Second Class Almost Over

Well here I am again, facing yet another final week.

Since joining National University in November 2011 I have taken two classes.

That is a lot of work for just eight weeks study time.

One thing which will be new to me is that this present class, A Seminar in Modern China, finishes on Saturday and my next class, Seminar in American History II, starts next Monday.

That only gives me time to watch the Superbowl on Sunday and I am off again.

It was this regime that convinced me to add a break month every third class. Conveniently every third session coincided with not many choices of class for me. Funny how that works.

So I get a break in March.

In my previous college we had two weeks between our eight week sessions to recover a little.  It will be interesting to see how I feel when I do a full twelve weeks and three classes, April-June.

Mid- Class Blues

There is a time in all students careers where they come to a point of collapse.

You see nothing but classes trailing behind you, like the chains dragged by Marley's ghost, and a long and winding road of classes ahead of you and your heart sinks into the pit of your stomach.

You are coming to the Mid-Class Blues. Believe me they can hit you hard. It is at this time you need your inner strength to take you forward and the help of fellow students is one of the best morale boosters you can get.

Your fellow students know what it is like to go through these struggles.

You have lost the initial enthusiasm of your Freshman days, and graduation can seem further away than ever and you have to take more classes. Why?

Many students hit the blues and throw in the towel and quit. It can be that serious, but then like Marley's ghost you drag around that chain of wasted classes forever, you may mention that you have college credits on a resume or in an interview, but then what reason do you give to show your not finishing? Almost anything you say will come out badly for you. Even if you don't talk about them you know they are there, you will question everyday why you gave up.

Talking to others will help you through the mid-class blues. If only to realize that you are not on your own.

And if someone approaches you and talks about bad times with classes. Don't mock them, don't give advice.

Sit down, listen, share time and listen. Maybe share that you have felt the same in the past or that you can see they are bothered. If you haven't known what the mid-class blues are like you are not really in a position to give advice. If you have had the mid-class blues you know you don't need advice, just someone to listen.

Getting through the mid-class blues is a new lease on life. You feel the enthusiasm for classes again and that long chain of old classes no longer clainks and rattles but is as light as a feather. Better still you can see the cap and gown already in your closet.

The reward for all the work you put in is knowing you earned your degree. Any employer now can see you will not quit.

What Smart Students Know

When I returned to school four years ago I was at a loss, new country, new education system. I knew nothing of the US way of teaching. I knew though that I needed to learn and to do so fast.

This book saved me a lot of time and effort. It showed me what teachers expected and how to structure my work and study time. 

It has been an invaluable help to me and I refer to it still.

The book is easy to read, pick it up open a page and find the very question you are asking. Ansers are written in a matter of fact way with good examples of real world problems that every student finds in their life, whether you are in a traditional college or sat hunched over a computer at home taking online classes, this book can help.

Did it make me a 4.0 GPA graduate? Maybe, it certainly helped me to get good grades because it taught me how to cope with school.

Busy Time

Well, here we are at January 7, 2012. Classes begin again Monday next week.

If you are like me this time is met with all sorts of feelings, some excitement, some concern. What will the teacher be like? What will my classmates be like? Hoping you don't make a fool of yourself with your first post, maybe worried that everything will work ok if this is your first online class.

First, a few words. DON'T PANIC! If this is your first online class, something always goes wrong somewhere along the line, hopefully it is minor, an internet outage for an hour or two, not something serious like the teacher disappearing for six weeks and no real instruction. That did happen to me once. No explanation the instructor vanished, no reply to e-mails, no grading, the class meandered on as the students pulled together to try and help each other. At one time a positive experience and a very frustrating time. In the end grades were good, but I never did hear from the instructor herself.

For the most part all of your fellow students will be like you. Nervous and eager. Don't worry about making mistakes, no one will see your blushes, no-one will recognize you in the street as the person who made a gaff in class. But remember to read your posts aloud, or be like me and use a screen reader to check that they make sense when read aloud. People use their inner voice to read their own work and sometimes their inner voice doesn't read exactly what is written, but what it thinks was written. Meanings can become confused very easily when you are writing on a computer screen.

Remember to use the apostrophe when shortening words. People like me, the blind, who use screen readers, can get easily irritated and so will your teacher when they read Ill instead of I'll or well instead of we'll for the twentieth time in a day.
By now you should be prepared to begin your classes. All your books neatly ordered, paper at the ready for notes and a supply of pens for writing those notes. Most of your preliminary reading should be done and you might even have ideas for your final papers. Given that you have one day to relax and have fun before the  headlong rush towards your class ends. Take time for yourself. Go see a movie, go shopping, go to the ocean, mountains, fishing, cycling. Spoil yourself. You will need the rest.

Improve Memory by Building Links

When you study, it helps to add to your existing knowledge by building links between new ideas and what you already know.

Ideas and knowledge do not occur in a vacuum. All ideas can be linked in some way or another to each other.

At college many years ago I endured a series of classes telling me how to create "mind-maps." It was the latest thing in the late 70's and for me it was totally useless. Why? Because I am not a visual learner. I was always an auditory learner. I could listen to instructions and follow them. Seeing a jumble of colored lines and speech bubbles on a page meant nothing to me, even when I created it.

What rocked my boat was actually making up lyrics to songs.

Think about songs for a moment. They began as a means to help story tellers and ancient poets memorize the story. Sing a favorite song to yourself, I'd bet you have a catalogue of several thousand songs in your brain right now. You have learned them through a lifetime of just living, maybe some you have learned for special occassions. But I'd also bet every song will give you a picture, even bring back memories of feelings, emotions and memories of a particular time.

This is the same thing as creating mental links. Read or watch something to do with your course and try to link it to a particular series of thoughts.

If you are like me, make up a song, compose your own tune or go for lyrics to a favorite song. It's up to you.

You can create a story, put in a favorite actor or actress, make yourself the leading role, make it memorable. But build in the ideas you most want to remember.

As your knowledge in a class expands you can add to your favorite song or story.  By constant reviewing of your favorite method you can build stronger links. Then suddenly ome day you will sit in the exam room and you can replay your method in your mind. The story will be so familiar that you will recall most of your knowledge with ease and there it will be on your answer paper.

A Key Strategy: Planning

One of the things we forget to do as students is to plan.

We meander through classes, wait until due dates to produce an essay which may scrape us a "C" if we are lucky.

All this builds stress and causes us frustration. The best stress reliever available is to create a plan.

Planning ones classes has been shown to increase overall grade performance. Students who have a planned series of courses are more focused on studying because they can see a route of study and can see an end. Students who move from class to class without a plan get lost in the system and spend more time stressing about where their school career is going and are unable to focus on an end point.

In essence it is like going on a journey with no real idea of a destination. How can you know how to get somewhere and how would you know that you have arrived.

As soon as you can, talk to someone who can help you create a learning plan. This will save you time and stress in the long run.

With individual classes, prepare as much as you can before classes start. Read through the text books, not in detail perhaps just skim chapter introductions and summaries. Look for links in ideas from other classes. Get hold of a copy of the syllabus and read it for course objectives and see if you can link those to your knowledge. Also look for an interesting feature in your class that may be expanded into a final paper. The earlier you choose a paper topic the better, all your study can be aimed at creating a paper which will knock your teacher out of the ball park for a class capping "A".

Planning for the class and the course is vital. Don't struggle and stress along with everyone else. Create various plans and stick to them best as you can.
A plan is not set in stone and need not be rigidly followed, but it does help you see where you are going and lets you know when you get there.