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againstthegrain

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Posts posted by againstthegrain

  1. We have ting and love it. However, if we lived rurally it would not be a good option for us service wise. When we travel we stick to interstates or we lose data quickly. We pay $40 a month for 2 smartphones with data, texting and calls. I'd call our usage average.

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  2. I should not even answer your question of "is it worth it?" I usually come down on the side of "Yes, absolutely - even if it's just to gain more knowledge in your field if that is where you will be for your remaining working years." I realize for some people it does not ring true.

     

    Here is another thought: Many colleges / universities offer more "creative ways" to pay. There are installment payments spread out over the semester or even the whole year. Would something like this enable you to avoid any debt and pay as you go?

    It sounds like to me that you would do your MA/MS if money ways not the obstacle.

     

     

    We may be able to avoid some debt - but its still the same monetary investment consideration. We're in suburbia on an income of around 50k due to homeschooling so the money invested in education has to be a consideration for us. It's not a barrier, only a consideration. 

  3. What's that in terms of per-hour of work?

     

    I hope I understand what you are asking... :)

     

     

    $2730 per course = average 3 hours per week of teaching + prepwork for that class  X  16 week long semester

     

    I'd estimate it at $30-34 per hour assuming 2-3 hours or prepwork per week. They offer CE positions (again, using the lowest community college pay in our area) at $30 per hour... so that seems about right.

  4. If you didn't have children, and weren't homeschooling, I'd say go ahead. I think your plate is potentially already full, is it not? How many years are you going to need to complete the Master's courses and associated practicum/research, then how many classes do you need to teach to make back that money over the 10 years. Is that time away from your young children worth it?  I think the part-time work you can start at now would be a better option.

     

    I spent the past 6 years completing my bachelors (124 credits). The masters programs we are considering are 33 credit hours (at most). It would take 2 years on a part time basis. The program would not take away from our homeschooling no more than it has since I began college 6 years ago.

     

    That being said, you make a great point about the cost and making that back. It'd take about 5 years teaching two courses a year to make back that income. That is notable. But it would be less time away from my children per week (3-5 on average) than a part time job I am looking at now (16 hours every other weekend). If the discussion is about time away from our kids, then the masters degree would be the better choice, it seems. The masters programs we are considering are online/distance education (about half my bachelors was online, half evening classes). Locally, an online masters is just as reputable as in person in my field of study assuming the university is accredited.

     

     

    Part of the consideration is I am looking ahead 10 years as well - when our kids are heading out of the home, I would like to add to our income in a position I enjoy. I'm totally not opposed to a part time job at a local shelter for the next 10 years, it would give me a good base to use for a better position income-to-hours after the kids are moving on. Income wise I'd make the same annually but put in 3x the hours from the family... I guess if a masters is worth the investment, I would rather teach an adjunct class each semester and spend more time with my family... Thanks for bringing up the point regarding time with family, it really lends to support for the 2 year masters degree part time!

  5. Are you sure that figure is correct (per annum)?  That's several times what it would be where I live.

     

    Locally, the lowest paying community college pays adjuncts at $910 per credit hour.

    Each course is 3 credit hours on average = $2730 per course. 

    Teaching one course per semester (not including summer) = $5,460 annually.

    Over 9-10 years = $49,140 - $54,600 (obviously this is gross not net).

     

    Just a rough calculation, but my math feels solid? 

  6. All our plants are stunted. It's like they just stopped growing. The chile plants are growing chiles, but the plants themselves never got taller. When dh went to check the ground a little while ago, it was dry - even 6-8 inches down. It was like all the water just evaporates, or goes who-knows-where. He said the dirt is way too porous, and is now down at the river to look for some good dirt to add to the bed. 

     

    It sounds like you have sandy soil?

     

    Have you considered adding some kind of organic material? It fills in the pores in the sandy dirt and slows drainage.

     

     

    We have clay soil, I add organic matter to our soil in the beds - it binds to the clay and improves the drainage immensely.

    • Like 2
  7. In a month will replace harvested areas with:

     

    4x4 bed:

    lettuce, spinach, garlic, carrots

    open trellis:

    peas

     

    I was thinking of planting cucumber in the open container ---- is it too late? I'm in Iowa zone 5. 

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  8. Managed to take some pictures! Keep in mind we bought our house in December and I have spent the past 6 months dealing with 3 years of composting leaves EVERYWHERE, a rotting rose garden that was huge, rotting plants ....everywhere.... and working on the deck lattice replacement, tree trimming, retaining wall, building a firepit and SO much more.

     

    I managed to get another bed put together yesterday (strawberries) and will do another tonight (asparagus). Update: got the asparagus bed built!

