Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Week 16 - Day 3

For the last 2 years Trios college in Toronto has been running a 4 day program. The Ministry of Education for Ontario province requires full time students to be doing 20 hours per week. 5 hours a day times 4 days a week is 20 hours. BUT if you miss one day you are out of compliance and you cannot make it up. The spare friday used to be saved for the MCAT tests (medical tests similar to SAT and LCAT-the lawyer tests).

Yesterday it was announced that Trios College (Toronto campus) will go back to a 5 day week starting in the first week of January. The MCAT tests will be moved to the weekend. So that means I will lose my day off and my 3 day weekends. I used to do al my laundry on fridays, and the shopping as well. So from January I will have to do the laundry in the half days when I am not studying.

Under the new schedule, Trios will keep the 5 hours a day schedule, which means that classes will be for 4 hours and then one hour lab for students to use the computers for homework or study. And this is for 5 day - making 25 hours a week. So if you miss one day you don't get out of compliance. If you miss two days then you do. So far I have not missed ANY days.

Right now my schedule calls for half days in the afternoon, so I have my mornings free to relax or do homework. Next year (in February) my schedule will change to mornings (ugh - and in the middle of winter too) so I will have to be up a half hour earlier, take a shower and get dressed, get my son up, dresed and fed and get him to daycare by 7.30AM, and then rush for a bus and hope I get to school by 8AM.

Trios works on 3 shifts. 8 am to 1 pm, 1pm to 6pm and 6pm to 11 pm.

I am NOT looking forward to these schedule changes.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Week 15 - Day 6

Saturday today.
We had a mid term (or mid class) test on Thursday. I think I did well and was out of the room in 25 minutes.

I have one advantage over the other students in my class, in that I read fast, english is my first language, (not my second or third language) and I have a good memory.

The weather is turning cold now, and the first snow is predicted to show up next week. but it wont settle until the ground gets cold.

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Week 15 - Day 2

Marketing class. Monday (yesterday) the teacher drops in for 5 minutes to tell us that she has to go to the doctors again (more pain around her back) and we have to make up a survey for the marketing research section of the book. The subject is the contents of sugars and fats in Mcdonalds food. Then she left to go to the doctors.

Now I have spent about 15 months working as a survey interviewer during my early years here in Canada. So I have experience in knowing what sort of questions to ask. We were in teams of 4 and I appointed myself the secretary. I had to, because none of the 3 members of my team are native English speakers. One is from Bangladesh, one french speaking from Switzerland and one portugese speaking from Brazil.

Anyway I typed the questions while we discussed what we wanted. While I allowed age and gender questions to be on the survey, I refused to allow the income demographic to be on the survey, because income has no direct bearing on the sugar and fat content of McDonalds food. Most people buy Mcdonalds food because it is cheap.

I was rather proud of the finished survey. We asked for age and gender, and then how often the person visit McDonalds, what their top 5 meal choices are and why they liked those choices (price, healthy, tasty or other).

Then we got into details. Do you think the following items have too much sugar - yes or no, followed by a LONG list of Mcdonalds food items. Next was Do you think the following items have too much fat - yes or no, followed by a shorter list of Mcdonalds food items.

Next we asked if they could rate (from 1 to 5) the same items on the list for too much or too little sugar and then the same items for too much or too little fat. And lastly we asked for any comments or suggestions they may have to help reduce the sugar and fat content of McDonalds items.

Now I know sort of what goes into a survey. I think I would rather like to do a lot more of that too. Took us just under 2 hours to complete, and that was the end of the class.

The teacher was back in the class today, so we covered both chapters - the marketing research and the market demand chapters.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Week 14 - Day 2

The HR grade finally showed up. I got 76%. I could have done better. But I didnt study as much as I should have for those exams. That's where I let myself down.

Now compare that with the 86% I officially received for Business Law. Thats because I studied. So now you know the difference between when I study and when I dont study.

There is one new girl in the marketing class - which makes 9 students squashed into one small room with just 13 desks. Definitely feels very crowded to me.

Remember that new Video Gaming course I mentioned yesterday. Well there was a logistics problem and while the school has got the new room and the new desks, the chairs have not been delivered yet. So there is now a MAJOR shortage of chairs in all the other classrooms, just so the new students can have comfortable seating and a good first impression.

This Video Gaming Course lasts 18 months, not including the internship which is another 4 months. You gotta really love video games to want to get into this career.

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Week 14 - Day 1

Trios College in Toronto has opened TWO new classrooms. And there were lots of new students wandering around the corridors today. At least 40, maybe more. I was told that these classes are for the brand new Video Gaming Course that started today.

I got my Business Law final grade today - It is not official yet, But verbally I was told that it was 86% and that I had the highest grade in the class. That class was only 5 students.

My new class (Marketing) has 3 new students (total of 8 in the class) and the small room now seems crowded.

My Human Resources grade is still not available. It is supposed to be available today. The class ended a month ago.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Week 13 - Day 4

It's Thursday today and usually I would be in class right now. But not this week. My final exam for Business Law was done yesterday, and now I have 5 days off. Thursday through Monday inclusive. I think I did pretty well on the exam. I was pleased with what I did.

Why Monday you ask? Because in Canada, the second Monday of October is always Canada's Thanksgiving Day.

My new class will be Marketing. I already have the text book. Next week the class will run from Tuesday through Friday so Day 1 next week will be Tuesday and Day 4 next week will be Friday. The following week we should be back to the normal Monday to Thursday schedule.

Still no grade for the HR class and I finished that a month ago. So now I am expecting both HR and Business Law results to show up - hopefully before I graduate. LOL

Monday, October 6, 2008

Week 13 - Day 1

Continuing with Business Law.

Property, Personal and Intellectual law today - Monday
Banking, Financial & Debtors/Creditors law tomorrow.
Final Exam on Wednesday.

Next week Marketing.

Still waiting for the Human Resources Final Grades to be posted.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

Week 12 - Day 3

The Instructor had 2 days vacation this week. So we got one lecture on Workplace Law on Monday and will have the second one on Thursday. Yesterday and Today I have been at home. Has not been much fun because it rained for most of the day yesterday, and it is raining again today as well. I hate the rain. Next week we will finish the Business Law book and do the final exam.

Then after that I will have MARKETING. I am looking forward to Marketing, since a fair amount of my career so far been has in market research. Not that I like doing surveys. I don't. But I am interested in who and why they do surveys and what they do with the information afterwards. I also don't like sales.