Hello everyone:

Sometimes, the end of the semester comes before the end of your work. Now, if you are just poorly organized, you can’t really expect the professor to cut you a break.

On the other hand, if your computer woke you up with the black screen of death, your father had a stroke, your son got a broken arm, and your daughter just had quintuplets, then you might have a solid foundation for asking for a little more time. Ask the professor, nicely, if you can get an incomplete and finish in a couple of weeks.

One the other hand, if your husband’s birthday required that you bake him a cake and you still haven’t recovered your stride for the past two weeks, then, I am not motivated to give you an extension. (Yes, I have heard that excuse. I didn’t buy it because, the way I looked at it, she knew her hubby’s birthday was coming, he wasn’t a three or four year old, and I doubt that it really took her two weeks to recover from …baking a cake???)

Now, the thing about getting the incomplete is that you need to do the work to turn it into a complete grade. Let’s say you had an eight week course. You got behind and only did work for the first three weeks. You managed, by the grace of God and the kindness of your professor, to get a three week extension. This means you now have three weeks to complete five weeks worth of work.

The amazing thing is that some folks will then proceed to do either (a) nothing at all and still end up with an F or (b) do the assignments so poorly that they fail anyway. The third option (c) is that they do the work wonderfully and end up with an A. Please note that, in my thirteen years of teaching college classes, option c has never happened. Not once. Most of the time, option a is preferred but, every once in a while, I see an option b.

So, what should you do? Get busy, like the title of this blog posting says. Right now. Don’t wait till the cake cools or you get it iced and eaten. Do the work now, turn it in as quickly as you can (making sure that you are submitted quality work), and finish the course successfully.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Hello everyone:

I love my students. They are cheerful (usually), intelligent (for the most part), and hard workers ( 9 times out of 10). They are engaged in the subject matter and love to get me to go off script when I’m lecturing and encourage me to head down a rabbit trail. And that’s fine.

The times when we have our greatest time of fellowship is when the topic doesn’t seem to match the lecture. Until it does. They say that “more is caught than taught,” and I have to agree. Perhaps we are discussing communication technology, like we were in one class yesterday. Seemingly irrelevant information led to a wonderful chat about how technology has affected our everyday life. Which, in the end, was the whole point.

My students became very animated as I shared the differences between their lives and mine at the same age. Just imagine taking a walk and NO ONE being able to reach you. Going into the ladies’ room and not overhearing someone carrying on a conversation while using the facilities. (That happened to me today!) (Please note, I was not the talker….)

It was a great conversation. We shared about the prevalence of mental health issues in young people in this generation. That was basically unheard of in my generation. So what do you think? Is technology to blame, at least partially? Let’s talk about it.

I would argue that these precious young people are an incredible generation; they are a real blessing in my life. But imagine life with the complete lack of privacy; I think that is what they are facing now.

I would love to hear your thoughts.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Hello everyone:

During my time as a residential faculty member, numerous students have come to me, asking what I think they should do after college. What should their next steps be?

To help guide their thinking, the first things I usually ask are “What do you want to do?” and “Where do you like the weather?” If you are young and unattached, why not live some place you are going to enjoy when you aren’t working? As long as you and your family members live near a major airport, you can still see quite a bit of one another.

One thing you do need to realize is that this is a MAJOR change to everything you are used to. Don’t let that blindside you, once you get out of college. Your whole life, you have defined yourself as a student and now you won’t be. It can be a real culture shock.

So, who are you? You have been a son or daughter, and you still will be, but who are you, as a person, an adult? I can tell you who I am- perhaps that will help you define yourself.

Okay, here goes: I am a daughter, sister, mother, and grandmother who teaches residential classes and online courses for a major Christian university. I am a runner, writer, sign language interpreter, and choir member. I am a child of God.

That wasn’t too hard, but I knew ahead of time what to say. Now it’s your turn. What do you do? What do you enjoy? Tell me about yourself and it will be easier to know who you are. Do you support the arts? Do you enjoy sports? What kind of work would you love to do, even if you didn’t get paid for it? Perhaps student debt won’t allow you to do that at the start, but that could be your next goal.

Where do you want to go in life? Do you want a big house and a really nice car or would you prefer to be a full-time missionary living out in the wilds of a foreign land? Or do you believe, like I do, that your mission field is here in the States?

