I've always loved school. In fact, one of my major struggles in my "finding myself" period between college and graduate school was finding a job, when I felt like I was only good at going to school. This is the longest period that I've not been taking classes in a very long time, and it's an odd feeling to not be working toward a midterm, a final, a certificate, or a degree. Very odd.
As some of you may know, my #oneword for the year 2012 is LEARN. Learn about myself, about the people and institutions around me, about life. One major part of that is to learn more about the field of health and wellness promotions, to determine if that's a functional area of student affairs that I might want to look into.
In learning about the field, I am realizing that there is a major gap of knowledge from a content standpoint. And that's not surprising. With degrees in communications and education, I can talk to people about things, and teach them, but the content of what I would be teaching them? Less familiar.
Enter course openware. This is a strategy that I never even thought to consider. I was looking at doing a certificate in Health Administration and Policy through FSU, or even a certification course through the American College on Sports Medicine, to brush up on the knowledge base needed to counsel students from a position of authority. But then I found the OpenCourseware Project at Johns Hopkins University. Lo and behold, many of the classes I was looking to take, for free and online, many readings included. I'm so excited to get started on this- learn for the same of learning. No certificates, no degrees, just taking part in coursework in order to learn.
Starting tomorrow, I'm "going back to school"...and I couldn't be happier :)
I love it. Wayne is taking 3 classes this way. Let me know what you think.
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