Mrs. Allen sent me the links to photos she has posted on shutterfly. I am going to put the links here for you to enjoy and order if you like. They are great…and I need a new camera! Thanks, Mrs. Allen!
Usually a few short weeks into the school year I have the students create self-portraits. Ours have been done for a bit, but we have finally had them backed and mounted (thank you Mrs. Dean!). It adds so much to our classroom.
This shot only shows some of them. Since I took it, they continue on and run all along the wall above the coat closet. We still need to get paper and art supplies to Fr. Michael though. Last year we gave Fr. Joe the supplies, but he cheated and printed out a photograph of himself, saying he isn’t very good at art (which is no excuse, Fr. Joe…neither am I). We have Mrs. Dean and Mrs. Bostrom as well.
Oh by the way parents, see that area above the word wall and reading/writing strategies wall which has yellow border and a blue paper background? That is waiting for you! I still need photographs…send away! Below you will see what that area will look like when filled up.
On Thursday evening I hit send and submitted my last assignment to finish my Masters Degree!!! I was so euphoric, and it almost didn’t seem real. In fact, I posted on Facebook (any of you is welcome to “friend” me by the way), that I almost didn’t believe it could be true. Well, I had a scare which lasted about an hour but it was a scare that made me think…”I can’t do this! I’m done with this!” and then I thought I could be physically ill. Before I left school on Friday I accessed my home email to see that my “adviser in name” (she has been on sabbatical much of the time that I have been pursuing this degree the past two years) sent me an email asking how I could be ready to graduate since I only had 30 of the 36 hours required.
As is typical of large universities and other institutions, organization and paperwork seem challenging. What should be a simple process of opening a file on a grad student and having everything in there that is supposed to be in there, is apparently too much to ask. A transcript from some coursework I did over a summer two or three years ago was missing, although I first had it forwarded directly to IU, and when it went missing, then ordered and hand delivered a second copy. This is the third time it came up missing. Also, I took an intensive course (a semester’s worth of work in two weeks…don’t ask!…it was incredibly difficult and stressful yet I loved the class and learned a lot…it’s called immersion!) and a six-week course this past summer. I also just completed my practicum plus my final required class this fall semester. How could they have given approval for my practicum if I wasn’t ready?
So this is long enough; in the end my adviser called me personally and told me not to worry, that I was fine. She actually was very kind and wanted to be sure I could go to sleep Friday night. Even if for some reason I was short (which I knew I wasn’t!!), they have a system where they can go back and approve coursework which has technically expired, and I have plenty of that. Wait…you mean those classes I took could have counted and I could have saved a couple thousand dollars? I don’t think I needed to hear that either.
In the end, I did indeed have all that was required to begin with and my Friday night hour of agony didn’t last too long. It is official. Still, I don’t think I will relax until my degree is in my hand.
So, you might wonder, what I am I going to do with this new degree (it is a Masters in Language Education/Reading Specialty). What I am going to do is continue teaching and be better at it. Now I can actually find the time to apply much of what I have learned, and I HAVE learned so much. I have enjoyed each and every course I’ve taken, with the exception of one, and that was the result of an unprofessional and poor instructor, rather than the content. She no longer is teaching, and that may very well be as a result of my (and other students’) scathing evaluation. I am not the kind of person who is very critical of others, but she was awful (another story which I don’t need to share).
I’m not going anywhere. I love St. Malachy…I love the families (students and parents), my colleages, our administrator, and even our support staff. We aren’t perfect, but we are a community and more than just a school. I have visited a LOT of schools (private and public) and while I believe in all education, there is something very special one feels when walking through our doors. I’ve visited schools that made me anxious to get back “home” again. That’s it…St. Malachy is home. It is warm, loving, safe, and comfortable. I won’t ever take it for granted. The Masters does open some doors for me. I really bonded with one of my professors (she is the one who did my practicum) and we have a lot of mutual respect. She asked me to help edit a book she just published and that door has been opened to other editing possibilities in the future. After the holidays she and I are going to work on writing something together for publication as well. With my Masters I could also work as a student teacher supervisor and on occasion teach a university level literacy course. But the most important thing to me is to keep teaching and get better every day. Thanks for listening to my rant, and now….
Here are a few pics of our Thanksgiving party! It was GREAT fun and well organized. Thanks to Mrs. Allen and the other parents who helped!
Gobble, gobble freeze dancing! Hmmm…actually yesterday (December 3) sort of felt this crazy all day (you probably saw my comment “What a day!” in the email letting you know my newsletter would be late). If you know anything about teachers, you know we both love holiday times and dread them at the same time. The little ones are already getting excited about Christmas. Parents and teachers arrive at this mind set of going back and forth saying…”You take them!” “No, you take them!” “No you!” We are approaching that time period. Most teachers have a love/hate relationship with approaching holidays.
Settling down at the end for a story which involved thinking about the things for which we are thankful and dropping an acorn in a bowl. Everyone got to take an acorn home as well.
I was really smart. I planned my party for Tuesday afternoon, not Wednesday afternoon. I also planned it on a day where pretty much the last thing was a special class. Sorry Sister Marie! Hopefully they danced and sang all the energy off in YOUR room!
