second year; aka Sophomore Year
- School: Agnes Scott College
- Where did you live? Women's Studies theme house; Room 141.
- Who was your roommate? Lauren during the fall semester (Fall 2005), K.R. during the spring semester (Spring 2006). Lauren was thrown out of the room after she got caught smoking pot (IN THE ROOM!) while I was in class toward the end of the semester. (She stayed in school for a bit after that, but ended up dropping out.)
- Do you still talk to them? K.R. and I hung out a bit, but she's a graduating senior this year (class of 2006), so I won't see her again.
- Ever get in trouble in the dorms? Nah, not really. It was pretty tame and quiet; only seven people total lived in the house.
- Your campus phone number or other number? My campus phone number… 404-471-5892 this year.
- Favorite place to go out to eat? Thai noodle bowl, same as my freshman year. My primary sources of ordering food in (delivery) were Hunan Dragon, Chico and Chang, and occasionally Wing King or Papa John's.
- Did you go to the library? Occasionally, to type up a last-minute one-page response paper to something, to do research, and I spent some time at the end of my spring semester in there studying.
- What was your favorite floor you'd always be on? The patio-type thing and this computer lab on Stack 1 that was usually empty.
- Club/Athletics/Frats/Sororities, you joined? Studio Dance Theater! I was treasurer of Aurora, the creative writing magazine. Also, I was the publicity chair/IOC chair for Common Ground, a campus global awareness group. I also did an internship this year with the Women's Resource Center to End Domestic Violence (spring semester)
- Where did you buy your books? I bought the majority of my books this year through the bookstore.
- What classes did you take? Fall semester, I took WS130 Psychology of Women, HIS318 The Holocaust, WS235 Women and the Law, DAN213 Intermediate Jazz Dance, DAN212 Intermediate Modern Dance, and SPA201 Intermediate Spanish I (Though I ended up having to take a medical withdrawal from that particular class due to depression/stress). Spring semester, I took DAN211 Intermediate Ballet, MAT101 Finite Mathematics, DAN 312 Advanced Modern Dance, WLSC301 The Atlanta Semester Seminar, WLSC350 The Atlanta Semester Internship, WS225 Women's Health Through Lifespan.
- Did you declare a major or concentration? Yep, my second one.
- What was it? I enrolled an Early Childhood Education program this year! In addition to Women's Studies. Now, I will be getting my BA in Women's Studies in Spring 2008, and will be coming back for fifth-year to complete my Early Childhood Education student teaching/certification.
- Ever attend a sporting event? Nope, not unless you count dance!
- Ever attend a concert or comedic performance? I was in Studio Dance Theater's fall and spring performances this year! Fall, I perfomed in a jazz piece; spring, I performed in a modern dance piece.
- How was homecoming? Sooooooo much fun, as usual.
- Have you ever spent the night on campus not in your dorm hall? Not really, this year.
- Favorite night to go out on, and where did you go? Thursday and Friday, various parties. One of my favorites in particular was a party where we burned a straw figure of George Bush!
- Where did you get coffee? Starbucks!
- Did you ever have a job at school? Yeah, I worked in Human Resources for my federal work-study. Spring semester, I had an off-campus internship for school credit.
- What did you hate about your college? Nothing really.
- What did you love most about it? The freedom of Black Cat ;), the smoothies, the professors.
- Ever leave to go on a road trip, where? I drove 11 hours to Texas with Chris the day after New Year's to spend a couple of weeks with him until classes for Spring semester started on campus!
- Where would you believe is the best location to live in? After living in the theme house, I'd say living in the dorms is actually better. You can be more social– living in the theme house (while awesome, we had a stove!) was kind of isolating.
- Oddest thing that happened to you? Going to Kinko's with my internship supervisor! We always cut up, but that was to an extreme. This girl who was standing behind us (with her clothes literally falling off- I saw more of her boobs than I ever cared to!) told us we sounded like sisters. Ha! Oh, and I met a few interesting characters this year (to put it mildly.) Does that count? And I was contacted by my half-sister Marie, who I never knew existed– she found me through fucking MYSPACE. Anyway, I met her, and my neice and nephew, and that's that.
