Every teacher needs to take a course every now and then. It’s a humbling experience. Plus, sitting on the other side of the lectern gives a person a renewed perspective of how it feels to be a student.
I’m taking CPT 101 this semester, and I’m sure the instructor is even now trying to think of how to diplomatically let me know that it’s not too late to withdraw from the course without penalty. We had our second test this morning, and although I studied, it was too late and too little. I waited until the last moment, something that I’m always reminding my students NOT TO DO. It’s simply not possible to cram in everything that’s been covered in three weeks of class in three hours the night before an exam. Creating hanging indents, sorting paragraphs, and creating custom tab stops is pretty challenging (for me), and when you add all of the shortcut options, well, you get the picture. As I said earlier, too little and too late.
At the same time, this experience is teaching me to be a little more understanding of what students go through in their quest for an education. I rationalize and remind myself that after all, I’m a busy gal, and it’s difficult to get everything done. But guess what? So are my students. Many of the women in my classes have jobs AND families to raise. Some of them are even single mothers. A young man just left my office after asking me for an extension on a writing assignment because he’s right in the middle of two extremely time consuming jobs, and he needs the money to support his family.
Yep, it’s a humbling experience. If I don’t mention my test grade Wednesday, don’t ask.
mom's musings 
God Love You, marlajayne, I don’t know whether to fuss at you or feel sorry for you! ;-)) I do feel sorry for you, truly, and I empathize with the learning of all this newfangled stuff!
I once took a typing test when I was 20-somewthing and I got so flustered b/c I did not know it was going to be in a room full of others and the teacher was like what we depict a drill segeant to be. It was as if I’d never seen a typewriter, much less used one!
You probably feel extra pressure b/c of your position…don’t be too hard on yourself! I Love You , even if your instructor doesn’t appreciate all of your wonderful accomplishments!
You’re such a positive person, and I truly appreciate your uplifting comments. There’s a young woman (early 30’s) in the class who has four children, works part-time, is in the very demanding nursing program, and who makes A’s in all of her classes. She’s actually in one of my online courses, so that makes it doubly embarrassing when she’s always the first one to finish everything while I’m still sitting there trying desperately to remember what I need to do. In fact, once in a while she’ll tell the instructor something that he didn’t know or that he forgot so maybe I shouldn’t beat myself up too badly.
Just so you’ll know, we changed the shrink rapping blog to wordpress today because it’s so much more user friendly. I’m hoping it will generate some student activity. Big favor to ask: When you get through with your research (you sure do a lot of reading and thinking), would you take a look at it and see if it’s easier to use? It’s psychcentral.wordpress.
I went to look and it’s not showing up…I copied & pasted what you have, added the httpwww, then took the www off, then reversed “centralpsych”…also tried a search within and outside of wordpress…don’t know what happened, but I’d say it’s not more user friendly than the original, which I worked just fine! 🙂 ?????????????????????? Be happy to look at it! Love that psychobabble stuff! LOL Hope you know I’m teasing!
Hmmm. This is weird. You deserve a medal for all of the effort you gave it. Thanks! When I go to it, it’s there, and yet when I put it in as a link to you, it’s not turning blue or looking like a hyperlink. I’ll have to get a computer guru to help me figure it out tomorrow.
http://psychcentral.wordpress.com/tags/
Okay, it worked from the link you posted here…??? Yes, I would say this is much more user friendly in that it’s less time consuming to read or comment. I read recently (somewhere:-) that WP is known to be the easiest to use. I haven’t had time to do anything with it yet, but I do have a blogspot blog that’s fairly simple…Must find a way to get more done!! :-))
I appreciate your checking it out. I’ve got a good feeling about it.
You are probably doing much better than you think! A hanging what? Just kidding. I am largely self-taught and have found new insight since being in front of a computer more often but shucks
the more I figure out the less I know.
I am sure you granted said young man the extension b/c you are one of the most fair minded people I know (provided it is a valid request).
Yes, I granted him the extension, and he did what he was supposed to do by the second deadline so all is well in that department.
I made 90 on the test and was feeling pretty good about it until the young woman sitting next to me showed me her grade: 96. Also, the instructor told us that there were two 100s in the class. We’re now going into Excel, so I will absolutely positively have to read the chapters before each class, not the night before the test.