Blog reflection #2 - another school assignment

I'm back!! This time with a second assignment in my skill development course. This prompt is a little different than the first and I am not really sure how to go about answering. Had I made the decision to take this course back in Summer of 2014, I would have found it to be extremely valuable and time saving, however, I did not. I, instead, chose a different route, the more difficult and time consuming route...such is life for me!

Today's prompt: How do you feel that you have benefited from the online community (peer to peer interaction) in this course?

I feel that I do better in an online setting for many reasons, it is far easier for me to communicate with my classmates, I can read, re-read, and read again what someone has posted to fully understand what they are saying, what their perception of an assignment is or even to gain more knowledge of a specific subject. 
One thing I do not do in an online course is directly communicate with my classmates, I don't feel it is appropriate. I enjoy interacting with someone in a more public forum, this gives others an opportunity to post their feelings, information they found valuable and even another opinion of what the assignment was/is. I feel this is an amazing tool especially in English or History courses and have learned so much from my peers with this alone. 

For this particular course, I feel as if I was finally being provided with the knowledge I have gained with practice and time. Was it beneficial to me, right now in my life? No, I wouldn't say that it was. Like I said above, it would have been valuable and a major time saver if I had decided to enroll much much earlier in my scholastic career, but you know me, I do things the hard way. 

An assignment: First Blog Reflection

It has been quite a while since I have shared my misadventures and random ramblings with all of you. I have been meaning to dust off the keyboard and continue sharing my journey, but school, kids, life...you know the things I do on a daily basis that makes up so much of who I am takes precedence over my storytelling. Sometimes I want to boo on adult-ing and be a kid again. I miss snack time and nap time anyway.

But here I am, faced with an assignment in one of my online classes. I decided to take a Skill Development course at our local college, my hope was that I would gain skills to further my scholastic goals. My counselor thought I might do well since I have excelled in my online courses, even the ones I found difficult, I have always ended up with an A. I have noticed my drive and determination to be the best I can be was wavering, I still put in my best effort in my schooling, but feel that something is missing, something that if I didn't get a handle on it, would become bigger than I could control. So here I am, enrolled in a course that keeps me very busy. 

I have two prompts to write about, I will share these with you and then give you my best most personal answer, something I am sure you had become accustomed to in the past, honesty.

• How realistic do you think it will be for you to adhere to a schedule in order to devote the time necessary to complete the required work in your online courses?
• What measures will you take to ensure that this happens?

I would say that adhering to a schedule, for me, is the same as waking up every morning and popping a k-cup into my Keurig (due the Folgers theme song, "the best part of waking up, is Folgers in your cup!"). Scheduling my day is second nature to me, I no longer think about adding tasks to my calendar, I do not have to remind myself to check my calendar, I just do. I do it often. I play with colors, my schooling is coded one color, my kids schooling is another color, even their activities are colored, a bright blue for my little buddy, and a happy pink for my little Lala.  The reminders I have are a bit different, when I need to take an hour or two for school, it is this color, when Blondie is at work, I see this, doctors appointments are bold and bright as well. You might think, "sensory overload" when you look at a calendar with all these colors, but it helps me so much. I have found the best way for me to organize myself is to put each task in a mental box, kids go in one box, school in another, Blondie being home is in yet another. I have a visual reminder every day of which box I pick my tasks out of. Thankfully I have a lot of time between when I play carpool mom in the morning and afternoon. Depending on my school schedule and study schedule, I can have a little me time. Which is usually much needed. 

I don't really need to put anything into play to make sure I continue to schedule myself the way I have been. I have learned from past experience that without a schedule I do not thrive to the best of my ability, things are forgotten, heck even dinner! Scheduling myself has become so second nature, my routine is so ingrained in my head, that shifting away from it would throw my entire life out of balance. 

There is one area in which I need to add to my schedule, chores and self care. I need to add some colors to my daily routine. Time I set aside for cleaning the house, doing laundry, you know those domestic goddess skills we really take for granted. The same skills that take no time at all, unless they have been neglected for a week or three. As far as self care, yes I set time aside for reading, watching tv, etc., I am more talking about gym time, time for my health and wellbeing. 

So now I will leave you and begin my hunt for two new colors to further help me in my strive for greatness, for success, for a 4.0 throughout life!