Strikes and sentences

Another teacher strike which means ALL the tennants are at home and my planned day of structure and study will go down the drain, right? 

Surprisingly, I got more study done with them all at home than I usually do on my own.  TD's both have exams this week and the next and No 1 son has a project due on Friday, so after preaching to them all the importance of keeping on track, I announced today was going to be a 'study' day for all of us.  This consisted of no t.v., blocks of two hourly study periods, with lunch and afternoon tea in between.  To be honest, I didn't really hold out much hope of any of this eventuating but, as I said, I managed to get all my reading/homework done with two hours to spare; No 1 son's project and homework are finished; and TD's feel pretty happy with the study time they've put in.  It just make me wonder, why aren't my other free days as productive?  It also makes me wonder at paying private school fees for an extra week's holiday per term plus the occasional teacher strike.

 

 

Peaks and valleys

This has become a popular saying by SPH No. 1 and myself over the last couple of weeks.  Dealing with two TD's, uni, work, No.1 son and all that is associated with them, 'peaks and valleys' sums up our life pretty well at the moment.

You might remember that due to last week's 'valley', I failed a pop quiz in Film Analysis.  This seriously marred my perfectionist tendancies and, having thought about it non-stop for the following couple of days, I decided it really was a warranted result.  Although I had done all the readings, the events preceding that quiz resulted in zero retention.  This was partly the reason for me dropping a class - so I'm now back to doing two subjects rather than three and I don't mind saying that the minute I dropped a class, my whole body sighed. I felt instantly at ease with my decision and the fact that instead of rushing in to complete my first year, I can now take my time and finish it mid-year next year. 

And so, after sorting out a few 'dramas' over the weekend and doing lots of reading and note taking, I managed to get 100% on today's pop quiz.  I already feel as if a weight has been lifted and I'm now free to really concentrate on the two subjects I'm now doing.  Of course, I do hope that at some stage or another I will eventually be able to take on a larger study load but at the moment I'm just enjoying the ride.

Fools rush in

'Only fools rush in where angels fear to tread', the lecturer warned me.

Today's movie in Film and Screen was The Wizard of Oz.  Seeing as I've seen it approximately 2,000 times with TD's when they were little, I decided to skip the movie and catch up on my reading before attending the lecture.  All would have been well if on walking into the lecture theatre, I wasn't met with a big sign on the projector stating that the readings he had asked us to do were wrong! Evidently when I downloaded my lecture notes on Sunday evening, I had failed to read the announcements and so I spent most of Monday night and Tuesday morning reading the wrong chapters!

As if that wasn't bad enough, the weekly worksheets I was expecting in the tutorial turned out to be a pop quiz on the Wizard of Oz and the week's readings.  The fact that I was the first one finished and that the tutor picked up on it only emphasized my embarrasment at FAILING to remember that Dorothy landed in Munchkinland, lighting is NOT part of cinematography and something or other about form and content.  Basically, I was so sure of myself, I was the first one finished and the only one to fail. I didn't take it too seriously at the time until I was made aware of the fact that these little quizes will account for 30% of our overall mark (together with participation).

There is no place like home but family commitments and dramas have taken up a huge amount of my time over the last couple of weeks.  As a consequence I'm behind on my reading and the (correct) reading I have been doing doesn't seem to be sinking in.  This afternoon I was beginning to wonder if I should think about dropping a class.  Then again, why should I keep putting my life on hold while the rest of my family seems to be moving forward? 

Swing shift

I finally returned to uni on Monday and after two early starts and a full day yesterday, I'm exhausted!  Not just from the drive but also from trying to comprehend the excerpts from Plato's Republic for my Foundations of Western Culture class - it's pretty heavy.  I have until next week to finish the whole dossier and answer the comprehension questions.  Film and Screen will be a little easier to get into.  Although it takes up my whole Tuesday, analysing character, setting, cinematogrophy is right up my alley.  Yesterday we watched Shadow of a Doubt (Hitchcock, 1942), followed by a lecture on lighting, frame, shot etc and then the tute.  By the time I got home at 4pm, I was shattered.  I have tomorrow to catch up on my reading before my Effective Writing class on Thursday.  I think it's going to take a little while to get back into the swing of things.