Well, it seems as if this mom has been either very lax about posting to this blog about life as a mom and student or I've been super busy being a mom and student. None the less I am still a mom and student and I am now working full time as well. Man, I must really like to have a full plate or something.
I am half way through my second to last class and the last few years have been a major whirlwind. Let's start back at the beginning shall we.
I wanted this blog to be a type of journal for myself as well as an inspiration for other moms that are wanting to go back to school but struggling to make the decision. I've learned a lot about myself and I've determined that I was not in a place where I was capable of keeping with the unreal expectations I had of myself at the time.
I started this journey when my baby (now 4) was just about 7 months old. I thought that there would be no way that I would be able to keep up the demands of everything that I was taking on and that this was a bite that I would not be able to chew. Class after class just kept coming and I was getting A after A even in courses that I thought there was no way that I would be getting good marks in (math to be specific). Here we sit 4 years, 24.5 classes, 92 credits, a 100 foot move, a 900 mile move, 3 jobs, 1 trip home, and 2 National Education exams later, I find myself at a bittersweet cross roads. How I long for the sweet sweet taste of graduation and to finish what I set out to accomplish.
Student teaching is going to be one of the best experiences of this journey I am sure and one of the most hardest things to finish up. It will be a wonderful feeling to be in the classroom but it will be so difficult to leave those kiddos behind, and return to my daily job duties as an instructional assistant.
Let's talk about this 900 mile move you're wondering about. We moved from our beautiful, serene, peaceful home at the base of the Windriver Mountain Range in Wyoming to the Greater Phoenix Area in Arizona for my husband to attend school. That's right we are not both full time students, raising our kiddos and working full time. It's not an easy job but hey someones gotta do it. We are however looking forward to moving home when he is done with school and starting our careers.
I love being a mom and student the two jobs at the same time are difficult, I'm not going to sugar coat that for you because it's not easy at all it's rather difficult at times. Especially when I would much rather take my babies to the pool and play than do my homework to beat the heat. However, we manage to find the time for everything, including exploring Arizona as a family.
So here we go on to get some homework done and play with my babies.
Study well.
Friday, August 1, 2014
Saturday, January 26, 2013
Educational Progress
As I go farther and farther into my educational experience I am faced with the excitement of completing one goal (Bachelors Degree) to get ready to gear up for the next goal a MASTERS degree.
With about 9.45 classes left. I say 9.45 because I'm about 3 weeks into classes 10 and 11 to complete my BS in Education. The feeling is amazing and I am sure it will only get more and more amazing as I approach the end and gear up for student teaching next year.
As I get closer to the end my classes are more specialized so be prepared to hear more about the classroom endeavours as well as the happenings and experiences I will be going through to complete this great journey.
Stay tuned...................I'm trying to be better about blogging my experiences but it's a struggle at times.
With about 9.45 classes left. I say 9.45 because I'm about 3 weeks into classes 10 and 11 to complete my BS in Education. The feeling is amazing and I am sure it will only get more and more amazing as I approach the end and gear up for student teaching next year.
As I get closer to the end my classes are more specialized so be prepared to hear more about the classroom endeavours as well as the happenings and experiences I will be going through to complete this great journey.
Stay tuned...................I'm trying to be better about blogging my experiences but it's a struggle at times.
Continued Education
As a child we are so excited to go to school. We get to play with out friends, learn new things about ourselves and our friends. Be rewarded through the fun ideas our teachers come up with to teach us new things. Oh and we cannot forget about RECESS the best and most important part of any school day.
As we grow we enter into the daunting classrooms of middle school, junior high, and high school where we are required to read textbooks, fill out work sheets, form lengthy essays. At times we scream, "how is this fair?" or "I'm never going to need this why do I have to it?"
Coming to the end of high school years we are faced with the challenges of what to do next. do we go to college and get our degree right away or do we work and travel and other fun things that we want to do or even just bum around and do nothing?
It's not an easy decision. I personally choose to go to college for about a year and a half, before deciding that I just wanted to work. So, work I did. I worked more than enough time for me and anyone else that I worked with. Pulling doubles and over time even gong right from a swing to a grave and going home to sleep for about 4 hours before returning for the 11am shift. After getting married I pulled back on my hours so I could spend more time with the love of my life. Eventually I gave it all up to be a stay at home mom to the most wonderful little boy.
Years, and four children later I found it very important after my husband was in an accident at work (thankfully no one was hurt), to return to school and gain the education I had originally started out to gain. I had nothing to fall back on to support my children. I would be stuck living either in my dad's basement are at my in-laws while trying to work a minimum wage job to support myself and my four children. Even though I have an amazing support system that would do whatever they needed to do to help me and my children I could not risk not having the time that I wanted to have with my children because my work schedule did not mess with their school schedule.
