School Work Sample

To give some of you an idea of what I’m currently studying, here is the work I still need to do for my two classes this week:

Corrections and Penology–Due Sunday, October 17th, 2010

• Answer discussion question #1…post and reply to others: “Discuss whether incarceration pays. If so, to whom?”
• Answer discussion question (essay-like) #2…post and reply to others: “Discuss what role, if any, should private prisons play in the future of incarceration in the United States? Should there by limitations to the usage of private prisons? Should only the government run and operate prisons? Why or why not? (In other words, discuss the pros and cons of private and government prisons). If you you were incarcerated and had a choice, which prisons would you choose – government or privately operated? If you were a new prison inmate, how would the classification process be important to you, if it was? How would you like to be treated by the system?”
• Quiz #4

Crime and Place–Due Thursday, October 21st, 2010

Module 3:

• Read Chapters 4 and 5
• Answer discussion question…post and reply to others: “Select one (and only one) of the following three questions and respond to it:1. What was the Chicago Area Project and what important lessons can we learn from it?
  2. What is the relationship between social disorganization (theory) and community policing?
  3. What are the primary elements of CPTED, and what is some concrete evidence that it can be an effective prevention technique?  (You may have evidence from your own experience as well.)”
• Complete written assignment: “Choose one of the following options and write approximately 2 pages (double-spaced) discussing the linkages between the one you choose and the information in the text.1) Ride along with a police officer. (Many agencies permit citizens to sign a waiver and accompany officers on patrol.  Call your local sheriff’s office or police department and see if they participate.) Talk to him/her about community policing issues, police problem solving, and other community building and crime prevention issues.

  2) Choose a place you are familiar with, such as your home (house, dorm or apartment), your workplace, or somewhere you spend recreational time
  regularly (mall). CAREFULLY evaluate the location, using CPTED guidelines, found at http://cptedsecurity.com/cpted_design_guidelines.htm  Write out your evaluation of each element. In so doing, respond to the following:

  1. How does my location (apartment, workplace, etc.) compare regarding CPTED techniques for this land use? In responding, BE SPECIFIC. Look at features such as territorial reinforcement, access control, target hardening, etc.

  2. What might be done to improve my setting?

  3. Are there any liability concerns that seem apparent?”

• Quiz #3

Module 4:

• Read Chapter 6
• Answer discussion question…post and reply to others: “Select one (and only one) of the following four questions and respond to it:1.  What is ‘smart’ policing, and how does it relate to crime analysis?
  2.  Discuss hot spots and how law enforcement can benefit through understanding the temporal and spatial dimensions of hot spots.
  3.  Evaluate crime analysis as a career option.
  4.  What is the SARA model, and why is it effective as a problem solving technique?”
• Complete written assignment: “Technology, data, and privacy:  how far is too far?Closely related to crime analysis (particularly the gathering and entry of data) and intelligence analysis, are the concepts of GIS tracking of offenders, computer and camera-assisted enforcement, and surveillance of citizens (some of which have controversial elements).  View the video at this link (78 minutes long) and write a 1 – 2 page evaluation of it.  In doing so, please consider covering the following:  http://www.fmgondemand.com.ezproxy.lib.ucf.edu/play/NPPHGK

  Evaluate the argument that you shouldn’t have to be concerned about the government monitoring aspects of your personal life if you are not doing anything wrong (why should I worry if I have nothing to hide?).

  As the government relies more and more on intelligence analysis, what ethical responsibility does it have regarding the origin of the intelligence it analyzes?”

• Quiz #4

Exam #2 opens on Friday, October 22, 2010.

I hope that gives everyone a better idea of what I’m learning and why my time is very limited during the college terms.  In addition to this I have my children to take care of (thank goodness they go to school!)…dropping them off, picking them up, making sure they do what they are supposed to (homework, brush their teeth, go to bed, eat, etc.); household responsibilities (grocery shopping, cooking, laundry, finances…it’s luck if I’m able to do much cleaning, but I throw that in every once in a while, too); volunteering (twice a week at the elementary school); and more…

Anyone else in school?  What are you studying?

That’s It…

…summer is now officially over.  School starts bright and early tomorrow morning for my sons and me.  Well actually my classes start at 12am, but I’ll be going to bed so I can wake up on time to get my boys up to go to school.

My 11-year-old (son #1) will be going to middle school for the first time.  I think 7th grade is a bit scarier for me than it is for him!

My 8-year-old (son #2) is going into the 3rd grade and has a wonderful teacher!  I can’t wait to bring him to class tomorrow!

The unfortunate part is that there is such a time difference between the two schools even though they are right next door to each other.  The middle school starts at 7:30am and gets out at 2:15pm…the elementary school starts at 9:00am and gets out at 3:15pm.

There goes my day!  I’ll be dropping off and picking up all day!  Or at least it will feel that way!  When will I fit my nap in????

Also poor son #2 needs to get up super early just so we can drop off son #1 to school on time.  Though I’m not waking him up too early, just enough to get up, get dressed, and get in the car.  The rest can wait until we get back, then he can finish getting ready, have breakfast, etc. before it’s time to drop him off at school.

