Change of plans

I have not had the camera out this week, I have been too busy getting my last two classes figured out. My original plan was to take two online courses this semester and then graduate in December. Well, the graduating part stays the same (thank goodness!) but the two on line courses had to change. I am still doing one class online, thankfully that class was set up exactly as I had thought. However, the other class was completely different. The in person version of this class is done in 8 weeks, but the online version was 16 weeks. I figured it would be fine that I would have twice the time to complete the work since it would be spread out over a longer period of time. Well, Monday evening I logged on and sat at my computer in total shock. In addition to being completely exhausted from my day at work this was all I saw, "Must check in online every day or at least every other day to watch for updates..... all work will be done with your online group... you will be graded entirely as a group.... only 2 things are graded individually.... you must be engaged in the class for the duration of the course, all 16 weeks.... no assignments can be turned in more than 1 day early.... you get the picture. What? All group work? Online? I can't turn in things early?? I was starting to panic. Plus, this class was a pilot for a new online format. Thus, I was spending a lot of time looking around trying to figure the system out. I was having trouble finding things on there. I spent over an hour just in awe of all the smiley faces bouncing around the screen. (She even had a link on there for proper use of emoticons...) It was as if a PowerPoint presentation was running around on my computer. My head was spinning and I had this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. To say I was feeling overwhelmed is an understatement! I figured I would just go to bed and look at it again in the morning. Before heading off to bed I did check into the in person class and I found out it was going to be on Wed nights with a nice teacher I had heard about from other classmates. (The reason I didn't take her class to begin with was because I wanted to be home in the evenings. I have missed so much in the last two years by being gone one evening a week!) I decided that was my back up plan as I went to sleep Monday night. Tuesday morning I went on line again and thought to myself, "I CAN do this!" That afternoon I was at school and I had a moment to check my email. I had a friend request from facebook as well as a message from an unfamiliar name. I investigated a bit more and realized it was somebody from my online class. I remembered the name because this individual had already disclosed in his introduction that he was autistic and spoke at national conventions around the country. Great. (I have nothing against autistic people. I have taught many and they are some of my favorite people ever. I just knew from the minute I saw his intro that he was going to be in my class and sure enough...) I realized that the teacher had formed our groups that morning so he was "johnny on the spot" by getting our group together. It seems we had an assignment due on Friday already. My heart started beating a little faster and I got that feeling in the pit of my stomach again. I closed it up and went along with my day. After school I got the boys home and we were doing our thing. At 5:30 I had to take Travis to a church class and there was a parent meeting during that time as well. Daryle stayed home with Connor. When I got home (after 7 pm) I noticed there was a message on my phone. Daryle said he didn't recognize the number or name so he didn't answer it. Yep. You guessed it. It was the guy from my class. Get this, I never even gave him my phone number!! I told Daryle about the facebook contact and now this. That was when real panic started to take over and I started to freak out. He didn't call just once.... he called, hung up, called one minute later and left a rather lengthy message and then an hour and a half later he called a THIRD time!! AAGHHHH!! I was already having high anxiety about this class and now THIS??? I was putting Connor to bed and Daryle was putting Travis to bed so once again we didn't answer the phone the third time around. I told Daryle I felt like I was being stalked. I said it sort of jokingly, but sort of not. I decided in the morning I would email the teacher and tell her I was going to check out the Wed. evening class. So, Wednesday morning I got online to email her. Well, it seems this student decided to send me an email on my NAU account. He was "very worried because it was Tuesday evening and our first assignment was due on Friday." That was when I about lost it. In less than 24 hours this guy had found 3 different ways to track me down! I emailed my teacher about possibly switching classes and I told her about what was going on with this student. She is an awesome teacher because by the end of the day she had met with her department chair, they got in touch with this person's advisor and I had an apology from him on Thursday afternoon. I was told they did not disclose my name to him and I know for a fact that I was not the only student who he contacted that day. I am sure he probably can figure it out though. He seems pretty intelligent. It was humorous though how he said he figured his group members who weren't responding might be "deadbeats, or lazy"... I had to laugh! Poor guy, he doesn't have a family to take care of nor does he have a full time job. I would never think of myself as a deadbeat or lazy! Anyway, that took up my entire week's worth of energy. Now I am in the Wed night class, the teacher seems great (she is from Bulgaria...sort of like a Russian accent. We already discussed the beauty of Russia since she has lived there before. I like her a lot!), all group work will be done in class and the best part is that I will be done in 8 weeks (well now 7!) and then I can just finish up the other online class. It's a good thing this was a three day weekend because boy did I need it! ;-) I am finally breathing normally again and that feeling in the pit of my stomach is finally gone!