How to make sure you are in the right class... 6 tips

Image via Wikipedia

For next semester or when you go back to school:

Here are some pointers to make sure you are in the right class - - for nontraditional students AND others.

I know it is just October, but pretty soon some of my readers will be signing up for classes that start AFTER the holidays. Here are some hints for you to go over as you think about what you will take.

#1. Go over your pre-requisites and classes you must have before you can take the other classes you want. If you must make an appointment with someone at the school (like an advisor), make an appointment now. If you wait until very close to the time people are registering, it may be too late.
You may already be signed up, and have all the classes in the perfect order already. That's great if you have done that. You can skip down the list now. :)

#2. Make sure that you sign up for classes BEFORE your school's deadline. This may sound like a gimme, but if you are involved with tests and finals, it can be hard to keep up with these at the same time. Consult a school calendar or ask an advisor or the School Office about this. Write an entry in your calendar (a must-have) and also remind yourself with an online reminder service. There is one at Yahoo Calendar for free. You may also have one available through your email service.

#3.  Before you OK your classes online or in person, make sure that you will be able to walk or take the school's bus to each location in plenty of time to make it to all classes on time. It can bug some teachers to have you late for class each time. If you need to juggle class times, NOW is the time to do it, while spaces are still left, if any.

#4. Make sure all your paperwork has already been done for your school loans or payments. Again, waiting for this can really be a pain. Now is the time to head up any mistakes that may have been made in the office. (I have heard about this happening in the Nontrad Yahoo group... so the earlier you can check and make sure everything is done right, the better.) Sometimes you have to check on these kinds of things at least once a week if there is a problem.

#5.  Before starting next semester, make a schedule you can put in or on your main notebook OR on all of your class notebooks. This will help a lot, because you won't have to always look for your schedule - it will be with you all the time, and handy to see. Your schedule should have the time of the class, the room # of your class, your professor or instructor's name, and the class name there too.  You will thank me.

#6. Review what you will need for the rest of your time at school. What classes do you still need to take? You should have this written up in another location so you can always check it just in case. And you MAY want to start looking into classes for next Fall. Do you need to fill out another FAFSA form? Who is the best teacher for the class you need?

Now's the time to ask around and/or consult an online help page, like Rate My Professors or ProfEval (for college classes) or Rate My Teachers for other schools (high schools or other schools) to make sure you get an instructor that you will like. Or just ask somebody who may have taken your next class (for other schools).

Have another tip to add? Just add it at the end of this posting. Thanks!

-Betsyanne

Some more Nontrad links: The Nontrad site and blog,
Join Nontrads on Facebook  - Nontrads on Yahoo - and Nontrads on Twitter

Every day isn't perfect for nontrads... plus some motivational quotes

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Image via Wikipedia - the Ralph Waldo Emerson House in Concord, MA.
I love to read motivational quotes, because sometimes I don't feel really motivated. I can run into problems, and even though I know they are probably temporary, the more I think about them, the bigger they seem.

When I was a nontraditional student, sometimes I would be faced with being tired, not seeming to have time to do everything, fear that maybe I wasn't doing well enough in a hard class, and the feeling of not quite fitting in to class because of my age.

It all depended on the day and my mood.

Other times I felt as if I didn't know what to say to other students in class. Other days I felt I had talked too much and was alienating people.

In other words, not every day went great when I was going back to school. But somehow I motivated myself to go back every day and go to class.

Just knowing I was making classes (and noticing others had not) made me feel good. That tired headache felt better and I felt like I was making real progress. I could at least compare myself to the people that didn't come to class and missed out on all the important things that I knew would be on the test!

Here are some motivational quotes to help YOU, the nontraditional student, as you wind up a long, hard week. Because you CAN do it, but sometimes it helps to hear some positive messages to help you along your educational journey.