I needed something that would pay the bills and not make me stress too much about money will messing with their school schedules so that I could be there for them when I needed to be and support them in every way possible.
I have always wanted to be a teacher as I have expressed in previous posts, however it also meshes very well with me having young children.
Continuing my education is one of the most rewarding and most challenging things I have ever done in my life. Education has not ever really been a challenge for me, the challenge comes from trying to complete everything that I was already doing with gaining education. Being an involved parent forces you to have to organize and schedule your time. throwing school on top of that makes you become very scheduled and organized. however this is a great thing for me because I have always been a scheduled person. I not only want the structure I need it.
I have told a number of mom's, I am an advocate of higher education and if it is something that you really want you will do well and you will excel at it. You just have to WANT it.
As we grow we enter into the daunting classrooms of middle school, junior high, and high school where we are required to read textbooks, fill out work sheets, form lengthy essays. At times we scream, "how is this fair?" or "I'm never going to need this why do I have to it?"
Coming to the end of high school years we are faced with the challenges of what to do next. do we go to college and get our degree right away or do we work and travel and other fun things that we want to do or even just bum around and do nothing?
It's not an easy decision. I personally choose to go to college for about a year and a half, before deciding that I just wanted to work. So, work I did. I worked more than enough time for me and anyone else that I worked with. Pulling doubles and over time even gong right from a swing to a grave and going home to sleep for about 4 hours before returning for the 11am shift. After getting married I pulled back on my hours so I could spend more time with the love of my life. Eventually I gave it all up to be a stay at home mom to the most wonderful little boy.
Years, and four children later I found it very important after my husband was in an accident at work (thankfully no one was hurt), to return to school and gain the education I had originally started out to gain. I had nothing to fall back on to support my children. I would be stuck living either in my dad's basement are at my in-laws while trying to work a minimum wage job to support myself and my four children. Even though I have an amazing support system that would do whatever they needed to do to help me and my children I could not risk not having the time that I wanted to have with my children because my work schedule did not mess with their school schedule.
I needed something that would pay the bills and not make me stress too much about money will messing with their school schedules so that I could be there for them when I needed to be and support them in every way possible.
I have always wanted to be a teacher as I have expressed in previous posts, however it also meshes very well with me having young children.
Continuing my education is one of the most rewarding and most challenging things I have ever done in my life. Education has not ever really been a challenge for me, the challenge comes from trying to complete everything that I was already doing with gaining education. Being an involved parent forces you to have to organize and schedule your time. throwing school on top of that makes you become very scheduled and organized. however this is a great thing for me because I have always been a scheduled person. I not only want the structure I need it.
I have told a number of mom's, I am an advocate of higher education and if it is something that you really want you will do well and you will excel at it. You just have to WANT it.
Thursday, October 18, 2012
Amazing
being a mom and student is AMAZING!!!! There is no other way to explain it.
Often times it is difficult and there are times I think to myself what the heck am I doing. Other times I wonder shy I didn't do it sooner and get it done and over with. But at the end of the day I love that I chose to wait until my children were older.
It is never to late to get your education and I love that I am able to share this experience with my family and show my kids that it doesn't matter what time of your life you are in you are never too old to start your education.
After all the only thing we are going to be able to take with us when we leave this world is our education.
Often times it is difficult and there are times I think to myself what the heck am I doing. Other times I wonder shy I didn't do it sooner and get it done and over with. But at the end of the day I love that I chose to wait until my children were older.
It is never to late to get your education and I love that I am able to share this experience with my family and show my kids that it doesn't matter what time of your life you are in you are never too old to start your education.
After all the only thing we are going to be able to take with us when we leave this world is our education.
Monday, August 27, 2012
Stresses
sometimes being a student can get the better of you and make you completely stress out.
there are days you don't want to do anything and you just want to be and not have to worry about anything, especially your homework.
Today has been one of those days. After a weekend of family being in town to celebrate a huge milestone in my oldest child's life I have not really been feeling my homework today.
However, my husband has been amazing about taking care of the boys (daughter got to go home with grandma and grandpa for a week long visit before school starts) and making sure that they are fed, and not killing each other and just letting me be. This means mama got to sleep until 10:30 this morning, nap through two movies and just hang out updating facebook groups, pages, and blogs.
It's been great to recover from the weekend of having tons of family but it has been killer on my school needs and what I need to do for my homework.
thankfully I finished up my part of a team project last week and I do not have anything due this week outside of discussion questions.
