In my previous blogpost, I proudly set out what I called my 'project life balance plan'. Naturally, this attracted the attentions of the Gods and Goddesses, who promptly threw the divine equivalent of poo at it
- I had planned for two loads of marking, I managed to acquire a third load.
- I noted the workshop I had to attend, but forgot about the five loads of laundry I would have to rush through in order to ensure that my child had enough shirts and PE kit for school the following week, as I would not be there over the weekend to do this.
- One of our cats went AWOL
, and turned up at 5.30 am the day before I left for Glasgow
(After I had spent hours sticking up posters round the neighbourhood - of course.)
- The workshop didn't quite go as I had thought it would
, in fact it took me about a week to recover from it and figure out how to write up the notes
- And there was a family emergency which led to me having to spend the afternoon driving to a nearby city, then back in the middle of rush hour - narrowly missing a three car pile-up off the motorway and screeching into my personal parking space with just 10 minutes to go before the first of the two tutorials I had to teach that night was due to start
In fact, this part of my plan originally looked like this:
And now it looks more like this:
Yes - time for working through the second block of materials and preparing TMA02 (which we are supposed to share in draft form with our fellow students) has been severely truncated.
At this time of year, I keep a sharp eye out and circulate my students gently enquiring if they might be a little more behind in their studies than they would ideally like to be? They usually say: "Yes, but there is the Christmas break coming ..."
I know that in spite of their good intentions, they are very unlikely to switch off Mariah Carey or It's a Wonderful Life, and log in to their study calendar. I suggest we do a session identifying what they could skim and what they really need to concentrate on, then they can have a break - and start the New Year all set up and ready to go.
I'm not sure I can skim any of my own study materials I get the impression most of it involves going online and sharing my ideas with my fellow students. Plus, in my own TMA01, I didn't properly define one of the key terms
(stop laughing DD103 students!
), and now I'm going to have to scrap my intended project and write a whole new one.
So-o-o, I am at that crunch point which many of my own students are at: Withdraw, Defer, Stagger on?
I'm not going to give up on this thing. I enjoy it too much! I might have to defer, if any more divine poo hits my plans. I will give it a good go first, though
First thing to do, is sign onto the Study Calendar and check out how far behind I actually am I put this off for a while, but eventually I get my courage up with one of the mince pies a student brought to yesterday's tutorial. (Yes, that is how messy it is round here - sometimes it's a choice between studying and tidying.)
Phew! that's not so bad. I do have to tidy round now, so the kiddo and I can put up our Christmas decorations some time before Easter. But if I can get a couple of hours in tomorrow morning and some time on my 'day off', I might get back on board in time
(If I struggle, I'll have a good chat with Student Support before making any final decisions.)
