the teacher has become the student

tonight i completed my "online" student orientation for grad school. mind you it took a few hours as i was often distracted by the genius that is shark week on discovery which would capture my attention and then result in a lovely rolling blackout which would then make me return to the computer to find the battery dying which would result in expletives raining down on the walls of the casa and a dog hiding under the bed. and thus continue the mayhem as of now.

i did finish...i only panicked once as i feared big brother might not have been taping and when i saw the number of modules and quizzes required of this orientation. if you can't already tell from the wheels off journey up to this point, i get easily distracted. never use to have this problem until i became a teacher....of adhd children.

adhd is not a fad or phase, i can attest to that. these kids have to be entertained on a minute to minute basis and i firmly believe in instruction time should match the years of their age. 10 years = 10 minutes and so forth. i learned to multi-task with them and never sit still for very long. and in the end....this may be my grad school demise.

i cannot sit still for very long.

luckily for me (and i hope you are sensing the sarcasm here), my educational facility decided to instruct me this evening in the ways of the world regarding effective time management, study strategies, and maintaining balance. because i'm a nerd and i was freaked by the quiz looming at the end of the module...i scribbled them down.

allow me to educate the mass following of this blog, shall we?

management (i.e. getting your crap together)

1. review the syllabus (duh!) and update events to your calendar (broke down and ordered one!)

2. add events to calendars (as if i'm going to have in with job and school)

3. prioritize tasks needed to accomplish (blood red only for the really important ones!)

4.estimate the time needed for each one (basically become a psychic)

5. create a daily to do list (and obviously add that to the top of list...make another list)

6. review to do list (and scream to the high heavens about all you didn't finish)

7. review your calendar weekly (this sounds like more calendar work than martha stewart could even handle)

study strategies (i.e. nerd alert)

1. identify the best available time of day to study (umm...never?!?)

2. avoid distractions (basically everything in casa de pippi)

3. review assignments due (another calendar attack)

4. set goals for study time (if i were a goal setter, i probably should have finished this degree 10 years ago)

5. overestimate the amount of time it will take to complete your goals (that just sounds like glorified overachieving to me)

6. decide where to put your effort (most of my effort is reserved for sleep..i'm really good at it)

7. study difficult assignments first (they told me this would be engaging!)

8. take breaks (restroom, alcohol, that seems vague)

maintaining balance (i.e. big fat joke)

1. plan time for fun (this is after they said course loads would take approximately 20 hours per week)

2. set expectations for family and friends (basically adios and we can resume our relationships in 3+ years)

3. set ground rules

4. schedule time with others (grandma...i know you're sick but i can't meet with you till next tuesday)

5. leverage breaks between classes for personal time (sleeping)

6. be an example (of right or wrong?)

7. involve your family in learning (no one cares about data and statistics)

i can't really say i'm looking forward to it. 20+ hours on top of teaching scares me half to death. so if you don't hear from me....don't be offended. i'm probably buried in a stack of books posting discussion forums to a guy named bob in bangladesh.