I have learned one thing the last several weeks and that is that the Arizona Government and Constitution is just as confusing as all the others because of the way it is worded and I have been able to get through all of this class without buying and of the text books they recommend so I guess its not too hard.
The next few weeks may be a little difficult since the questions are about the Arizona constitution and they would be easier to answer if I had the Arizona Constitution book that is recommended for this course. I am positive that I can find all of the answers through the schools library as well as the Internet.
Outside of a few hick-up I have been able to get 100% on all assignments thus far making it so I have a little cushion just in case I bomb a report on the Arizona stuff. The federal stuff was not quite as hard as i thought it might be so that is always a plus, especially since I am not a Poly Sci lover and would rather stay away from that kind of thing.
Looking forward to the next class as it is all about being a teacher how to teacher a specific kind of student. Only 3 more weeks of this current class and I will be on my way to working out how to teacher and exceptional learner!!!!
there are days you don't want to do anything and you just want to be and not have to worry about anything, especially your homework.
Today has been one of those days. After a weekend of family being in town to celebrate a huge milestone in my oldest child's life I have not really been feeling my homework today.
However, my husband has been amazing about taking care of the boys (daughter got to go home with grandma and grandpa for a week long visit before school starts) and making sure that they are fed, and not killing each other and just letting me be. This means mama got to sleep until 10:30 this morning, nap through two movies and just hang out updating facebook groups, pages, and blogs.
It's been great to recover from the weekend of having tons of family but it has been killer on my school needs and what I need to do for my homework.
thankfully I finished up my part of a team project last week and I do not have anything due this week outside of discussion questions.
I have learned one thing the last several weeks and that is that the Arizona Government and Constitution is just as confusing as all the others because of the way it is worded and I have been able to get through all of this class without buying and of the text books they recommend so I guess its not too hard.
The next few weeks may be a little difficult since the questions are about the Arizona constitution and they would be easier to answer if I had the Arizona Constitution book that is recommended for this course. I am positive that I can find all of the answers through the schools library as well as the Internet.
Outside of a few hick-up I have been able to get 100% on all assignments thus far making it so I have a little cushion just in case I bomb a report on the Arizona stuff. The federal stuff was not quite as hard as i thought it might be so that is always a plus, especially since I am not a Poly Sci lover and would rather stay away from that kind of thing.
Looking forward to the next class as it is all about being a teacher how to teacher a specific kind of student. Only 3 more weeks of this current class and I will be on my way to working out how to teacher and exceptional learner!!!!
Thursday, July 26, 2012
A two week break was perfect and just what I needed. Now it's time to get back in the saddle and hit the books again. This week starts the beginning of a new class about Arizona and US Government. A class I really do not want to take as I do not live in Arizona so the class really is not going to do me any good. However it is on my list of required classes so take it I will.
Among all the chaos of having a two week break and going to Girls Camp I have also been in the midst of a move. Now that everything is moved I have been busting my hind end for the last 3 days to get that house clean so that they can finally interview someone and get them moved into the house.
Cleaning your house and doing you homework normally with 3 kids running around (one of them is at Grandma's helping in the hay field) is not an easy task and I am having to clean as well as try to entertain 3 kids under the age of 6 in a house with no toys for hours while I am getting our old house clean enough for someone to come right in to and not have to worry about cleaning it before they do. I've got it pretty dang clean in the time that I have been able to be over there with three kids underfoot and one of them that still is a must nap child taking about 5 hours of the day that I am at our new house to feed kids and put them down for naps.
this morning I get a phone call from my husband saying that his boss thinks I need to do more cleaning before they can pain. Now they want me to wash all the walls that I have already scrubbed the crap out of. You would not believe the messes that you find from having three boys after you move all of your stuff out of a place and you can see naked walls. So they want me to re-wash all the walls before they will paint and try to get out pink stains that are next to impossible to get out. (side note - never EVER give your kids strawberry crystal lite unless you are camping and it can spill in the dirt. no matter what you do it will end up on the carpet and in places you didn't think juice could get and it likes to stick it's tongue out at you when you try to get it out.)
So in addition to all of this chaos I am struggling to keep up with my new class and the DQ's as well as the other homework because I have been spending all my time cleaning a house that I no longer live in trying to get it clean enough for them to paint it and so I can get to work on the yard. Hubs and kids better pick up the slack tonight because mama is on the verge of a mental and physical break down.
Okay end of vent now it's off to wash walls that have already been washed, cleans stains that won't come up, clean out vents that are clean and get the rest of our stuff out of the yard all with out biting someones head off.
Among all the chaos of having a two week break and going to Girls Camp I have also been in the midst of a move. Now that everything is moved I have been busting my hind end for the last 3 days to get that house clean so that they can finally interview someone and get them moved into the house.
