Back to School for GrownUps

So, judging from the comments in response to yesterday’s post, I am far from the only one that has a problem getting motivated.

And it’s clear that one of our primary motivators are due dates and deadlines - and, as melissan mentioned, some of us slackers need “need deadlines that have consequences if I don’t finish” (She didn’t call us slackers though; that’s all me).

I think that’s the difference between some o’ us and Stephanie, who mentioned setting her own deadlines in her comment. Imagine that! 

I do that … all the time… but then I don’t actually meet my self-imposed deadlines… or at least, not often enough to write home about. *sigh*

Okay … so …. OTHER than deadlines and due dates (with consequences) …what else works? Or might work?  Let’s brainstorm, shall we?

I have the house to myself for a change…and instead of actually getting work done on my essays or proposal or applications, I have been basically staring into space most of the afternoon.

I think I need a kick - something along the lines of an email from my prof saying “you need to have your essay in by such and such a time on such a such a date”.

I work better under pressure, I guess… what he actually said, when I had my car accident and wrecked my wrists, was “take as long as you need”

It is hard to get focused!  Or maybe it is that I have talked myself into a corner… I should go do some of the other little jobs (that DO have fast approaching deadlines) and then come back to it.

I used to have everything done weeks before it was due… not sure why that has changed lately :(  It is not a change for the better!

How do you deal with a lack of focus/motivation/interest in getting certain jobs done?

Do you need deadlines & due dates, or are you self motivated?

So, I was talking to a friend from my undergrad university earlier today (cancelling our lunch ) but oh well… some things just can’t be helped.

Anyway, we were talking about classes, and papers and averages and so on …

She is a very good student, and gets very good grades - this semester managed an average significantly higher than mine.

And yet, I get scholarships and she does not.

Do you know why?

I apply for them!

Yes, there are a few scholarships that just fall down from heaven. Or whatever - someone nominates you, or you earn some sort of distinction that qualifies you. I’ve got two of those over the course of my back to school adventures - one of each sort, totalling $2,500.

But for the vast majority of scholarships that are available to students - including mature/ returning/ adult/ nontraditional or whatever you want to call us students must be APPLIED FOR!  My scholarship income to date from these types is $18,500. So far.

Yes there are a lot of hoops to jump through re: some of them …but even if it takes several hours to complete a scholarship application, if you are successful, that’s a whole lot of $$/hour.

There are all sorts of ways to find out about scholarships that are available to you. Google, as always, is your friend.

I honestly have not had much success with scholarships through online sites - but that could well be because …well … I haven’t actually followed through and applied for many of the one that come up through those sites.

Where I have had the most success is through the schools I have attended.

I’ve never been on a college or university website that didn’t have a link to resources re: financial awards & scholarships, I don’t think. Certainly not recently.

Laurentian U actually sends the forms out in email for its in-course scholarship - all one has to do, if their overall average is about 80%, is fill out the (very basic) darn forms!!!!  The amount one recieves is automatic based on overall average - I recieved $2500 last year; my friend would have gotten even more than that if only she had returned the forms!!!!  10 minutes of time for more than $2500 …. who doesn’t jump on that? 

Lots of people, that’s who …. DO NOT BE ONE OF THEM!!!

And you don’t even have to have great marks for a lot of them, either …. I mean, they tend not to fund people who are not passing - but there are all sorts of scholarships that are based on leadership, or need, or essay writing or nationality or employment or or or ….

There are millions & millions of dollars in scholarship money given to students young and old every year in both Canada and the U.S.

Have you asked for your share?

What are you waiting for?

I highly recommend you start with your own college/university’s website - but don’t stop there. You will also want to try googling your province or state and scholarship - bet you’ll find more there.

Here are a few other sites you might want to try - and remember, google is your friend Lots more there also.

1. Scholarships.com
2. StudentAwards.com
3. FastWeb.com

If you have had experience in finding and winning scholarships, why not drop a comment and help to encourage other people to do the same?

So…. while I’m still hoping for more responses to my questions about reasons for (or against) going back to school as an adult …. it is Christmas Eve and time for fun and family and food and festivities, right?Well, hopefully, for all of you, anyway!

For me, it’s a mad rush to get my fiction/nonfiction paper done, and presents wrapped - I should be wrapping Ross’ now, while he’s out returning the rental car since we now have our new van. They are the only ones I have to wrap - he’s offered to do everything else for me, since my hands, neck & back are still messed up from the car accident.

