“Give me liberty or give me death!” – Patrick Henry. I think about that quote every time I enter this history class because god, I think about leaving once I step foot into the class. It’s not even anything personal to the professor specifically, but damn I wish hadn’t had to take USSO, I personally just don’t enjoy the subject much. In order to do a class observation I chose my USSO class because I don’t sit next to anybody that would distract me and this way it would be easier to analyze things about the classroom with no problem. 

At first, I enter the class around twelve minutes early to prep my laptop and phone in order to take notes in class and make sure to have and utensil in order to write my name for the roll sheet. The professor enters class around 9:20 AM and begins to write what the lecture will be about across the chalkboard as students walk into class. Today one of our three essays was due so he was going to ask for them but ended up not being able to pick them up around class due to him being ill and not wanting to “infect us”. 

Today the professor was wearing a long sleeve grey sweater. The sweater fit snugly enough around him for me to notice that he had a box in his chest area which I assumed to be a heart monitor. Since the professor was ill today during class seeing the box on his chest interested me because he said that he decides to never miss class, but if he’s sick he should have been able to cancel the class at least today. Especially since in the classroom there are no windows if anybody else is sick he could easily get infected by us! Half an hour before the end of class he ended up removing his face mask due to trouble breathing which seemed ironic since he didn’t want o “infect” anybody if class but I didn’t think much of it since I don’t know personally if he may have a respiratory problem or anything like that.

This professor is well over 80 years old as he mentions often that he’s had over 60 years of a career as a professor. Since his career has been so successful he has traveled the world and had lots of stories to tell! I would be lying if I said I knew what he was speaking about during the lesson but he was telling another story of his. Whenever he does tell stories he easily startles me because of how loud he can be. I zone out easily during this class simply because this professor has a very monotone voice so its very easy to tune out his voice, but when he tells a story he gets super excited and has a complete change in body language which catches all the students’ attention once again. He has a tendency to get off track due to his stories though! Today one of the topics of his lecture had to deal with people of other ethnicities and somehow he related the to his becoming friends with a Nigerian man that spoke multiple languages. These are the things that make the class feel like it goes longer than it should be because it can take him a while to get back on topic. He says we will continue certain topics at our next class session but that rarely ever happens, he likes to say on track according to the syllabus. 

I sit towards the back of the class so it’s very hard to analyze the students and what they’re doing during class, but I have an okay view of other people’s laptop screens and for the most part, it was a split between students taking notes of the lecture or doing something completely unrelated to class like watching Modern Family, doing work for other classes, or even playing Solitaire. This makes it difficult at times when the professor stops for questions at the end of the lecture because we as students either don’t know what’s going on or are too embarrassed to ask anything. Sitting in the back of that classroom is super uncomfortable, wanting to take a call or use the bathroom is impossible, its easier to cross Narnia than maneuver through the chairs. Around thirty students are together yet nobody speaks under the professor asks them to. 

After class officially ended I approached the professor in order to ask him about the lateness policy for class since I didn’t see it highlighted in the syllabus. I had never spoken to him one on one before. Then was when I realized how badly he reeked of cigarettes and I began to think, “ wow, we were super considerate regarding how sick he was, and his trouble breathing when this entire time when he’s just a full-blown smoker.