An End and a Beginning

As many of you already know, the end of the first term of 2015 has arrived. A lot of us had great classes this term, and we all tried our best to get the best grades we could get. I know I did, and even though there were moments where I believed that I would not get a satisfactory grade, I pulled through and surprised myself. This term was a great test run for me, as now I know what to expect as an SNHU student. I now know what I need to do in order to make sure that I don’t fall behind, that I complete everything either on time or with enough time to revise what I need to, and what kinds of questions to ask my professors if the occasion arises. It was a very educational experience for me, and I am so grateful for it.

But that’s not the end.

In less than a week, starting on Monday, the whole process will begin again, in the form of the second term of 2015 (Term 4 as it’s been called – occurring between March 9 and May 5). New classes means new books to buy, new professors to get to know, and new classmates to interact with. It also means new things to learn about, and new information to discover. Are you ready?

The Final Countdown

Can you believe it? Only two more weeks before the end of my first term at SNHU. Time went by way too fast. I didn’t even realize that I was going to be done until I noticed that there weren’t any other modules left. This week, next week, then it’s over. At least, over until the next term starts.

With that in mind, it’s time to buckle down to business and finish the rest of the term strong. From my very brief experience, professors will allow you to make up an assignment that you may have missed, even if it’s just for partial credit. That is so much better than taking a complete 0 for an assignment, which would lower your grade by at least a letter, depending on how much the assignment was worth. Now would be the time to play catch up, and get those in as soon as possible, if you haven’t already. If you’re lucky, your final project is due this week as well. Good luck on that, and make sure that you work on it a little bit every day.

We can do this, guys! Finish the term strong so you can enjoy your few days off from school. Go SNHU!

-Leelynn

The Halfway Point

For those of you who, like me, are taking undergraduate classes at SNHU, you would know that it is just about the halfway mark for the first term of 2015. Yes, that’s right. We have the rest of February to complete our assignments and pass our classes with flying colors. I know I didn’t expect it to go by so fast. I’m so used to having classes last for at least four months, a little longer than that if I wasn’t including breaks. I think before, when I still was a traditional student, I took advantage of the fact that the semesters were longer, so that I could worry about big assignments later on. Of course, that didn’t always help me out, but there were times when I would procrastinate on different assignments that didn’t have due dates, and wait until the last month to work on them. Not a very good strategy, but a strategy nonetheless.

It is time now to buckle down and continue to finish the term on a high note. There are two final projects that I have due before the end of the term, one for each class, and each project has milestone assignments that have been due throughout the term. It has helped a lot with making sure that I don’t work on the assignment last minute, and helping me have a foundation on how to finish my final project. I think this is a really great tool that SNHU has, and it’s something that I wish other schools would incorporate more often. It is a way for all of us to stay accountable on the work that we need to do, all the steps that we need to take in order to finish our projects on time. With the feedback that our professors give us, we can make sure that we make any revisions that we need to in order to turn in a stellar final draft.

So with that, I bid you farewell until next time, for I have a lot of work to do.

Burn out

It’s the worst feeling in the world, or at least one of the worst. You’re trying your hardest to get through everything that you need to do and all of a sudden… you just don’t have the energy to do anything. Your to-do list is piling up, you’re running on little-to-no sleep, and your head is pounding. If you are a little bit like me, this is probably how you feel when you are burning out. It happens to the best of us, especially when it comes to putting a tremendous amount of responsibilities on your plate at the same time. There are only 24 hours in a day, and yet it still doesn’t seem like it’s enough to do everything you need to.

It’s the moments like this where I feel like I want to curl up into a ball and forget about reality for the next couple of days. But this is the moment where we need to regroup, refresh ourselves, and get our motivation back.

Right now, I feel like I’m about to burn out. It’s already Friday morning in Guam, and I still have three chapters to read and two milestones to complete, among other things. There are only two days left for me this week, not including today since I’m mostly at work and can only do my homework sparingly at my office. So what can I do?

Well, this would be the time to get some rest, maybe a quick nap during lunch, so that I can feel refreshed and ready to go. While my boss isn’t here, and while he’s doing an interview, since I don’t have much other work for me to do, I can use that time to do my homework and catch up on my reading. I can use this time to get something to eat so I’m not running on fumes.

So this is me, taking my own advice and taking the steps I need to in order to recover from this burn out and finish out the week on a high note.

Good luck!