Other than those, mostly I just need to stuporvise and get this darned paper done. Tomorrow we’ll go do the family thing - his for brunch, mine for dinner.  Much driving, but oh well - tis the price you pay for living up here on the lake

On Boxing Day his sister (the only 1 of 3 that still speaks to us)  and her husband will come for dinner - I’m doing a roast with yorkshire puddings, since we’ll all have had turkey on Christmas (and my brother in law loves my yorkshire pudding) … roast beef dinner, for me, isn’t complete unless there are mashed potatoes - don’t know how Ross feels about peeling potatoes, but since I have never known him to do it, I’m guessing I might have to make do.

And hopefully - at least the plan is - by the time they get here for dinner, the fiction paper will be DONE and then I can move onto all the (much) smaller bits & pieces of school stuff I need to get done before the end of the year.

Anyway …. Merry Christmas - or whatever else you celebrate. And best wishes for safe & happy holidays to your and yours.

K, so I have been all over the blogsphere today because hubby read this article about b5media in the Toronto Star this morning - yes, it was printed on Monday, but he just got to it today, the slacker.

Anyway …that had me hopping around looking at b5media and from there I got to thinking about how I really should at least try to get adsense up and running on my personal blog and from there I got to looking at other back to school type stuff in Google (was checking where this and flitting show up in search results - that reminds me, got to get back to that!) and saw some articles like this one about 7 Reasons to Go Back To School and thought hmmm… good topic for a blog post.

Yes, I am living up to my screen name today as a matter of fact

ANYWAY… I could do up a list of MY reasons to go back to school …. and/or of some of the reasons other people have talked about …. and/or what I think …

but why should I do all the work?

It’s almost Christmas and my husband’s exwife (yeah, I know; weird, but we are weird like that) is on her way over to pick me up to go out and do some last minute Christmas shopping  and anyway bunches of my visitors here are people who did go back to school or are doing it now or who are thinking about it, or who are so glad that I’m doing it for them so they don’t have to…

So come on, speak up and participate why don’t you?  Pretty please with whipped cream and a candy cane on top

What triggered your return to school (or thinking about it? or not doing it?)

Today, I sent off my Public Texts paper…  as always, I wanted to keep working on it, fine tuning, improving, adding back in some of the points I had to take out, etc etc… they never REALLY feel done, do they?

 Or is that just me?

Anyway - I’m glad to have one less thing to worry about. Now just finishing off those grad school apps, the fiction/nonfiction and psychology papers to get back to, and the musical…. which got a fair bit of word done on it already, as a result of using the website for the public texts paper, actually, so that is a plus.

That one is easily the most fun …which is why I have been working on it in bits & pieces when the other jobs are weighing me down.

My goal was … is? … to have the fiction/non paper in before Christmas - not much time left, eh? Especially not since we are getting our new van today, and Ross is all gung ho to go DO stuff. Men and their cars!

He never really liked driving the Cavalier - he bought that for me, as it was what I needed for running to school and back …but now that he will be doing all the driving - and since he needs a van for work, it made sense to buy a van this time. It’s awfully big to be running back and forth to Peterborough with - and awfully fancy for a work van, but he’s happy :)   Happy is good.

Well, my paper isn’t quite done yet … but I’m happy with what I got done, both on it, and even moreso on the website end of it.

Did you see it before?  If so, you will remember that it looked something like this:

It doesn’t look like that any more After I had worked on the textual criticism of the book I am comparing to my website, I decided I needed at least a touch more red/gore…… between input from The Tarot Queen (only 1 day left, get your reading now) and my husband Ross, it’s got a whole new look.  And here is what it looks like now:

All feedback is much appreciated…and clicking either image will take you to the related website, btw… not an income producing project, just in case you were wondering…there are no ads, and I don’t earn anything from it… well except, maybe, hopefully, some marks when all is said and done

The feedback I receive is very helpful in my coursework, that’s all. And I do very much appreciate those of you - especially Steph and the Dragon - who contribute. Thanks!

Sometimes it seems as though computers have made things harder, not easier…. but really, it’s the programmers that are causing the problems, not the technology.

Today I started my applications for graduate school next year - both universities that I am applying to require an online form (in addition to a bunch of other hoops to jump through). Not TOO frustrating.

The first form wanted basic info - and then start and end dates for each university or college I have attended. None of it was too onerous - but it took me a bit of time to get the dates sorted and make sure every thing was completed - and I had the whole thing just about done and somehow the page reloaded and wiped out ALL of the information I had just filled in. Not TOO frustrating.

The second form was even worse - basically all the same information - but this form wanted everything exactly their way - and only their way. Some control freak programmer wrote that one, guaranteed.

