best practices

lately, no matter what i do, i just can't get myself to do homework on the weekends. but i feel so much pressure to do homework on the weekends that i end up unable to do anything else. what a waste of time!

lately, i've been thinking, why not try to get as much of my homework done on weeknights after work? if i can manage that, then i can free myself from the weekend homework prison i've created (that i don't manage very successfully). my new goal: read for at least two hours on wednesdays, thursdays, and fridays. if there's a lot left, carve out just a couple of hours on saturday to do what i can, but let the rest go.

truthfully, and i'll post more about this next week, my husband and i have been eating 70% raw lately and i seriously love preparing raw food. it's something that i want to spend my sundays doing. also, i've been really getting into learning how to make clothing and i want to spend some time doing that on the weekends as well. the clothing thing might be a little selfish, because it might not amount to anything, but one product is pure joy and i really can't deny myself that given all the stress i'm under. so... over the next few weeks, i'm going to see how my weeks go. i do at some point need to add exercise to the equation, but i'm not going to worry about that just yet!

new worlds

so, i've made it through my first couple weeks of class. actually, since my managing talent class is on mondays, we haven't had a class yet. we meet for the first time tomorrow. i've had two sessions of my fundraising class and it's gone well so far. when i signed up for it, there was only one session of the class, which was held on thursdays. i was a little concerned because having class on thursdays makes my work week a little more stressful. plus, the class' first night of presentations was scheduled for a day that i would have to be out of town for work. luckily, a second section of the class opened up on tuesdays, so i was able to switch to that section. as of now, i've attended one thursday class and one tuesday class. i debated making the switch because the thursday class is smaller and more intimate, it's in a better room, and the people seem a little bit more low key. in the tuesday class, there seem to be a few show-boaters and the room is pretty uncomfortable. still, i switched classes because i know that doing class on tuesday will make my semester much more manageable.

regarding my managing talent class, in prep for the first day, we have to read 3 things: 27 pages of one book; 100 pages of another; and a 28 page article. we also have to email the prof our resume, which makes me nervous for some reason. i just wrote a whole bunch of updates to my website. once it gets updated, i'm going to email my resume. resumes are so short that i always feel that the work i do isn't adequately represented in mine. i feel like there are some mandatory categories that resumes require: education; work experience; relevant skills. everything else just falls by the wayside. i did add a category called "non-profit and community work," which kind of helps to show some of my non-school, non-work activities. anyway, i guess cv's just do a much better job of really showcasing all the work that a person does/has done, like presentations and stuff.

i guess i just have to work toward feeling comfortable in fels courses. i have to admit that i feel seriously out of my element. sometimes, i just don't know what folks are talking about, or maybe i have a general sense but am uncomfortable with the language they're using. it's been a long time since i felt this uncomfortable in the space of a classroom and i think it's important that i remember what that feels like. i know in the long run i'll be able to use my work in my classes this semester to find work in the non-profit sector after grad school and to help push PIMC to the next level.

back in session

so -- school is back in session. maybe i've mentioned this here before, but since i came in without a master's, i have a lot of electives that i can take and so, i decided to do the fels institute's certificate in non-profit administration. i knew i'd be starting these courses some time this year, but hadn't planned on starting them until summer or fall. however, a course i planned to take this semester got canceled, so i thought, why not check out a couple of fels courses before i officially apply for the certificate?

this semester, i'm taking two fels courses:
fundraising for nonprofits
and
developing, managing, and leading talent for nonprofits

on the one hand, i'm pretty seriously excited to be taking courses out of GSE. i haven't done any coursework out of GSE yet, and have only taken a course outside of my program. even though taking courses at fels is going to be awesome, i just saw the syllabus for the developing/managing talent course and it kind of scares me. check it out here. it's so business-sounding and out of the typical researchy/inquiry-ish/literacy-type stuff i'm apparently so used to that i'm a little nervous about not being a good student. plus, there's a whole grading rubric -- eeeeek. so... i'm nervous.

anyway, i'll keep you updated as the semester goes on. my fundraising class starts tonight, but my managing talent class doesn't start for two weeks, so there will be lots of added anticipation. yay!