Whose idea was this, anyway? To have students take four subjects all at once? I'm beginning to think the accelerated college my husband graduated from has the better approach. The University of Phoenix crams a whole semester of each subject into a 5-6 week period of time. You do research, write papers, take a final, and then it's on to the next subject. One at a time.
I'm keeping up pretty good and am getting the work done, but it's the lack of true focus that's bugging me this week. I'm enjoying each subject (some more than others) and want to do a "good" job with all of them. But there either isn't enough time, or maybe it's just my brain that has trouble changing focus every day...
The way it is turning out, two of my subjects are getting less of my concentration only because they don't meet every day like my Math class does. After I leave English Thursday at 2, I don't really have to think about it again for five more days. Similar scenario with Modern Latin America. I just took a mid-term exam in MLA that I felt unprepared for because I hadn't been focusing as much on that class since not much is "due" in it and it only meets Mon/Wed (with a Friday lab that seems only partially related).
I'm also a little frustrated about the method of dispensing critical information. And this might be a new-generation versus old-generation thing. Ya know, these kids with their short attention spans! But when I see something on the syllabus coming up in the next few weeks, I want to be thinking about it way ahead of time. However the outline giving the structure of the paper that's due next week was only given to us today! So I have two evenings (one of which I'm booked at H&R Block) to put together a 2-page rough draft for peer review in class on Thursday.
And I'm not quite done with Math homework that's due tomorrow plus my input for the group Math project due Thursday (which kind of changed focus once we saw the group grade we got on project 1 only TODAY!). I can be good at all these subjects, but I need to focus on them separately.
Plus the house is a little thrown and what should I do with the chicken for tonight's dinner?
I'll get it all done, of course, but I won't feel I've done my "best" job which I could do if given more time to focus on each one. I feel like I'm throwing stuff together at the last minute too much. Or is that really all they expect of us...??
10 months ago
1 comment:
Even I related to this and I was only taking two classes a semester! It was hard. I love to learn and I wanted to really concentrate on both classes, but I found that I couldn't give either one my full attention. I was constantly having assignments due simultaneously; like a paper and a quiz the same day, or a short-story draft and a worksheet due, etc. I know that's what school is like--even high school was like that. But it's frustrating! I'd probably respond better to the accelerated college system.
Hey, then as an older adult you have other responsibilities; like a husband (and maybe kids), and probably a job, and cooking and cleaning and maybe church and community activities, and on-and-on. It's tough.
I'm proud of you, though. And I'm rooting for you to get that degree!
Beth
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