I was not able to include several of my previous employers on their form as I do not have valid postal codes for them (some of them no longer exist - be damned if I can find addresses from waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back then). I also could not ‘go’ to Athabasca University, because the university isn’t in their dropdown list - and when I did add it in, in the space provided, I still couldn’t go there because I was unable to provide a program name and a graduation date - since I am not IN a program, I just take courses a la carte.

Since I couldn’t go there, I also couldn’t use the transcript request system for that university. Of course.

While it would be easy to get frustrated with the technology, each and every one of my aggravations was caused not by the computer, but by a programmer who did not have the foresight or the skill to make the form work WELL.

All programmers should have to take courses in usability, y’ask me… of course, nobody does.

Anyway - those are (mostly) done…. sure wish I had printed off and kept absolutely everything I did last year when I jumped through all these hoops - would make my life SO much easier now.

Good tip for you - file folders - and save everything! In the ORGANIZED file folders.

One of the biggest differences between undergrad and graduate school is that I had - have - friends at Laurentian … as opposed to acquaintances where I am now.

While I know that that is largely my own doing - by not acually moving there, I pretty much assured it…. some of it is the age thing… there were lots of us older broads at LU … now, not so much.

Anyway … that’s not the point… the point is that today I’ve been emailing back and forth with friends from school and they are going to come up for lunch on the 27th, since I can’t drive down there. Ross would drive me, but they offered… so might as well take them up on.

I am SO looking forward to it!

Hopefully our schedules will work so that we can get together once in awhile through next semester… I’m only there on Monday though, so remains to be seen.

As much as I love my online friends, and Ross, and my kids, and…

there’s just nothing like having a couple of women friends going through much the same sort of stress as you are to sit and gossip and laugh with. I’ve SO missed our lunches.

Have been talking with Steph on msn tonight, about how much I’m looking forward to starting back into teaching my college courses again in January, and about some of the silly things I have been known to say/do …. rather regularly, truth be known.

Like, when someone is having a computer problem, saying OH NO! YOU BROKE IT!

Or ~joking~ …well, it’s mostly joking …. that I am never going to fly again!!!, when my aviation management students do something boneheaded.

Or teaching a class to use Word’s AutoCorrect function to mess with other people’s heads.

Yes, I am rather silly at times. But I have fun when I teach - and so, I hope, do my students.

And my shtick is pretty darn tame compared to some… I’m thinking, for example, of one of my profs this semester, who showed up for our last class, in which we were discussing Cabaret, as Sally Bowles. Complete with green fingernails, make up, black nylons, and heels I couldn’t walk in if you paid me. He did it very well though :) 

So - got any memorable profs?

I know - some are really memorable because they’re good; some for other reasons… but let’s, at least for now, focus on the positive experiences, shall we?

…from the fiction/nonfiction paper I have been struggling with for the past few days, and switching over to the other two projects I have hanging.

Have started the actual writing of my Public Texts paper, which is a lot more fun. For that one, I am comparing the process of publishing online with that of publishing a book in codex form, using the website I am publishing for the musical I am writing for my Textual Transmissions course.

I have mapped both the musical and the Public Texts paper out fully in my Inspiration software, so I know where I’m going and just need to get there. I think that I will - barring interuption by a friend who has offered to take me shopping sans hubby today but not told me what time - be able to finish the entire first draft of the paper today - then I shall let it sit for a day or two, give it a final edit, and fire it off.  It would be nice to have at least one  of the 3 major projects done, don’t you think? I do!

Anyway …because I was working on it, I finally got ’round to updating the Cruising website to include the  newest lyrics. These are a rewrite of The Good Ship Lollipop; my version is called The Cruise Ship Prometheus. Apparently, according to Stephanie, I might be having just a bit too much fun with my lyrics . It’s supposed to be a “campy moral horror” remember!

All feedback - on this particular addition, the musical as a whole, or the webpage for it - is much appreciated. There is a comments link on the website which points to a forum you are more than welcome to join, or you can post comments here, if you like.

Part of my premise for the Public Texts paper is that, of course, the web allows for interactivity and feedback from viewers  - so it would really suck if I was not successful in getting any comments about it, don’t you think?!

Decided that I should quit whining about how much I still have left to get done before Christmas … schoolwork, I mean.

At least for today … so … guess what?

I’ve been sitting here with my edit screen up for eons … well, it feels like eons … I got nothing!

My mind is just blank …. oh …I know…I can tell you about the one thing I actually did get done today - I emailed a potential research advisor re: the phd program.

That’s something right? 

Now if only she responds - preferably with a yes, I’d love to work with you on that. 

Wish me luck!

It seems as though no matter how hard I try to focus on my homework and get it DONE, something always comes up to conspire against me.

