Journal #3

As my online course goes on, I find myself thankful every time I am on the classroom site for the flexibility in completing my assignments. I now can't imagine having to go to a sitedown classroom at a set time with my busy and hectic schedule. I can't seem to say it enough how much I enjoy the freedom and flexibility of an online class. This is what is going well with me all throughout the course. Working with my partner, John, has also been a pleasure. He is a hard worker and I am thankful he is helpful and inquizitive.
Although my partner, has been very helpful, I also find myself, at times, becoming annoyed with him. It is good that he is quizzical and asks lots of questions, but a lot of the time I feel like I have to exaplin things to him multiple times even though it is written directly on the classroom website. Sometimes, I just don't understand why he can't find the answers himself or understand them as we are discussing them. He means well, I respect that.
I have found myself becoming more and more frustrated with the set-up of the classroom website. There will be times I know an assignment is due, but will have basically no clue how to complete the assignment. For example, today our Excel assignment was due. Now, even though it explained to a limited extend what needed to be done in our group project exaplanation, in the rubric it discussed an "analysis." I really had no clue what was expected of me for this analysis, especially when I saw there were to be some sort of claculations. Calculations for what? I looked and looked, and never found an answer. Through reading the rubruc and group project explanation I guessed it had to determine whether the school was a "Meeting School" or "Exceeding School", or what. This is what I ended up doing on my assignment I hope it is correct.
My recent accomplishment was the excellent grade I received on my Editorial. I was so please with the praise I was given by my instructor. I love the way positive comments make a person feel inside. :o)
Again life as an online learner has been great. I truly enjoy the challenges it faces me with as well as the interaction with various people all over the state. :o) Thanks!

Journal #2

As the semester moves on, I am starting to find myself, not really struggling with my work, but definitely being challenged.
It's nice to feel like I am doing something well when my partner comes to me for questions over our assignments. I also definitely got a huge boost when I did well on my Scholarly Writing Assignment, even after not being prepared for it as much as I wanted.
In my last journal, I talked about having difficulties with one of our group members not participating as much as we needed her to. It was a difficult decision, but ultimately, asking her to be removed from our group helped to take off some stress. We never did hear anything from her ever again.
Frustrations now are focused on the presentation project. My partner and I have had many questions and needed clarification from the instructor on some things. I posted these questions in our chat summary and even emailed the instructor separately to please reply as soon as possible, but I am afraid that these questions won't be answer before she leaves town. Hopefully, we'll be able to survive the week not knowing the answers to these questions. I know some people may say that because this is an online course, the professor should still be able to respond. But, come on, how many people like/even remember, to do work while they are out of town; whether it be business or pleasure? :o)
Like I said earlier, my biggest accomplishment so far was doing well on my paper. The only part I lost the most points on, was my paper format. I'm a high school English teacher and I am so in tuned to the MLA format. Being asked to write in APA, truthfully, freaked me out. I am not familiar with that style and although I tried researching the format and presenting it the best I thought I knew how, it didn't seem to be enough. That's really okay though, it is something that I will need to work on and should be an easy fix.
My life as an online learner hasn't changed much. I find myself checking the class site throughout the day; whether, I am at work or home, just to see if I've received email or have missed assignment that is due soon. I really am grateful for the opportunity to further my education from the comfort of my own home. :o)