Cool School USA

Hello everyone!

If you already are a part of college, I suppose this post will not concern you much. Perhaps if your university is located in another nation than the US, you may spark interest in learning a bit more about college life here. In deed, it is very different from many countries I know;For example, in Hungary our class schedules were different each day during middle and high school like in college. So, you only had Math on certain days, and swimming on certain days during high school. This, in my opinion, made the educational experience a lot less boring!

Well, now that I'm starting college, I suppose I'll be experiencing this wonderful scheduling again. I really can't wait, it's been one of the downsides to the US-having one boring schedule.

Regardless. The attached file here is a scanned document (not complete, only about 60 pages) of the "planner" my college gave me last week. It is supposed to help you plan for your classes and such-it includes a calendar which starts about page 50 in, however this has turned out horrible.

What didn't turn out so bad is the priliminary information, from pg. 1 to pg. 40 or so. This is where you will find information such as University events, history, important offices and websites, and more.

I invite everyone to take a look at the "differences between college and high school" page. It's in there somewhere, do a find for it in the document-look up the words high school.

While a lot of the information here is university-specific, some of it might help other enterinig college students or international/non-us peeps who want to learn about our culture. No private information is listed here; I am going to the University of Toledo. Feel free to discuss the agenda/document. Scanning corrections are appreciated!

hello everyone,

This was the last English paper I wrote in my high school career. Can you believe it? I'm graduating in a month and this is worth our entire quarter grade. So, enjoy! Sitations are included. Please do not plajorize this essay. If you do, your teacher might google search it and find it somewhere like on Inclusive Planet. Feel free to, however, use it in your own research when it comes to women rights and Afghanistan's history. Please site the post if you did use it. It would help :)

Thanks-and enjoy!

Dear Students,

The Hadley School for the Blind proudly celebrates its 90th anniversary this year as the leading teacher of braille and the largest provider of distance education courses for individuals who are blind or visually impaired worldwide.

To recognize our 90th, we are holding a “Dear William Hadley” essay contest. We invite you to prepare a letter as if you were writing to William Hadley, telling him what the school he co-founded in 1920 has meant to you. You may wish to write about your favorite courses, interaction with your instructors, how you have applied what you have learned to your daily life etc.

There will be one international student winner who will receive a plaque in print and braille and one U.S. student winner who will receive a plaque and also have the opportunity to bring a guest to Hadley and join us for our 90th Anniversary Garden Party tentatively scheduled for June 24, 2010. The winning letters/essays will be reprinted in our student newsletter, “Hadley Connection,” and posted on the school’s Web site.

Want to know more? See the guidelines below.

ESSAY GUIDELINES

Essays should be original works of 300-500 words following a “letter to Mr. Hadley” format. Essays will be graded on originality, creativity and clarity of communication.
Essays should be typed or word processed or may be brailled (no handwritten entries will be accepted) and emailed to feedback@hadley.edu, faxed to 847-446-9916 ATTN: William Hadley or mailed to ATTN: William Hadley, The Hadley School for the Blind, 700 Elm St., Winnetka, IL 60093. All submissions must arrive by March 1.
Each submission should include your name, address, phone number and email address (if available). If you provide a contact email, Hadley will notify you via email when we receive your submission.
A jury of Hadley staff and instructors will review all submissions. Winners will be notified in early April.
We look forward to your participation.


Sincerely,

Senior Vice President
Educational Operations

Source: http://www.hadley.edu/essay-contest.asp

This essay compares how characters gain a self image in three novels: Finding Fish, The Kite Runner, and William Shakespeare's Othello play. The goal is to show how a character from each novel reacts when he/she is faced with conflict of negativity/with chracters who try to impact their life negatively, and how they overcome this or why they don't do so.

I came across this while performing my day-to-day Google searches. This public site, from the University of Sussex, has lots of books that are downloadable, mainly on math/computing topics. Most of these seem to be under free distribution policy as well :) A lot of materials are whitepapers, and I've actually uploaded a few of the ones I have read. Some very interesting materials! Here's the link :) I know some of the PDFS (particularly calculus materials) may have graphics which, if you are completely blind, you obviously won't be able to see. So you may need sighted help in describing graphics. If you can't get any help, I'd be more than happy to ask a sighted person around me to describe a graphic for you, or simply ask around Inclusive Planet :) Either way works. Happy... Factoring!

Here are a few sites everyone could use if they are programmers. I do a vocational class in school, and am currently learning c#. While my teacher scans the book, sometimes I do need that extra "push" and get examples to help me understand the context. www.java2s.com/Code/CSharp/CatalogCSharp.htm has a lot of c# examples, categoriesed in various categories. Very useful! If you program Java, Java2s.com is actually a great site with java code, too! We all know that Java and c# are like sisters. For Python enthusiasts, I not only have a site I used when I first began learning the language, but also attached you will find a file of my own history project I wrote in Python. www.sthurlow.com/python has a Python tutorial for beginners. There are so many other programming languages out there, and if you aren't a computer-type person, you will probably never ever see the word c# again in your life. Java maybe. Python not so much. Feel free to share any other programming resources either by commenting on this post or by creating your own conversation!

Recently we have been reading Othello in English class. While I love English literature and reading, I have to say that some of the language found in the 16th century today is hard to understand. Of course some might not feel that way, but I'm sure that there are those of us who just can't fully grasp Shakespeare's writings. And of course others who are in between - you understand it, but perhaps an English translation might help. I use Spark Note's No Fear Shakespeare to have an English version of the play, that's understandable. While they don't use "proper" english in the translations - for instance you will see words like gonna or dude - it's still useful, especially when you need that extra push to understand the play. http://nfs.sparknotes.com/othello/ is Othello's play, and you can browse by scene. The english translations are right below the Shakespearian line. You can also go to http://nfs.sparknotes.com and find other "No Fear Shakespeare" documents. Happy... Play reading! Psst. Keep it a secret, because I know that my English teacher despises and curses any "modern translation" of the play - we are NOT allowed to use it. Yours might dislike it too. So... I wouldn't use this to act or read the play in class from. Just a note :)