The Upstairs Window

Late this afternoon as I sat in our upstairs office completing the 4-week online class I've been enrolled-in, I realized that the main view of my day was right in front of me. The wondrous autumn day was begging me to come outside to play. I didn't. Now at almost 9 o'clock, I have completed and submitted (I think) all the assignments for this online course and I am once again no longer a student. Can you hear my cheers of relief?!

The class was to learn the newest version of Blackboard which is the online program that my college will be using beginning in September 2011 for all online classes. I think this program will be easier to use than the WebCT 6 that we are currently using, but at times during these four weeks while working through the material, I have felt like I am deep inside a maze and that I'll never find my way out. I've had a good dose of how some of my students feel when they are overwhelmed by online assignments.

Then, while I was up to my eyeballs in this class today, Mr. Fun comes upstairs and is absolutely adamant that I need to come downstairs to watch the clip of the Formula 1 race that he had just viewed. He was so excited that a 23-year-old, Sebastian Vettel from Germany had won the World Championship. Mr. Fun was convinced that I'd just be thrilled to view about 10 minutes of the race and victory ceremony. He knows I love ceremony and victories.

So I did follow him downstairs. Just the exposure to Mr. Fun's enthusiasm was a lovely break from the online reading and hands-on exercises I was marching through to find my own finish line. No one would crown me a victor, not a world champion, and surely not the youngest to finish this course.

Matter of fact, I'm going to get older this week -- this is birthday week. I'm ready for some celebrating! The middle week of November has arrived. Woohoo!

Good night from Southern California.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol