Over and out with an A in the paper and in the course

The essay went on and on, but again as with other courses I learned something, about the the subject matter and about myself, about how I can speed myself up in writing a paper. By Friday I was still writing and writing and writing, and off to Colorado I went, with paper in hand. I sat in a bar for three hours fixing. And I wrote in the spaces. and I got entrained and could see the light a little more, and knew what to say where I didn't know what to say. And I woke up Sunday Morning at 4:30 and wrote and wrote in the hotel lobby of the Westin Westminister in Colorado, and then reached this moment where I knew it was done. And off it went. A day later, the professor got back to me with a 90% and a 93 in the course. That's the second lowest mark I've gotten!! But it's ok. I feel very good, yet again. This has not been merely a graduate course in distance ed, but one in self esteem, and with each course I climb the ladder, up, up. It has been an amazing trip so far.

Breaking through

It's a little more clear what I have to do on this project. I was struggling all day to get the words out. Now I see what I have to do. I go through this on every paper, all seventeen of them. Then everything starts tumbling. I am learning how to do this much more quickly. Maybe I might even have this paper finished on time--or more less on time, get my assignments from Seneca, and my preparations for the next term and my insurance form in and, and, and,

An intro is born

Jim and I hashed out an intro for my essay by talking on the phone. On the one hand this is common sense on the other hand this is fuzzy. It is painful, it is...ayieee...I have no sense of corproate stuff. So I have do what I've always done as awrite and as a grad student. Read, re read, imagine, appeal to the Gods, eat my face off browse the internet, watch too much sopranos. Somehow it all comes together. This time, though it seems like there is not enough time. Help me God!!!

Last essay no time

There's too much to do and not enough time. I have no feel for the subject area so the progress is slow and painstaking. Help me someone help!!

off

Time to get back on track. It's like starting the ignition when the car has been sitting in the cold. God help me do it.

Changement

That is change management. Today is the Ontario civic holiday and that is all I'll be doing today ( more or less) is trying to structure the section on Change management. I think this essay will go better than the less. I'm into the topic. This is tying the loose ends together.

RM

Reading and writing my way through it

Change management implementation, performance management in distance education. Anyone home anyone know anything about this. While I was doing the course work, I felt frustrated that I didn't have much hands on working knowledge. Somehow I read and wrote my way through it. I know how to do that well, regardless of the subject matter. I will do that again. But I must move quickly. There is so much do aside from school.

Write it in 30 days or else

so said the professor in an e-mail. This I know. So this Imust do. Step one, research.

The last one

The last one in this course is on change management and performance in distance education. I am a little worn out from the 95% percenter, but I know I need to get going here. And meanwhile it looks like the fall will be busy.

95 for all my trouble

Well of all things. Five weeks of hard labour! I felt pleased with myself. I really climbed a mountain this time. I already have to start yet another one. And I will do that, I will do that!! AFter that I will have no more required courses. The question is what do I do next, what the heck do I do with this degree!!

It's done !!!!!!!Time to catch up

Now I have to catch up with the rest of the course. But first a breather.

Almost done

There are a few pieces left. Checking this, then that, and finally this assignment 2 will be done out of my hair, finished, complete. Oh this was hard.

Getting better

It's getting better and easier but I need to finish soon. Help!!

Momentum

Finally it's happening. The writing is coming. I think I get it. Boy it took a while. This is the point I need to reach with each paper. Dear god please help me make it through this one and thenext. please help!!

cost accounting and other boring things

It has been very hard for me to get into this topic. It has hurt my brain. I didn't start out this term being mentall strong but I have had to stretch my muscles yet again. Oh finally i'm getting but I'm woafully late. This subject doesn't inspired me to song but yet it is important. You can't have a business without a financial backbone. So although it's been painstaking to learn, i still have to learn. So several financial factors have to be considered ( fixed costs those that don't change, variable costs those that do and indirect costs those that the parent insitution pays) and may things in between. Start up funding because up front funding is important in DE and strategies to maintain sustainability. I think I've got it. Now it's just details.

It's going slowly

It's going way too slow. I don't know what it is. I got much done yesterday but still not enough. Back for more today. Back for more.

