Getting Beyond Hurdles

I've been very anxious for the last month.

We bought a new computer and, by default, I'm the tech person in my household. I put off setting it up as long as I could because I just couldn't face something going wrong. It's finally set up along with the new printer and most everything is working okay. The computer came with Windows 7 so we're learning the ins and outs of a new operating system.

And there was the LIS415 Organization of Information, the course I agreed to teach at Simmons-West. As I've stated in earlier posts, this is a new level of teaching for me: Graduate students, an entire semester, having to give tests and grading them. It is all very different from a single 3-hour Continuing Education program. I actually began to visualize having a complete meltdown in the class. Fortunately, I was able to banish the ANTs, and remind myself that I'm an experienced teacher, that I have many years as a cataloger, and that I'm an accomplished professional. While this class is new and different, it's definitely within my range of competencies. My first class was last Saturday, January 29 and it went well. The students are intelligent, curious, and totally open to participating in and out of class. I also have a lot of support from other faculty and tech staff.

Part of what was worrying me about LIS415 was learning how to use Simmons eLearning product. All course information is available to the students via eLearning and there's a lot to it including my learning how to add items, edit items, monitor discussion lists, send emails to my entire group of students. Now that my anxiety level has lessened, I've been able to explore eLearning more calmly and I've done several things with it, including sending an email to the whole class.

I still have the rest of the semester ahead of me, but the hurdles look much lower from here. I'm look forward to fewer sleepless nights.