Stressin' Hard

It's that time in my University of Phoenix sessions again...where it's down to the final days and I'm stuck with projects and assignments I've successfully procrastinated until last minute. One of the things that I really dislike about this whole online program is the fact that it's required to work in a learning team. I've done the whole working in groups thang back at State and also in the workplace. In fact, that is the number one reason why we have to do them- because in the field of education, a teacher will have to work cooperatively with another teacher. But working in a team via posting messages is definitely not the same thing! My classmates are from all over the U.S. which means that we're all in different time zones. Sometimes it's literally impossible for us to be online at the same time. Now of course, if a team is well organized and on top of things, you'd think no problems would arise, eh? NOT! Now because of my horrid experiences from my past classes, I've taken it upon myself to be the one to organize the group...be the one to devise a schedule of when things are due, come up with an outline of how a research paper should be, and be the proofreader/editor because I just have this thing about typos ( cannot is ONE word and a lot is TWO!).

Anyways, our last major team assignment was due today...due at 12 midnight PST...which is 2:00am CST...and the time NOW is 2:22am! Yah, guess who decided to put it on her shoulders? Uh huh. What really sucks is that I knew this would be a biggie project. I tried to get this organized during our 2nd week of class! But did anyone respond or try to get things started? NO! Now, I realize that we all have other projects due in between, but like I said, this was a major one. We had to devise a lesson plan in a subject and grade of our choice. Writing a lesson plan isn't so hard. But we also had to take into consideration the demographics of our class- plus since this is a class on diversity, some of the students we had to make accomodations for were special education learneres, limited English speaking students, ADHD kids, and some who just arrived from eastern Europe. Writing a lesson plan, like I said, isn't hard, but if you've got team members like MINE...man, oh man.

Needless to say, I worked my butt off tonight. I was on the computer for 7-8 hours STRAIGHT just trying to get all our material together. What really bites is that many of these post-graduate students do not know how to write. I'm not talking content wise because anyone can find information from doing research. I'm talking about basic grammar, punctuation, capitalization, etc. I'm constantly wondering how I ever got stuck with these people! All I have to say is that we better get a good grade on this project...and if we do, I hope my teammates appreciate all the hard work I put in. Damn.

Return of the King

Finally, it's here! The last segment in the Lord of the Rings trilogy has arrived! I'm so excited...hubby and I even bought our tickets in advance and we're scheduled to see the first showing on Wednesday. According to my sister, the Lord of the Rings hype is HUGE in da City. Turns out that a handful of theaters out there are showing the entire trilogy with Return of the King scheduled to start right at midnight. Can you imagine? That's an entire day at the movies watching nothing but Lord of the Rings?! Hubby and I would SO love to do that! I'm sure that there are many places where die-hard LOTR fans will get decked out in full attire, but I have to honestly say that there won't be any Orcs, Uruk-Hai, or my personal fave, Elves wandering the streets of MN. It probably has a lot to do with the freezing weather we're having! In any case, hubby and I are psyched for tomorrow! It's going to be downright hot...

I'm So Excited!

With all the stress of trying to finish up last minute projects, I honestly haven't had the time to think of going home yet. But I'm flyin' home to the Bay this week! Whoo hoo! It'll be nice to get away from this wintry weather for a bit and man, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing San Francisco, CA! Okay, so I haven't packed yet...details, details.

Birthday Shout-Outs

Just wanted to send my love to BaybieJ who celebrated her birthday on the 15th. To Eastbay, Butterfly13, and Vanessa Carlton-esque maestro...happy happy birthday with love from Minnesota! Hope this birthday brings lots of happiness today and everyday. May your birthday wishes come true! Love, peace, and God bless...