Yesterday it was pain - a lot of it. It is really hard to think - and to type - when both hands are burning, and your entire left arm is throbbing. I hope the aches mean that it is healing…but it gets to be so painful that I just cannot string a sentence together.

Today wasn’t as bad pain wise - although the deep throbbing ache is back, although somewhat muted now that I’m home and slowly loading up on way too much Advil and probably too many coolers (only had 1 so far, and opened #2, but it feels like more for some reason - a bowl of cereal, half an order of really good french fries, and a small square of fudge not cutting it for a days intake perhaps?).

Today, I was on a roll with 1 of the 2 papers… feeling that I was making good progress and knew where I was going and … the phone rang and it was the car dealer guy and he was hanging ’round the shop hoping Ross was going to bring me by to have a look at the van he was thinking about buying…

So we went and looked at the van - and bought it, although we won’t actually buy it until the insurance company quits dithering around, makes a decent offer and cuts a cheque  - in the meantime we are quite comfortable with driving the rental car they are paying for. They are not only paying for the car, they are also, for the time being, paying us milage for every time Ross has to drive me to school - cheaper than paying me to sit on my arse at home and not go to school or to work (same place, of course).

Anyway, once he had pried me away from my computer, he decided we should go shopping for my kids’ Christmas present and then for his kid’s Christmas present and so on and so on and so on ….we got a lot done… but none of it, of course, got my paper any closer to finished.

Monday, a friend has offered to take me shopping without hubby …which would be good… but that means I need to get about 14 more pages written tomorrow.

 What d’ya think? Can it be done?

Pretty much needs to be… Monday shopping again, Tuesday Peterborough to pick up exams - need to have both the exams and the rest of my students’ essays marked by the end of the week … and then the other paper to finish, also. ACK!

Today, I gave a workshop in the use of Webspiration software as part of my university’s T3: Teaching Technologies Training Conference. While it was a fairly small group, participants were enthusiastic about the possibilities webspiration offers for a variety of classroom and seminar uses. The funniest thing was that several were planning to also attend the session this afternoon about using the Inspiration software as well - and the presenter for that session was also in this one It would have been better to have reversed the order of the sessions, I think… next time.

We covered the basics of using it, as well as some possible applications for working with our students both in small groups and on a one:one basis.

That was actually the most exciting idea for me, I think … I have used it with groups - but one of the profs that was there suggested that it could be used for one:one support of a student needing assistance with an essay, for example. I had not thought of using it like that - but as soon as she said it, I realized how very well that could work as a means for assisting students to get their essays off to a great start.

I have several students in my seminars that have emailed me to ask me to provide feedback on thesis statements or introductory paragraphs …. webspiration could make that whole process SO much easier. I am going to suggest it to them next time.

They can go online and map out their ideas about their essay topic and then invite me to join them - at which point I can easily see where they have gaps or need redirection, make comments, and set them on their way again.

Anyway, the workshop went well; it was small and informal, and I think people had fun playing. I know I did.

Now I am looking forward to seeing how well my students apply what they have learned through using Webspiration in our seminars. They have their exam on Saturday, and as preparation, I worked through mindmapping a close reading of a sample passage with them, and strongly encouraged them to sketch a mindmap out on paper when they are preparing to write the close reading essays on the exam. I will be watching for bubbles and lines on their rough work!

Actually, right now, I’m closer to thinking I can’t… that trying to make sense of any more of the references I am using to write my fiction/nonfiction paper is clearly going to cause my head to explode.

But I have written a whole lot of essays over the course of my English degree - and even before that, really - and I have almost always done very well. As in all but a very few have wound up with solid A’s…and those that didn’t get A’s came very close. So - even if I don’t really think I can, I should think I can and keep going and going and …oh look…there goes my head, exploding again.

Anyone got a mop?

One of the most ~fun~ parts of academia, at least for me, is having to contact people I don’t know and who don’t know me and ask for their help.

In some cases, that means help in the long term too … hi, this is me, this is what I’m interested in …. would you perhaps be interested in being stuck with me for the next 3 or more years cuz I need an advisor so that I can continue on in graduate school? And if that doesn’t work for you, could you recommend someone else who might be interested in this sort of thing?

Another ~fun~ thing involves contacting profs that you do know and that do know you and asking them to jump through hoops on your behalf. I have never had a prof refuse to do a recommendation letter.. but I SO hate having to go back and ask them for more again and again and again.

I have a couple of profs in particular that have done SO many letters for me … I hate to have to go back yet again …. but I need another round or two of recommendations for the Phd programs I am applying to now. I am very fortunate that none of them seem to mind…but still, I feel bad!