These quotes are from some websites I have used before on the Nontrad Twitter site,  The Quotations Page (Q) and ThinkExist.com. (TE)

#1.  "Age wrinkles the body. Quitting wrinkles the soul." - Gen. Douglas MacArthur (TE)

#2. “Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.” - Og Mandino (TE)

#3. “Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson (TE)

#4. "The aim of life is self-development. To realize one's nature perfectly - that is what each of us is here for." - Oscar Wilde (Q)

#5. "Know how to listen, and you will profit even from those who talk badly." -Plutarch

#6.  "If I had my life to live over... I'd dare to make more mistakes next time." - Nadine Stair


And here is another inspirational site you may like. It's my Autumn Inspiration Page on Squidoo.
Let me know what you think.

What things do YOU find inspiring and help you keep focused? List them after here in a comment.

Nontraditionally Yours,
-Betsyanne
 
Some Nontrad links: The Nontrad site and blog Join Nontrads on Facebook Nontrads on Yahoo Nontrads on Twitter

The Road Less Taken

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 The Road Not Taken
 I really like this poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost.

Here is the whole thing (from Wikipedia)

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
 
I didn't know about student loans when I was a student. I simply didn't go to see my advisor, because I thought I knew it all about school and the classes I wanted to take. Plus, I took some classes just because I wanted to.

Then I needed to graduate, and I had to see what I could do about that. So I graduated with a degree in English, and a minor in Art. This was not exactly what I wanted... I wanted to teach. But a teaching certificate was out of the question, because it was time to find a full-time job. Which I did.

Printing and newspaper work was really interesting, but I always wondered what teaching would have been like. So... MUCH later on, I actually took those teaching classes and tried it out.
I didn't want to be even older and say to myself, "why didn't I try that while I could?"

So I DID try it. It was not like I thought it would be, but I am so glad I did it. I learned so much, about teaching and the state of teaching today, AND about myself. I did it! And that felt so good.

Do you have a story like that? Have you stepped up and tried something out that used to only be a dream? Or maybe you have been on another road, and want to try The Road Not Taken, and now is the time you can finally do it, or have learned enough to help yourself actually DO it.

If you are trying something out and you have had a break from school, you CAN go back. Just listen to other people who have done it, and get some inspiration from that. You can also start a group at school and make friends there. Or join a Nontrad group. There are several listed at the end of this blog posting.

As Dr. Wayne Dyer says, "The Sky's The Limit." What's your story? Are you back in school, helping those who are, or thinking about going back?

Leave a comment!

Later,
-Betsyanne

Here are some Nontrad links: The Nontrad site and blog Join Nontrads on Facebook Nontrads on Yahoo Nontrads on Twitter 
Want to find out more about Dr. Wayne Dyer? Here is his website: http://www.drwaynedyer.com/
This beautiful photo is from Mimiliz at Morguefile: http://www.morguefile.com/creative/mimiliz. It does not look like this where I live... but some of the leaves are gently turning now, after a long Indian Summer.

Some fellow nontraditional students - - links to sites

Image via Wikipedia

Nontrad websites, links, and blogs. (Part 1)

Hi all fellow nontraditional students  and the people who help them! You may be taking or teaching online classes, OR face-to-face ones.

Here are some neat sites and blogs written by nontraditional students. They are going back to school after a break.

When you have time between work and/or classes, give these sites a look.

 My Life as a Mature Age Student - Caz from Australia calls this blog "The ramblings of a wife, mother, student!!!". I like the setup of the background on this blog too. It is set up like a library, with pictures of books. She has a SH (Supportive Husband) and a TD (Teenage Daughter). Don't you love those abbreviations?

Questions and Answers for Non-Traditional Students - This is Linda Pogue's blog. She is faculty at a college, and writes about things like how to make better grades in college, advice for nontraditional students, and more. I just recently found this blog, and really like it.


Rantings of a Middle-Aged College Student - Brandywine is a Missouri student who is "a Heirloom gardener, chocoholic, bookworm. Full-time employee, full-time student. History major with a Spanish minor. I love words, I love history, and I love heirloom tomatoes, not necessarily in that order. I enjoy blogging and meeting new people through blogs (and in real life, as well)."

And I must mention one of the first Nontraditional Student subject bloggers I discovered when I started this blog. It is the Deb Peterson's About.com pages. 
Deb has many articles, much research, website links, and more at her pages. She is a fun person to talk to also. I guarantee you will like her.

