My Germans Freshies :)

At almost the end of the semester, I'm finally warming up to my classmates in German. Over the past couple of months I have befriended a few of the previously stated "immature" German class freshmen. Before that, class seemed to be way too painful to get through since nobody cooperated. After the first change of seats the kid sitting in front of me, the one on my left, and the one on my right have started breaking out of their shells. Our relationship has moved from handing papers to each other to having those great inside jokes :)

I've noticed that class has turned into what we make it. Today our teacher wasn't in the best of moods. We all commented on it and decided that we would help the class move along since other students were being extremely stubborn. Another thing I've noticed is that we don't all decide to make class a certain way. Earlier this week the freshy to my right was extremely hyper while the rest of us were normal or down and tired. The energy eventually caught on to me and soon our whole group of four. We were all shouting out answers, which the teacher loved, and we were all having a blast. The same thing occured a couple of days later with me and we had the same result and our teacher was happy again. This demonstrates group think because on certain days we wouldn't even begin to think about being loud and attentive due to tiredness and such but we were all kind of swept up with the energy and acted differently than we would have.

When It Goes Off

This short story talks about fans from rivaling teams and how they went from a pub setting to the street setting. In the end, the thing that Robert and many others were waiting for to happen, being a riot, never happened. All that kept them in line were actual lines on the sidewalks.
Smelser's 6 Factors:
1. Structural Conductiveness- The pub crowd was "programmed" to have a rivalry
2. Structural Strain- The limited space in the pub followed by the killing of a man, as well as the pressure to attact the "other side"
3. Generalized Belief- Protect the honor of the teams at all costs
4. Precipitating Factor- A riot does not break out when authorative figures are present
5. Mobilization- Belief of murder as well as "going with the crowd"
6. Inadequate Social Control- Although there were authorative figures present, they appeared to be terrified of what might happen, so if the police is insecure, what does that say to the soccer fanatics?

I Can Fly

I had a dissection lab in human anatomy today. My partner and I were to dissect a chicken wing.  In the beginning we were to decide on who would retrieve the specimen and who would get the lab packets and other materials. After that we were able to move onto the first step, which was to cut the skin in order to reach the muscle, cutting carefully as to only cut the skin. With one person working on the cuts at the time, the other held the specimen down, in order to stabilize it. After skinning it efficiently we were able to observe the muscles, tendons and ligaments. Pulling on different tendons allowed us to create up and down movement of the wing.

The whole classroom was ultimately working together towards that common goal, which was to see the physiology of a chicken wing, therefore making it an interest group. Although in partners, the entire class stopped to listen to some tips our instructor shared with us. Soon anough, after practicing dexterity, the class was able to see the muscles and bone marrow inside the bone. Many were even able to pretend they were "flying". Our group effort paid off in the end.