teach this

If you are a long-time reader, you'll know that I've struggled with the idea of teaching for quite some time now (there are several posts about it, but I won't link each one!) That post was more than a year ago, and it still feels like completely fresh thoughts that I could have had yesterday.

Today I came across a posting for a teacher's aide position at a nearby Catholic school and was intrigued. For the most part, you don't need to be certified at private schools, though they like experience. Clearly I don't have that, but perhaps, if I were an aide for a year, I'd find out if I like teaching enough to pursue it and could then get certified and go from there.

I'm now wondering though, because I am not sure if aide positions are hourly/no benefits or if they are salaried. It likely depends on the school. I'm sure many realize that Catholic schools aren't exactly the most high-paying places out there, which isn't a major issue, but still a concern. I'm far from wealthy and have a Bachelor and two Master's worth of loans to pay off!

Anyone who is a teacher and/or works in a school, please share your experiences...maybe someday I will make up my mind about this....

wishing for fluency

Once again, it is Wednesday and time to wish along with Kelsey over at Seattle Smiths!

'I wish' .... I was fluent in another language in addition to English,
and it would be....

You know, this is a really hard question for me! I love learning languages, and I think that it is so important to be able to speak other languages. I am not currently fluent in anything, but I have a good grasp of Polish and Spanish. I speak some basic French and German. Also, right now, I am taking an Albanian class, though the last class was last night (so sad!). I also taught myself some Norwegian when I cam home from Poland. I wrote my Master's thesis on Norway and Iceland, so it seemed logical to learn one of those languages :)

I truly wish that the U.S. was like Europe in the sense that they teach second (and third, and fourth!) languages in elementary school. If I am still living in DC when I have children, I plan to send my children to one of the international schools where they would have half of the day in English and half in another language of my choosing (most offer French, Spanish, Mandarin, German or Arabic). I really want bilingual children. When I was in Luxembourg and then Poland, I wanted to find a man to marry, so I'd have bilingual children and an EU passport. Clearly that didn't work out ;)

Story-
When I was in Luxembourg, I lived with a family. It was a mother and a daughter, Laura, who was five years old. She had a five year old vocabulary in French, German and Luxembourgish. One morning, I was in the kitchen preparing juice when I heard the two of them in the living room. They were having a conversation about school, and were speaking French. Then, mid-sentence, Laura paused for a few seconds, and suddenly switched to German, because she didn't know the French word. I remember being so amazed that she could just flip a switch in her brain and change languages, just like that. I wish I could do that...

I'd like to be fluent in French, because that is the second language of NATO and widely spoken around the world. Many jobs that I see request French fluency. Same goes for Spanish. My Spanish is better than my French, but I am still far from fluent. I'd also like my Polish to be better. Now that my Albanian class is over, I think I may try a new language. I'd love to learn Russian and Mandarin at the moment. I'm also considering Swedish and Portuguese!

Or, maybe I should take an upper level of French/Spanish/Polish, to get closer to fluency in one of them. What would you do? Take a new language, or improve what you know?

Are you fluent in another language? Which one? What languages have you learned and do you hope to learn more?

Waldorf education

I know that many of you are in the education field, and I am curious about something. What do you know about Waldorf education? I have a friend who is very into incorporating many aspects of Waldorf philosophies and teachings into her family, and I don't know a lot about it. I've read a bit, but should read more before I form my opinion, but I thought I'd ask, in case anyone has experience in this field.

Some distinctive features of Waldorf education include the following:

• Academics are de-emphasized in the early years of schooling. There is no academic content in the Waldorf kindergarten experience (although there is a good deal of cultivation of pre-academic skills), and minimal academics in first grade. Literacy readiness begins in kindergarten with formal reading instruction beginning in grade one. Most children are reading independently by the middle or end of second grade. (note- I think you are all well-aware of my feelings towards early literacy, so I don't totally agree with this and would certainly be teaching my children from a very early age to read and hope to give them a love of reading. I want my children reading before second grade! )

• During the elementary school years (grades 1-8) the students have a class (or "main lesson") teacher. The ideal and goal is that the class teacher stays with the same class for the entire eight years of elementary school. This, however, is not always the case, for many different reasons, one being the high demand this puts on the versatility of the teacher

• Certain activities which are often considered "frills" at mainstream schools are central at Waldorf schools: art, music, gardening, and foreign languages (usually two in elementary grades), to name a few. In the younger grades, all subjects are introduced through artistic mediums, use the children respond better to this medium than to dry lecturing and rote learning. All children learn to play recorder and to knit. (I love this! I want my children learning other languages from an early age, and I love the idea of them learning to knit!)
  
