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!"

Almost Through

Sorry for the prolonged silence on the blog! I've got just one week left before the end of this Summer Session. We're down to the last 7 quizzes in my PLANTS class and the last Discussion in my MONEY class. Then each has an online Final Exam which I will take on Sunday and Monday, respectively. Should be interesting!

The PLANTS class has been by far the harder of the two, but I've learned a great deal in both of them. Two great books in the MONEY class deal with the present economy and why the average middle-class American family is struggling financially. Major changes in how financial institutions do business has occurred in the past 20-30 years that make today's economy a very dangerous place for the average family. There are no longer any limits on loans like there used to be. A bank has the legal right to loan anyone any amount of money for any interest rate without repercussions. Bankruptcies have skyrocketed and foreclosures are commonplace.

In the first book, Two Income Trap, the authors (a mother-daughter combination) contend that the main reason families are struggling in today's economy isn't due to over-consumption or frivilous spending. In fact, they say that families have lost their "safety net" by having both parents in the workforce! The true value of a stay-at-home mom (or dad) is that when a crisis happens or the breadwinner is laid off, the non-working parent can take a temporary job to get the family through the crisis. With both parents working and the family relying on BOTH incomes to make ends meet, when crisis comes there's no fall back position. Their research is comprehensive and very well presented. Astonishing in today's climate to see someone -- anyone -- advocate for a stay-at-home parent! Yay!

Their second book All Your Worth, by the same authors, details a very sensible method to get your spending into balance between "Must-Haves" (the bills you have to pay each month), "Wants" (fun money), and Savings (to build a better tomorrow). No matter what your income, they recommend a 50/30/20 ratio with no more than 50% of your income to pay your bills, and a minimum of 20% of your take-home pay into Savings. The rest is fun money!

It is very heart-warming to read the positive feedback during the class "Discussions" from these twenty-something kids just starting out in life. This kind of wake-up call so early in their financial life is so essential. Being in college is great, but if they don't know how to manage their money after they graduate, what's the point? And it's positively amusing to see the young females visibly squirm with the concept of staying home to raise their kids! In actuality, the authors don't say one parent MUST stay home, they mostly recommend not relying on both incomes to pay the bills. Families who have both parents in the workforce are better off using mom's salary for FUN stuff like vacations and home remodels! Because if something happens to one income, or grandma needs year-round care, or divorce intrudes, there is some breathing room in the finances.

Well worth the read if you need to combat the summer brain drain!

Just me and Jessica

After bragging about my 100% score last week, I took a nose dive with the next two quizzes and only got 60% on each of them! Decided my study method wasn't working and revamped my whole system. Juan gave me some good advice on that. Meanwhile, I decided to find out a bit more about my 30 "classmates" in this Plants and Our World class. I thought it was a Tier One course geared towards incoming freshmen. Seems a little difficult for freshmen, so I looked up the the classlist in the UA online phonebook and, guess what? Fifty percent of them are SENIORS!

There are also quite a few juniors, several sophomores and one guy who doesn't show up anywhere. Freshmen? Just me and Jessica!

On the course grading page you can see a graph of how the rest of the class is doing (by percent, not by name, of course) on each quiz. The quizzes I struggled with were difficult for everyone else, too, although that's only minor comfort. I'll be graded on my own merit, not in relation to the other students. But I am curious about their experience. One of the seniors is a Plant Sciences major so she's probably the one getting most of the higher scores. But why the heck is she taking a freshman class in her senior year?

So my new study method has me back to 80%, 100% and 100% on quizzes 6, 7 and 8, so I'll stick with it. I'm even finishing with 1 or 2 minutes left on the 7-minute quiz clock. That gives me time to go back and reread a couple of answers I'm not sure about.

I'm learning new vocabulary about what's deep inside leaves, stems and roots. A lot on cell activity and plant structure and how it transports water from the soil to the topmost leaves, and how leaves photosynthesize sunlight into sugars and starches. Really fascinating stuff. Makes you appreciate how creative God is!