Failed by the Education System

Last month I took my Level II C++ class, and it was the worst experience ever.  I will post more about this, but for a bit of background, I am taking 5-week online classes at the University of Advancing Technology out of Tempe Arizona.  My online instructor disappeared from the class for 3 of those weeks (later we found out he had a death in the family), we didn't get a new instructor until about 9 days left of the class, and were still awaiting grades and answers to questions from Week 1 on through.  In the end I had to chalk this one up in the loss column and even decided to change my major to Web Design and Development: 
Comment below any of your horrific class experiences you have lived through.


Suffice to say that the following is merely the class review that I wrote and posted: 


This class has been the worst class I have ever taken in my education career, and considering that throughout the past 14 years of my post-high school education I have attended 3 professional colleges, and multiple military training courses that is saying something.  We didn't even get access to our Pearson book until almost week 2 and even then content was missing and out of order.  It is now week 5 and I still have unanswered questions from week 1. 


I am very sorry to hear of Professor Gardner's loss but I don't see how the college can expect and entire class to pay for the way this class has gone.  I was originally told that if I filed for an incomplete that I would be provided with 4-5 additional weeks to complete the coursework and given the lack of grading, feedback, instruction and responses I felt that this would be necessary for me to even get close to grasping how to successfully complete my assignments.  Now that I have realized that I will only be provided with 1 more work with an incomplete after not having instructor assistance for practically 3+ weeks, I know that I just don't have the knowledge, experience or know-how to successfully accomplish these tasks, to sit here and say that I truly do not have the tools for success in this course honestly has brought so much stress and many tears of frustration.  We have been set up for failure in this course and I commend those that have been able to pull out a win.  I have slept no more than 2 hours a night for weeks now to try to make it through this class and to also stay on top of my other class that I have been taking at the same time.


Disappointment doesn't even come close to what I feel for the way that things have gone in this course.  I had to have extensive talks with scheduling, my advisor and other school officials due to this course.  I have even made the hard decision to step back and put myself backwards in my education to change my major because this is just now an acceptable way to gain an education for me.  I am paying a lot to attend UAT and I had to get an additional personal loan to pay for the difference between FAFSA and I have to work additional odd jobs and second jobs on top of being a single mother just to afford to go to school and then to have an experience like this is truly very frustrating for me. 


I have given so much to this course and I was failed.  I understand that Professor Coddington is not to blame for the previous issues, and I have had wonderful results working with her in other courses.  Unfortunately by the time that she has come in to this class it was just too little too late for me.  The damage was already done.  I have had to stand here in defeat to know that I must take a loss for this course.  It is very hard for me.  I have never failed a college course before in my life.  I have never felt so inadequate and so utterly deserted by an instructor.  I have lost the trust that I had in my education here.  I have busted my butt to have the 3.9 GPA I have on top of life and this kills me inside.  I honestly don't know what else to say in reflection of this experience. 


I wish all of my classmates the best as they make many additional life altering changes due to this experience from withdrawing from school completely to changing colleges to changing programs of study and to pushing through somehow.  We have definitely put our blood, sweat and tears into this, and I am drained.  Thank you to anyone who has offered advice, explanations and assistance.  I treasure all of the votes of confidence and apologize for failing in my own part of the effort.

Insanity Cardio Abs Review & Cookie Failure

First I will start with the Abs Review.

Having taken a break from Insanity for awhile after it kicked my butt a few times (Insanity Plyometrics Review), I wanted to start back in to things a little slower, so I chose a 20 minute workout.  This happened to the be the Cardio Abs workout.  Having done a couple of the Insanity workouts before I was mentally prepared.

I'm not going to say that it was a bad workout, because it definitely did work my abs.  I felt that it was a little weak in comparison to the other things that I have come to expect from Insanity.  My Belly Pilates totally kicked that workouts butt!  See Belly Pilates Review

The workout starts with a warmup as they all do with Shaun T.  The most intense part would be the jump leg curl ins, which is very high impact on the body if you have back or knee issues, but you can definitely feel it.  About 3/4s of the exercise is spent on the mat.  I am not saying that this is a bad way to work your core, because I think you can reach your core splendidly this way.  I am not really sure how you can call it cardio given the slow pace and a lot of movements involving planking.  Once the mat came out I didn't feel like my heart rate really stayed up.

Overall I call this a nice, slower paced workout in terms of insanity.  It is definitely a core workout, but I would hesitate to classify it as full cardio.  There is some cardio in it, especially in the beginning.  If you haev never tried Insanity before, I would suggest it as a nice "easing into it" exercise, as the fit test can make you feel like you suck and shouldn't even start, and the Plyometrics leaves you in so much pain you never want to go back. 

*As I could not find any actual Shaun T previews, here is an exercise class a workout facility doing the workout, if you want to get a feel for what the workout is. 

COOKIE FAILURE
Now back to the failed cookies.  If you read my blog last night about Liam's being fully potty trained, he still does want his cookie now and again after he goes potty and washes hands.  not always, but when he does there better be a cookie, needless to say we ran out of cookies this morning and he was LESS than impressed.  So I figured we could just makes some (did I mention that we need to go grocery shopping).  My recipe ended up with so much improvisation that it was a big mess.  However after tweaking with ingredients and adding some more stuff (mostly flour) I was able to make the second batch that came out of the oven more than a big mess, and actually suitable for the cookie container on the window sill.  I can show you the photos, but I won't give you the actual recipe because it did NOT work for me.  here are the 3 main reasons why it did NOT work. 

1. When making cookies you should ALWAYS use unsalted butter.  I only had 3 TBsp left and substituted margarine the rest of the way and this made the cookies not stick together as well and greasy
2. I know when I move I will find a thousand containers of baking soda as I see it all the time.  However some magical entity steals my baking soda when I go to make cookies which left me instead with 2 separate containers of baking powder.  this usually makes your cookies not rise as well and they stay flat and spread out.
3. I was trying to half a recipe that I was only half following anyway...  So it was a mess I can admit I had a cooking failure today haha

Needless to say I did get a GOOD dozen chocolate chip heath cookies that are a little flatter than they should be and also a big spread out cookie sheet of cookie mess, all tasted amazing, and I am saving and eating off of the scraped off flat spread out greasy cookie mess because I suck at presentation anyway and taste is definitely high for this mess :)

*Even though i am the improvisation queen, some things CANNOT be improvised, and when you improvise TOO much you end up with something else ENTIRELY :)  Have a great Saturday night.

Cookie Dough

Failed batch

Better Batch :)