New Blog

http://psycho-logicalexp.blogspot.com/

Changes

Well ALOT has changed since the last time I wrote.... I'll run down the laundry list of changes...

I'm no longer married, no longer a stay at home mom, no longer living in Indiana, and haven't been for the last 5 months. I'm now living in Las Vegas, going to school, working full time, and in a relationship with a wonderful man. My son is with his dad in Indiana which is by far the hardest part of my life at this moment. I cope by watching videos of my son that I recorded on my cell phone before I left. I'm planning a trip to see him in a few weeks. Anyway, this part of my life..mommyhood and life as a wife...is no longer... so I am switching to a new blog format from a different point of view. I will post the link following this post.

A Horrible Teacher

I have got to get this off my chest!....I am a firm believer that teachers have one of the most important jobs on earth, they have the ability to change lives and shape a person's mind by teaching. My favorite aunt and favorite uncle are both teachers, amazing teachers, and inspired me to want to teach. I believe that I will teach one day, as soon as I finish school. So with all of that being said let me share with you my experience with the University of Phoenix's online campus called Axia College.

I began my academic journey in January 2009, I am graduating in August of this year and could not be happier to get out of this school. I did not have a terrible experience, but it is one that taught me more life lessons about people than I cared to learn. I was stalked by a former classmate, I had several students plagiarize my work in several different classes, I had some terrible teachers and some pretty awesome teachers but those were few and far between. Now that I am in the last stretch of classes my current experience with my PSY-265 instructor Yvonne Stephens is one that I will remember forever, simply because she is without a doubt the WORST "teacher" that I have ever met or had to deal with. The woman should not be allowed anywhere near a classroom, online or otherwise. She is lazy and vindictive and has targeted me and singled me out and made me feel sick to stomach about going into that classroom forum. Here is the story....(I would've posted a video explaining, but I don't want to cry on camera)

When I started PSY-265, Psychology of Human Sexuality, I was pretty excited because this instructors bio made it sound as though she was going to be an active participant in class and was excited to teach us; however, 5 weeks into class I realized that this was not the case, she took no interest in the discussions, took no interest in any of the assignments, basically it was the easiest A I would ever get. I am not one that likes the easy A, I am paying a BUTTLOAD of money for my education and I demand to be taught. So, I asked in an extremely nice way for the teacher to please interact with us students because I wanted to learn from her. She did not like that AT ALL, she became very defensive and has now dropped my grade, singled me out in the classroom, has sent me messages in my individual forum stating that students have complained about ME, which by the way- so not the case. I have documented everything, sent it in to my academic counselor, shown proof that the teacher not only does not interact with us but PLAGIARIZES other students in discussion weeks, when I say plagiarizes I mean she takes another student's idea and passes it off as her own without giving credit to the original student. She then expects us to respond to her, which by the way none of us do because we're not stupid.

So, what has been done about all of this by the University of Phoenix? NOTHING. Not one thing, everywhere I turn I am stonewalled and the teacher is defended by LOOPHOLES in the University's rules. The teacher used a program called Write Point (which students also use) to "grade" my paper, basically teachers have the ability and are supposed to use this system to check the grammar of every paper for every student for every assignment, well up until last week, my grade has been a 100%, it is now 97% because she decided to use Write Point to grade my paper and because of a few comma errors she dropped my grade, which according to the school is perfectly fine. EVEN THOUGH FOR THE LAST 6 WEEKS SHE HAS NOT SUBMITTED ANY OF MY OTHER PAPERS TO THIS SYSTEM. Yet, it's not in the least abnormal. Oh and did I mention that she didn't submit ANY of the other student's papers to this system for grading, yeah how do I know? I asked.

I have 2.5 weeks left and 6 assignments, she has the potential to seriously screw my grade that I have worked my ass off to get and there is nothing I can do about it, except do everything I can to make sure every assignment is free of all errors, including comma errors. At the end of the day I know that I am a great student and I deserve a quality education, as does everyone who is attending school. The fact that the University of Phoenix employs and protects "teachers" like this makes me realize that all the stereotyping about this school is true. I was warned before starting there that even though they are accredited they are not worth the money they charge to attend. So, thanks for providing me a mediocre education, a horrific experience and not helping me or listening to anything I have to say. If I could get my money back I would. I am incredibly grateful that my time with them is almost through, only one class left and I'm out of there and onto a real school.

Mom, mom, mom, momma, mommy, mom...

And it just keeps going...until I turn my head and very loudly say WHAT. If I have to hear one more time how the dogs butt smells or there's a bug outside and why do bugs live outside and why do I do this and why that, I think I might just run away. Some days are awesome, some days I love every why and how come and whats this for, but today..well, today it's just too much. Today is a hide in the bed with the covers pulled over my head and listen to whiny chic music and watch sappy movies and cry and then laugh at myself for being such a girl! Well I am a girl so I guess this type of behavior is allowed, but it's not happening because all I can hear is Mommmmmm, mommmm, mommmm, mommmaaaa, mommmyyyyy, mommmmmmm.....

Good News to share!

As some or all of you know I've been going to school for Psychology and will be graduating with an AA, associates degree, however, this degree doesn't really do much for what I want to do. Sooooo I will be pursuing my BA in Psychology at PENN STATE!!! The fact that I got in to a BIG 10 school is amazing to me! Granted I won't be physically going to the school as it is all done online, I am still a NITTANY LION!



I have also decided that I want to focus on the addiction side of Psychology, which is going to be a lot of biopsychology work, but I strongly feel that this where I can be of the most help. I say this now, but who knows, I still have a long way to go in my schooling..lol..

