Author Archives: morgacar

Saying Farewell to An Amazing Class!

Posted on by | 3 Replies

To start I want to say my life will be changing dramatically here very shortly. Yes everyone, I am still pregnant. She was supposed to be due on June 3rd, so we are still waiting!

But anyways, to go on with this I have noticed time management falls under both a weakness and a strength for me. I feel as if everyone can improve on their time management skills since life is always throwing new curve balls at us.

One of my greatest strengths is reading. Online learning requires a significant amount of reading. Which is something I love to do. So yay me!! I am also very good at finding key points within these readings. Which in my opinion is also a very good strength to have in online learning or just learning in general.

One of my weaknesses is being a very shy, anti-social person. I have a hard time contacting people when I need the help. I feel embarrassed to ask sometimes. I started being independent straight out of high school because I joined the military so sometimes it’s very hard to ask for help. I need to improve on my social skills and get over the fear of asking for help because sometimes you just need it. I know in some of my other courses I will be required to work in groups so improving on this will help me greatly with these types of projects. Also being able to contact other students or even my professors when I struggle with a certain assignment is something I may need to do in the future.

One major tool I will use to help me with future online learning will be highlighting while doing my readings to find those key points. This has always helped me. I will also be trying the method of playing music in the background while doing school work to help calm me and focus my studies. One other method I want to try that I haven’t yet due to the heat in California will be working outside in the fresh air, maybe next to a lake or river. Also suggested to me during my interview on an earlier assignment by Professor Sanchez was to find a new spot to do my school work instead of doing it in bed. So I will be looking into buying a desk so I can have a place where I can solely work on school.

Some of the OSU resources I would like to use in the future is Net Tutor. Next term I am taking a math class and math is probably my weakest subject. I also want to look into Khan Academy for help with my math as well. I also want to contact a success counselor to help me out with my future at OSU. And lastly I have already contacted my internship coordinator, Rebecca Goggans to help find the right place for me to internship at.

I actually have a few clear goals in mind. I will be taking the fall term off due to the move from California to Texas. I am afraid of not having the internet connection possible for doing online learning. So I want to wait until winter term to get back into school. After I get settled in Texas, I will begin my search for either an internship, a volunteer position, or even a part time job to help with getting the credits for my degree, as well as getting some experience with animals. On top of all this I will be helping my husband’s family with their elevator company. I will be dealing with all the paper work and finances of the company. And lastly I will be raising my daughter which will obviously be my greatest joy!

One last note to everyone! Thank you for all the advice you guys have given me and I greatly enjoyed having this class with all of you. Also I want to thank Professor Hoel for all the great encouragement. I wish you all the best of luck in your future of online learning, as well as any other great things you have planned for yourselves!

~Carrie Morgan 🙂

Online Learning First Timer!

Posted on by | 10 Replies

Well, Carrie, first time online learner and first time blogger. Honestly never read a blog or even seen one before this. So this blogging thing is going to be something else. I absolutely love to listen to music, so I am now glad to know that this is actually a learning preference! Listening to my I-Pod now.  It calms me and helps with writing my many different assignments and discussions. I also love to read and write, so this explains why I’ve excelled in things of this nature. I live in a very hot and dry area so doing my school work outside is a little undo-able considering I’m 7 months pregnant. This is very upsetting to me because that outside air is just so amazing to work in. I wish I had a lake or river near by I could take my laptop to and just type away. The closest I get to nature is having one or all of my 5 pets laying next to me (which can be very distracting because they’re just so darn cute!).

I was extremely surprised how fast the past few weeks have gone by. When you have so much on your mind sometimes you forget what needs to come first. So I really need to sit down and make a schedule for everything in my life so I don’t procrastinate in any aspects of life. Full- time work, starting a family, and now throwing school into the mix is a lot more then I thought I could handle. But so far I am managing to make it through half alive. One of my biggest challenges is going to be having a newborn here shortly and not having the amount of sleep I am going to need to get through a day of work and school. My mother actually says I am insane for starting school now. I just tell her, “If your daughter can join the Marine Corps, she can do this.”, so we’ll see about that. Honestly when I first thought about taking online classes I thought to myself oh, this will be easy and my little sister (who is going to community college the old fashion way) still tells me the same thing. I try so hard to explain to her that is really isn’t that easy. You really have to apply yourself if you want to succeed. You have to study just as hard as you would if you were sitting in a classroom. Reading the readings isn’t enough. You have to read and continue to go back to those readings to fully grasp things. Another huge struggle is going to be stay focused on what I am doing in class. As of right now I’m joyfully singing Hopelessly Devoted to You (one of my favorite songs). So I guess you can say I’m easily distracted. So when my daughter comes along, its going to be really hard taring myself away from her.

In the end, I know I will have every day struggles, as well as those huge struggles that can stop everything else in your life until you figure it out. But I say BRING THEM ON!!! I am extremely excited to walk onto that stage and receive my degree in a few years. I want my husband, daughter and my whole family to be proud of what I accomplished. And this is where it starts!