A few positive aspects of this online learning is that I am able to be comfortable at home while doing the work and the spacing of these classes/meetings. I worry about next semester and how things will fair in the future for everyone enduring the effects of this virus. My main career goal and interest is finishing college in a timely manner, passing everything and becoming a marine biologist. I very much enjoy reading books like Lemony Snicket’s ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’, its something about the plot twists and how the story develops that just grabs my attentions and I can’t seem to put the book down. It is definitely a book I would recommend if you like reading thrillers, mystery or fantasy. (Although I haven’t read it much in a long time i still remember details about the chapters I had read)
Hi Krista!
A marine biologist– wonderful! I would love to hear more about that path, and you can write about it as well this semester 🙂
Yes, this semester will be a learning experience for all of us– I have taught online before, but I have never taught FULLY online!
I am thrilled to hear that you love reading and that you are a fan of Lemony Snicket. We will be doing a lot of reading in this class, and I think you will enjoy most of the selections!
Take some time to explore the OpenLab site & do the work for Week 2. I’ll be in touch soon.
Please feel free to reach out if you have any questions in the next few days, but also know that I will have video or phone conferences with all of you next week– and I’ll be in touch about that!
Prof. Miller
Hello class, My name is Kayla Alvarez and I started my CityTech journey a little over a year ago as a Liberal Arts major. This is my first semester taking part in virtual learning considering that I was not enrolled in class last semester. I was previously enrolled in an online class before everything became virtual. I became familiarized with communicating via blackboard with my classmates and my professor. We utilized google docs as our peer editing platform which I found to be very beneficial in making online class a bit easier. As of now I have no concerns for the upcoming semester, I view majority of our unprecedented times as a learning experience! I am excited to take part in what seems to be a very interesting semester and to collaborate with everyone here!
Hi Kayla,
I really appreciate your positive attitude!
We will be using google docs in here a bit later in the semester when students start working on longer assignments and begin doing some peer editing!
Hello, everyone!! This is Sabah Minhaj. I am the incoming freshman of this semester. I went to Francis Lewis High School. In school all my teachers were really good and liked me a lot so I hope all my professors will be doing the same. I’ll try my best to communicate with my professors about my problems. My major is Computer Systems and my aim is to become a computer engineer. I have liked this profession since I was 8 years old. Actually I’m a little bit worried and nervous because this is my first year. All my classes are online and that’s why I’m worried, because if I finish all my assignments but I will not submit my work on time for technical issues then I will have trouble. I’m comfortable with zoom meetings and blackboard collaborate ultra because I already used it, but on Openlab, it’s kind of different. I don’t know how to use it and I’m worried about that. By the way, I like online classes, because in any case we have to be prepared for everything. Also I’m bad at using vocabulary words in my writing. Well I wish everyone good luck for this semester.
Hi Sabah,
As I have mentioned to others, this is my first time using OpenLab to fully teach a class! So we are all learning together.
There will be some opportunities to meet up online. For example, I will have virtual office hours via Zoom on Wednesdays from 2-4pm.
I will be sending a link out tomorrow (Wed. 9/2) at about 1:45pm inviting students to drop in and see me between 2-4pm. This will be sent to your email. Don’t worry if you cannot drop in at that time… there will be other opportunities 🙂
Good evening everyone my name is Alexandria but you all can call me Alex, I’m a freshman. I went to Cypress Hills Collegiate Preparatory High school. The major I choose to study is Science in Business & Technology of Fashion because I want to become an entrepreneur and I want to receive great insight and skills about opening a business and I love fashion. I’m always open-minded about styles…etc. However I’m very concerned about my freshman year of college because I’m still not used to online school and I’ve never used Open lab. Hopefully I get used to Open lab and all the other websites I have to use for my other classes.
Hi Alex!
You have successfully posted a comment to OpenLab– but there is one more thing you have to do: click “Join Now”– you should see this option under the small picture of roses… click that to become an official member of the site. Once you click “Join Now,” you will be able to post your responses to the HW assignments… let me know if you have any trouble.
I’m curious to hear more about your coursework in fashion! Maybe you will even figure out a way to incorporate fashion writing into some of your assignments for this class 🙂
Prof. Miller
Hello everyone, My name is Sharif Ahmed. I am a freshman majoring in Architectural Technology. Even though I’ve wanted to be an architect since sophomore year in high school i am slowly losing interest in this field. Since this is my first year in college naturally i am nervous. Some of this nervousness is relived due to all my classes being online. This means i don’t have to worry about getting lost looking for class as everything is easily accessible online. However this class is fully online without lectures which i find nerve racking as Im accustomed to having a teacher in front of me giving a lesson.
Hi Sharif!
I feel the same way! I have spent my teaching career in front of students in an actual classroom… but we will get through this together.
The good news is I’m working on figuring out virtual office hours & other ways to connect over video… so stay tuned for more information about that.
There is at least one other student in this class who is studying architecture. I would love to hear more about the architecture classes you are taking this semester; it would be great if you could incorporate your thoughts about architecture and design into your writing! 🙂
Prof. Miller
Hello everyone. My name is Runaku Roberts. I am a freshman majoring in Business management and sales. I’m very nervous about taking classes fully online because all my life my classes would be in person with a teacher in front of me. I plan to be an entrepreneur in the future, I plan of opening my own business. I always wanted to be my own boss growing up.
Hi Runaku!
Welcome to the course. We are all learning how to do online courses– so don’t worry!
The first thing you have to do though is hit “Join Now” under the picture of the roses. That way you will officially join the course! Email me at MillerCityTech@gmail.com if you have trouble.
My name is Kevin Ramon, I like this way of learning, although it takes time to get used to, and my major is Biomedical engineering. I believe that some of the problems that can occur on this way of learning are connecting on time, work not being submitted directly to the teacher, and presentations not being put to their full potential. I enjoy reading books that are uncommon to others, any type of music is fun, and I make small crafts as a hobby.
Hey everyone, My name is Sebastian Figueroa. I’m a freshman and I decided to following my studies in Engineering and telecommunications. The first time I arrived in New York, not a long ago thinking for a alot different way of living than the one that we are right now . Wishing to meet new people, do networking etc. But when the COVID started to distance everybody and making things a lot harder, changing my way of thinking . I’m really skeptical and worried with how this going to be managed, aswell of how I will be doing with my connection issues. But I hope this year will be a productive and efficient one for students and teachers.
Sebastian,
Welcome! I’m so glad you were able to join OpenLab. Yes, this is a challenging time. We are all going to have to work together in our class, college, city, state, country…!