Preventing Procrastination..........Wednesday, 3 April 2013, 08:08 PM

I keep a daily schedule. I have a schedule that I follow at school, where I teach. I have extended my schedule to include specific times during the evening and weekend to work o n my college work. I have lived with a planned schedules for most of my adult life. I seldom deviate from my schedule once it is planned. This really helps me prevent procrastination. 

If I have it down, I'll get it done with the exception of sickness. This week has been disrupted by the latter. I have had nine absences this week and I expect not to see one of my students tomorrow after the way he felt today. We are experiencing a lovely little virus. I began to feel sick Monday afternoon and I am just getting back on my college tasks tonight. I'm getting back on task because I have a schedule to go by. I hope everyone is having a good week and I hope mine gets better.

There have been a couple of events in the past two and a half weeks that caused my schedule to be disrupted.  Since I was going by a schedule, I was still able to get things accomplished even though some were not exactly on time.  Since I was going by a schedule to begin with I had more incentive to try to get back on it as much as possible.  Since my dad is at my house for a few more days, I am still not back to the schedule I had originally planned.  I have been able to work my schedule around his needs though and he has become more interested in how quickly I can pull information by having access to the internet.  In other words, I can pull up information for him.

The Study Habits I Have Adopted..........Monday, 25 March 2013, 11:12 PM

Hello Everyone,

The two habits that I have adopted are organization and planning.

The first habit I have utilized is organization. I have all of the material pertaining to my courses in one place. I have made a primary work area. I have a notebook for each course. I have sticky notes that I attach to the top of the page so I can write what the notes are on that page. This is a quick way for me to flip to a particular page. The area that I chose to set up in allows me to have a good view of my front yard and driveway. This is important because I pay attention when I hear a vehicle and I like to see who it is. This allows me just to glance up and continue working without having to get up.

The second habit that I am finding extremely valuable is planning. I am a Pre-K teacher and I teach in a full-day program. My days are busy. I leave before 7:00AM and I usually do not get home until after 5:00PM. I am trying to make sure that everything I need to do regarding my classroom is done before I leave school. I am devoting each evening to my college work. I am enjoying this change. It has made me more conscience of my time. When I need to pick up items on the way home, I get in and out. I do not meander through the grocery store anymore. This has also made me realize that I need to plan time for rest. This is important in order to learn and retain new material.

I definitely feel that my adoption of these two habits will help me succeed with my courses. These habits have made me do things that I may have not done.
I wish everyone a good week!

I do credit these two habits for helping me succeed with my classes.  Even though things have happened that disrupted my schedule, I was able to get back on track because of the organization and planning habits I utilized.

Computer Skills

My computer skills have  vastly improved since I began this class.  My typing is also much better.  It has been a particularly stressful past ten days, however, I found humorous clip art to use with my PowerPoint and that has made me laugh.  I have decided to keep my blog for myself.  It is a way to to keep a record of events that happen and it is easy to get to.  My dad has just asked if he was conscious last Saturday when I arrived at their house and I was filling him in on what had happened.  Now I have a record of when he began to ask details.  He will also be here about ten days.  This will allow him to recover without us worrying that he may try to do something he shouldn't.  This takes the stress off my mom.  The next thing that I will do with this is get my class material added.

CIS1200

It is Saturday morning and I have so much to do between now and Sunday night.  The wreck has caused problems with my time.  I was on the phone several times yesterday and I had to go pick up another report about the accident and take it to my agent's office.  I am sore, apparently my body was thrown against the left side of the car as I spun around and I'm missing more keys this morning.  It is going to take more time to get my work done.  I have also found out that I got hit by a stolen car and the owner had let their insurance cancel.  I am having to wait on my insurance company to find out about my car, rental car, where I go if I do decide to be seen ,etc.  A wreck just causes problems all the way around.  I went by and saw Toyota yesterday and she looks so hurt.  They said that once they get the okay from the insurance company they will start working on her.  It will be like a facelift.  She'll get new paint also.  She will also get at least two new tires.  One was smushed and another one was having problems.

This Wednesday did not turn out as expected

Well, I guess this is my blog so I'm blogging.  This will also help me remember what happened.  I was hit by someone after I left school.  I remember going in one direction, but when I stopped I was totally in the other direction.  I,m still sort of dazed but okay.  My foot hurts and I'm sore on my left side.  I told Mom that since I'm a little person I just sort of bounced around.  I'll go in a couple of days if I still hurt.  I just wanted to come home when they asked if I needed to be seen.  My car is totaled, she looks sad.  I had her picked up and my mechanic said we can fix her.  We have got to wait for insurance to decide.  I like that I can post a memory that I might  not  recall as well tomorrow.  I'm also impressed that I've only backspaced a few times since I started writing this.  I also realized that my airbag did not come out.  Maybe I have a faulty one.  If Toyota can be fixed, I need to have that checked.

Study Guide for Chapter 10

1. How to gather information before you study.

• Find out the number and type of questions on the exam, consult with your professor.
• Consult with your professor to determine the levels of questions that will be on your exam.
• Determine what your preferred learning style is, however be open to other methods if the professor doesn’t teach to your style or if you’ve had difficulty in the past.

2. How to use the Five Day Study Plan.

• The Five Day Study Plan allows one to increase study time and use the time effectively.
• The material that will be on the exam should be divided into sections, with material covering the same topics being studied at the same time.
• The plan can be modified to best benefit the user.
• This plan also incorporates active preparation and review strategies that allow self-testing techniques.

3. The use of active study strategies.

• Numerous study strategies are covered in this section. There are those that are related to preparation and those that are related to review. Your learning style and your professors teaching style will influence the strategies that work best for you. It is also suggested that all of them are tried as you prepare for different exams.

4. Evaluate your preparation strategies.

• You should evaluate your study strategies as you prepare for your exam. You need to monitor your learning each day of the Five Day Study Plan. When you do this, you will realize what you have missed and what you need to review. It also lets you know how effective a particular strategy is for you.
• Review your strategies by doing a final review of the material before your exam. As you take the exam, take note of whether you are moving quickly through the exam, knowing the answers to most questions. If you are, then your study preparation has been effective. If you are having problems completing the exam, you know your preparation was not effective.
• Evaluate your study plan after each exam. Consider the time spent, material studied and strategies used. Make adjustments as needed and be open to replacing strategies, if necessary, while keeping the ones that work.

5 day Study Plan

The structure and time frame of the Five-Day Study Plan allows it to be an effective strategy toward successful exam study. An important feature is spacing your study time over a period of five days. The number of days can be adjusted depending on the amount of material involved, however the premise is the same. Your use of study time is much more effective if you are physically and mentally aware of what you are doing. Two to three hours of study time allows one to review and retain information that has been learned.

I know from personal experience that a ten to twelve hour cram session does not. I did that on two occasions during my past college experience, along with other classmates. We felt prepared at the end our study session, but when it came time to take the exam we were exhausted and information that was clear at 4:00am was cloudy at 10:00am.

When you make a list of the material to be covered, it allows you to group like or similar material together. You also begin with the oldest information first, allowing extra time to review the older information. You are also reviewing information several times during the time allotted. The plan stresses writing and reciting exercises and format. These methods allow for self-testing. As you review the information, you should be able to recall more from memory.