So the background:
Things are a bit crazy here, but when aren't they for any of us? I have a 1st grader, am a PhD student working from a distance, taking online courses towards teacher certification (since I'm more likely to have a job at the high school than a college/university), substitute teaching part-time (though this is highly flexible), and expecting my second child any day now (due February 3rd, contractions on and off for a week now). At this moment, I am on maternity leave from my doctoral work and not doing any substitute teaching. I am enrolled in one 3-credit course for the certification program; it begins on Monday. I felt I was being responsible and corresponded with my adviser when this semester's offerings were published. I told him I expected to be able to do all the work, although there was a chance that I would need minor accommodations in the first week or two. He said that shouldn't be a problem.
When an email link was finally available for this semester's course, I sent a similar email to her. Her initial response was that it's no problem. But then I received an email today telling me that she had discussed it with her chair and they think I should drop the course. They don't generally allow any late work, and they're worried I won't be able to put in the expected 10 hours a week. There's also a 10-hour observation component (over the course of the 16-week semester, with 5 hours expected before midterm). There was also a little bit about how maybe I didn't realize that graduate-level work would be expected of us, despite the 200-level course designation.
I have no concerns about the level of work expected. I'm not even that worried about the course content (I have 5 years of experience teaching at the secondary level and several at the university level already, so I've already been exposed to a lot of the ideas we'll examine in this course). And as long as I can do the observations at my local high school--and I have the connections via substitute teaching to get them to agree--I don't see how it would be too much of a drain. My partner and I were already talking about me picking up some sub work in a few weeks; she works from home and her mother would love to come watch the baby, so 2-3 hours away on a handful of days would be well within the range of possibility.
If I understand the calendar right, I would have until February 12th to drop, though I'll need to check about financial penalties. I'm thinking that I should just get started with the coursework and make my decision then. For what it's worth, the instructor sent me the syllabus and while it doesn't have tons of detail about the specific assignments, I could easily start reading for the class today.
Things are a bit crazy here, but when aren't they for any of us? I have a 1st grader, am a PhD student working from a distance, taking online courses towards teacher certification (since I'm more likely to have a job at the high school than a college/university), substitute teaching part-time (though this is highly flexible), and expecting my second child any day now (due February 3rd, contractions on and off for a week now). At this moment, I am on maternity leave from my doctoral work and not doing any substitute teaching. I am enrolled in one 3-credit course for the certification program; it begins on Monday. I felt I was being responsible and corresponded with my adviser when this semester's offerings were published. I told him I expected to be able to do all the work, although there was a chance that I would need minor accommodations in the first week or two. He said that shouldn't be a problem.
When an email link was finally available for this semester's course, I sent a similar email to her. Her initial response was that it's no problem. But then I received an email today telling me that she had discussed it with her chair and they think I should drop the course. They don't generally allow any late work, and they're worried I won't be able to put in the expected 10 hours a week. There's also a 10-hour observation component (over the course of the 16-week semester, with 5 hours expected before midterm). There was also a little bit about how maybe I didn't realize that graduate-level work would be expected of us, despite the 200-level course designation.
I have no concerns about the level of work expected. I'm not even that worried about the course content (I have 5 years of experience teaching at the secondary level and several at the university level already, so I've already been exposed to a lot of the ideas we'll examine in this course). And as long as I can do the observations at my local high school--and I have the connections via substitute teaching to get them to agree--I don't see how it would be too much of a drain. My partner and I were already talking about me picking up some sub work in a few weeks; she works from home and her mother would love to come watch the baby, so 2-3 hours away on a handful of days would be well within the range of possibility.
If I understand the calendar right, I would have until February 12th to drop, though I'll need to check about financial penalties. I'm thinking that I should just get started with the coursework and make my decision then. For what it's worth, the instructor sent me the syllabus and while it doesn't have tons of detail about the specific assignments, I could easily start reading for the class today.
