Writer's Block: Go to the head of the class

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In large lecture classes, I usually sat near-ish to the front, by an aisle. The aisle was in case I needed to use the bathroom, and placed me slightly to the side (most of our lecture rooms had two aisles rather than one central aisle) so I wasn't super-conspicuous but could still see and hear the lecturer and their materials. I don't like being so close they can see when I'm doodling in my notes, however.

Me in a lecture is about 10-20% listening to the lecture, and 80-90% thinking about how the material fits in with things I care about, whether it's thinking about how I'd use a piece of Japanese grammar in real life (often accompanied by doodles of people having that conversation), which characters I've read or seen fit different psychological disorders, or remembering which teachers from my own childhood used different teaching techniques I'm being taught. Or it could be something as lame and misdirected as matching historical figures to Harry Potter characters. (Hey, it helps me remember them for the test!). I also doodle a ton during lectures. The doodles are not because I'm bored or not paying attention; if you look, they usually are related to the material and actually keep me focused.

If I'm expected to be hanging on a lecturer's every word, they've given me a tall order; I couldn't repeat a line back to a professor if they asked me to. I tune in for new and interesting information and then withdraw for a moment into my own head to interpret it in my world. I'm usually pretty good at finding something of interest to explore in my mind from just about any lecture, even if I have to take it way out on a tangent, but if the information is really, really boring and irrelevant-- and the lecturer is a poor deliverer-- I am a daydreamer; I can and will check out altogether.

Writer's Block: Go to the head of the class

[Error: unknown template qotd]

In large lecture classes, I usually sat near-ish to the front, by an aisle. The aisle was in case I needed to use the bathroom, and placed me slightly to the side (most of our lecture rooms had two aisles rather than one central aisle) so I wasn't super-conspicuous but could still see and hear the lecturer and their materials. I don't like being so close they can see when I'm doodling in my notes, however.

Me in a lecture is about 10-20% listening to the lecture, and 80-90% thinking about how the material fits in with things I care about, whether it's thinking about how I'd use a piece of Japanese grammar in real life (often accompanied by doodles of people having that conversation), which characters I've read or seen fit different psychological disorders, or remembering which teachers from my own childhood used different teaching techniques I'm being taught. Or it could be something as lame and misdirected as matching historical figures to Harry Potter characters. (Hey, it helps me remember them for the test!). I also doodle a ton during lectures. The doodles are not because I'm bored or not paying attention; if you look, they usually are related to the material and actually keep me focused.

If I'm expected to be hanging on a lecturer's every word, they've given me a tall order; I couldn't repeat a line back to a professor if they asked me to. I tune in for new and interesting information and then withdraw for a moment into my own head to interpret it in my world. I'm usually pretty good at finding something of interest to explore in my mind from just about any lecture, even if I have to take it way out on a tangent, but if the information is really, really boring and irrelevant-- and the lecturer is a poor deliverer-- I am a daydreamer; I can and will check out altogether.