     

     

     

     

    https://www.dropbox.com/sc/ksez29rg3s25q5m/AABDtWu9AEQE1kyrNKdo1a0Na

     

    https://www.dropbox.com/sc/3lbz9uat9w1mx14/AACFsWc5vosULUm1JD5jXojQa

     

     

     

    -I've got 6 tomato plants, 3 have good sized tomatoes growing, 2 have small ones and 1 is tomato-less.

    -about 60 onion plants, all long-term 12-month storage plants

    -harvested two 5 gallon buckets of snap peas so far (there are only a couple plants still in the ground as they needed a couple more days to grow)

    -carrots will be ready for harvest beginning in about a week

    -debating what to replant next to the house (there are some perennial flowers, hostas, etc right now.... I love the idea of a wildflower bed next to the front porch... but I won't be digging them up this week in this heat!

    -kohlrabi is doing exceptionally well --- this is actually a cold frame with removable windows (read: hail storms are common here)

    -I've got 4 eggplants total.... one looks like it WANTS to flower... but I had to replant them due to soil issues so they are a month behind schedule

    -my first attempt at herbs: thyme! 

    -an amber julienne shrub in an area i gutted and redid in the front has been growing beautifully and has started turning red and beautiful

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  9. My first question would be: do you like teaching?

     

     

    If it's a program you would enjoy, and if teaching is your "thing," I'd go for it. Just keep in mind that a lot can change by the time you get there, so do it for yourself first and foremost.

     

    I've been an adjunct since 1998, and it's one of my passions. Because of funding and other issues, I likely will never be full-time, but I plan to continue for many years.

     

    I can take any class offered for free, and there are many professional development opportunities. At this point I'm eligible for self-paid health insurance and retirement savings plans. I also get free software, discounts on computers, and various other small benefits.

     

    The downside? Community college teaching can be discouraging. I've had sections where 1/2 of them either stopped coming entirely and/or failed because of not turning in homework. You can get some pretty rough characters and even entire classes that will turn against you. I've had to call security to have students removed, and I've had students threaten me physically.

     

    Adjuncts can also be treated like commodities versus individuals. I left one college over six months ago after my dean repeatedly lied to me. She has a lot of other issues and the adjuncts were leaving in droves anyway, many like me with 10+ years. My current dean is nearly hands-off other than a few administrative matters through her assistant, but at least her assistant is responsive.

     

    It's also tough being out of the mainstream communication channels. Some six years ago I went to look at the schedule just before Christmas to see how enrollment was going and saw that my department had been dissolved. I knew that the department head was moving up into an administrative position, but no one told me that all the sections I had signed a preliminary contract for were gone! Thankfully I got one section in another department at the last minute, but that program was/is on the decline too, and I was very unhappy with what I was teaching.

     

    That said, it's a very family-friendly profession if you like teaching and can be very tough-skinned.

    I adore teaching and I adore my field of study.

     

    I appreciate you offering your experience! I have no interest in becoming full time (at any point) and there are enough colleges locally looking for adjuncts in my field that I would always be likely to find at least one course. I could see some colleges dissolving my dept - but other colleges here growing in the same dept, though I have heard the "commodity" experience before. 

     

    I'd consider myself tough-skinned. Usually that is a fault, ha..

    • Like 1
  10. A masters degree will cost us between 25-30k. Teaching adjunct for the next 9-10 years of homeschooling at even one course per semester means $45-50k income, paying off college debt and building a quality resume for after homeschooling job prospects of teaching at the community college level. A masters degree locally will easily get me in to teach some courses (I realize this varies by area, our area is solid masters = adjunct positions pretty easily).

     

    I am finishing my Bachelors this December and have have been able to balance life. If I hunt I can find a weekend job in my field now that will pay about the same annually as an adjunct position (without having the masters degree or the debt with it). 

     

     

    I need some criticism on the matter. Why should I or should I not pursue the masters degree?

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  11. We bought a house in December so a lot of our non-busy time is dedicated to working on bits and pieces. DH spends some of his non busy time working on the vehicles. Other than that, we spend time watching a movie with popcorn on some weekend evenings. In the summer we go over to my in laws as they have an in ground pool. In spring and fall we spend more time hiking as a family.

     

    The last couple weeks have involved building more beds for my raised bed garden as I keep expanding, making a firewood storage area from pallets, repairing and recharging the vehicles' air conditioning, replaced lattice on the back deck, tore up and redid a landscaped area in the front, planted some grass seed... but all these things are our "non busy" fillers... I tend to function better if I am busy. So, when we aren't doing normal homeschool/chores/my college work... 

  12. Oh, I will check my library for that book! We have such little gardening space, but I know we could do more. Thanks for the rec.

     

    We have a freeze early Sept., but then we can sometimes grow to middle October covering here and there. I'm really interested in trying to grow past Sept. this year. I've heard some frost can make veggies taste better too

     

    We are in Iowa and I use cold frames - my summer garden is all square raised beds. Simply add old windows on hinges when winter rolls around. 