- What was the craziest thing you did? Let's just keep that bit quiet, okay? (*cough*atleastfornow*cough*)
- Graduated or still attending? Still attending.
- Will you go back? After I graduate, I'll come back and visit, yeah…especially now that after I graduate, I'll be spending another year getting certified at the school!
the verdict is in (midway!)
Midterm grades!
Modern Dance: A
Ballet Dance: A
Women’s Health: B-
Women, Leadership, and Social Change Seminar: C (will go up as soon as she grades my papers; probably to a B or A)
Finite Math: D (will go up as soon as he grades my second test that I turned in this morning)
Internship: Pass (pass/fail class)
All in all, things are looking good for a change, in terms of my grades! The reason I have so much late work that’s just being graded and turned in is because of the whole hospital trip the week before spring break and then this recent seizure.
In other news…hmm. It seems that Thursday, April 6, 2006 is the day I register for my classes for next fall. This translates to: The day I actually register for the Education classes that will enable me to be a teacher. (See also: The day the rest of my life is really and truly decided.) So, yes, I’m a bit nervous.
I just want to know that I’m doing the right thing. I know I’m going to be doing what I want, but I have all these doubts and concerns floating through my head now: What if I fail? What if I’m not good enough? What if, what if, what if. Along a similar topic, though slightly unrelated and related all at the same time, I did finish reading The Everything New Teacher Book. Next on the reading list is Rookie Teaching for Dummies, which I’ll read…basically as soon as I have time. In addition to my schoolwork, I’m also in a novel-writing class over on the Evolution writing forums (www.evolutionwriters.com), and I have an assignment (the “idea” of my novel) that I have to type up and do at some point this week.
But for now, it’s going to be…sleep. Deep, deep sleep, beginning at probably 9:00PM. Call me lame, I don’t care, I have slept only two hours in the past day anyway. Good night, lovelies.
m, i, crooked letter, crooked letter…
M, i, crooked letter, crooked letter, i, crooked letter, crooked letter, i, humpback, humpback, i.
For once I won’t bother ranting on the political correct-edness or lack thereof in calling the letter “P” a humpback. Then again, I do now want to rant on the fact that the term “humpback” exists at all. It just seems degrading to me. A person with a curved spine (I’ll even allow “hunched over spine”) is not a humpback. That person should not be defined by the fact their back is curved. Just like a person who is blind shouldn’t be a blind person– people shouldn’t be defined by one or two physical attributes (or disabilities). Why don’t we just accept them for who they are, and why do we feel a need (“we” referring to society as a whole) to label them as a “blind girl” “humpback” “deaf boy” and so on? I’m not a dumb blonde ditz (or, well, maybe I am, but that’s not the point). I’m a girl with blonde hair.
Ditziness notwithstanding.
At any rate, if I do choose to rant more later, it will be…well, later. I’m in Mississippi at the moment, and I won’t be returning home until Saturday, which means that I won’t be updating this blog until Saturday (after this post, of course). I’m at my cousin’s house at Mississippi, but from tomorrow until Saturday we’re going to the casinos, so my family can squander away the bit of money we do have. (In all fairness, it’s a much needed vacation for everyone presently, but I can still say they’re squandering money. Because…well, they are.) If I do, for whatever reason, come back here and can access their computer again, I will. But as of right now, I won’t be back to write at all until Saturday.
Do try not to miss me all that much. Fare thee well, my dark star. I am checking out. (Good bye, all.)
Oh, and a bit of a post script: If you have not clicked the lovely little “desired” link to the side, do so. It contains my WISH!list…and it’s quite a full wishlist, for anyone that feels the desire to pamper me with one of my desires from that list.
alphabet letters of approval
Just a notice I recieved in my school e-mail account today…
Hi L*******,
I just received your scores from the registrar’s office. I really believe that campus mail is SLOWER than the regualar snail mail.
You are good to go. Your combined score is is 55 where 42 is needed. So no worry. I will keep a copy of your ACT scores in my folder and when you apply to the education department we will already have it. You will just have to remind me.