I know a young man who worked for years as an employee for a secular company, but he now works for less pay at a major Christian nonprofit company. He absolutely loves his job and finds great fulfillment in it. “Tell me what you love and I will tell you who you are,” as someone very wise once said.

So, your first step as you prepare to finish your coursework should be to determine who you are. Once you know that, you will have a better idea of what kind of job to apply for and what your next steps will be.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Hi everyone:

I learned something from one of my daughters-in-law this weekend. I had gotten some grease on a favorite blouse and the stain just wouldn’t come out.

She told me, “Mom, one of our neighbors told me to use Dawn dish soap on grease stains.”

I tried it and it worked like a champ! I had washed that blouse three times, with special spot remover, once and full-strength detergent twice, to no avail. I popped some Dawn on the blouse and washed it again. Presto! No more stain!

When I came home from my trip, I went directly to to store, bought a big bottle and put it… next to my washing machine. No more expensive stain removal products for me! Give me my dish soap and no one will get hurt! 🙂

Do you have any ideas that I can share with my readers? I would love to hear about your non-traditional fixes!

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Hi everyone:

I heard a great story Sunday morning. Our worship ministry assistant was telling us about how her hubby was supposed to bring home five balloons for their son’s 6-month birthday, but he only managed to make it home with one. Here’s how the story went:

The hubby was tasked with one thing for his son’s birthday party: go to the dollar store and get five helium-filled balloons. So he went off, confident in his ability to do the job.

When he got the balloons from the dollar store worker, however, the balloons were not tethered together and one immediately headed for the ceiling. The worker said something to the effect of “tough break, dude.” And the man walked away.

Hubby went on his way, minus one of the balloons, but with a good excuse. He walked outside, where the wind was blowing very hard and, you guessed it, he lost two more balloons.

He made his way to the car, struggling to keep his remaining balloons and then get them into the car. Wind vortexes being what they are, two more balloons evaded hubby’s grasp.

A few minutes later, he went into the house, with only one balloon in hand. His wife was quite annoyed with him, and really let him have it. It wasn’t until later that she realized that he might have had a very rough 20 minutes and asked him about it. He told the story as you have read it.

Here’s the point: You never know what someone else is going through. You don’t know what happened to their four balloons, so don’t pre-judge someone. Listen to their story and then decide.

Best,

Dr. Sheri

Hello everyone:

This may be crunch time for your assignments. It is for a couple of my summer classes.

You know how it is: it’s summertime. You don’t feel like doing your homework. It’s a nice day. Your spouse or kids want to go to the pool. You agree to go, for a little while. Next thing you know, that “little while” turns into all afternoon (or evening) and when you get home you are too bushed by your day in the sun to do anything.

Yep, I understand. I know what it means to turn down the chance to do something fun when you have homework to do. But when that lovely day in the sun is a distant memory (or a bad sunburn) you will have a real wake up call. Your homework didn’t do itself while you were taking time off.

Here’s what I suggest for next time and then I’ll offer suggestions for what to do now that the perfect storm is upon you.

Set an oven timer. Tell whoever wants to distract you from your work that you have to work for 45 more minutes and then you’ll go with them to the beach or to the pool or wherever your wanderlust takes you.

Plan your work ahead of time so that, when you want to do something fun, you will have scheduled some goof-off time into your day. (I had a student once who told me she had to make dinner for her hubby’s birthday. I asked her if she hadn’t known it was coming up; it’s kinda like those folks who wait until Christmas eve to go Christmas shopping or people who wait until April 14th to do their taxes.The gal didn’t appreciate my sense of humor. She never finished the course, apparently having other meals to cook.)

Okay, that’s planning ahead, but what do you do for that pile of assignments that are waiting for you right now? Clear your calendar immediately, and plan to have some long nights over the next few days.

You can email the professor and ask for an extension but it might be refused. If you are a student using financial aid, the professor might actually have to compute your grades early, to get the final grades in so that you can continue your education. That puts us in a double bind: you will turn your work in late and then we have to readjust our schedules so that we can still get your grades in on time for you to get more financial aid. This will not endear you to your professor, believe you me.

My suggestion? Do your work, plan ahead, and don’t expect the professor to bail you out. We usually have between 100 to 150 students at a time and your failure to plan is not an emergency in our minds.

Best,

Dr. Sheri