going back to school..yikes

[b_rogers]

havent posted here in a while (too poor for internet) but im back...i guess i have been bitten by this electronics bug, so i decided i might as well learn a little theory and possibly be able to get a job/career out of it.  i start ITT tech on the 30th for electronics engineering and design/computer tech. i am exited and a little nervous about going back to school at 35 but i hope it will be fun. i know they wont teach me about alot of the stuff that we effectsheads use or even tubes but i think i should be able to apply some of the knowledge gained in some way...wish me luck!

Brent

[b_rogers]

ooops put this in wrong forum...sorry !!!

[Bernardduur]

Good luck!

School is good

[R.G.]

Good man.

I mean this sincerely - if you hit places you need help understanding, send email. I may not always know about whatever it is myself, but I know people who do.

[b_rogers]

Thanks RG i may just take you up on that. i expect to be confused quite often! 

hopefully i can get enough knowledge to not have to ask so many questions. i just wish the course covered tube tech also..oh well

thanks guys

Brent

[Hal]

good luck/have fun :-D. dont let the bratty kids get you down!

[RDV]

My brother's a professor at UCA, but I never went, but should've. Every time you post I get homesick for AR. Good luck with school.

RDV

[Mark Hammer]

I taught university for over a dozen years.  Many of my very best students were moms who had come back to school after the kids were in middle school.  Why?  Because they were JUST unsure enough about their own competence and ability to compete with the younger ones that they actually DID THE WORK.  You may well feel unsure about your own skills when thrown into a den of kids.  Let that be your hidden source of strength.  Its remarkable what actually doing the work can accomplish!

Understand as well, that it is NEVER "you" when you hit a conceptual brick wall, but always the gap between who the teacher thinks they're teaching to, or who the textbook writer thinks they are writing for, and what YOU need to hear at this moment.  I can't tell you the number of times I had a discouraged student come to my office, I would loan them a couple of other texts covering the same material with the simple advice "Take a look in here for the same subject matter if your own text doesn't make sense", and they would come back praising the borrowed texts, no matter how crappy those books were.  Why?  Because it is a tremendously liberating feeling to know that the fault is NOT in yourself but in the mismatch of teaching materials and learner, especially for mature learners.

Finally, my experience has been that mature learners are a little more hungry for a punch-line thantheir younger colleagues.  If you've come straight from high school, you may be more accustomed to just writing stuff down because you think it will be on an exam.  If you've been out in the world a wee bit, you may be more likely to wonder "Well, what exactly does this knowledge DO for me?  How is it useful?", and get restless if there is not even a subtle indication  or response to that by the end of the class.  That makes you valuable to everyone else who is 15 years younger.

Enjoy it.

[b_rogers]

thanks for the encouragement Mark and Hal. i am excited and nervous all at the same time. should be neat to understand what some of you learned guys are talking about!  Hey Ricky..you aint missing much around here, just drugged out knife wielding teeneage car thieves  ..lol... preciate the kind words folks.

Brent

[Alex C]

Several paragraphs of common sense from a sincere, caring educator.

Will you please come and teach at my university?   

[Paul Perry (Frostwave)]

Mark is spot on. That's why I have "too many" secondhand texts... because one might be 'just right for me' at the time. BTW my mother got an arts degree (classical civ) when she was 5o+, she said it was easy, because "all the kids were worried about getting drunk & laid" which left her near-exclusive use of the tutor

[David]

Brent:

How have things been?  Are you, the wife and the dogs OK?

[b_rogers]

hey david..

things are ok, not stellar but at least im gonna get a edumication 

the wife and dogs are fine.

i moved since the last time i posted. now i have a great kennel setup so i have more room in the house, and no dog fighters trying steal my dogs. i had to chase off about 3 dog thieves while i didnt have internet access, more funny stories of peoples stupidity in approaching an obviously territorial dog with the firm belief that they can steal it.

how's things with you?