Back to School for GrownUps

Seems like saying NO is one of the hardest things about going back to school.

Sometimes you just have to do it though. There just isn’t enough time in the day to get everything done!

I just had to turn down yet another job offer for this coming semester. It hurts!

I am very well paid when I teach 3 or more courses …. and I really do enjoy the teaching.

But I just can’t do everything.

I’ve agreed to 3 sections of one course - scheduled so that I won’t have to do extra driving - home for the weekend anyway - teach 2 on Monday, 1 Tuesday morning, then go to Peterborough. That works.

But now that I’ve made my decision, told them what I wanted … now I keep getting offered more.

If there were 2 sections of English that could fit into my Thursday (which is still a free day), might be worth it to drive a second time each week. But they have me pegged in computers. I don’t want to drive again for computers; I really don’t.

So - I said no thanks.

Where were all these offers when I needed & wanted them?!

Anyway - tis an awful lot of $$ I’ve turned down already …but on the other hand, how much is my sanity worth?

And if I am going to go on and do a PhD, really not much point to running myself into the ground to get up to speed in microcomputer apps right now, right? Right!

Still hurts though!

Anyone who reads my blog for awhile will know that this is not something that comes naturally to me.

Although I do think that I have been doing an admirable job of organizing my posts into categories ’round here, don’t you? (She types right before she realizes that she is typing in the wrong blog entirely - fixed that now)

I have this problem with keeping track of paper. And there is an awful lot of paper to keep track of when one is in school, isn’t there?

I am a little perturbed at the lack of efficient use of available resources I am experiencing in my current program. Every course is generating scads and scads of paper for each student…. me, I’m a geek…. and I know that I can never put my hands on the paper I need when I need it…. so it makes sense to me to have everything that CAN be uploaded onto our course sites GO THERE…

Then, if we need to print it we can - and if not, if we just need the info, we can easily get to it and use it without wasting 20 - 40 pages of printing per student!!! per article. Some of my courses have an average of 5 journal articles or book chapters to be read each week - you multiply that by the number of students and oy vey!!! we are going through an awful lot of unnecessary trees.

Syllabi and assignments and so on are smaller - but since I already know that no matter how hard I try to make sure everything goes into the right binder as soon as I get and that I keep track of … yeah … it never works…

Knowing one’s own weaknesses can go a long way to being a successful student - for me, it makes a lot more sense to bring all the paper home and spend an hour or two scanning everything into the computer so that I will have it when I need it.

It seems time consuming at the time -but when you figure the amount of panicked OMG I CAN’T FIND….!!!! stress and aggravation I save myself when I need the stuff later, I figure it’s worth it.

Of course, if my computer were to crap out I would be TOAST at this point - I OWN an external harddrive, but my kids have it right now… which means MY computer is not being backed up regularly. Need to get that back and soon, je pense.

One of the tasks that pretty much every student - mature or otherwise -will need to master at some point is setting priorities.

We older folk can quite often excel in this area - comes from having more life experience than a lot of the young uns - but on the other hand, we also quite often have a whole lot more juggling to do.

Carrying a full load of coursework and perhaps a part-time job can be challenging … toss in families wanting dinner, kids wanting their mommy or daddy, bills wanting to be paid, parents in need of support, etc. etc. etc… oh - and you still wanted time for yourself too? Good luck with that - unless & until you decide that your own mental health gets a spot on the list of priorities.

For many of us, that’s the tough one.

We feel as though we have to do it all and be it all - and do well at school … and we have a tendency to think that school IS the thing we do for ourselves - and because we’re doing that, we don’t also get to take time for doing that which supports us.

We feel as though we are depriving our families of our time & attention in favour of our education - and often, we try to make it up to them by going overboard … and in the process, losing sight of not only the end goal - but also our own mental health. Bad plan.

You are not jumping through all those hoops only to fail, right?

That would be a bad plan.

I’ll be writing a lot more about setting priorities on this blog …but for starters… how about some homework? Are you in school?

Take a few minutes to jot down a list of everything you need to do over the next week. And don’t forget to include at least one thing that supports you.