Not much else has been going on, but I will do my best to keep you, my bloggyland friends, updated as much as possible!

XOXOXOXO

Busy Bee :)

Easter 2010

Me and my girls!

Nathen enjoying Spring!

Me, Nathen and Elissa

Me and my sweet girl!

So here it is May 4th and again I slacked off on keeping my bloggyland friends updated. For the most part I have just been insanely busy...School, Elissa's visit, Inlaws visit, playdates every week and still potty training Nate! Also, I have been forced to completely change my diet due to health problems, not diabetic, but I'm allergic to dairy, and have high cholesterol, and can not seem to lose thanks to my thyroid becoming even more underactive! But I will say that my diet (gluten/dairy/soy/sugar/wheat/red meat free) has made me feel a thousand times better! Getting rid of all the processed crap makes a huge difference! Oh and I learned how to mow my yard!!! Hehehehe..here are some pics from the last few months! :0)

We're still alive :0)

Hey there bloggies! It's been quite a while I know. I nwas doing so good there for a while and then well life happened as it always does...So here's a quick synopsis of the last 2 months....

January...

Got unpacked and hit with quite a bit of snow, much more than we had anticipated, but stayed warm!! Enjoyed my very first Mom's Nite Out and made some great friends!

I'm in the bright blue :P

We also got library cards and have enjoyed going to story time and playing and reading. The mall here also has an awesome play area that Nate loves and a carousel too :). He's made some great friends, one in particular is his favorite named Sawyer :). Nate has adjusted really well to the move, not that I was worried, I had a feeling he would love it here more since we can actually be outside without melting :).

February....to present..

Still got some snow, but the temps started warming up so we ventured out of the house to the local zoo! The zoo sits on 50 acres and has a rainforest, jaguars, lions, tigers, monkeys, giraffes, zebras, TONS of birds and snakes and a rhino and a hippo named Donna who is the oldest hippo in captivity. The hills there are so steep that they have a zoo walk exercise club that begins in April :). We got our zoo memberships today and plan to go at least twice a week so that I can get a work out and he can learn more about the animals! I will post pics as soon as I get them loaded onto the computer..lol.. At the present time I am still loving school and will get my Associates degree in Psychology in August, Mark loves his job and the guys he works with! Elissa is coming to visit in 2 weeks for Spring Break and we'll be doing a trip to Nashville!!

Have I mentioned lately that moving to Indiana was one of the best things that's happened to us!!!

Gloves and a scarf

This is what I'm wearing as I sit here and type to you. The computer room is in a part of the house where there is no heater vent. It's 11 degrees outside. Thus my need for gloves and a scarf while I type and try to do homework. I wanted to do a photodump of my new home in beautiful Indy. Yesterday was the first snow fall, fun for this city girl who has never actually lived where it snows, still afraid to drive in it..lol.. Anywho, hope you're all warm in bloggyland. Enjoy :)

Seriously?

I was checking my email tonight and came across an article on AOL entitled "Why is 'The Bachelor' so WHITE?", basically the article asks the question of why aren't there more minorities on this show and is ABC a racist network because they don't add minorities to the mix of men or women for the Bachelor or Bachelorette to choose from! I watch this show and in no way am I sitting there going "gee, where's all the different races, they should be represented here too", I think if they are trying to find the perfect mate for these people obviously there are some criteria that are required. It's like The Rock of Love, should they start screening all the women to see if they were hookers at some point or what about letting a really nerdy girl on the show?? I don't think the race card or any card should be pulled period. It's 2010 and we're still talking about race. I'm not blind, I know racism exists, but come on now, it exists because people are ignorant and don't care about anyone but themselves, not all people just those that are racist. Anywho, I'm done ranting. If you want to read the article here is the link.

Our new home and Saying good-bye to 2009

We are finally in our new home in Indiana, after a long vacation in Michigan and an awesome Christmas, we made the long drive home on Sunday. By the way driving through a horrible snow-storm, is now checked off of my to-do list for the rest of my life! I do not recommend doing this and if you have to CLOSE YOUR EYES and make SOMEONE ELSE DRIVE (that's what I did..and said A LOT of prayers)... So far, our new home is ok, it's older..not like victorian old, more late 70's old, and much bigger than I had anticipated which is actually a good thing because I need exercise and this house provides that ;). The neighbors are very friendly and we are so close to everything that I could walk if I wanted to and probably will when it's not 25 degrees.

Speaking of the weather... I never thought I would say this..but I actually kind of miss the sun..I love the gray clouds and the beauty of the rain and snow, but just one day I wish I could see the sun..lol..On the flip side, at least my ink will now be more vibrant because I will no longer tan in the winter like I did in AZ...hehehe...

So, on to the title of my post which is saying good-bye to 2009....I am trying to think of things I might miss from this year, but nothing is coming to me, this year feels like it flew by so fast..I can tell you things I won't miss, how about that?!

Things I'm glad I am leaving behind....

1. Stalkers

2. Debt

3. Debt

4. and more debt

5. 115 Degree Summers

6. Stress

That's all? Funny..I thought there would be more... I guess 2009 wasn't as horrible as I thought..teehee..

I am looking forward to 2010 and all that is in store, but I am also learning how to do everything one day at a time and not worry so much about what the future holds...It's much easier said than done ;).

So Happy New Year to all of you and may 2010 bring you whatever your heart desires! Remember to be grateful for what you've got (not material things) and learn from what you don't and as my grandma used to say "be kind to one another"....