• There are no "textbooks" as such in the first through fifth grades. All children have "main lesson books", which are their own workbooks which they fill in during the course of the year. They essentially produce their own "textbooks" which record their experiences and what they've learned. In some schools upper grades may use textbooks to supplement skills development, especially in math and grammar.
  
• Learning in a Waldorf school is a noncompetitive activity. There are no grades given at the elementary level; the teacher writes a detailed evaluation of the child at the end of each school year.
  
• The use of electronic media, particularly television, by young children is strongly discouraged in Waldorf schools.

With regards to the first point, they specifically mention reading...

9. How is reading taught in a Waldorf school? Why do Waldorf students wait until 2nd grade to begin learning to read?

Waldorf education is deeply bound up with the oral tradition, typically beginning with the teacher telling the children fairy tales throughout kindergarten and first grade. The oral approach is used all through Waldorf education: mastery of oral communication is seen as being integral to all learning.

Reading instruction, as such, is deferred. Instead, writing is taught first. During the first grade year the children explore how our alphabet came about, discovering, as the ancients did, how each letter's form evolved out of a pictograph. Writing thus evolves out of the children's art, and their ability to read likewise evolves as a natural and, indeed, comparatively effortless stage of their mastery of language.

Interesting approach, wouldn't you say? I still want my children reading well before then...

Thoughts? Opinions?

do you praxis?

Have you taken the praxis? I know some of you are teachers, and I'd like to hear more about the praxis, if you can offer any advice.

I just signed up to attend an info session for the PG County Teaching Fellows program and am reading the requirements. If I am reading it correctly, I may not have to take the first part of the praxis, because my SAT scores are high enough that I can opt out (ha, funny, since they weren't even that high, from how it appeared then!) (maybe that was because I had friends who scored a 1510 and a 1490...). Also, I have two Master's, and they may allow me to not have to do the GRE, which was the case before.

I'm not sure about the details, hence the reason to go to the info session. Still though...as I've said, teaching has always been in the back of my mind, so I am excited about learning more about this opportunity.

what book got you hooked?

There was an interesting article in the New York Times recently, called "Where Does a Love of Reading Come From?" I saw the link on Mel's blog and wanted to share it, as I agreed with many of the points that were brought up. The article discusses responses to another article, called "A New Assignment: Pick Books You Like," where a seventh and eighth grade teacher outside of Atlanta, GA didn't assign books as usual, but instead, let her students pick what they'd like to read. This approach is "part of a movement to revolutionize the way literature is taught in America’s schools." There are similar workshops going on in other schools across the country, of varying degrees. Many say that having the entire class all read the same book, can bore students, some being unable to understand the theme, etc. Instead, if they can choose what they'd like to read, it can help them to build a lifetime love of reading, something that is very important, in my humble opinion!

Of course, critics argue that students are unlikely to pick the classics, and are more likely to gravitate towards the trendy books, such as the Twilight series (which I have avoided, for the record!). In high school, I remember assigned reading lists for the summer. I can't recall everything that I had to read, though I can remember a few of them. I know I had to read 1984 for freshman year and I hated it. I had to read The Scarlett Letter at one point too. At the moment, the others are escaping me, but there were at least three books each summer. I liked some and disliked others, which is common, I would think.

I can certainly see both sides of this article. I think that it is important to find a balance. Reading can be fun, but should also be a challenge. I feel as though I read a fairly wide range of things, but still try to look outside of my normal finds, in order to read something new, something I don't know much about. I have a few books by Carl Sagan, one of my heroes, and though I don't understand much about cosmology and astronomy, I find his work fascinating and try to interpret what I can. Side note- I cried when I learned that he had passed away. It was my junior year of high school and I remember running into my chemistry teacher's classroom to tell him the news. My point here is, that reading can be enjoyable, when the effort is made.