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  13. We are taking down a big pine tree so most of my garden got moved and is kinda...not pretty.... but I'll get a pic later. I erected a little bunny fence after the evil things started on my carrots. 

     

    We had an early heat wave this year and I lost my zuchini and summer squash.

     

    Spring plantings:
    Snap Peas - 3/4 have been harvested. The rest soon.

    Carrots - a couple weeks left and recooperated well after a bunny invasion.

    Onions - doing great

    Tomatoes - lots of tiny and medium green tomatoes have arrived in the last week. 

    Kohlrabi - doing great

    Eggplant - had a hard time through the heat wave but I kept them going.... but no blossoms yet so I don't know :/

     

    Will compost the carrot bed after harvesting as it will be empty to prep it for fall plantings, same with squash beds that didn't make it:

    (In the carrot bed) plenty of fall greens and garlic

    (In the squash areas)

     

     

    I also picked up some more "scrap" treated lumber today. Can't beat $5 for another 2x6 bed! I just need to get the boys to take down the pine tree so I can move the beds back there before fall planting...

     

     

    I'll get some pics (again, my garden is kinda sporadically placed due to plans to fall a tree this summer)

     

    • Like 1
  14. I am interviewing tomorrow late afternoon at a local non-profit for a part time (every other weekend) position as a domestic violence shelter advocate. I think I have mentally prepped enough for the "why haven't you had a job in X years" and "what is your greatest weakness" type of questions. But alas, what do I wear? My closet is full of full length skirts, nice tank tops and cardigans. My shoes literally consist of a pair of flip flops, dressy sandals, a pair of fancy heels from being a bridesmaid, a couple pairs of tennis shoes and a pair of black dress loafers that are a decade old I have a pair of gray dress pants.... but I highly doubt they will fit! We don't have a lot of extra money to go buy some nice dress suit either. 

     

    Thoughts? Do I need to try a thrift store tomorrow to hunt for a dress suit?

  15. These may not have heavy "educational" value, but I consider these movies that are "Classic American" movies...

    Back to the Future trilogy, Ghostbusters 1 & 2,The Wizard of Oz, 2001: Space Odyssey, Mary Poppins, Singin' in the Rain, Annie, all the Indiana Jones movies...

     

    Edited to add Breakfast Club :)

    • Like 1
  16. Got everything worked out with my advisor and dean - I will be submitting an application for graduation in December 2016. Hooray! I'm going to take the Spring off to take the GRE and apply to a few graduate schools. 

     

    DS school:
    watch Times Tales

    AAS lesson with me

     

    DD school:

    math lesson

     

    I'm hoping to get some rest, my ear/jaw/whatever with the infection is killing me.

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  17. We're a vegetarian household, if that matters. I plan weekly - we go through too many veggies that 1) my big fridge wouldn't hold 2 weeks and 2) we'd have produce go bad if we only shopped every 2 weeks.

     

    We have a few rice dishes a week, a couple noodle dishes, a soup and a casserole. 

    Every other week we get a coop basket of veggies - so I plan the week's menu after I pick it up and decide what I'm using it all for. 

    The other weeks I tend to just stock up on seasonal veggies. I use up random veggies in a bean soup once a week. It usually goes over relatively well.

     

    Then I chop/freeze everything left over at the end of the week.... or dig through the freezer for chopped up veggies that were leftovers if I am low at the end of the week.

    • Like 1
  18. Unproductive Monday.

    Spent an hour in the urgent care waiting room before getting an email from my normal physican that she could get me in Thursday, so we left. Salivary gland definitely infected... low grade fever, etc. Just praying it's not something worse and it can be easily fixed.

     

    A wash in terms of school today... we did watch some of Times Tales. I like it a lot, the kids were receptive. I got some chores done but I'm wiped. Amazing how an infection just shuts me down :( DH is home and taking care of me and making dinner. I'll read the kids Harry Potter for our unit later tonight. 

     

    Got very good news from professor, he is letting me into the class I need for fall. Waiting to hear back from my advisor and Assoc. Dean to confirm I'll be set to graduate in December. I'll take Spring off to take GRE and Praxis and apply to grad school if that's the case.

     

    Hoping I feel good enough tomorrow with the infection to go pick up a book I need for a summer class that is on hold for me and read the kids some books (introducing DD and reviewing DS on the continents) I picked up at the library.

    • Like 5
  19. School is pretty much done here. DD and I will be working on some math this week in little chunks and DS has some AAS little lessons with me, but both very light. Normal chores today.

     

     

     

    Waiting on email back from a professor to see if I need to meet with my advisor this week.

     

     

     

    Waiting to hear about a doctor appt - good news is that my tooth isn't the problem after all. Bad news is I think my salivary gland is infected. Trying to get in asap. 

     

    • Like 4
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