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My Great Miscalculation or How I Forgot About Homework

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Earlier this week, I finished grading final exams for my face-to-face teaching assignments for the spring semester. This was the first time that I’ve taught in a physical classroom since fall 2010. I’m glad that I was offered the teaching assignments because they were a lot of fun. I’ve been offered further teaching assignments for this coming fall and spring 2014, all of which I’ve accepted and I eagerly await. However, a made a minor miscalculation in my preparation for getting back into the front of the classroom – I didn’t realize how much time and effort I was going to have to spend on grading my students’ work! As you might imagine, it was a bit of a shock to see 250 pages worth of student papers sitting on my desk in early February waiting to be graded. Believe it or not, it was relatively easy to get over that shock and move on to the next grading assignment or classroom prep work that I lined up for myself. That’s why I call this a minor miscalculation.

Yet, I did make a major miscalculation both this semester and last semester…

It feels like I ready this many books this semester!

It feels like I read this many books this semester!

For my longer-term readers, you may remember about a year and a half ago when I wrote that I was ready to get back into the classroom as a student in my pursuit of some additional higher education. I kickstarted that process about a year ago when I applied (and was accepted) to a post-master’s certificate program in curriculum studies. My first class started in September 2012 and it was a bit of a shock for me since I hadn’t taken a class in two years. Yet, much like getting over the shock of seeing my students’ papers sitting on my desk waiting to be graded, I quickly got over the culture shock of sitting in a classroom and being assigned homework and papers to complete. This process was helped, in part, by the fact that I opted to take a hybrid course. This is a course that meets once every other week with some online interaction in between. If hybrid courses are delivered correctly, they are a much better, much more efficient method of delivering higher education – and they work for me!

My major miscalculation, though, was the homework that I was assigned for the course that I took this past fall. And though it seemed like a lot during the fall, the miscalculation really came into play this semester when I had a five way battle going on. The warriors in that battle were my obligations to my professional office, my obligations to educating my online students, my obligations to educating my in-class students, my obligations to operating my two small businesses, and my obligations as a student with homework to complete. Remarkably, I managed to meet all of these obligations. If I lightened up on meeting any of them, though, it was those obligations as student in the post-master’s certificate program. Without question, I could have spent more time digging through the readings for the class I was enrolled in. I could have spent more time finding additional sources to support my arguments in class. Granted, I received an “A” in the class, but I think I could have been more effective as a student if I had more time to focus on the readings and the lessons we were discussing.

I write this entry as a method of displaying some humility. Even with the meticulous planning and plotting that I do in my financial life (and soon to be other aspects of my life), I still managed to overlook a massive component of going back to school… homework!

Student Loan Balance Just About Sliced in Half – We’re Into Four Digits Now

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Only a few days ago I posted an update about my deliberation on whether or not I should eliminate my student loan debt once and for all or play it safe and hold on to a portion of my accumulated home down payment money. Most of the people I asked suggested that I immediately eliminate the student loans and finally be done with them. And I admit, that is the path I was heading in and the decision that I already made prior to posting the update linked above. However, I decided against making a full payoff and instead pretty much split the difference. I kept about half of that portion of the down payment (remember, I have much more saved for my eventual down payment on a home than the $17 thousand that I’m hemming and hawing over) and I used the other half to pay down my student loans.

Down to $9 thousand!

This leads me to have about $9 thousand left outstanding in my student loan debt. I’ve written this several times on this blog, but when you consider that my repayment started only about 7 years ago and my initial loan amount was approximately $121 thousand, the fact that I’ve reduced the total amount of my student loans to $9 thousand is absolutely incredible. Yes, I’m going to blow my own horn on this accomplishment – it’s amazing and I didn’t do it with any handouts, large gifts from wealthy family members, or gimmicky consolidation or loan reduction programs. I worked hard, used my free time to earn more money, and lived a conservative and relatively frugal life (and I continue to do all three of these things today). And wouldn’t you know it, but this type of hard work actually paid off?

Amazing, right?