Week 4

It’s already week four out of eight and I feel like I’m slowly falling behind. I haven’t missed any assignments yet, but I’m definitely not ahead of my work like I was in the beginning. I feel like I should have tried to read as many of the chapters before classes started as I could. On the other hand, I also feel like that may make my head spin and I would forget some of what I learned because I wasn’t thinking about it. For Intro to Criminal Justice, we have two extremely long chapters to read this week along with a quiz on Chapters 4-6. Hopefully I get through that as soon as possible. To take a break from that reading though, I’ve moved on to reading Chapter 3 for Intro to Psychology, which also seems to be a long chapter as well. Not to mention we have Milestone 2 for JUS-101 and Milestone 4 for PSY-108 due this week as well. I feel like I’m drowning and that’s mostly because I got sick at the beginning of the week and had no energy to stay up and do homework.

Here’s hoping that I find the strength and motivation to finish everything I need to do on time.

Encouraging Words

It’s officially the second week of school and I’m anxiously waiting for one of my professors to grade my discussion posts. As I wait for my psychology professor, I come to find that my criminal justice professor has already graded me for week one, and I would be lying if I said I wasn’t the slightest bit worried. I was so tempted to not even look at the comments that my professor left me, but after seeing that I got full points for it, I had to see if my professor had anything to say about it.

I almost cried when I read what he wrote about me. It was so simple and yet it was really needed. I have been worried about my first term here at SNHU, and I didn’t want my first week to be weak. Now that I know that I’m doing well, I just need to make sure that I continue to bring my A game throughout the rest of my SNHU career. Let’s hope that I hear some sort of positive feedback from my psychology professor as well.

-Leelynn

New Year, New Courses

I’m very lucky to see that Blackboard  has finished their updates a day early, which means I have more time to get ahead in my courses. I’ve been working throughout the day on my Criminal Justice course, going through the interactive modules and simulations that are helping me reinforce what I read in the first chapter. I like the set up of this first module (Criminal Justice Interactive) although it is seems a little long winded. I say that meaning that there is a lot information included in the interactive that one would need to complete in order to get through the module. As long as I am learning what I need to and reinforcing what I read in the chapter, I honestly don’t mind.

The End of 2014

Being in a different timezone from most of my fellow students, I can easily say that today is officially New Years Eve here in Guam. It’s almost 10 o’clock in the morning and there are already things happening that makes me wish that the year would end on a better note. (By the time I’m done writing this, I’m pretty sure it will be past 10 but you get the gist.) The one thing that I’m looking forward to is getting off work to spend the last few hours of 2014 with my family, husband included.

Looking back at the events that happened this year, I can say that this year was… weird. Ever since it hit December, and I realized that the year was almost over, there was no other word for me to describe it as. It was just a weird year, and I don’t know why. It wasn’t particularly amazing, and it wasn’t particularly dreadful, but there were events on both ends of the spectrum that made it memorable. I can easily say that my happiest moment of 2014 was getting married to my wonderful husband, and I am so glad that we have started a brand new chapter in our lives. In the new year, I know that there will be trials, headaches, and moments where we drive each other crazy, but those moments will help us grow and learn how to deal with each other as husband and wife, and hopefully make our relationship that much stronger.

I sit at my desk at work, typing up these few words while I think about what there is to look for starting tomorrow. A new school, a new house, a new level in my relationship. It’s going to be a challenge, and I would be lying if I said I don’t love a challenge every now and then. Here’s to a new year filled with love, laughter, and the moments that take my breath away.

-Leelynn

Halfway Ahead, Halfway Behind

Now that Blackboard is having their scheduled maintenance, I’m unable to get a head start on some of my assignments. Before the maintenance, I was able to finish most of Module 1 for my Psychology class, getting 100% on the reading quiz and both of the reading activities. For my Criminal Justice class however, I could barely get through the first chapter. It definitely wasn’t a boring chapter, but the online textbook is pointedly different from my Psychology book. No quizzes after each section makes it a little harder to keep track of everything, but as long as I take good notes, I should be okay. I patiently await for maintenance to be over so I can get back to getting ahead on my assignments.

-Leelynn

DNA Methylation

It’s the day after Christmas here and of course the school enthusiast in me wanted to get a head start in my classes. I’m still not sure if that’s allowed or not, but I haven’t been told otherwise. I decided to start with my psychology course (PSY-108) and work on Chapter 1. I immediately realized that it was a good thing that I started so early, as this is my first time using a program such as Soomo to go through the textbook. I feel like I learn a lot better with frequent quizzes after each section, which I’m extremely grateful for in this course. As I take a break from my diligent studying, I think about how something as “obscure” as DNA methylation can explain so much about the world around me, something that I never understood until now. I can honestly say that I’m even more excited to officially start my SNHU Academic career now that I’ve had a small taste of what’s to come.

-Leelynn