Just like I needed practice for interviewing, I also needed practice on how to observe and take accurate notes. This is why I was assigned to observe another class.

Stiven Hernandez 

Writing for the Social Sciences 

March 2, 2022 

When in an unfamiliar place we tend to be skeptical and feel like an outsider. If you were to spend half of your semester in a classroom and then move to an unfamiliar place with new people and a different environment. There are many new things to learn and get a costume of. I visited a different classroom to observe the students, the professor, and how everything works. I expected the experience to be similar to my own English class. However, there were noticeable differences in how this class functioned. 

The classroom was 5/110 in the NAC (North Academic Center) building of The City College of New York. On March 23 of 2022 at around 2:00 Pm the Writing for The Social Sciences taught by Professor Alyssa Yankwitt was about to start. I was there close to 5 minutes early to the classroom; some students were already there. The room was bigger than my own English class, but eventually, I figured it was because there were more students. When professor Yankwitt enters the classroom, the first thing she talks about is prices. She gives Jellybeans to students who participate and help clean, similar to middle school. However, unlike middle school, the walls were white and plain, and felt more like a psych ward or a hospital than a classroom.  

Professor Yankwitt starts talking to her students as if they were friends who just found each other in the hallway. As she prepares, both parties start cracking jokes and making references. Personal stories and funny moments are being shared. I realized this classroom was different when professor Yankwitt said, “I am a 44-year-old professor with a tiara, does it look like I give a fuck?” Her words told me she wasn’t here just to teach, she wanted her students to feel comfortable and remember her, instead of taking notes and reviewing later. 

Most students are early. Attendance is taken at the beginning of the class as the bad jokes continue. The first assignment for the day was for the students to use their senses and write what they hear, see, smell, and thoughts. I secretly did the same thing.  

There are four rows of chairs, most people sit in the back towards the left wall from the professor’s perspective. All the students look different, they have their own style when it comes to clothing. There are 27 students and only 4 are not wearing masks. The professor is writing the future assignments on the board. I can hear the friction between the chalk and the board, while the song Fake ID is playing in the background. Maybe I was hallucinating, but the sound of the chalk was in rhythm with the beat of the song. This assignment was interesting. 

 At this point, I’m thinking about changing my class for this one, but it won’t fit on my schedule. Professor Yankwitt goes over the assignments for the future, oddly enough, one of the assignments was the one I was doing at that same time. When it’s time to share what people wrote, there is not much sharing being done. However, the more people shared, the more eager they were to share. 

The following assignment was to describe the tiara that professor Yankwitt was wearing. My first thought was symbolism and how she doesn’t “give a fuck”. However, after class, I asked her, and it turns out it was a meme from the online classes of the last semester. Students had very different takes on the tiara and that was the professor’s intention. She wanted to teach how everyone has different points of view on things and that’s why you should write in your own style. This is a great example of how she teaches indirectly. Instead of telling her students that people have their own opinions, she shows you. 

The next assignment was to show an object. They needed to show an object in class, something significant or beautiful. The first person to participate showed a t-shirt with the name of their favorite band, he was kind of far, so I couldn’t see what the T-shirt said. The second person showed a necklace that was passed down to her from her mother. The fourth and last person brought herself because she was “beautiful”. Not to make her student feel bad, but the professor used this opportunity to show how beauty is subjective, tying it back to your people’s opinions and points of view. She takes every chance to teach something. 

The classroom was funny. There were jokes, stories, and dark humor. Surprisingly, no one was offended or uncomfortable with the jokes. There were little to no boundaries when it comes to sharing and commenting on things. Students were thriving in this kind of environment. The class activities involved all the students but didn’t force them to participate. 

The class was very entertaining. Personally, I would like to see more things on the walls to make the classroom more welcoming. Having different things that can trigger ideas and make the students more creative would be a great addition, but I guess that’s just how college classrooms are. The class was fun and very interactive, but 5 minutes before the class was over students were getting ready to leave. Seems like even if they are having fun, everyone wants to go back home to the familiar and comfortable place they know.