Nepper's Landing: School Days

I said I would blog about my adventures in schooling a long time ago, but alas, life has gotten the best of me (hopefully literally). I do find the mornings are a great time to sit down and blog, ideally when the kids are watching a movie and eating breakfast. Now, if that happened every day, then I would blog every day, but lets be serious! Plus, now I have to try and get up early and work on my school stuff.

A typical morning scene in the Nepper dining room...

My ridiculously expensive textbooks for my 2 courses...

Again, why am I in school right now? Let's just break this down. I have a diploma in Social Services from Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo, BC (previously known as Malaspina University-College). I completed that when I was pregnant with Gabe. For some silly reason I "dropped out" when I was one course and one practicum away from my degree in 2003. Yes, I know, I'm still smacking myself up the head for that one! Anyway, in September 2008 I was finally granted my diploma after I completed those 2 things. Whew!

So now I am working towards getting my Bachelor of Social Work Degree through the University of Victoria. By distance, of course. So in order to start the program in September 2010 (which I'm already accepted to), I need to complete 3 courses in addition to my diploma. Hence me doing Sociology and History this semester. Next semester I will do a 200 level Criminology course (a branch of Sociology) as well as another History course. I will likely do another History course in the Spring, "The History of British Columbia," which sounds fairly interesting. I'm technically allowed to do a total of 5 courses, two of which will give me credit for the degree program. Follow?

My History class I am taking by distance through Thompson River's University. Its based out of Kamloops, BC. I did a Psychology course through them (the one I needed to complete for my diploma), and I really like their format. I got an A in that course, and I found it really simple to pace myself. This time it is a bit trickier with two little ones, but I was quite pleased that I was able to complete an entire unit (readings, and questions) yesterday morning before the kids woke up.

For each unit I have a chapter to read, questions to answer, an extra reading per chapter, and an audio CD that I need to listen to. Those are fairly dull, just historians giving their perspectives on the topic at hand. I think those will be my "I'm doing the dishes" type studying, but otherwise its all fairly interesting so far. I will have to write an essay for my assignments, and when it comes time for my final I will go to Norquest College here in Edmonton where they will supervise my exam.

I am also doing Sociology 100 through Grant MacEwan on Saturday mornings from 9:00-12:00pm. Its kind of a weird time, but it really does work well for the stay-at-home Mom. So its just your basic University entry level sociology. I'm enjoying it so far, and glad I had a few people nudge me to go in this direction (Thanks Linda & Katrina!).

My professor is from Ghana and his first name is Kwame. That's the kind of name that needs no introduction (Mr, Sir, Dr), or follow up (AKA, a last name). So Rob and I often say, "What would Kwame think?" The instructor is fairly comical. An example of this would be how it takes him at least 20 minutes to set up his laptop EVERY morning to get the slides up. Wow. Its almost painful to watch. Let's just say computer science definitely wasn't his major.

He teaches primarily at U of A, so there are often references to the differences between the two schools. Often under his breath you'll hear..."This would never happen at U of A." Sigh. Even once in class he was talking about social classes, and used the example of why are we here at MacEwan rather than at U of A, which implies one is much better than the other, and obviously us poor folks go to the sad community college (which funnily enough was just granted University status. Take that Kwame!).

Grant MacEwan...University

I haven't actually been in a college setting for over 5 years, but it quickly came rushing back to me. It seems that every class must have the customary student who asks way too many questions. I used to argue with Rob that no question is a stupid question, but I'm starting to question my theory. They aren't really lectures anymore, but rather a conversation between Kwame and this girl. Nearly every point he makes (sometimes even before he's finished making his point), "So let me see if I'm understanding you..." And you can tell almost everyone is fed up with her. The rest of the class sighs and shakes their head the second her hand goes up. And at the last class, Kwame said "Oh look, you got in the first...and the last word...again!" Ha, ha. Oh my.

Then there are always the opportunists. Basically Kwame just comes, reads from slides (that we can access online), and that's it. So really do we need to be there? Probably not, but I figure I'll take any time to focus on school that I can. We had our first midterm this last weekend, and well, the class size doubled. People I hadn't seen in 4 weeks. They know that they can access all the class info online, and heck, he even posts a sample exam online, with 15 of the 35 multiple choice questions used on the midterm, as well as the essay question. So again, I can't entirely blame them. He just makes it really easy. So that's nice in a sense. Although I guess I should wait and see what my midterm mark is before I say its "easy."

One thing that struck me as funny is really how much I've forgotten. I showed up for my midterm with a gazillion pens, and not one pencil. Oh right, Scantron cards. Thankfully the girl behind me lent me a pencil. And you need to have your college ID card. Right. Thankfully I had it on my registration statement, which just happened to be in my binder. Yikes, I will be much more prepared for the next exam!

And finally, I just wanted to share my most embarassing back to school moment yet. I was leaving my midterm on Saturday, and crossing 105 Ave. Thankfully not too busy of a street. I was feeling pretty good about my exam and glad to be on my way home so I could enjoy our company. I stepped down off the curb, got about halfway across the road, and the next thing I knew I was splattered out in the middle of the road. I guess I must have tripped, but I have no recollection of trying to catch myself or anything. Just me, and my books splattered all across the middle of the road.

I got up quickly, trying to save face, and hobbled down the block to my car, where I discovered I had ripped a hole in my jeans, bloodied up my knee, and scraped up my knuckles. Um, seriously?

So when I got home to tell Rob about my "experience" he said, "Well its kind of a rough area isn't it?" "Well, yeah." "Oh, well you probably just looked like another local crack head..."

Ha, ha, ha, I'm still laughing about it. And then to top it all off, for the next couple days every once and awhile when Rob walked past me he would mutter "crack head" under his breath. Oh my. I am dreading going back to class this weekend, and having someone ask me..."So what was with you splattered out in the middle of the road after our exam last week?"