Grad School featuring Corona LaShay DaVirus
Long time, no talk.
It has been an interesting last few months. I have officially finished my first year of my graduate program, which means I'm halfway through! Let me tell you, it was difficult before Corona LaShay DaVirus showed up, but she sure made it even more challenging. But I overcame!
With the pandemic in full swing, NCA&T moved the semester online like most universities. I had mixed feelings about the transition, but I tried to keep an open mind about it. My mixed feelings came from the fact that I was already lacking the motivation for school itself, so having to maintain what little motivation I had while being restricted to my apartment was going to be even more challenging. To be completely honest, very little homework got completed at home prior to the pandemic. Most of my homework would be completed on campus. As mentioned in the previous blog post, I was on campus for seven days a week for the first half of the semester. So I had to reevaluate what I needed to create a space at home conducive to productivity.
The first couple of weeks online were a bit challenging. I was no longer waking up or getting out the bed at the time I had been if I were getting up to go to workout or go to campus. However, I was still going to bed at my unofficial bedtime. As for my classes, two of my professors jumped right in where we left off. The first day of class on Zoom, I had an exam...he required us to have our cameras on so he could "proctor" us. Now, I'm no genius but how much proctoring can you do online??
Anyways, the process of learning online was a learning curve for me and at least one of my three professors. I hadn't taken a class online since high school and it's been 9 years since I graduated, so do with that what you will. My analysis professor probably had the toughest transition to being online. She's an older woman who isn't the most tech-savvy. The biggest issue I took with this particular class and professor is that there was a major lack in feedback for the work we continued to turn in. We went until 2 hours before our final exam without receiving any graded work we had turned since the third week of February, with the exception of an exam that was returned the second week of March. Please keep in mind we continued to turn in homework weekly up until May 1st. When she sent us back our graded work, it was two homework assignments and a quiz that had been submitted at the end of February and middle of March. So as you can imagine how frustrated I was. In fact I'm still frustrated because it still hasn't been returned or graded *sips tea* and this is a class that I will be tested on when I take comprehensive exams later on in my program.
This analysis course was my HARDEST course this semester. So me nor my classmates were elated about taking this class online. Shoot, or professor wasn't the least bit open minded to teaching the course online. I think the hardest part about the virtual learning process is that I was no longer able to physically meet with my study partner in a neutral space. Our study sessions sort of dwindled away. We still worked together but it took us about a month to finally find a new groove. Another challenging part was making it to virtual office hours regularly. It was already difficult for me to make it to office hours when I was on campus because of my teaching assistant schedule. With learning moved online, I no longer had to attend 2 of those classes but I still had to get my mental and motivation together to log into office hours. I was regularly in office hours the first couple of weeks but at some point office hours stopped providing the help I needed, so I stopped attending. This is when my study partner and I started getting back into our groove and ultimately how I survived the remainder of the semester.
In the midst of this I was still fulfilling my duties as a teaching assistant. At the start of the semester I was a teaching assistant for three different math courses and available to tutor. When the decision to move to virtual learning was made, I was concerned about my position because it was my livelihood. I was reassured that I would still be assisting online but the logistics were still being figured out. At the start of this I was only attending one of the math courses, which meant I was working only five hours a week instead of the sixteen I was previously working. This professor had me and the other teaching assistants attending her online lectures...where my camera was not on, muted myself, muted my computer and worked on whatever was pressing at the time or I took a nap. Eventually, the logistics of being an online teaching assistant were figured out and I was responsible for holding tutoring hours on zoom for the other classes I was assigned to for the semester. Listen, I held tutoring hours Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from April 6th through April 30th and not one student popped in with a question. At first it felt like a waste of time, but eventually I shifted my mindset and did my own work during those scheduled times.
As a student I saw compassion from professors in the form of adjusting project requirements, adjustments made to the syllabus and assignments. One of my professors nixed the presentation and poster portion of the project we had to complete. Another professor nixed the second exam and gave us a take home final and ended class a week and a half before classes were scheduled to end. And lastly, my analysis professor nixed our weekly quizzes since she wasn't sure how she could effectively proctor them. I appreciate every attempt that was made in my classes to make our lives and classes a little easier during this crisis. My classmates and I still found ways to connect with one another whether via Zoom meetings, memes in the group chat, or video games. Never would I have thought that I'd find my grad school community in the midst of pandemic.
After two semesters, a pandemic, a few wins and some major losses, I have completed my first year of graduate school with a 3.6 cumulative GPA! Shout out to my classmates for holding me down and not giving up even though we wanted to. Shout out to my friends for checking on me, encouraging me to get my work done and listening to me complain about my workload and professors. Thanks to my mama and granny for their love, prayers and weekly check ins. And thank God for listening and answering all the prayers made on my behalf!