Another thing I’m dealing with now that school is starting is the huge amount of bread loaves we go through due to school lunches.  I’m tired of finding myself out of bread when it’s too late or inconvenient to go pick more up at the store!  So I decided to buy some of the frozen bread loaves to keep in the freezer and make my own whenever we run out.  Except they apparently don’t sell them anymore!  UGH!

I could make them myself by using my KitchenAid to mix up the dough, then bake them in the oven.  But with how busy we are going to be and the amount of bread I’ll probably have to make, I’ll probably forget to make it on purpose because it’s such a hassle!  So it seems I’ll have to buy a bread machine after all!  I’ll be buying bread until I find the one I want, then it’s fresh bread for the remainder of the school year!

I hope everyone has a great beginning of the school year…whether it’s elementary school, college, or something in between!

Spring Term Grades

	WOMEN AND CRIME			A
	SEX OFFENDERS & THE CJ SYSTEM			A
	WOMEN’S MENTAL HEALTH			A
	FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY			A

 My official grades for the Spring 2010 term that ended in April! Yay!

GPA:

• 4.000 for this current term
• 3.843 for this current university (only the time at this school)
• 3.510 for all schools/colleges attended (3 of them including the current one…I had some problems/issues the first year, eight years earlier, which brought my GPA down a little)

One more week and I’ll be starting my Summer 2010 term classes.  I’ve already been informed that they will be intense because they are both 16 week courses completed in 6 weeks.  So even though I only have 2 classes, they should be very challenging just based on the amount of work.

Has anyone else received grades for their classes?  How did you do?

Middle School Transition

My 11-year-old son is about to go to middle school this August for 7th grade.  Since he’s considered gifted, we have to have periodic IEP (Individual Education Plan) meetings with a local representative, the school counselor, and one of the gifted teachers.  The meeting I went to today was to discuss his transition from the elementary school to the middle school.

I didn’t have too many questions, but it was nice to be able to talk to one of the gifted teachers and his guidance counselor!

This is what we discussed:

• He’ll be taking all three of the gifted classes.  These classes are Language Arts, Social Studies, and Science.  He’ll have the same classes and teachers for 7th and 8th grade.
• He’s an excellent candidate for the Algebra I Honors class as math is his strong area.  This means he’ll be getting high school credit for this class as long as he maintains a B average.  He will also be able to take Geometry in 8th grade for high school credit.
• He’s interested in the Art and Technology electives.  These are only 1/2 credit electives so in addition he’ll have to choose either a full credit elective or two more 1/2 credit electives.
• P.E. is one of the electives that normally are required to take each year, however, the guidance counselor has advised me that we can get a waiver for each year.  It’s not a widely known practice, but it can be done!  I can sign him up for something outside of school and he won’t have to deal with locker room and P.E. issues, which is something he’s not happy about, and I’m worried about it since he’s younger than his classmates (he skipped 1st grade).  I’d much rather him have a good middle school experience and pay for him to get his physical activity satisfied elsewhere.
• We also discussed how my son has already chosen where he would like to go to college (Full Sail) and that we may be bringing him to visit in the next year or two so he can check them out and see what he needs to take during high school.  The gifted teacher asked jokingly if he could come and tell her 8th graders about planning ahead!  LOL!

So overall it was a really good meeting!  It seems the teacher (who will be his gifted Social Studies teacher) and the guidance counselor were excited to get my son with what I told them about him.  The kids go over with their teachers the beginning of May, then they’ll be bringing home the forms to sign up for the classes with their current teachers’ recommendations.  I can’t wait to get him over there!  He was so disappointed last year when he thought they were going to the middle school, then at the last moment the school district decided to put 6th grade into the elementary school.  But that’s a whole other story!

Does anyone else have a child about to go to a new school?

Changing Graduation!

I think I’ve finally made a decision to stretch out my graduation from December 2010 to April 2011.  There are plenty of pros and cons, but in the end it felt better to stretch it out!

Now instead of pushing myself to take three classes over the summer, I’ll only be taking the two 6-week courses: Victims and the Criminal Justice System, and Sociology of Law.  I did some research and Sociology of Law seems to be an intense course already without squeezing it into 6 weeks.  The 12-week course I was going to take, Abnormal Psychology, is now being moved to the Spring 2011 term.

This will actually give me a summer vacation this year!

Before I would have had two weeks at the most to relax before the Fall 2010 classes start.  With this change, I’ll have all of July and plus some of August!  This in itself makes it worthwhile to me!

Since I moved the other class to the Spring 2011 term, I’ll have to add another class to keep my financial aid, grants, and scholarships.  I’m going to add the class I originally wanted to take, Delinquency Control, which has since been renamed to Juvenile Justice System.  The Fall 2010 term will remain the same with The Corrections and Penology, and Crime and Place courses.

Overall I’m happy with this change.  Yes, it’s going to take me longer to graduate, but it’s going to be much more relaxed and less stressful during a time when I’ll be adjusting to having two boys in two different schools for the first time, plus it allows me to have more time to myself instead of being bogged down with school work.

I’ll be enrolling on March 24th at 2:00 PM for all of these classes, then I should be able to check my degree audits to ensure I’ve covered all the courses I need to graduate in April 2011.

I don’t know which I’m more excited about — graduating or having some free time between college terms!