Cleaning your house and doing you homework normally with 3 kids running around (one of them is at Grandma's helping in the hay field) is not an easy task and I am having to clean as well as try to entertain 3 kids under the age of 6 in a house with no toys for hours while I am getting our old house clean enough for someone to come right in to and not have to worry about cleaning it before they do. I've got it pretty dang clean in the time that I have been able to be over there with three kids underfoot and one of them that still is a must nap child taking about 5 hours of the day that I am at our new house to feed kids and put them down for naps.
this morning I get a phone call from my husband saying that his boss thinks I need to do more cleaning before they can pain. Now they want me to wash all the walls that I have already scrubbed the crap out of. You would not believe the messes that you find from having three boys after you move all of your stuff out of a place and you can see naked walls. So they want me to re-wash all the walls before they will paint and try to get out pink stains that are next to impossible to get out. (side note - never EVER give your kids strawberry crystal lite unless you are camping and it can spill in the dirt. no matter what you do it will end up on the carpet and in places you didn't think juice could get and it likes to stick it's tongue out at you when you try to get it out.)
So in addition to all of this chaos I am struggling to keep up with my new class and the DQ's as well as the other homework because I have been spending all my time cleaning a house that I no longer live in trying to get it clean enough for them to paint it and so I can get to work on the yard. Hubs and kids better pick up the slack tonight because mama is on the verge of a mental and physical break down.
Okay end of vent now it's off to wash walls that have already been washed, cleans stains that won't come up, clean out vents that are clean and get the rest of our stuff out of the yard all with out biting someones head off.
Thursday, July 12, 2012
working hard
As a mom my job is never ending and I am on the clock 24-7. It is also one of the most rewarding jobs in the world. Thus why I want to be a teacher. It is also a very rewarding job.
Parents out there I want you to know that even if you work full time in and out of the home if you work hard and make the time (all you need is a dedicated 1 hour a day) to get your work done and DO NOT leave assignments to the last minute, get them in in the middle of the week rather than the last day they will be accepted you will do very well.
I just finished one of my educational classes called Cultural Diversity in the Classroom and received an email from my teacher stating:
Parents out there I want you to know that even if you work full time in and out of the home if you work hard and make the time (all you need is a dedicated 1 hour a day) to get your work done and DO NOT leave assignments to the last minute, get them in in the middle of the week rather than the last day they will be accepted you will do very well.
I just finished one of my educational classes called Cultural Diversity in the Classroom and received an email from my teacher stating:
I am pleased to inform you that you have successfully completed EDU 230. Indeed, you were a “Shining Star” in our class! Your final grade is A.
Your journal was both reflective and summative. One of the highlights of Week 7 was the thought and care that you put into an outstanding job on the final assignment.
I wish you the best of success and enjoyment in your teaching and hope to have another opportunity to work with you again in another course here at Grand Canyon University
When you work hard and you are able to receive emails like this from instructors whom have never met you other than a bio you post in an online forum, they never see you and you've never had a telephone conversation with them, it totally makes the hard work and effort that you put into your classes totally worth while.
I very strongly believe that we get out of something what we put into it and if we do not put in very much we are not going to get very much out.
Being a stay at home mom people think that I have all the time in the world to work on school work. The fact is, I have 4 kids ranging from age 8 to two and I go to school year round I do not take the summer off so that I have more time with my kids. I do have a great time management schedule though that works for me and my family.
I check forums 1-2 times a day which takes about 15-20 minutes depending on if you have to respond to what people have said to you or if you are just reading what they said or if you have to write your post for the week as well as the responses that you have to post. then I work on a few things that I need for an assignment.
If you know the material it can take 10 minutes tops to write a 200 word journal entry and get it turned it. then you have time to get the bigger assignment done the next few days. I find it easiest to work on it for a few hours (usually I do this while my kids are napping so I have more time as they nap for a good 2 hours in the afternoon) then when they get up I get myself to a stopping point and leave it for either after they go to bed or the next day depending on my husbands work schedule (I need time with him too)
In between all of that is when I do the laundry, take kids to play dates, clean my house, do the dishes, play with my kids, make phone calls, run kids to birthday parties, grocery shop, pay bills, and everything else that goes along with running a house.
So I hope you all do not give up on your endeavors and that you strive to be the best that you can be and reach those insanely hard to reach goals because you can reach them. With a little time management, hard work, and support from family and school staff you got this and you can get to the end of the road with no problem and be proud of your accomplishments as well as wearing those honor ropes when you walk at your graduation.
Best wishes,
moms & student
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