Have a great and safe break.
Dr. *****
I’m really happy right now. It’s officially… “official” I suppose. I start my teaching certification next year. Wow! Yay! It just feels so surreal. It is surreal, in a sense. I saw my ex today, and we were talking…it was nice. He’s in college to be a music professor, and he was shocked to hear that I was going into education myself now. (But then again…to be fair… most people are shocked to hear it.) I got one of those, “Since when did this happen?” responses.
To be fair, I’ve changed my major so much that it’s understandable why people are reacting that way. ;)
I planned to go into this whole tirade on how I felt like I was being objectified by men and other people today. I took my mother’s car to get the oil changed, and they didn’t charge me as much as they’ve charged her. I took her car to get the air pressure in the tires checked…it was free. Though it cost my mother $5, and had a $5 price list on their charts. Oh, and this guy changed the windshield wipers on the car for free. Mom put it, “You’re on a roll.” Yeah, well, I looked good today. Doesn’t change the fact that I got all this stuff for free because I looked good and because I’m a young female. But, at any rate…right now, I’m too happy to go off on a rant.
Because I’m officially in the ECE program! :)
hopes & wishes
I’m still pretty sick and out of it from these medicines. Honestly, without spell check…few people would be able to comprehend me and what I’m saying right now.
Which is somewhat pathetic. I mean, I’m a writer. I grew up under an English teacher. I should be able to be literate and focused at least a little bit when I’m sick. Unfortunately…I’m not.
So instead of trying to drag this out when I’m about to pass out at the keyboard again (even though I have literally slept 64 of the past 72 hours), I’m just going to wrap this up. Keep it brief. Though I do feel rather useless doing nothing other than sleeping…at least I don’t have that much longer to have to take the meds-that-make-me-dead-to-the-world. Even if they are doing their job…I still dislike this uselessness feeling I have right now.
Instead, I leave you with this link. What is that link? It is my wishlist for teaching books and supplies and so on. I think you all should send me get-well-soon presents off of it. Or just be really nice to me, because my bank account is suffering at the moment.
Here’s to hoping I stop being dead and start living again soon.
a very small part of the next three years…
Something I mapped out when I went to enroll in the education program! I now have an ECE (Early Childhood Education) advisor who went through most of the next three years (regarding the education program) with me.
* The numbers in parentheses represent required observational hours to the best of my knowledge. (ECE Advisor marked them down on this schedule.)
Fall 2006
EDU 210: Understanding Learners (10 hrs.)
EDU 217: Schools in Society
Spring 2007
EDU 212: The Arts in Education (2 [recommended])
Fall 2007
EDU 380: Teaching Diverse Learners (20)
EDU 320: Exploring Children’s Literature (20)EDU 213: Teaching Physical Education in Elementary School (3)
Spring 2008
EDU 303: Language, Literacy, and Assessment (20)
Summer 2008
EDU 312L: Opening of School Experience (Will work in school the last week of summer/first week of the school’s reopening)
Fall 2008
EDU 306: Exploring Social Studies with Children (20)
EDU 307: Exploring Mathematical Ideas with Children (20)
EDU 308: Exploring the Natural World with Children (20)
Spring 2009
EDU 420: Student Teaching (12 weeks; all day)
EDU 421: Problems Seminar for Early Childhood Certification
So I’ll be done in Spring of 2009. That’s really not so bad. Except I think I’m just trying to convince myself that it’s not that bad. I have to go through and fill in all my other classes, too, but I think I’ll be okay. I hope so, anyway.
Somewhere into this, I have to fit the rest of my core curriculum and my Women’s Studies classes by the Spring 2008 semester; because that’s technically when I absolutely graduate school. The 2008-2009 school year is just to complete the teacher training classes and to get certified in teaching. I don’t think either of these will be a big deal. Oh, and I also have to take the American History class, but that will probably be…hmmm. Spring 2007 or Spring 2008, for that one…probably 2008, because Spring of 2007 I’m taking Spanish 202, a Women’s Studies class, and my science w/ a lab requirement. One of my Women’s Studies classes will also count as my Literature requirement. That just leaves my Fine Arts requirement, and I’ll take something in that at some point in time.