I want to take a little bit of space during this happy post to write something similar to what I wrote a few months ago when I hit $17 thousand in student loan debt. If you remember that entry, I wrote about what was going on in my life when I had accumulated my first $17 thousand in student loan debt. Well, I’d like to do that again, but this time I’d like to recall what was going on in my life as I built up my first $9 thousand in debt.

In order to do this correctly, we have to take a short trip back in time. All the way back to the year… 2000!

Unlike the post a few months ago, I was not yet a Sophomore in college when I accumulated my first $9 thousand in student loan debt. Instead, I was a second semester college Freshman. This was Spring 2000 and the major event in my life back then was joining my fraternity. The pledge process lasted 6 weeks (7 if you count spring break) and was pretty entertaining. While I won’t go into the details of what my pledge brothers and I did to join the fraternity, it’s nothing that I wouldn’t do again (and probably keel over in laughter at in the process).

I was also doing pretty well in school during the Spring 2000 semester. In fact, during Spring 2000 I was just coming off of a pretty powerful first semester of college in Fall 1999. During that first semester, I scored a 3.8 GPA and was on the Dean’s List. I racked up straight As or A- grades in all of my courses except for Western Civilization where I took home a B+. Truth be told, the instructor of the Western Civilization class did not put together a very good syllabus and was pretty confused with the honors cohort of students that I was in. I remember that very clearly. He wanted to teach what he typically taught, but because my class was an honors section of the course and because our honors section was part of this honors cohort, the poor guy was just confused and didn’t do a good job explaining the otherwise fascinating history of Western Civilization.

I scored a 3.3 GPA in Spring 2000 with mostly As and Bs in my classes. My lowest grades that semester we straight Bs in Elementary Italian and Discovery in Natural Science. I was (and am) totally fine with those grades. I tried to learn Italian as a language, but I found that it really only reinforced my existing knowledge of Spanish. And that’s not an entirely bad outcome in the long run since I have a pretty good working usage of the Spanish language. Also, I didn’t actually go to the Discovery in Natural Science classes. I had an agreement in this class (and in my Fall 1999 College Algebra class) that I would just show up for tests because I earned As in my high school classes that were more advanced than these courses – both of which were general education requirements at Monmouth University. During Fall 1999, I scored an A in College Algebra (obviously, I scored an A in Advanced Calculus in high school) and during Spring 2000, I scored a B in Discovery in Natural Science (which was fine with me considering there were only two tests and those were the only two times I went to class).

I know these grades because I can still access my student profile online. So no, I didn’t memorize them!

Spring 2000 was a busy semester for me between pledging, working for the school’s information technology department, and school. I wouldn’t go back and change anything, but I would probably have spent less time concerned with academics than I used to back then. You always hear people say that if they knew then what they know now, they would have changed this or that in their lives. Well, if I knew then what I know now – that hyper-focusing on general education classes doesn’t really do much to increase your job preparedness or overall learning – then I wouldn’t have spent so much time studying that semester.

Although, it wasn’t all just studying. Joining the fraternity came with its benefits. Back then (and somewhat still today), the campus was absolutely dead when it came to fun student social activities. Sure, there were university-sponsored events, but those events were inundated with university minders and were generally cheesy. After I was initiated into the fraternity, the social aspects of college picked up considerably. Along with the social part of college kicking it up, I was given more opportunities to express my leadership abilities. And I continue to do that to this day, though I’ve personally decided to pull back on playing the leader of the pack in the national fraternity and instead have opted to focus on developing the leadership and professional potential in our undergraduates.

But back in Spring 2000, life was good. I don’t have many complaints or aggravations about that time in my life. Here’s a picture of me hanging out with one of my lady friends (she’s the awkward smiley face – it’s my blog, not hers, so I don’t know if she wants to be put out there in public).

spring-2000

Those of you who know me aren’t surprised at seeing the SoBe bottle… or at the fact that the liquid in that Power SoBe (fruit punch) is clear!

In May 2006, I graduated from Rutgers University with a Masters Degree and $120,720 in student loan debt. Since I started repaying my student loans in July 2006, I’ve repaid a total of $112 thousand in principal to various lenders including the federal Perkins loan program, the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority, and CitiBank. I currently owe $9 thousand in principal to the United States Department of Education’s federal Direct Loans program. This loan is serviced by the Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority. To date, I’ve repaid over $35 thousand in interest to these lenders. Follow my student loan repayment story on JerseySmarts.com.

