Dean Campus

I love New England at this time of years, it can be so beautiful.  Dean's campus is no exception and today once it was safe to go outside I could not help but look at how pretty it was.  The campus is truly a winter wonderland.


Dean Hall

 So because of all of the snow in this winter wonderland we ended up having a snow day like most of the schools because our faculty members come from all over, they are not just in state.  The fact that we have teachers from all over New England is something that is really appealing to me as a student.  Each teacher had their own point of view on different subjects because where one is from  definitely affects the way people think. 

Like most of my fellow student I spent the snow day relaxing and hanging out with my friends.  However, probably unlike others, I also spent the day working on a project for my favorite class with one of my favorite teachers.  The class is social movements & collective behavior (an upper level sociology class) with Dr. Holster.  This class is about different social movements like women's suffrage and why people behavior the ways they do in large groups during things such as sporting events.  Dr. Holster manages to keep our attention the entire class (even though it goes until 6:10) and she is really enthusiastic about the topic.  The project I was doing is on a social movement that I will be research all of break, To Write Love on Here Arms is a social movement that I think is going to be an interesting one. 

Coming up next weekend is a dance show and a dance workshop that are both going to be exciting.  The show is going to be student choreographed pieces that will be adjudicated by 4 figures in the dance world.  The four are Maria Torres, Joey Dowling, Sonya Tayeh, and Jaquel Knight.  Both the shows and the classes should be amazing.  I can't wait to take these master's classes!

If you are interesting in buying tickets or participating in the class the website to do so at is: http://www.dean.edu/Academics/Performance.cfm

~Christy

Back to the Class

After five weeks off coming back to school can be a hard thing, especially when you know how much school work is ahead of you.  In order to get through the first few week of classes the best thing that I can suggest anyone does to get into the swing of things is to be prepared and know that just because it is the first week of classes does not mean that you are not going to be doing any work, trust me you WILL be doing work. 

My top five suggestions as a MUST bring to class:

1. Bring a pen/pencil-you would not believe how many time this week I had someone ask if they could borrow a pencil (just because you have a laptop does not mean you will not need one)
2. Bring the book-it is better safe than sorry, true you most likely will not need it in class the first, but it will make a good first impression on your teacher if they see that you have it, especially if they do want to use it
3. Syllabus-most teacher will put them up online now and expect you to print them out, they will not hand them to you in class.  One thing they will do is go over them even if you do not have a copy.  (Keep this and bring it to every class, it is what I call my survival guide to every class)
4. Paper-just like the pen/pencil situation you may need to right something down, once again just because you have a laptop does not mean you will not need paper
5. Assignments-most likely the professors will want to go over them or collect them, so bring it to class, do not leave it in your room

As for dance classes people think that they just need to show up and dance and that is all.  Dancers need to bring those four things to class as well.  But I would add two must bring to class that does not matter for academic classes, dance shoes and WATER.  If you are in ballet you need your ballet slippers, no way around it.  As for tap class, you cannot tap without your tap shoes, you could try, but it would not go well.  And I personally think why you need to bring water is self-explanatory, hydration.  It is easy to get dehydrated in when you are dancing all day, so you have to drink as much water as you can without getting sick so that your body does not get dehydrated. 

Overall I think that as long as you go back to school knowing that it’s back to reality and no longer about vacation everything will be fine and the grades will come.  As long as you do your best you will survive another semester and will get the grades you deserve.  Do not forget that along with having to go back to class you get to see your friends again.  So study hard, do the work, and have fun!