Week 3

So now it is the end of the third week, and to be honest not a lot other than actual class work came up. The only two things about the class are more about the professor’s teaching style, which in all honesty are what really define a class. Otherwise it would not matter who taught the class, if everyone taught in the same way. One thing I’ve said before and, if we are supposed to talk about our experiences in the class rather than the actual course work, will probably say often is that Professor Downing is very passionate about teaching this class and having his students be successful. As an aside to the passionate comment, he does swear a bit in class and not in a negative way, but in a “he seems very excitable way and when he wants to get his point across he uses swears to emphasize his message.” I only mention it because a lot of professors like to present them self as extremely proper or stiff, so it’s nice to have a professor talk like an average person. Plus it just amuses for no real reason other than his energy and excitement are contagious. Anyways, as for why he seems to care about his students, he was very adamant and pushed for us to visit the career fair both for an internship and or simply for experience. He kept talking about throughout the class to emphasize his point. There is also the fact he makes us use GitHub, which he says is used by both professionals and by open source groups, groups he keeps recommending we help so we can build our resume. This shows that he is not only concerned about how his students do within the confines of his class or even the university, but he tries to help guide us towards a path to help in the future in the job market. The final thing that shows his care for his students is how he patiently deals with students when he asks for a question. He tries to ask people so that the same people aren’t the only ones answering and if they are having difficulty he patiently tries to guide them to the answer or to think hard about it so that they learn the material and remember it.