Someday, though, when I get my Phd and am in a position to write letters of recommendation for others, I will, I trust, remember how acommodating my profs have been, and do them without bitchin’. For sure!

And now I am off to my other computer to hit send on the next round of please help me emails — wish me luck!

Even though I am not entirely sure that the whole PhD thing is doable unless my fall down go boom problem gets resolved by then, have decided to go ahead and start jumping through the next round of hoops, aka applying for Phd programs.

Which means I need to contact profs and arrange for reference letters, fill out the online forms, get my transcripts ordered, and rewrite my Statements of Intents. Could be worse though - this whole process is becoming very familiar. Scholarship, program… there just isn’t that much difference between the application processes.

When I was looking for Master’s programs, I applied for 4 - and was accepted into all of them. This time around, I think I will limit it to just 2 - Trent’s Canadian Studies program (depending on the outcome of my meeting there later this week) and York’s Phd in English program. Although…. Ross does keep mentioning BC… as if I would go that far away from my kids and grandkids. Just can’t see it. But suppose it wouldn’t kill me to look at the U of Vic mailing I received. Maybe.

After all of my papers are written, my applications’ stuff for here arranged, and my students’ essays and exams are all marked. Geez, I still have an awful lot of stuff to get done before Christmas! I’d best get busy.

But before I do … here are my top droppers for November: thanks to all of you - and everyone else that’s dropped by, also

‘Tis the season…

…for the filling out of applications for grad school for next fall.

If I want to go on and do a PhD, I need to hop to and get my applications filled out.

I am having a very hard time with that right now.

Because of the car accident I had last week, I am now dependent on others to drive me wherever I need to go.

Although it might be possible that I will get my licence back eventually, it is unlikely to be an easy process, nor is it going to happen anywhere near quickly enough.

And even though hubby SAYS that he’s willing to do the driving and support my continuing to go to school, he most assuredly does not mean what he says; he’s made that more than clear.

It just doesn’t seem worth jumping through the hoops, paying the money, spending the time to even bother filling out the applications.

At this point, I don’t even know whether I will be able to get through this next semester of the program I am in already.

Given that his willingness to drive me only lasted a week, I don’t see it.

I honestly don’t.

Perhaps I should be exploring online options

These are some of the reasons that I love doing the back to school for grownups thing. Because I am in school, I can justify my toys.

In August of this year, we bought me a very pretty purple laptop from Dell.

And then last week when I crashed my car, and my laptop in the process, we went out and brought home a very nice new Toshiba Satellite. I isn’t purple - but it has new toys, like the built in microphone and webcam, and more hard drive space and so on - so it will do.

We students must have working laptops, don’t you know Even if the insurance doesn’t cover it

This semester, I also graduated from a boring cell phone and Palm LifeDrive to a Blackberry Curve.

While I liked my LifeDrive, till I broke it (yes, I am hard on my toys), the Blackberry is ever so much cooler. It works great as a phone, and camera - and also as a datebook, email client - for all 4 of my active email accounts, if I want. And of course, there are games.

It also allows me to open attachments with my emails, which is very helpful when my students are submitting their essays and so on.

Oh! And the GPS works well for me, also. It is not quite as good as my husband’s TomTom - I am too cheap to pay an extra $10/month for turn by turn voice GPS - but it has helped me a whole lot more than once. Guess I don’t really need it anymore, since I’m no longer allowed to drive … but I am hoping that will be a temporary situation.

My only complaint about my Blackberry is that right after I got it I started to see ads for the Blackberry Bold. NO FAIR! *POUT*

Don’t you just love the whole test-taking and exams thing?

Just when you were starting to feel comfortable in your back to school as a grownup role, some prof has to come along and ruin it by announcing that there will be a test on ______________ ACK! You’re not alone - most people experience some anxiety about the whole testing thing … even the young’uns.

As on of my profs said not so long ago - “It’s supposed to be hard”

If school was all easy, everyone would do it and completing your degree successfully wouldn’t mean squat.

So - you cope with the anxiety as best you can, and you write the tests and do your best.

There are strategies that can help you to improve your test-taking skills, though - and there are tons of resources online. It can be well worth your time to visit a few of them, and especially, to look at specific strategies for specific types of tests.

If you know that you’re going to be doing a bunch of multiple choice tests, for example, try googling “multiple choice test stategies” and you will find some tips that can be very helpful.

Or you can stop by any of the following sites and have a look:

• Study Guides and Strategies
• Glendale College Strategies for Test-Taking
• MIT Online Test-Taking Strategies

You might also check for workshops or help from your school’s student support department.