I do think that it is so, so important to encourage children to read and to develop a love for books and reading. Related to this, one of my favorite shows, Reading Rainbow, went off the air recently, which I find to be tragic. Too many children will miss the opportunity to watch this amazing show.

I will be following this story, to see where it goes and if many other schools try this approach. It could have some really positive results, if implemented properly, and I hope that teachers can pull it off.

What did you have to read for summer reading? Did you enjoy the books or not? If you had a choice, what would you have read? Where did you get your love of reading and what was your favorite book growing up?

come read with me

Last year, I posted about becoming a penpal with a great organization called In2Books. Last year, I read five books with my student Terrion. I really enjoyed getting to know him a bit through our "letters," which were really emails through their online system. My actual email address was not given out; no personal information was ever exchanged.

I just had an email from In2Books, letting me know that I will soon receive the name of my new penpal for this school year! I'm really looking forward to it once again. It's not that time-consuming; every other month or so, you will receive an email with the title of the book you read next. My student was a 4th grader, so reading the books he chose never took too long. Then I'd write to him, asking questions about the book, and he'd reply, asking and answering questions of his own. Once I was finished with the books, I collected them and donated them to a local library.

If you are looking for a fun opportunity, check it out! You'll have fun, I promise!

weekend fail

I really get frustrated with myself sometimes. I had a lot of work to do this weekend and I got little of it done. My final two classes end next week, as in August 14. For one of them, I need to design a program bringing a group of professionals here to the U.S. for a short-term exchange. For the other class, I have to dissect a research article. This was a good weekend to get a lot of that work done, as Steve was out of town, as were several friends. I turned down plans with a few other friends because I said I had so much work to do, which was true.

I found the article to dissect and read it, though didn't really pull out the info that I need. I did about half of the other project, though certainly could have finished.

What else did I do this weekend instead?

• baked peach muffins
• made two potholders, three coasters and began two more baby quilts (until I ran out of thread)
• organized my fabric collection
• threw out about four zillion magazines that have lived under my bed for who knows how long
• became facebook friends with an ex
• made a salmon steak and asparagus for dinner
• returned overdue library books (oooops)
• spoke to my grandmother
• spoke to my mother about eight times
• spoke to Steve about eighteen times
• read two cookbooks
• finished a book called Girls in Trucks
• and other varied activities, few of which involved school

I really didn't even leave the apartment either! I had plans to run a few errands, but I talked myself out of it, saying that I needed to stay home and do my schoolwork.

It just annoys me that I seem to have no attention span. All day today, my notes for one class were sitting on my bed, right next to my laptop, as a glaring reminder of what I needed, yet failed, to do.

Does this happen to anyone else? Or am I the only one who seems to slack at life?

humor me, will you?

Right, so if I ever become a university professor (this is unlikely, by the way), would you please do me a favor?

Remind me never, ever, ever to assign a 60 page group paper to my students. I think it constitutes as cruel and unusual punishment.

I have no problem writing such a paper on my own. In fact, I've done just that (hello, thesis! I love you!), but really? With three other people? Not so fun, in the least.

you've got to be kidding me

Apparently I just spent the better part of my weekend writing a 15 page section of a 60 page group paper on the wrong topic. I was going by what we handed in to the professor as our outline, but somehow along the way, my group changed topics and I missed the memo.

Oh yeah, and it's due Wednesday.

Awesome.

girls vs. boys

Anyone want to come over and help me write a paper on gender disparity in education in Uganda? Anyone know anything about the topic?

Me, not so much...boooo!

cool, crisp and all of that

I know, I know. I shouldn't complain about having a week off randomly...it's nice, except my bank account is the one that will suffer. So, I will try not to think about that, and instead focus on the zillion things I have to do.

