One Day at a Time

Wow. It's been some roller-coaster ride since my last post. Because we register our students individually in appointments (traditional college students can register online on their own--but not non-admitted grad students, as it turns out [story to come]), we've been working double-time to get everyone in for an appointment in a timely fashion. So, since November 28 when we returned from Thanksgiving in Vegas, the 3 full-time and 1 half-time advisers in my office have been seeing students for back-to-back-to-back 45 minute appointments. We've been averaging 10 a day per adviser (for a point of reference, when I worked in CLA, I usually only saw 6 students per day for 1/2 hour appointments--8 appts. would be considered VERY full). It hasn't helped much that I've moved the scheduling onto an electronic calendar that seems to have a nasty feature of not allowing you to search for appointments. So you can imagine the fun when students come in claiming to be scheduled, but not appearing anywhere and not being able to search other than going through each calendar on a individual appointment basis. Our IT office is working with us to see what we can do, but when we are so booked with appointments, it's hard to find the time to call them and work through things with them. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel...things will slow down a bit next week. Yay!

But, you say, work is busy for all of us, but we're still blogging! Now what's your excuse? Well, in addition to work, I've been dabbling in graduate coursework again. Yes, you heard that correctly. I'm taking a few classes in Scott's program, Higher Education Policy and Administration. Now that I'm actually an administrator, I thought it might be fun to play around in a practical area somewhat related to my career. Turns out that the class I took this semester was so good that I told the instructor it should be required for manager training sessions. The class itself was an introduction to organizational theory, with a slight emphasis on education. For the writing assignments I was frequently able to apply theoretical perspectives to situations I've encountered on the job. Next semester I'm registered for a class with Scott's adviser--that ought to be fun, especially since it's about student development theory, which I DO have a background in.

Okay, you say, I can see that you've had a few things going on, but you've had class all semester and still posted more often. What's your excuse for this last lapse (other than the fact you haven't had time to post during the day, which is normally when you have the opportunity)? Well, pretty much the same as everyone else right now. The Solstice Holidays. I've actually been working on making several gifts this year. I've moved my sewing machine into the sun-room in our house, and coupled with the early present of a portable DVD player from the spouse, I've been making things and watching movies. With the not-as-frequent-as-I'd-like trips to the dog park.