I Can See Clearly Now...
I know, this line comes from a song, but it expresses how I feel about this semester -- now.
On Wed. I gave my power point presentation for my Shakespeare class. It was about pogonology (study of beards). I gave my introduction saying, "I love beards, but let me be specific. I like well groomed, short beards, not ZZ Top kind of beards." Everyone laughed and my professor asked me how I felt about "that Oak Ridge boy with that long beard." I don't think I went over my four minutes and that is always a good thing for me once I do start talking. Before I could get to my seat, several students gave me words of praise for my presentation. This experience is so different than being at the community college. There aren't many students at college who are willing or able to give words of encouragement. The sense of community at the University is strong and everyone goes out of their way to encourage and help one another.
My frustration with grammar terminology isn't so bad now. I visited with one of the college professors for 2.5 hours on Fri. while she went over the basics with me. It helped-a lot! I even came home with homework she assigned. :-) I hope to incorporate the same energy and passion for English grammar into my own teaching as Ms. Varner has for it.
Not a lot to report about my education course, it's fun, it's easy, and it's what keeps me from feeling overwhelmed.
I'm finally able to work ahead on my classes. Plus, I can enjoy time with my grandchildren and work in my yard. My focus this year is to stay balanced between school and family.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
Monday, September 18, 2006
Hitting a Wall
These past three weeks have been a challenge to say the least. As I have mentioned before, I don’t like change and sometimes change comes slowly. I thought the longer drive to University would cause more stress, but surprisingly, I have adjusted a lot quicker than I thought I would. Parking is no longer an issue after dropping my Spanish course. Finding my way around campus isn’t a problem either. So, you’d think that everything was going perfectly. Well, if you thought that, you’d be wrong.
Let me give you an update:
My first week of classes was stressful, but I knew I would eventually adjust. However, as I sat in my Shakespeare class I realized that I might have taken on more than I should. This is a senior course and technically, I am five hours shy of being a junior. The professor asked everyone how much Shakespeare we knew, and it seemed to me that ¾ raised their hands, and half of those students have played parts in his plays. We then went over the syllabus and the additional handouts that listed the various projects we will have during the semester. I felt out of place and overwhelmed by the increased workload expected at this level. I began to think that I couldn’t keep up and should quit college altogether. As an optimist, I decided to give college a full week before making a decision. I’m glad I did, the professor is wonderful and by the second day, I knew that I would love her as a teacher. I decided to stay the course and hope for the best. I am enjoying this class and have connected with other students, which really helps to get over feeling like an outsider.
My second day of classes originally included Spanish, advanced grammar and comp., and my first course of education preparation. My day started at 10 am and I wasn’t expected to get home until 8:30pm. My last post explained how this day ended with me leaving my last class to get to the hospital for William’s birth. What I need to explain is the unexpected effect my Spanish class had on me. I have a lot of tolerance, but my Spanish teacher was going to challenge my tolerance level and I wasn’t sure if her style was going to be worth it to me. Let me begin with calling her eccentric. She dances, sings, and experiments with falsetto voices all while she is talking to us in Spanish. Now, add to this mixture a large portion of the class from her first semester of Spanish. Their lack of self-control, feeling comfortable with the teacher and enthusiasm to talk non-stop throughout her lecture contributed to noise pollution. By the second day of this class, and within 15 minutes, I thought my head would explode. I came home that day in tears knowing that I was going to drop the class but also knowing that it would affect my scholarship requirements. Mike assured me that the scholarship wasn’t worth what I was experiencing and released me to drop the class on Friday. The whole procedure led me to my Chair and that in turn meant that it would go to the Dean. Thankfully, my Chair is taking care of the whole situation and I won’t have to confront the professor.
Okay, now for the part about the scholarship: They took half of the money away for this semester as a one-time deal. I will have to take 12 hours for the remaining semesters if I want to keep the money. After much prayer and agonizing over this, I have decided to give up the remaining scholarship. This will allow me to take the rest of my Spanish courses at the college where I took my first class. It will also allow me to take the hours I feel more comfortable with.
Thus far, I have worked through everything I encountered…until I went to advanced grammar and comp. I kept looking at the syllabus to make sure that I was in the right class and not in a class for Greek or Hebrew or any other language I have no clue to understanding. I had no idea what the professor was talking about when he started going through the seven sentence patterns. This is where my wall appeared; I don’t know the technical terms for grammar. The result of this awareness caused me to suffer a confidence crisis. I stopped by the college to ask my Director to remove me from the tutoring schedule. When she asked me what was going on, I had to explain that if I didn’t know grammar, I didn't feel I should tutor students in English. She said that she has her English degree and taught developmental English and yet she couldn’t diagram a sentence using all of the technical terms. Her words of encouragement helped as have the others who talked to me about this issue.