First, question- I am still a bit of a newbie with blogger. One of my profs has several blogs that he contributes to, and he has asked me, along with a few other students, to contribute to them as well. His blogs are also on blogger. I was sent an invitation to contribute to his, but if I login with my email address, won't it link it to my own blog? Meaning, if you look at my profile, you'd see my blog and that blog, as blogs I contribute to? Is there a way to prevent this linkage? I realize that I could just use a different email address, but I don't want to, bc the email I use for my blog is the same one that I use for things like that. Does this make sense?

Next, one more question- if you were serving bbq pulled pork for dinner, what would you serve with it? I know some of you are southern belles, and my New England roots fail me at this! I went into Trader Joes today and thought Steve might like that for dinner, so I grabbed it, along with some buns, but I have no idea what to have with it! Oh yeah, and Trader Joes at 2pm...sooooo much better then the usual 8pm when I get there!

I bought the November issue of Good Housekeeping magazine last night, mainly because the Gosselin Family of Jon & Kate + 8 fame were on the cover. Funny, I had tivoed a bunch of episodes while we were in FL and one was the photo shoot for the magazine story. Had I not watched the episode, I wouldn't have noticed the cover, but I bought it and now I fear I'm turning into a soccer mom, prematurely. There are some good recipes in there! Really though, their family is adorable and they have a new book coming out. You know it's on my Christmas list.

Last night Steve and I returned the washer/dryer to buy a stackable set. Turns out they can deliver it tomorrow. Amazing. So, I'll be over there then to meet the delivery men. This domestic housewife thing is kinda fun. Shhh....don't tell Steve I said that :)

new job? not so much

Right, so I was supposed to start the new job Monday. Today is Wednesday and I'm still unemployed. Well, not unemployed unemployed, but not working. The thing with crazy federal jobs is that there is loads of paperwork, and apparently mine isn't finished yet. Booo. I called the office today, and it may not be ready until next Tuesday! Now, I'm all for a day or two off here and there, but a week and a half? Should I complain about this? Granted, I do have some work to catch up on for my classes (well, one class...I had to drop the other...long story, you don't want to hear it, and I might cry. seriously.)

I guess it has been okay, in some respects. Steve's house is still not all unpacked and put away. A few weeks ago, we had picked out furniture, and some of it (the rest is still in NC) was delivered yesterday. So, I was here to oversee the delivery of a loveseat and chair, three tables and two lamps. My being here also ensured that they were placed where I wanted them :) His washer and dryer were supposed to come today...they did....but were returned. It seems that we were a bit silly and didn't measure the closet first, and when they arrived, they're too big. Ooooops. So, back they went and back to the store we will go tonight.

Even though I have some schoolwork that I should be doing, I may have been spending a bit of time looking at reception venues. I'm not engaged, but there is nothing wrong with a little pre-planning, now is there? Like I said, I had to drop one of my classes, the one that I lovedlovedloved and my remaining class is not what I thought it was going to be. I seem to have no motivation at all to do the work I should be doing. It's not even like there is much...I have a few case studies to prepare, but each one is no more then a page...so essentially, I have to write about six pages on six different topics. Booo to school. Why did I think I needed another Masters?

I want to go back to Disney!

lose your blues, everyone cut footloose

I just can't shake these blues I'm feeling.

What should be an extraordinarly happy time for me is being overwhelmed by stress that I don't know how to make go away.

As I mentioned earlier this week, I gave my boss my two weeks notice. My last day here is a week from today, 10 Oct. That next week I will be in Florida for a wedding, including a few days at Disney, which, if you can believe it, I've never been to. On Monday, 20 Oct, I start a new job. A new job at a place that has long been one of my goals to someday work at. I didn't think this someday would come so soon. I've accepted a position at the Department of State. That, along with the Library of Congress and NATO, are my Big Three.

Also, Steve closed on a house this week and moved in that same day. This weekend we'll do some furniture shopping, as he has little of his own (his former roommate seemed to get much of it in their "divorce," though I don't mind, since much of it is ugly). I'm going with him, as we both seem to be under the impression I'll be living there too, though not initially. I'd still rather have at least the sparkle come first. House today, ring tomorrow? One can hope.

