Monday, September 27, 2010

I Hear the Bell Ringing...

     Tomorrow is the day that my first college course opens.  Yea!  Oh, no!  What am I thinking?!  Just to let you in on a few thoughts.  Since I last wrote on this blog, our theater group has done a play, I finished a PowerPoint presentation for graduate students in Neuropsychology that I am doing in November (yes, I am teaching PowerPoint to grad students, or at the very least I am showing them what the program is capable of -- either way, it's teaching), and two of my favorite shows are back on the air - The Amazing Race and Biggest Loser.

     I found out a lot about my options for course credits.  There are the PLAs (Prior Learning Assessment) that are available to get credit for my work experience.  So I figured it out this way. Let me know what you think.  Here's my course schedule (for the first 46 credits) and my experience(that hopefully I can use for the credits):


  •         Introduction to Literature                  
      • Published five novels, written short stories & plays (over 20 years exp)
  •         English Composition I & II
      • Written for newspapers, have been a columnist, written articles, press releases and many other interviews and such for print
      • Novelist
      • Public Information Officer/Press Secretary
  • Computer Literacy
      • I'm really not saying anything about this except: I'm writing a blog, I am doing a PowerPoint Presentation, working on several video projects, researching on the Internet, Budgeting, etc., etc.


      Those are the ones I can come up with, but that's just for these courses.  Hopefully, if all goes well, I can receive some PLA credit for my work.  I have to say I like the idea of getting credit for work experience.  It makes me feel like maybe all that time off school was just as useful.  By the way, current stats, only 25% of Americans hold a Bachelor's Degree.  At first, I read that in my new school book and thought, really?  There are a lot of people lying, but then it occurred to me, maybe that's true.  Because a lot of people I know don't have one, including me, and a lot of people I know are still working on theirs.  I thought about it and I know about seven people that have a Bachelor's Degree.  That's small, when you think about it.



     I must say getting ready to go back to school is probably as exhausting as going back.  I mean I read all the schedules, the material, the worksheets, did a few assignments, worked on some Internet resources, and then I got up the 2nd day.  It's crazy.  By the way, the student portal (classroom) actually opened for viewing on this past Friday.  So all excited, ready to go in and look around when ---bang!--- I was locked out!  Quick called the tech support, open 24/7.  Yea!  Not so much.  When I got two different people on the phone on Friday and Saturday, they directed me to another phone number.  That one wasn't open for assistance until Monday.  Ugggh!!!!  Frustration set in.  But for the first time in a long time (it seemed) I calmed down.  No use in worrying about it.  So I didn't.  Oh you know what?


     They were wrong anyway.  I called this morning (Monday) to the same 24/7 tech support number and found out that it was correct after all.  Now, I know it sounds like they are disorganized, but they did get me back on track and I'm in!  So I'll cut them some slack.  After all, there could be a lot of students starting.  


      Here's the deal now:  I have to post my first assignment by tomorrow (Tuesday) before the end of class, and since the University goes by their time (Central), one hour behind me, then I get an extra hour (I guess).  Always look on the bright side of life (insert whistling here for the Monty Python fans!).  


      I didn't want to forget this time, I wanted to put a link up from my college.  You know, just in case anyone wants to see it.  So here you go!


http://www.ashford.edu/home/


     My final thoughts for the day:


  • Ice Cream is Good
  • The Pretender TV show should have finished their story
  • Good friends are like aged rum -  they get better and better
  • Being married always makes me smile
  • The grammar checker on the computer is suggested not always right
  • 80s music is still rockin'
  • Some 10 year-olds can really act (the girls in our show this past weekend were amazing!)
  • Having fun can never be downplayed
  • Dreaming of unicorns, knights in shining armor, and rolling fields is necessary sometimes
and for everything else there is MasterCard!

Until next time...



2 comments:

  1. Congratulations on not killing the tech support staff. Frustration tolerance for that sort of thing is mandatory. Good luck with the upcoming semester. And by the way, you should get all the PLAs you thought about!

    ReplyDelete
  2. WOOHOOOO SCHOOL!!!!

    ReplyDelete