I am thankful for having professors, friends, and family who have stepped up to provide me encouragement and to help me create a strategy by which to tackle this challenge. The results: for the first two weeks of this class, I could get two out of ten sentences correctly diagrammed. On Thursday, I correctly diagrammed eight out ten sentences. My new motto for this semester is, “success breeds confidence.” When I can’t get over, around, through or under the wall, I have a support system who can help me get to the other side.
With God, all things are possible.
These past three weeks have been a challenge to say the least. As I have mentioned before, I don’t like change and sometimes change comes slowly. I thought the longer drive to University would cause more stress, but surprisingly, I have adjusted a lot quicker than I thought I would. Parking is no longer an issue after dropping my Spanish course. Finding my way around campus isn’t a problem either. So, you’d think that everything was going perfectly. Well, if you thought that, you’d be wrong.
Let me give you an update:
My first week of classes was stressful, but I knew I would eventually adjust. However, as I sat in my Shakespeare class I realized that I might have taken on more than I should. This is a senior course and technically, I am five hours shy of being a junior. The professor asked everyone how much Shakespeare we knew, and it seemed to me that ¾ raised their hands, and half of those students have played parts in his plays. We then went over the syllabus and the additional handouts that listed the various projects we will have during the semester. I felt out of place and overwhelmed by the increased workload expected at this level. I began to think that I couldn’t keep up and should quit college altogether. As an optimist, I decided to give college a full week before making a decision. I’m glad I did, the professor is wonderful and by the second day, I knew that I would love her as a teacher. I decided to stay the course and hope for the best. I am enjoying this class and have connected with other students, which really helps to get over feeling like an outsider.
My second day of classes originally included Spanish, advanced grammar and comp., and my first course of education preparation. My day started at 10 am and I wasn’t expected to get home until 8:30pm. My last post explained how this day ended with me leaving my last class to get to the hospital for William’s birth. What I need to explain is the unexpected effect my Spanish class had on me. I have a lot of tolerance, but my Spanish teacher was going to challenge my tolerance level and I wasn’t sure if her style was going to be worth it to me. Let me begin with calling her eccentric. She dances, sings, and experiments with falsetto voices all while she is talking to us in Spanish. Now, add to this mixture a large portion of the class from her first semester of Spanish. Their lack of self-control, feeling comfortable with the teacher and enthusiasm to talk non-stop throughout her lecture contributed to noise pollution. By the second day of this class, and within 15 minutes, I thought my head would explode. I came home that day in tears knowing that I was going to drop the class but also knowing that it would affect my scholarship requirements. Mike assured me that the scholarship wasn’t worth what I was experiencing and released me to drop the class on Friday. The whole procedure led me to my Chair and that in turn meant that it would go to the Dean. Thankfully, my Chair is taking care of the whole situation and I won’t have to confront the professor.
Okay, now for the part about the scholarship: They took half of the money away for this semester as a one-time deal. I will have to take 12 hours for the remaining semesters if I want to keep the money. After much prayer and agonizing over this, I have decided to give up the remaining scholarship. This will allow me to take the rest of my Spanish courses at the college where I took my first class. It will also allow me to take the hours I feel more comfortable with.
Thus far, I have worked through everything I encountered…until I went to advanced grammar and comp. I kept looking at the syllabus to make sure that I was in the right class and not in a class for Greek or Hebrew or any other language I have no clue to understanding. I had no idea what the professor was talking about when he started going through the seven sentence patterns. This is where my wall appeared; I don’t know the technical terms for grammar. The result of this awareness caused me to suffer a confidence crisis. I stopped by the college to ask my Director to remove me from the tutoring schedule. When she asked me what was going on, I had to explain that if I didn’t know grammar, I didn't feel I should tutor students in English. She said that she has her English degree and taught developmental English and yet she couldn’t diagram a sentence using all of the technical terms. Her words of encouragement helped as have the others who talked to me about this issue.
I am thankful for having professors, friends, and family who have stepped up to provide me encouragement and to help me create a strategy by which to tackle this challenge. The results: for the first two weeks of this class, I could get two out of ten sentences correctly diagrammed. On Thursday, I correctly diagrammed eight out ten sentences. My new motto for this semester is, “success breeds confidence.” When I can’t get over, around, through or under the wall, I have a support system who can help me get to the other side.
With God, all things are possible.
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