Getting serious now

November 2, 2008 | | Leave a Comment

I feel like now I’m in full swing with the semester. Lots going on both in this class and STAT 508 as well as work and family. I feel like the guy on the Ed Sullivan show spinning the plates on sticks (Ok, so I’m showing my age again). Got a bunch up there spinning – I hope I don’t drop any.

The class on data collection was very helpful but still left me a little shakey on questions to ask. I’ve met with some of the academy staff and got my hands on last year’s registration documents. Wow! No wonder they have a time lag and communication problems — it’s all stacks of paper. I can’t help but compare it to the way we schedule on our side of the house, not that it’s without issues, but at least we take advantage of technology. I sort of knew what to expect but being the visual person that I am, the stacks of files of papers had a pretty big impact. I hope to start meeting with the supervisors out in the field this coming week. I’m still having trouble wrapping my mind around the concept that I don’t have to worry about bias in the data ie. that it’s ok not to ask everyone the same questions. I think I like the term discovery.

I’m trying to practice the dealing with resistance skills whenever they arise (which seems to be pretty often in some form). It’s easiest at home since I don’t fear retrobution for being authentic. I’m still a little hesistant to be too authentic at work — not just now anyway, with two new staffers coming to the office on Monday. Did consult with my son though. He’s a senior in hs and was struggling with 8 classes (in a 7-period day) — three were dual enrollment, two AP and the other two honors. I thought he had bitten off more than he could chew (as was reflected in his grades) but when I would tell him he just insisted he was fine (his flight into health). Well, we finally got to the point where I said, “We’ve discussed your options and I know you’ve been talking to your teachers and guidance couselor. You still seem to be having trouble getting all the work done on time and concerns me. What do you want to do?” And then I shut up. Lo and behold, he came home the next day and told me he had decided to drop one of the classes. It turns out he didn’t want to be seen as a quitter but it was just an unrealistic work load (he also has a job).