Back to the REAL world

Arrived back home late on Friday night. Enthusiasm faded quickly as a reality of dirty dishes and piles of clothes faced me. I'm sure our house must have been the site for several Xbox parties before my teenager left on his scout outing.

I talked to my son about his myspace account. He said girls were adding him as friends of friends and he really didn't like it. He felt that it was getting a little scary... It is nice to know that our kids can make great decisions in our absence...and all we have to do is listen.

I need desperately to hold on to momentum or I fear my burnout that overwhelmed me before the class, will return. With changing jobs during this last two weeks, my average work day is 10-12 hours per day. It will get better after the training is over and they hire someone to fill my old spot. I wouldn't have made the change, except this is the first time in eight years at the college that my job position required my bachelor degree in accounting and therefore, provided a way for me to become professional staff. The pay raise wasn't too bad either. It is however a really, really bad time with my commitment to finish the MED program.

So straight to the blackboard calendar to set goals and deadlines.

I'm eager to check with the Academic Advisement Center director on Monday on my ideas for a blended on-line class. We need to address the issue of starting the class in the summer. Can we still charge the tuition in Fall Semester? Otherwise, students may opt to not to take the class based on increased tuition.

Snow College is one of the few colleges without any admission standard. All you need to do is take the ACT and apply. It is an automatic acceptance. This class would help prepare many of our students, some with no study skills. It hopefully will increase retention, which is a problem with many variables and causes. Since the majority of the class would be completed before the beginning of fall classes, the students will have three added improvements that College Survival has not provided in the past.

First, students will gain the study skills that are needed before they start their first semester. Second, students will not be bogged down with extra coursework and study hours as part of a College Survival class during Fall Semester due to the fact that most of the coursework with be completed on-line during the summer. Finally, the students will be introduced to some of the technologies that I just learned. Hopefullly, students will begin to see their classmates as an additional resourses for study and colaboration. I will introduce these ideas on the student side and hope that it will catch on in other classes. It will definitely give them a head start with a better chance to succeed.

I hope that we will meet in person for only 2-3 classes. Wow, I should be saying this in my wiki, but I really don't want to share this idea with my Snow cohorts, until I receive approval. Is this OK?

I realize this class will not be ready to be introduced until next fall...is this a problem? Will I need to find a test group to provide feedback? A lot of questions...a then even more questions. Possibly, it can still be offered as an online course in Spring Semester also.