Rhonda Does Research: first year college student problems

Showing posts with label first year college student problems. Show all posts

Saturday, August 26, 2017

Time to Get Going!

books I got from library for this semester :) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today is Saturday of the first week of the fall semester, and I am finally getting my blog ready. I'm kind of worried about it, because the prof told us that she would be making "random progress checks." So, I guess I better be pretty careful to keep it up to date, which means I need to do another post today about one of the readings in our textbook.
Which brings me to my main problem: organization. This time, I'm going to make a schedule and stick to it (just so you know, I said this every semester throughout high school--and I usually fell apart after a few weeks). It seems to me that publishing that statement for the entire world to read if they want to will make me feel more committed. This and my profile are probably all anyone needs to know about me.

Friday, April 29, 2016

Ice Cream Headache: Why is the freezer empty NOW?

It's the picture of Italian ice-cream in a shop of Rome, Italy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I lost the file of the stuff I wrote in class, so I'm further behind than I should be. Portfolios are due next Wednesday, and the hard copy of my blog postings has to be in it. The dog died last Saturday, Rebbie had a trailer land on her foot (don't ask) and she's going for xrays today, I feel a cold coming on, and my hair seems to be in permanent bedhead mode (and not in a cute, sexy way, either). To top it all off, there is no ice cream in the freezer. This is pretty much things went at the end of last semester and every semester when I was in high school. Why? Why?!!

I have no idea.

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

Did you ever have one of those days?

Doc, age 3. He's very suspicious of cameras

As I've mentioned before, I have trouble sleeping, and it's worse when I'm under a lot of stress. I always picture a hamster on an exercise wheel in my brain, running at top speed, worrying about everything on earth. I can't stop the hamster. Anyway, we just found out a few days ago that my sister Rebbie's dog has cancer of the spleen, and his spleen could rupture at any time now. He's 12 years old, which is beyond the lifespan of his breed (Great Pyrenees), but he hasn't been acting strange, and his fur has been hiding the fact that he's lost a lot of weight (down to 82 from 122!). So, we're all pretty down about that. It'll be worse on Saturday, when he goes to the vet for the last time.

It's hard to keep on track with all my courses when stuff like that is happening. Yesterday in class, the prof had us write 5 blog posts in class (we're in a computer lab), and I'm having trouble accessing the file. I feel like an idiot now. I didn't post them from the lab because I wanted to do it on my own computer so that I could run Zemanta for pictures and article suggestions.

The one piece of good news is that the due date on the research paper has been pushed back to next Monday instead of tomorrow. Or maybe it's not good news, since that just gives me more time to worry about it.

Monday, August 24, 2015

Am I Ready for College?

Robert College Students in the Forum (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My first class starts in less than 2 hours, and after talking with Rebbie, my older sister, over the last couple of weeks, I'm not sure that I really know what to expect. She told me to check and see if my classes had Blackboard pages yet (two of them did), and that's how I learned that this blog is a major assignment for my English comp class. So, having set it up, I'm ahead at this point-- but that's not the way I usually am, and I guess that was what Rebbie was trying to get across to me. It looks like I'll have to make some big changes.

I'm supposed to be introducing myself in this first post, but I think I just gave away a big chunk of info that I normally don't tell anybody. When it comes to school, I can always find a reason to put homework off until the last minute. Rebbie asked me how that was working for me (she's kinda sarcastic, in case you couldn't tell), and I have to admit that it doesn't work too well. I always feel like I'm behind. Now you know something about me aside from my profile.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

When a student loses steam

"Dr. Toffee" sums up Rhonda's fall 2014 semester:

Those of us who teach first year composition are (sadly) very familiar with students who find themselves in over their heads. The nature of a writing class is grounded in near constant writing, and it takes a while for some students to get up to speed. This last term that happened to Rhonda. Between her family situation, her job, and her courseload, she had a lot to handle. The biggest problem she faced as a student was time management. She tried to complete the major projects, but often forgot about Project 1: her blog. By the end of the term, she found that there was no way that she could catch up and complete the last two projects plus the required number of blog entries. She came to my office hours two weeks before the final, looking for some kind of a solution, but (as you can imagine) it was too late for that. If she had come to see me even a couple of weeks earlier, I'm fairly certain that we could have worked it out, but she just waited too long. She had to drop the course.

Rhonda's problems have had an impact on me-- from now on, I'll be checking in on my students' blogs more often over the semester, and I'm thinking about requiring them to come to my office hours at least once during the first 8 weeks of the term. We'll see how this works out.

As a final note for those who follow this blog, you should know that Rhonda will be taking 101 this spring (doing the whole 2014-2015 school year in reverse).

Related articles:

"10 Common Problems Students Face During College" - the comments here are also useful.

"What are the Biggest Issues Facing Community Colleges Today? New Study has Answers." This article from the Community College Review discusses the issue of college readiness.