Peace & Blessings
It has been an interesting last few months. I have officially finished my first year of my graduate program, which means I'm halfway through! Let me tell you, it was difficult before Corona LaShay DaVirus showed up, but she sure made it even more challenging. But I overcame!
With the pandemic in full swing, NCA&T moved the semester online like most universities. I had mixed feelings about the transition, but I tried to keep an open mind about it. My mixed feelings came from the fact that I was already lacking the motivation for school itself, so having to maintain what little motivation I had while being restricted to my apartment was going to be even more challenging. To be completely honest, very little homework got completed at home prior to the pandemic. Most of my homework would be completed on campus. As mentioned in the previous blog post, I was on campus for seven days a week for the first half of the semester. So I had to reevaluate what I needed to create a space at home conducive to productivity.
The first couple of weeks online were a bit challenging. I was no longer waking up or getting out the bed at the time I had been if I were getting up to go to workout or go to campus. However, I was still going to bed at my unofficial bedtime. As for my classes, two of my professors jumped right in where we left off. The first day of class on Zoom, I had an exam...he required us to have our cameras on so he could "proctor" us. Now, I'm no genius but how much proctoring can you do online??
Anyways, the process of learning online was a learning curve for me and at least one of my three professors. I hadn't taken a class online since high school and it's been 9 years since I graduated, so do with that what you will. My analysis professor probably had the toughest transition to being online. She's an older woman who isn't the most tech-savvy. The biggest issue I took with this particular class and professor is that there was a major lack in feedback for the work we continued to turn in. We went until 2 hours before our final exam without receiving any graded work we had turned since the third week of February, with the exception of an exam that was returned the second week of March. Please keep in mind we continued to turn in homework weekly up until May 1st. When she sent us back our graded work, it was two homework assignments and a quiz that had been submitted at the end of February and middle of March. So as you can imagine how frustrated I was. In fact I'm still frustrated because it still hasn't been returned or graded *sips tea* and this is a class that I will be tested on when I take comprehensive exams later on in my program.
This analysis course was my HARDEST course this semester. So me nor my classmates were elated about taking this class online. Shoot, or professor wasn't the least bit open minded to teaching the course online. I think the hardest part about the virtual learning process is that I was no longer able to physically meet with my study partner in a neutral space. Our study sessions sort of dwindled away. We still worked together but it took us about a month to finally find a new groove. Another challenging part was making it to virtual office hours regularly. It was already difficult for me to make it to office hours when I was on campus because of my teaching assistant schedule. With learning moved online, I no longer had to attend 2 of those classes but I still had to get my mental and motivation together to log into office hours. I was regularly in office hours the first couple of weeks but at some point office hours stopped providing the help I needed, so I stopped attending. This is when my study partner and I started getting back into our groove and ultimately how I survived the remainder of the semester.
In the midst of this I was still fulfilling my duties as a teaching assistant. At the start of the semester I was a teaching assistant for three different math courses and available to tutor. When the decision to move to virtual learning was made, I was concerned about my position because it was my livelihood. I was reassured that I would still be assisting online but the logistics were still being figured out. At the start of this I was only attending one of the math courses, which meant I was working only five hours a week instead of the sixteen I was previously working. This professor had me and the other teaching assistants attending her online lectures...where my camera was not on, muted myself, muted my computer and worked on whatever was pressing at the time or I took a nap. Eventually, the logistics of being an online teaching assistant were figured out and I was responsible for holding tutoring hours on zoom for the other classes I was assigned to for the semester. Listen, I held tutoring hours Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday from April 6th through April 30th and not one student popped in with a question. At first it felt like a waste of time, but eventually I shifted my mindset and did my own work during those scheduled times.
As a student I saw compassion from professors in the form of adjusting project requirements, adjustments made to the syllabus and assignments. One of my professors nixed the presentation and poster portion of the project we had to complete. Another professor nixed the second exam and gave us a take home final and ended class a week and a half before classes were scheduled to end. And lastly, my analysis professor nixed our weekly quizzes since she wasn't sure how she could effectively proctor them. I appreciate every attempt that was made in my classes to make our lives and classes a little easier during this crisis. My classmates and I still found ways to connect with one another whether via Zoom meetings, memes in the group chat, or video games. Never would I have thought that I'd find my grad school community in the midst of pandemic.
After two semesters, a pandemic, a few wins and some major losses, I have completed my first year of graduate school with a 3.6 cumulative GPA! Shout out to my classmates for holding me down and not giving up even though we wanted to. Shout out to my friends for checking on me, encouraging me to get my work done and listening to me complain about my workload and professors. Thanks to my mama and granny for their love, prayers and weekly check ins. And thank God for listening and answering all the prayers made on my behalf!
Peace & Blessings
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