Wow. It’s all coming together. I can’t believe it. I didn’t think figuring this out would be this easy. But next year, I’ll be a junior. And everything’s falling into place so neatly. Thank the gods. It’s about time.
alouette and the london bridge
I still have teaching on the brain. I probably will until I actually declare the major, probably around sometime tomorrow, when I meet with my main advisor and fill out the green card! Unless I fill it out with someone in the education department, but either way it will be fairly shortly. I’ve kind of realized that waiting until March 15th won’t work, because after this week is spring break. So, I expect that if I fill out the form, and drop it in the box the last day before spring break, it should work out pretty well.
How many of you remember the songs you sang as a child? Songs that were fun to sing and dance to, some songs that made you think and learn how to count? I can name quite a bit off the top of my head…
The Ants Go Marching
Baa, Baa, Black Sheep
B-I-N-G-O
Do Re Me
Do Your Ears Hang Low?
Frère Jacques
If You’re Happy and You Know It (Clap Your Hands)
Hickory Dickory Dock
How Much is That Doggie in the Window?
Hush Little Baby
It’s Raining, It’s Pouring
Itsy Bitsy Spider
John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt
Kookaburra
London Bridge
Obviously, that’s not all of them. Just off the top of my head, having spent a fair amount looking at songs and CDs for Kindergarteners and first graders to sing along and learn things with. And I realized just how many of these songs I could still sing just as easily as if I were back in time…eight years old again. I want to be able to give kids that same thing– to have something fun to learn by and remember over ten years later, when they don’t even need the songs anymore.
But they’ll still be able to delight in them.
I’m still so excited. I can’t wait. I feel like I’m on the path right now, to knowing and doing what I really and truly want to do. I can make a difference this way. And it’ll be so much fun– so challenging, but still fun.
However. After all is said and done, I’ll be damned before I teach those kids Alouette, London Bridge, and Ring Around The Rosies. That’s just kind of sick. ;)
dreaming of sick kids and lesson plans
Yes, I actually am dreaming of sick kids and lesson plans. That doesn’t sound like it’s much of a good dream, does it?
It is.
I never really thought I’d ever teach. I wanted to be a lawyer. Or a professor, for college students, lecturing on feminism and women’s studies issues. I wanted to go to grad school, travel the world. (Well, okay, to be fair, I still want to travel the world.) Or I wanted to be a writer, selling the next hot novel and making lots of money off of my own creativity. Or be a college professor and teach creative writing. Any of the above would work.
Where am I now? Well, honestly, I still want to be a writer. But my biggest problem with writing is that I’m lazy with it. I lost my passion for it, and it’s hard to get back up. But I’m doing better than I was before. Plotting out stories, novels, getting back in the swing of submitting and re-submitting. It’s nice. But I’ve realized it’s not what I want to do with my life. It’s just something that will be a hobby for me. A great hobby– I will always love to write, even if I am lazy. But it is a hobby.
My life’s work? I want that to be teaching.
For the first time…I don’t feel confused about what I want to do now. I’m not thinking things like…”What if I’m not good enough?” or “What about money?” like I often thought about with creative writing. I was talking with someone tonight, a girl who teaches kindergarten, and now I just have this unbelievable warm and fuzzy feeling in my stomach. I can just see myself teaching as a career.
I mean, seriously! I’m imagining the lesson plans– all the detailing every minute bit about what you want to teach, and how you’ll teach it. The sick little kids with the runny noses and me using an excess of hand sanitizer. Taking kids with (real) ADHD to go and get their medicines while they try to run in the hallways (like I did with first grade kids when I was in sixth grade…boy, was that a tough 30-minute job). And thinking about those situations? It doesn’t bother me. And they’re the less-than-ideal situations.