Despite these happy things, I feel like there is a huge cloud of fog over me, because of school. I should clarify- not from school, per se, but from the tuition that goes along with it. Extremely long story short, I am taking six credits this fall as usual, three at the university I attend and three elsewhere. Since three of my credits are not where I am (technically), they seem to think that I am not a part-time student (which I am) and I am less then part-time. The oh so lovely federal gov't loan peeps canceled my loan because they don't think I am part-time and suddenly I owe $6k to two expensive DC universities.

I have $6k in my pocket that I don't know what to do with...don't you? Doesn't everyone?

Riiiiiiiiiight.

If I don't get this resolved in the next few weeks, it could spell t-r-o-u-b-l-e for me, because if I have a balance on my account, it gets frozen and then I can't register for spring semester.

Blargh.

I'm wishing I were independently wealthy.

PS. I'm not.

Maybe I will win the lottery this weekend? In that case, Mickey Mouse ears for everyone!

done!

I have finished my book.

Don't get too excited here folks...it's a children's book. For my Children's Lit class, I had to write a book. Yes, write a children's book. So, that I did. I don't know that it was anything extraordinary, but I am finally finished (it may or may not have actually been due two weeks ago...ooops). Now I need to take the finished product to Kinko's so they can bind it, and then drop it off to my prof.

Whew!

With that, I am meeting a friend for dinner at CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) and I think I want this, without the celery (ugh!).

Okay, I don't know why the picture is way up there, but it is the following-

Grilled chicken marinated in SPICY Buffalo sauce with Mozzarella cheese, carrots, celery and crumbled Gorgonzola cheese. Served with a side of Gorgonzola ranch dressing.

Sounds nice, no?

Sunday again?

You know, I really think that a four day work week and a three day weekend would be a good thing. I know I'm not the only one feeling like this! I'd be so much more productive, and far less grumpy! Ha!



Saturday is over, but it was a good one. I met a classmate at a nearby coffeeshop to go over our powerpoint presentation for class tomorrow night. Education in Kosovo...woo hooo! Then Steve and I went out to Tyson's Corner, in VA. I wanted to check out the $1 flipflips, but of course, by the time I got there, they were gone. As it turned out, they were the very basic ones on sale, the ones that hurt my feet, so it wasn't a big disappointment anyway. I wandered around, but didn't find anything else that I couldn't live without. I went into a few other places, but didn't buy anything. I went into Crabtree and Evelyn, which I love, but rarely, if ever, buy anything. Interestingly, I found some perfume called Found on sale for 75% off, so it was about $11. I'd been needing (okay, wanting!) some new purfume and this smells so nice! So, that was good.



Oh! They opened a new Cake Love in Tyson's and yesterday was the grand opening. I met Warren Brown, the owner AND had him sign a copy of the new cookbook he recently came out with! It's a gorgeous cookbook. I had actually bought it for a friend for her bridal shower a few weeks ago (I couldn't go, I was in Iowa for a wedding), but I think I may make it my signature bridal shower gift.



We also stopped by Penzeys in Falls Church where I picked up some spices. I am seriously in love with that store. If you haven't been, go!



There is also a store at Tysons that I love that has lots of Vera Bradley. I'm not the only one obsessed with Vera, am I? Well, I went in to see the new colors that just came out, and all of the retiring styles were 50% off...but, I was a good girl and resisted...for now...haha!



Now? Brunch with Steve, somewhere in Adams Morgan...then, must do homework. I have three remaining projects for my Childrens Literature class that I must finish soon. Like, this week. Then I have a few slides to make for the powerpoint for tomorrow's presentation on education in Kosovo. I get to talk about when Sesame Street came to Kosovo! Come on, who doesn't love Big Bird? You know you do!

hmmm

So, this is the last week of my summer classes (WTF?!) and I have A LOT of work to do. I have several projects due between last Friday and next Monday due for one of them and NO motivation to do so, in the least. Seriously. The projects are all fairly easy, and fun, but I just don't want to do them. I know that as soon as they are done and turned in, life will be good, but I just can't seem to get into the zone of doing them. Blargh.

I'm also hungry. What should I make for dinner?