My First Success

Last night, I took my first assessment for grad school. (That's one of the great things about this school. For some of the classes, you can schedule your final assessment whenever you want.) This one was for my Foundations of Instructional Design class. Yes, that class is almost as exciting as it sounds. It's really a prerequisite course to the rest of the Instructional Design classes that I will have to take later that will culminate in me designing an original unit of instruction. I have to admit that I was very nervous about this exam. I had taken a pre-assessment a couple of times and scored pretty well, but there were still parts of the class that I was having a hard time grasping. Monday, the course mentor conducted a conference call for students who were getting ready to take the assessment, and the areas she said were an emphasis on the exam were the exact areas that I was having a lot of trouble on! I tried to cram in between my conferences on Wednesday and Thursday. (Oh yeah, did I forget to mention that I decided to schedule this exam during conference week? Cause I don't already have enough stress.) I still wasn't feeling very confident, and there were definitely some questions that I had to just guess on. I thought I was going to get my score as soon as the exam was over, so imagine my surprise when it told me "Score Not Disclosed". I got back home and logged on to the student portal, hoping it would show up there, but there was nothing. Finally, I found out that it could take up to two business days for my score to be posted! When I talked to my mentor last night, she told me that it usually only takes a day or so. This morning at school, I kept refreshing my WGU e-mail hoping to get an e-mail telling me how I did. It came at about 9:00. I passed with an 87%! Go me!

While I'd love to relax, I've still got a Praxis exam for my Intro to Special Ed class coming up at the beginning of January, and a Literature Review I need to finish by the middle of January. Right now, I'm doing alot of searching for articles that I can use for my lit review before I start my annotated bibliography (which will probably average about 15 pages or so). Once I pass that, I can write the actualy Lit review which will probably be about 10 pages. I'm so excited. (note the sarcasm) I haven't written anything of a postsecondary level for a loooong time.

Conferences went well, both for me as a teacher, and for the boys. Matthew continues to sail through. His teacher thinks he's quite the character. We're still working on his talking. He seems to think everyone is as interested in his thoughts as he is. Otherwise, he's great! Academically, Nathan is excelling. His teacher is amazed by how bright he is. She and I are still worried about his social development. While he seems to be doing OK relating to the other kids in the classroom, he doesn't really play with anyone at recess. He spends a lot of his time just walking back and forth across the playground (probably talking to himself if I know Nathan). We're discussing having him retested for Aspergers. While he probably wouldn't qualify for any services, it might help his teachers understand some of his issues as he gets older. So far, he's had very understanding teachers, but I worry about him as he moves into the upper grades. Having a specific diagnosis will ensure that his teachers will have the information they need to help his adjust.

Only seven more school days until Thanksgiving! I can't wait!

(PS Here's the two second Andrew update. He's starting to talk even more! Now, he says ball, baby, juice, bye-bye, shoe, and choo-choo! I gave him a haircut yesterday, and cut his hair just a little too short. You can definitely see his scar now!)