Another quarter finished

Now there are 5 courses out of the way working toward my EdS. Only 7 more are left to go. Every day is progress. Still, it's nice today just to sit, relax and not worry about finishing a mountain of reading or posting responses to discussion questions in the course room.

Yoga is going well. I've been at it for 10 weeks now this year, and I feel a lot better at work, and sleep a little bit better each night. However, I've not exactly kept pace with my online yoga club. It's not really something I have to keep at a certain pace though. Some weeks are a bit more challenging than others, and when weekends were too busy with course work to download workouts and pose tutorials, I relied on a couple of DVDs that I have from the same company. Because of those little bumps, its sometimes tough to get through morning practice. I do it though. I need it. Beau watches me; he stays curled up in his chair and watches me do downward facing dog. How ironic.

Now, I just have to work on my diet a bit, reduce stress induced sugars and fats. Then maybe some of this spare tire that I've stored up can go a way. I'm not so concerned about the weight itself, just the shape of my body and my overall fitness level.

Frustration with higher education

I'm only one week away from finishing my first full term with Capella University online. It's been a very bumpy start. The course I have enjoyed the most was historical foundations in American education. For that one, I did some in-depth study of the content and was able to apply the skills I was learning to the research I did. One drawback was that the professor experiences a personal problem just before the midway point of the course. At that time, his feedback (that had been otherwise timely, engaging and helpful) all but disappeared.

The leadership course that was the beginning of my program did prepare me to be a more analytical thinker regarding leadership decisions. It also encouraged me that any teacher can take a leadership role in his or her work environment. Still, some of the content seemed redundant and not well structured over the ten weeks.

Educational funding was the nightmare before Christmas! The instructor provided feedback so late in the game that frequently I found myself having missed the mark on assignments or discussions. He seemed to assume that everyone coming into the course should already have an extensive knowledge of the complexities of federal, state and local educational funding as well as of litigation and legislation about equity and adequacy in education. Asking him for help was not unlike asking my socks for help. You know: six weeks after you got rid of the solo sock, you found the mate behind the dryer. Unless Capella goes to significant lengths to restructure the presentation and study of course content, I would not recommend it to anyone. Unfortunately, modified or not, it still is a core class for the EdS in Curriculum and Instruction.

Fortunately, in all my classes I stayed engaged in all the weekly discussions no matter how confused or frustrated I became. I've turned in all my assignments on time and did my very best to include all the points of discussion based on rubrics and checklists provided in the course rooms by the instructors.

According to my academic counselor, my future courses will allow me to tailor my research more closely to my teaching field (art education and French/foreign languages). I do hope that will be the case.