Graduate School Grind...

Excuse me for the close to three month hiatus...

It has been a little crazy around here - but with school over and summer here - I am able to play catch up.

I last left with the stress of a research paper on my back. I successfully turned it in on time with no last minute, up till 1 am in the morning, freaking out, hating myself for procrastinating moments. Huge weight lifted off. Oh wait, I forgot to knock on wood. Oops!

After I turned in my paper, I basically stalked my class online daily. You know ... When you bring up the site in the morning, leave it up all day, and press "Refresh" constantly hoping that the professor graded your paper, but wishing all at the same time, she hadn't for fear of seeing a bad grade. This was a daily occurrence for A MONTH.

In late April, I got a generic email the professor had sent to the entire class stating that she was finalizing our grades and would be finished entering them online that night. She also let us know she would email if we had any missing assignments. Finally, I thought...

Nope - My paper grade was never posted that night nor was my final exam grade.

At school the next day, I got another email saying that my professor never received my paper nor my final exam. Panic attack. (Don't worry there were no students in my room - it was my planning period.)

I immediately go to my course online to find that I had submitted both. However, when I looked at my "Submitted" work tab, I found that she had resubmitted my paper to me with suggestions and changes nearly THREE WEEKS AGO. I was completely unaware she could do that - so I never looked. In other words, I had one night to make changes to my paper and resubmit it.

I had sent my paper to her prior to the due date to revise, so I assumed there was little to fix this go around. (You know what they say about assuming!) My arrogant self didn't even open the document to see the changes that needed to be made until about 7ish that night. I had a bunch of random APA format changes to make with my references, which took much longer than I ever intended to fix. (Side Note/Frustration: Whoever established the APA format and then decided it was necessary to change little things about the format of it every year - should be fired. I'm just saying...)

Not only did I spend hours making small changes, but I was told two of my sources weren't research based and therefore I could not use them. I had to have ten resources and they had to be cited in my paper. Now I had eight. Awesome - tears just rolling down my face. Stephen started looking for resources on the Internet for me trying to help when he had mountains of work to do himself. I am convinced he resorted to doing that because it was obvious I didn't want a hug. Oh how marriage counseling never prepares one for moments like this...

I was mainly frustrated because my professor never mentioned issues with my resources in the first viewing of my paper (which in my opinion would have been the perfect opportunity). Not to mention, I had difficulty finding ten resources in the first place. My topic was on gender differences in education. I don't know if this is a relatively new phenomenon in the education world as we are now realizing that boys are falling behind girls each year. Or if it is not a politically correct topic and thus there is very little research out there. Regardless, telling me I had to find two more resources and make those sources fit into my paper somewhere brought on a late night, freaking out, hating myself for waiting until 7 to start, and hating my professor moment. Needless to say, there are no pictures to document the occasion.

I found my sources and fitted them in my paper - not perfectly - but good enough and submitted my paper that night. My final...I forgot to put my name on it! Kind of makes me laugh now because that is one of my biggest pet peeves as a teacher. I didn't dare mention that mishap to my students!

And all is well again in the Hasselbring household...

More to come as I try to catch up...