There are many more good pages and blogs that help nontrads or just talk about what it is like. You can find some on the Nontrad blog. But these people will sure get your started.

Later!

-Betsyanne (former Nontrad student and Lifetime Learner.)


Some more Nontrad links for you to try: The Nontrad site and blog Join Nontrads on Facebook Nontrads on Yahoo Nontrads on Twitter

The Typical Nontraditional Student

Image via Wikipedia Some thoughts for today: Qualities and Some of My Ideas about Nontraditional Students.
First of all, I realize that there is not ever a "typical" anything. Every nontraditional student is unique. But sometimes I notice some trends. These opinions I have are are taken from the nontraditional students that I have met either in class face to face, in online classes, or via comments about nontraditional issues.
Here is what I have noticed.

#1. Nontrads are positive thinkers. I believe that even if the occasional nontraditional student might say he or she does NOT believe in positive thinking, he or she still exudes a positivity that can be catching. (So watch out, people around nontrads - - you might get an infectious dose of this.) Maybe the very fact that the nontraditional student is finally THERE and back at school might be the cause of this positivity. Sometimes nontrads can THINK about going back to school for years, but not do it. Then if they do follow through finally, they are pretty proud of that.
 
#2. Nontrads have a goal. And they can be focused on it, sometimes even too much. You will see them in the library, in the computer lab, and sitting at study tables a lot. If you ask them if they want to do something un-school-related, they usually say no.
The exception to this is hanging out with other nontrads at club meetings. This they usually justify as school-related because they might hear a study tip there now and then. But, to explain this lack of fun-quotient, it must be said that nontrads do have plenty of other things to do besides attending school, like work, take care of kids, etc. which does partially explain things.

#3. Nontrads are natural sharers. They love to share their experience and stories. This can rub other students the wrong way at times, especially when they have their hand up every time an instructor asks a question. I mean, OTHER students do want to answer a question now and then, and nontrads can be rather pushy about wanting to do this too much. It is very hard for nontrads to stop this behavior, but most do learn to bite their tongues eventually.
It is important to know that wanting to share stories and experiences is usually NOT meant to be one-upmanship towards younger students, despite the popular belief that it is done to brag or get on the instructor's good side. It just feels so great to be able to finally connect an experience to new learning. It is a great feeling to do this.

#4. (Most) Nontrads do want to be accepted. Many are shy, and have self-doubt about their abilities at first when they are back in school. They sometimes conpensate for this by seeming aloof. But nothing is farther from the truth in most cases. They would welcome a word of greeting from a younger student (if they are attending face-to-face classes) or, at the very least, would love it if a story or joke would continue when they enter a room. If they could talk about it, many would say they would just like to be a normal part of the class, and not treated as a parent or another teacher. This is easier wanted than accomplished with younger students, I am sure.

I got a comment from another nontraditional student once. I had mentioned that nontraditional students want to go to school and get good grades, yes, but they also would like to make friends while they are in school. "Not me!" the nontraditional student said. "All I want is to get the grade, and get out." (I paraphrase here...)

I responded that more students had told me that they wanted to feel connected. I think that some nontraditional students get connected with age-related groups or clubs at school, and some can blend in with the younger group of students.  Sometimes it all depends on the age or make-up of the students themselves.

What is your opinion? Are there qualities YOU notice about yourself as a nontraditional student, or about other nontraditional students? What makes you unique and sets you apart from younger students?

Do you think attitudes are changing because of the big influx of nontraditional students now entering high schools, colleges, and grad schools?

Let me know.

All for now - - I am nontraditionally yours,
-Betsyanne

And here are some other postings you might like:
Finding Scholarships and Grants for School
11 More Tips for Success (for nontrads)
Don't drop out of school, older nontrad student!
Nontrads and younger friends, and
Just for nontrads: how to make friends in college



Some (more) Nontrad links: The Nontrad site and blog Join Nontrads on Facebook Nontrads on Yahoo Nontrads on Twitter