Ouch this is hard

My second half of the summer semester has started. I have to be in class more and have more preps and marking to do. and meanwhile my paper is now four days over due. Ouch this is hard. each section I do is excruciating. I have to really visit the information closely to make sure I've gotten it, that it gives the instructor what he wants. I have to say, that I have no feel for this course, but then again, I didn't for some of the others--yet I made it through. This one is breaking me, or maybe, I will break it yet please help; ouch this is hard. .

found the focus

I found it. I had to sweat. The course is called "planning and management" in distance education. Planning is strategic planning. It starts with a vision and mission and values and then moves to creating some goals around that. Then those goals have to be put in place over a period, and also be costed. Specficity. The question I ask in the paper is that if a college wants a new department of DE, what specific plans and changes does it need to make to create that over a period of time. What are the accounting considerations. Simple but not easy. Welcome to managerial mechanics!! foreign territory for me. Now it's just details

Focus

Focus, focus, focus, focus. what is the skeleton structure. Once I have the structure Iwill be off --is it how to or is it descriptive? What mode?

What lesson am I really learning

I am learning about having to plod through work just to get the credit. I now know what my students feel like when they aren't enthused, but have to do the work.

I am learning about the "management" side of DE. Do I want to do this? Maybe if I want to run a business. Probably not within an organizational context --but who knows--never say never. Although the material is dry, what I'm learning is the insitutional context, and the entrepreneurial context -- what is My vision for myself? What is my mission statement? What are my goals to carry that out? That is the "secret" chunked down.

Ask and it is answered.

I need to look for clues in the course guide. Nothing at Athabasca is ever a surprise; all they want you to do is just go deeper into an area. So what I need to do is first talk about organization

Governance, Organizational structure, staffing, process, infrastructure, marketing. I need to use theoary and fact. Then there's all that accounting stuff. I think it boils down to money in, money out. Simple, but not easy.

Financial Planning

Financial planning financial planning -- tell me oh great spirit how I can write an essay on financial planning in distance education

Understand the goal of the assignment --make sure you understand details - this guy likes details, be as clear and as specific as possible. What does it take to financial plan --is knowing precisely what you are costing, where the money is coming from, and who it will continue to keep coming. Understanding business sturctures and process. Think business less than pedagogy, take a very hardline business approach.

moving on with Assignment 2

trudge trudge. There is some value in for I am really learning the nitty gritty of how things run. The important thing is money, how much of it, how it is organized, allocated, spent, monitored and accounted for. This is really a business course, not an education course. One thing that we learned in the previous module was on vision and mission statements. So, what is my vision for myself? What is my mission. I think in my current work I am out of alignment with myself. Strangely enough or not doing my grad degree has made me realize what I really want in my life -- to write. That is why I went here in the first place. No wonder I keep getting good marks!

An A now on to Assignment 2

I got an A on Assignment 1. It was hard won. I had to struggle through my stuff around Marty, and sit and sit. I was less than thrilled with the material but I plodded and did it. I did it. I have to say, I am less than thrilled with this course, but it's a required course, and I will get through it. Don't I always. Now I have to start assignment #2

Plodding away on assignment 1

Have I been here before...sort of . We did something similar in MDDE601. Back then it seemed like a monumental project. Now we start where we left off and it will take us some place else. I hope. I am uneasy, but one word at a time, getting through it.

Strategic Plan

Vision, Mission, Values. I have to write a plan for an enterprise of distance education. This is tough. I plod through it step by step. I am still stuck on the mission statement.

Assignment 1-focus

This is a tough course. There is a lot of thinking involved. I can only go step by step and it seems that I have to flex muscles to do that. I am definitely in new Territory. And meanwhile I'm going to a gate of all things in the U.S. I need to focus my intent.

The next step- a sense of optimism

This is the last course of the required courses in my masters. I am glad, very glad to be back at graduate studies. I needed the break last term because I needed to recover from four semesters of very hard work. I needed to recharge my mental muscles. Now, I'm good to go. I feel a sense of shifting, of having crossed an important threshold when I did 603, and I feel like this next course will continue the growth, but I seem to have less internal struggle. I struggled so much in all my courses, (and in the last which I dropped ironically was not a struggle). I struggled with my sense of adequacy and being good enough to even do graduate studies. I no longer feel that way. Somehow, this triggered a lot of stuff around my seemingly ill-fated career as a writer. I have scars on my soul from that, and from writing 14 papers, I have released these.

One question now that has been lingering for a year is what do I do with this? Where do I go? My vision is to still continue teaching but to design my own courses, and to do corporate contracts, and release the anchor that classroom teaching holds on me, and to ultimately return to journalism with other things. And to live a life without the constraints of being at a job, and to go to as many gates as I can get away with and to travel and do interesting online projects. Is that within my reach?