With the situation when I was in sixth grade…I would go down to the first grade and help teach. (Provided I kept my grades up in my real classes and did all the work.) I was an assistant teacher to two or three different classes– just depending on who needed me where. But every single day, I would take four little boys with ADD/ADHD down to the office to get their meds. They were truly, absolutely and truly, wild. Almost uncontrollable. I remember one in particular– he was worse than the others, and the one that got in the most trouble. I haven’t thought about any of this until just now, but…I got attached to those little boys. They tore up and down the hallways and talked louder than any kid should in a hallway. But they were sweethearts. Such sweethearts. And they’d hold my hand if I asked them to, they’d stop running (or, they’d try to) when I asked them to. It was great. A handful, but great. I’m smiling just thinking about them.
But in addition to the “bad” situations… I mean, it’ll be so rewarding! Helping out in first grade when I was in sixth grade was awesome! I loved that! And still, I never pictured myself being a teacher. I never pictured myself making those pencil name tags you put on desks the first day of school, decorating bulletin boards, teaching kids their ABCs and 123s, watching the girls chase the little boys around the playground during recess, teaching them how to read and write, teaching them their colors…I never saw that. (I have the biggest smile on my face right now.) But now I do! And it’s so wonderful. I am really and truly excited about my future right now.
I haven’t felt this way in a long time. I am…ecstatic. Doling out school supply lists, making sure the children get on the right buses, telling them why they can’t kiss each other the way Mommy and Daddy do, giving them juice boxes and animal crackers for a treat, deciphering the messy but adorable kindergarten scribbles that is their writing, letting them color, teaching them addition and subtraction and counting, telling them they shouldn’t be eating that glue or that red crayon…it’s remarkable how excited I am about this. I can’t wait.
(Note: I know I said I’d write on the responses to the strengths/weaknesses question, but that will be later, in a future post. When I feel like being more introspective than I do now.)
what’s there to be said about education, anyway?
So, I am a Women’s Studies major. I have been since…wow. It’s been a year now. The first Women’s Studies class I’d ever taken. The first time I had ever even thought about such classes. Okay, so I grew up in a “You can do whatever you want” household-styled environment. But Women’s Studies? Studying Women’s Studies? What the hell, right?
Yeah, so, two weeks into that class I declared the damn major. All was fine and good. It still is, really. I love my major. Despite all the damn difficulties I’ve stumbled across during my college career…I truly love my major. So, my life was set. I was going to get a Women’s Studies degree, maybe minor in either Sociology or Political Science, and after I graduated in 2008, I was going to go to law school. Harvard Law. Or somewhere nice like that. After graduate school, I was going to join the Peace Corps and work overseas with children. Maybe do a semester abroad in India teaching English.
When did this change? I’m not sure. Other than a growing, more intense desire to go to Peace Corps after I get out of undergrad. And a steadily growing desire to teach as well. Granted, persuing a degree in education would keep me out until 2009. But…I’d be certified to teach! A Bachelor of Arts in Elementary Education, a complement to my Bachelor of Arts in Women’s Studies. I’m really liking this idea.
But I’m waiting on it. I’m not declaring anything spontaneously. At any rate, I’m going to meet with both my Women’s Studies major advisor and someone from the Education department.
I have already learned, however, that the (Elementary) Education B.A. program is intense. To put it mildly. The classes required:
EDU210: Understanding Learners.
EDU212: The Arts in Education.
EDU213: Teaching Physical Education in the Elementary School.
EDU217: Schools in Society.
EDU303: Language, Literacy, and Assessment.
EDU306: Exploring Social Studies with Children.
EDU307: Exploring Mathematical Ideas with Children.
EDU308: Exploring the Natural World with Children.
EDU320: Exploring Children’s/Adolescents’ Literature.
EDU380: Teaching Diverse Learners.
EDU420: Student Teaching, Early Childhood.
EDU421: Problems Seminar for Early Childhood Certification.
MAT101: Finite Math (Which is the math I’m in now, so this is not a problem.)
MAT104: Introduction to Mathematical Thought is recommended.One course in American History is required (I would take HIS108; The Foundations of United States History.)
See what I mean now? A lot of work. But it’ll be worth it. If everything works out, it will all be worth it in the end.