Does Anyone Else Have a Serious Reading Problem?

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Way back when I was a young kid I learned that the easiest way to learn more stuff was to read more books. I always wanted to know more so I really enjoyed reading a lot of different types of material from textbooks to magazines to novels to short stories to you name it. And when the internet was in its infancy, I enjoyed reading internet discussion boards like Prodigy.

Remember Prodigy? Wow – what an old reference!

Well, I still like to learn more about the world around me and my love of reading has stuck with me. In my bedroom I have a bookshelf filled with books (most of which I haven’t read through yet) and in my spare bedroom I have a large plastic tote container also filled with books (also mostly unread). Plus, my Mom bought me a NOOK Color a few years ago and that thing is filled with an entirely different set of books than are sitting on my bookshelves.

But it’s not just physical books and e-books that I enjoy reading. I also enjoy reading various blogs, news, and commentary websites. In fact, I use the Google Reader interface and that poor thing is overloaded with hundreds of updates everyday. Granted, I only read 3 – 5 of the actual updates, but 3 – 5 articles each day over the course of a week begins to add up!

And the love of reading continues… each weekend I receive the bulletin from church and I go through it to make sure that there isn’t anything new going on that I’ve missed. Of course, that’s a quick read and I can usually get through it as I eat my lunch on Sunday. But then you have the occasional weekend when the diocesan newspaper is released and that thing is packed with news! I just received one of them last weekend and I’m still getting through it. Which leads me to the newspaper and “news” in general. I really enjoy waking up in the morning and scanning through the New York Times website as well as the FOX News website (hey – you need to get both sides of the story, right?). I imagine that whenever I buy a house I’ll have to get a weekender subscription to the New York Times. Or maybe the online version – who knows?

Then there is the “To Read” file that I keep on my computer. Whenever I get sent an article or a report that is too long to read in one sitting, I stick it in that file and hope to get back to it at some point. As you might imagine, that folder gets bigger and bigger. Not to mention that I have a whole series of bookmarks on my computer that are holding old article that I need to go back and read at some point.

Right now I’m reading three different books for the class that I’m taking (remember that?). I’m also at the beginning of the eighth book in the Sword of Truth Series (remember that, too?) on my NOOK. And I’m about halfway through reading The Jersey Sting. Very interesting book considering that I worked in the real estate business in Deal Township, New Jersey.

I think if I can get through the eighth book of the Sword of Truth series on the NOOK and the rest of The Jersey Sting, then I’ll feel less pressure to read. Once I get those books out of the way, I’m going to start picking off the articles in my saved bookmarks folder. Then I’m going to pick off the articles that I’ve saved on the Google Reader. The next thing is going to be the “To Read” folder and then I’m going to begin hitting those books sitting on my bookshelf and in the plastic tote.

So the question is – when does a love of reading become a problem?! 🙂

My Recent Trip to the United States Department of Education

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Last month, I had a chance to visit a place that I’ve contributed quite a bit of money to over the last few years – the United States Department of Education (USED) in Washington, DC! Okay, so while most people would find no humor or excitement in going to the USED, I found some great sense of fulfillment by actually visiting their headquarters building in our nation’s capital.

The one thing that struck me the most about the headquarters building is that it’s pretty much a fortress. I mean, it’s built like it could withstand any major natural disaster or attack. I honestly think that if a foreign country attacked the capitol, the USED building would be left standing – mocking the foreigners and their wimpy weapons. But that’s just the impression you get from the outside. Once you’re inside you see that it’s really just functional office space. I liked the mission statement of the USED, which was put up right on the wall for everyone to see when you entered the building. Take a look:

The USED's mission statement - give it a read

Pretty good mission statement for the USED, huh? I was down in Washington, DC for a conference on charter schools which I won’t get into in this blog entry. However, I couldn’t help but think that I actually helped build the impressive structure in which the charter school conference was being held in thanks to all of my student loan payments. It was a weird feeling – not necessarily a bad feeling, but one that made me take a step back and think, “Well, here’s the place where my checks have been going for the past few years.” It was just an interesting feeling.

