The year is sputtering to a close, and not a moment too soon. I'm tired and ready for a break. At the same time, though, I'm excited about starting next year refreshed, with a new schedule in place and hopefully a classroom (which my department head guaranteed to me today, although I've heard that before).
Today was my last day with first period. The city hoisted a horrible benchmark on us on Thursday that they wanted as part of the final. Rather than flat out refusing, which I thought would get me in trouble, I gave my kids the answers since they didn't have time to do both the benchmark and the carefully constructed final. They act unprofessional towards me, and I guess I do it right back at them. This isn't official state stuff or anything, so I'm not worried about repercussions. The department head gave me an unofficial wink-wink when I told her what I was doing.
I appreciate what North Avenue is doing, trying to take control of this testing situation from the state. And I enjoyed the first two benchmarks they gave us this year. But the 3rd and 4th benchmarks this year have been ill-planned to the point where I felt like they were a complete waste of time. It's a bummer that I feel sometimes like I'm part of a Mickey Mouse organization.
My Master's course was tonight - day two. I'm realizing that I have no idea at all how to use a library in the informational age. I don't yet have an ID card for Towson and am not sure how to get one. I'm not the only one in my class in this boat, but it still sucks; I can't access any of the journal articles and I have something called a "Literature Review" - basically an analysis of an educational research study - due on Wednesday and I've got to rely on whatever full texts happen to come up from scholar.google.com.
Today, the professor apologized that the class is "as dry as whistling with a dry mouth full of crackers on a hot day." However, while there are slow parts, I don't find it too bad. It's cool to be a student again, although I'd be lying if I said I could get through it easily without a computer screen in front of me. They have so much available online in front of us with the Towson Blackboard system, and we're supposed to be following along on there, but it's easy to switch over to something else and multi-task when things get slow.
In other news, my summer seems like it's filling up really quickly. I'm volunteer coaching a little league team on Tuesdays and Thursdays, have class on Mondays and Wednesdays, play in a softball league on (mostly) Mondays, play in another softball league on (mostly) Tuesdays, and my other summer class (daily, 9-12) starts up in a week or so. I'm also going to be volunteering at that cool middle school that wanted to hire me this summer, though I had to withdraw my name from consideration because of my MAT courses.
Thrilling, I know.
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8 comments:
You can get your student ID in the University Union building, located off of Cross Campus Drive. There is a parking garage at the corner of Cross Campus and Osler Drive on campus that adjoins it. The ID office (room 118) is on the ground floor of the building, past the bookstore and Paws. Just bring your driver's license and a nice smile...
Office Hours: June 5-August 11:
-Mondays 8:30 a.m. - 7 p.m.
-Tuesdays 8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.
-Wednesdays 8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.
-Thursdays 8:30 a.m. - 7 p.m.
-Fridays 8:30 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Maybe I'm missing the message, but shouldn't the title of this post be "Monday night mania" or something similar?
On another note, my next door neighbor just quit her job on North Ave. to work for the Prince George's County school system. She has to leave an hour earlier to get to work at the same time she got into the office at North Ave. and she gets home almost an hour later and she's never been happier. She HATED reporting to duty in that building every day.
if you're having trouble accessing the databases off-campus, email someone at the Towson library for access. If you explain your situation (trouble logging in, new student who needs information from the databases but doesn't have the appropriate id number), they will probably take down your name and the class you need it for and then give you a temporary login id so you can get to the stuff. Also, don't be afraid of the reference librarian! They loooove to help (i say in third person, as if I am not one; it's like when students are afraid to ask teachers questions when that's pretty much what you're waiting for them to do). You don't even have to come into the library if you don't want; you can send an email, and lots of university libraries are now using instant messaging software as well, many times late into the night. I really hope you get your lit review done using the resources--Google scholar isn't nearly the resource that ERIC is (educational clearinghouse). There is no shame in asking for help from the librarian; just explain that you haven't used a library in x years and don't know how the technology works. If you get a nice, good librarian, s/he will take you through the process and show you the ropes. I hope it works out!
Paula: Thanks. I am apparently not immune from Mumps so I'll be back on campus tomorrow anyway, so I'll stop by there as well.
SC: Geez, it's only Monday?!? And, that woman's attitude towards North Avenue doesn't surprise me at all.
Shai: Well, one thing that is happening is the professor has set up a tour of the library for the class after next, and she's submitted paperwork to get us all temporary IDs. I think most of the issues will be rectified then. We have to do four of these "literature reviews" so I think scholar.google.com will only have to be used this first time and not for the others. Thanks for the tips.
One more tip, which I really should have included at the top of my last comment. Try this instead of Google Scholar: http://www.eric.ed.gov/
On the page, you'll see a 'search the database' box. Click the 'advanced search' link, and then make sure to check the box 'Full text availability' and then the box below it 'journal articles.' then you can type your search terms in the boxes at the top of the page.
Happy Researching!
Hey Epiph,
If you are really in a bind let me know and I'll give you my username and login for my university. Its very easy to access most of the journals and databases via remote access from home. hahaha I trust you won't read my email :) shoot me an email if you want to take me up on the offer in the interim. ATarantula@dal.ca
Shal: The issue I'm having with ERIC so far is that so many of the articles I want are unavailable. I'll keep trying, though.
Andrea: Aw, that's so nice. I'm not in a bind right now. If the visit to the Library on Monday doesn't work out, though, I'll take you up on that.
Ditto what Andrea said. I've got access to multiple databases: EbscoHost, ProQuest, etc.
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