Ridiculous!

I had an assignment due in one of my classes a week ago Tuesday at 11:59 pm ET since that is when our weeks end.  We are supposed to have our grades for that week by the following Sunday night.  I am STILL waiting on my grade for that paper! 

Now, the school did do an update on the website the weekend before it was due.  And because of that update, a lot of students were locked out of the system.  Due to that, most instructors did give an extension to those students without losing any points on their work.  However, there were many of us that were able to log in fine, and submit our work on time.  We should have gotten our grades on time.  The students that weren't able to get into the system should be treated like any other extension as far as the grading time table is concerned.  That is, there work should be graded when it gets turned in.  Those of us that were able to get it turned in on time should not have to wait until the late submissions are in before our work gets graded.  I did my part and did my work AND got it in ON TIME.  I should get my grade ON TIME.

I also want to add that I have e-mailed my instructor to ask when I should expect my grade, but apparently I'm going to have to wait forever on a reply back on that!

Somewhat Hard

This term in school is somewhat hard for me.  I am getting an A in my math class.  But my grade in Legal Ethics has slipped.  Thanks to getting a B on one test and a C on another, my grade is sitting right around a high B.  A lot of people think there is nothing wrong with that.  But the problem is that when it comes to school, I have to be perfect.  My grade point average right now is a 4.0 from the first 2 terms.  I don't want it to change.  During my first term, I was just shooting for making the Dean's List.  But with my 4.0, I made the President's List.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE seeing my name on the President's List.  We are just getting ready to end week 4 of this term, which means Midterm week starts on Wednesday.  I am buckling down even more to study for my Legal Ethics Midterm.  Hopefully, with a little luck and a lot of studying, I will be able to use my Midterm Exam to pull my grade back up to an A.

I have also been helping my oldest study more in his subjects at school.  He hasn't started his third quarter off so well.  As a result, he is doing some extra studying at home in those subjects, and I am also helping him with some of that studying.

My daughter had her winter testing done that they are doing for Kindergarten this year.  All her scores are falling in the "Above Average" and "Well Above Average" scores.  The school year is more than half over, and she hasn't learned one thing yet this year in Kindergarten that she didn't learn either at home or in Pre-K.  I take that back.  She has learned how to do her alphabet in sign language.  That's it.  Everything else they are doing in Kindergarten, she already did at the beginning of Pre-K.  She ended Pre-K doing addition and subtraction, along with some beginning reading.  They haven't even made it that far in her Kindergarten class yet.

Legal Technology Grade

One of the hardest things for me on an assignment is waiting on the grade after I turn it in.  I did finally get my grade on my final project for my Introduction to Legal Technology class.  The project got a 100%.  I ended up with a 99% for the course!  I am still waiting on my final grade in my composition class, and this wait is killing me.

Paralegal Professional

The second course I took during my first term was The Paralegal Professional.  This course, to me, was more or less an overview of the legal system as a whole, along with some basics on professional ethics.  This course was a little difficult for me.  One of the assignments was a PowerPoint Presentation on the U.S. court systems.  Finding the information I needed for the assignment was no problem.  But I freaked out a little because I had never done a PowerPoint before.  I didn’t know how to do it.  I had looked at some tutorials online, but I think I was overthinking it and just stressing too much about it.  I ended up going to my local library and checking out a copy of PowerPoint 2010 for Dummies.   The book obviously taught me something because I got an A on the assignment.  In fact, I made an A as the final grade in the course, and ended up with a 4.0 GPA and made the President’s List!

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8 Effective Skills

Part of my plan with this blog is to share my educational journey.  However, seeing as I am at the end of my 2^nd term, I will start out with giving some recaps of the classes I took during my 1^st & 2^nd terms.

During my 1^st term, one of the courses I was required to take was called Eight Effective Skills of the Legal Studies Student.  This was a course that covered material such as how to study effectively, how to find a style of studying to suit you, how to find your style of learning.  Things like that.  It was sort of boring, but some parts of it were interesting.  The hardest part of the course was the final.  For our final we had to interview a person in our chosen field, then write up a summary on that interview. 

I thought the hardest part would be to find an attorney willing to let me interview him/her.  It turned out I was right.  I had actually found an attorney, through a family member, who said I could interview him, to just call his office to set up an appointment.  However, when I would call his office, his secretary would tell me she had to speak with him before setting the appointment and would have him call me.  I ended up calling just about every attorney in my town and explained to them that I was a paralegal studies student and explained the assignment.  A few wouldn’t even give me the time to explain the assignment, they would hear “Paralegal Studies Student” and immediately tell me they weren’t looking to employ a new paralegal.  I did finally find an attorney that was willing to grant me the interview.  At first he was hesitant, but when I mentioned that I got his name from my dad, he said for the daughter of my dad, he was more than willing to do what he could to help. 

I must have done something right with the assignment because my final grade for the course was an A!

The Start of My Educational Journey

When I was 19 I dropped out of college to raise my oldest son.  I kept saying once he was in school full-time I was going to go back.  Then it went to when my daughter started school I was going back.  Then onto when my youngest son started school I would go back.  This past summer I finally decided enough was enough.  I am 30 years old, with 3 children, and no college education.  With all the options of online or campus based classes, there really was no need for me to wait until all 3 children were in school full-time.  So I started looking into schools I could attend online.  I finally decided on Kaplan University.  Part of my choice was because it is an actual university, not just a career school.  They also have a paralegal program, which is what I wanted to start with.  I can start out with my associates, then continue on through the same school if I choose to get higher degrees.

With Kaplan, I am taking 2 courses each term.  Each term is 10 weeks long.  The first 9 weeks are spent learning the material, with the final being due at the end of week 9.  The 10^th week is spent reflecting on what we have learned in the course.  I am currently at the end of my 2^nd term.  I have decided to blog about my journey through getting my associates degree, then onto my bachelor’s degree, and who knows after that.