What was not a good or interesting feeling, though, was the physical pain that I endured as I rode Amtrak’s Acela down to Washington, DC. Believe it or not, these asshats actually sold more tickets for the Acela than there were seats for the passengers. Sure, you’ll never get any official response from the Acela people saying that it was standard practice to do that or that they were sorry (apologizing is an acknowledgement of guilt). However, the conductor on the train – who was a very nice guy, by the way – told me and the fifteen other seatless passengers that this was common practice. It was outrageous. So, I rode down to the nation’s capitol sitting on this:

Imagine sitting on this for two and a half hours

Yeah… not comfortable at all. Anyway, I visited one of my two major student loan lenders last month. And while I don’t think that I’ll ever willingly or happily visit the headquarters building of the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (NJHESAA), I’m actually going to be really close to some of their associates starting tomorrow. Turns out that NJHESAA and my company will both be exhibitors at the New Jersey Charter Schools Association conference in Atlantic City this week. I don’t know if we’ll be anywhere near each other, but I feel like being in the same room as those people is going to drive me nuts. Frankly, I have half a mind to walk up to their booth and ask them why they felt the need to treat a highly intelligent, good-natured person (me) like a dumb, moronic piece of garbage every time I called them. And that same half of my mind wants me to ask them why they wouldn’t contact the credit agencies to report their mistaken even after admitting that they made a blunder when they reported that I made a late payment when no payment was actually due. Those idiots lowered my credit score for a few months until I had to go out of my way to get that stupid mistake wiped clean from my record. Idiots.

Anyway, enough of that tangent. The point of this entry is that I visited the USED headquarters building in Washington, DC and I was pleasantly pleased with the visit. I hope that they do their customers well as they continue to ramp up their student loan production.

I’m Just About Ready for My Next Educational Endeavor

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Believe it or not, I’m actually getting ready to write a new chapter in my educational history. No, I’m not going to apply to a doctoral program… yet. Instead, I’ve found a very interesting Post-Master’s Certificate program at my local college that manages to fit my personal educational goals as well as my professional development needs. The local college has a Post-Master’s Certificate program in Curriculum Studies as a part of their School of Education and after doing some preliminary research and meeting with the Director of the program, I think I’m going to apply to start classes next spring.

Apparently, I want more of this in my life...

During my very pleasant, upbeat conversation with the Director of the program, I was pleased to hear how the topic of Curriculum Studies includes how spaces and places impact a student’s ability to learn. In other words, this program will allow me to do some research on the link between what a classroom looks and feels like and student achievement. There are already a lot of folks looking at this issue, so I expect that I will have a lot of trouble finding research on the topic. Ideally, I’ll be able to research how charter schools create learning spaces that positively impact their students. Part of that research would also have to show how failing charter schools design their classrooms and facility culture – which could be an interesting study on its own.

Sometimes I know that I’m huge nerd at heart because when I think about researching these types of issues, I’m excited about the possibilities. I mean come on! Who thinks about charter school classroom design and its relationship to student achievement and thinks, “Oh my God! What an awesome subject!?”

Hey – I just like reading and researching in a way that many people do not. And that’s not a judgment call on anyone and their academic abilities. Instead, it’s just a public confession that I like going to school and learning new things.

And that’s about it, folks. As I work to figure out if/when I want to apply to this program, I’ll keep everyone updated. There are five classes in the program so I’d probably just take one this spring, two over the summer, one next fall, and one the following spring. No big deal. I’ve got some existing travel, professional, and social commitments that would impact my ability to attend some classes this coming spring, so that’s something that I’m trying to think through right now. One thing that I’m not thinking too much about is the cost of the program. Why? Well, as an alumnus of the local college who already holds a Masters Degree, I get a 25% discount. Plus, I’m going to try to get my company to pay for a small portion of the program costs, too.

Anyway, we’ll see how it goes. Could be a lot of fun!