Week Two

Been to two classes in each subject now so things should start to get serious this week. It's going really well - so well I'm sort of waiting for the "hard part" to show up! I walk about a block and a half from my office to pick up the free inter-campus shuttle at 9am, it takes me across Speedway and within about half a block of my first class in about 12-15 minutes. It's so nice to not worry about driving through campus and trying to find parking.

My morning class (MIS) has over 350 students in a big auditorium, but the professor is really personable and funny. Starting this Thursday they'll take attendance with a clicker system. We each register our clicker (picture a tiny remote control) on a website and then click in at the beginning and end of class. It will also be used for in-class surveys and opinion polls. As a practice, last Thursday they had us pick our Major from a list and when done, it displayed a pie chart of the class and what majors were represented. Pretty interesting. (Yes, you could conceivably give your clicker to your buddy to click in for you, but if they catch you, you BOTH risk being expelled. Not exactly worth it!)

Assignments are turned in via a special website (www.turnitin.com) that immediately checks for plagiarism before the prof even sees it. If your work looks too much like a classmate's, or even too much like someone's from a previous semester, you get a personal invitation to visit the prof!

After class I pick up the shuttle again which drops me back at UMC, and walk back to the office. A lot of walking with a fairly heavy pack of books and my tiny laptop - I can already tell I'll be losing a little weight this semester! Love it!

My afternoon class (English) follows the same routine of shuttle ride at 3pm to within a block of my class building. This is a much smaller class with just 25 kids. The professor is really nice and I think I'll like the class a lot. He designed his own website for us - you can view it here:

http://web.mac.com/chrisminnix

According to the syllabus he'll soon be separating us into Writing Groups which should be fun. I'm the only "old goat" in the class, but that's okay; my classmates seem nice enough. I love reading and we'll likely learn different ways of dissecting passages and analyzing them. Our first informal "Response Paper" is due tomorrow in class so we'll see if I did it the way he wants it.

Rhythms

Rhythms are so important. Sometimes we don't realize they're there until they change. I'm about to make major rhythm changes in two areas: school and work. My first "real" class commences 9:30am next Tuesday morning. I also plan to retire in October from a place I've worked for 28 years.

My summer classes being web-delivered allowed me to get into a rhythm of studying every evening and nearly all day Saturdays. One class had a PowerPoint lecture and 10-question quiz every day (seven per week!). The other had lots of reading. Arriving back from my 5-day vacation last week it felt strange not to have ANY classwork that needed done. The rhythm had changed.

But I know that's nothing compared to what I'm about to face next week with MIS 111 and English 101. I'd better not lose any time getting into a rhythm with those. Fortunately the MIS class is during working hours (I'll use vacation time) and the Freshman Comp class is right after work. That will allow me to spend whole evenings on studying. I already know that uninterrupted kind of rhythm is vital to me. People who go home from work and then out again to take an evening class have it tough.

By the time I get into a rhythm with those classes, I'll be dropping my daily trip to the office. You'd think that would be a good thing and give me tons of time to study and just hang out at home - and it will - but I'm concerned it may take time to adjust my focus. After so many years of flipping the brain switch to ON when I sit down at my office desk in the morning, I'm wondering what exactly will trigger that switch at home...

I'm a big fan of Flylady (www.flylady.net) and she encourages her followers to "get dressed to shoes" every day (including hair and makeup). Even when you won't be leaving the house. Most of her subscribers are mothers with small children who can really use the "ready" focus that wearing decent clothes and shoes gives them. That, and a timer is probably what I'll try first to gear up my brain. If that doesn't work, I'll have to find something else.

Rhythms - can they be coerced? Probably.

What I've Learned

No, not about plants or money, but about school -- at least so far...

1) Don't turn in assignments too early. You won't get any "extra credit" and you might miss an opportunity to make a late correction. Certainly FINISH them early, and don't forget to turn them in ON TIME, but don't submit early. The prof won't grade them until after the due date anyway and what you learn from feedback on one GRADED assignment may help you on the next one.

2) When it says 100 words for an essay assignment, it doesn't mean 200. Or 150. I thought 100 was a minimum count so we would do adequate research, but got points deducted for being too wordy. Lesson learned.

3) The first moment you run into a term you're unfamiliar with, start your vocabulary list! And review it every time you sit down to study. Add to it daily.

4) Nothing beats really good notes along with a comprehensive vocabulary list.

5) Plants class is every bit as hard as a Chemistry class -- half the terms I've never even heard before, and more than half the concepts are entirely new to me. Sure makes a timed test difficult when you have to look up (again) so many terms you thought you had down. (Remind me NOT to take Chemistry! It's not required for my major, thank goodness!)

6) Being a solid "B" student isn't so bad. I hope I can find a course or two where I can sneak in a 4.0 or at least a 3.5, but it will probably be a while. As Popeye used to say, "I yam what I yam!"