Whew!
Today marked my last day of long-term subbing my freshman. I will miss some of those kiddos - they were a good bunch and made me laugh often. For the most part, I'm happy to be done because, frankly, I'm ridiculously tired and really over reading Romeo and Juliet. I feel bad for the students because the regular teacher is less-than-enthusiastic about, well, being a teacher to ALL students, not just the ones that get As. This will forever dishearten me, but I think you'll find this no matter where you look. School reform is a long, convoluted topic I won't get into.
Because I'm finished teaching and I am going back to school in the fall, this is technically the beginning of my summer vacation. I'll be working at the law firm between having the best summer of my life (yes, superlative, and no, I don't feel bad) and getting ready to embark on what can only be described as mental abuse in the form of law school. That said, I do have a few goals for this summer. Broadcasting them in public will hopefully hold me accountable to these goals, but only time will tell.
- Move out of my parents house (less than one month and counting!);
- Get a tattoo (I do have a design and placement in mind, and no I won't discuss it - it's personal);
- Attend my first music festival;
- Skydive with my mother (this is 100% a sure thing, actually);
- Read all the books on my list (found below);
- Farmer's Market, Art Fest, 80/35, and all the other Des Moines staples I missed last summer;
- Adopt a kitty from the ARL;
- Go to Traverse City for the annual film festival (THE most fun I have every summer);
- Camp as much as possible with the people I love the mostest :);
- Spontaneous roadtrip. Anywhere, I don't care;
- Convince Kalena to move back to Des Moines ASAP;
- Hit up all the places on my ''Periodic Table of Des Moines'' shirt I haven't been.
And the books I am going to read or re-read:
"Brave New World" -Aldous Huxley
"Mere Christianity" -C.S. Lewis
"Small Footprint, Big Handprint" -Tri Robinson
"Hunger Games" - Suzanne Collins
"A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" - Betty Smith (finish reading this one)
"Rock Encyclopedia" - Lillian Roxon (anthology up to 1969)
...and plenty, plenty more.
This is going to be a wonderful summer, I can just tell. Here's to May!
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Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teaching. Show all posts
Monday, May 02, 2011
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Vain, gutsy faith.
The digital age is also the age of vanity. That is, those in my generation are vain because we've always had a technological platform to spout off our thoughts and opinions. Back in the day (to use a cliche I actually quite adore), people actually had to be someone for others to listen. Now, you just need to register a domain with Blogspot, Wordpress, Facebook, Twitter, so on and so forth. This gives us a sense of empowerment with a side of entitlement, but I also think it means we're a vocal group of youngins'.
This is my place of vanity. Sure, I have Facebook and Twitter, but I don't actually do much with either site. I use Facebook to keep in touch with people, but were it not for my mates in England, I'd have no qualms about deleting my account. I don't like people all up in my business and I like to control what others know about me, and Facebook is rapidly encouraging the negation of my preferences in both areas. Twitter is where I spout off random thoughts that nobody cares about, and it is a place where you can really carve out who you are for other people to see. For instance, I've never Tweeted about how much I adore the state of Michigan, but I tweet about my teaching experiences. So, in the Twitter-sphere, my "followers" know I teach, but they don't know such a huge caveat of my personality - how I miss going to Michigan and think it's one of the greatest places in the entire world.
I address this only because I do have a purpose for this blog post, and I want to ensure it's understood why I'm discussing this topic here. I have no idea if anybody reads this. Were I a gambler, I would say no, nobody reads this. Why would they? I don't believe I have this URL published anywhere. In fact, I repeatedly tried to sign into Wordpress to find this account, only to figure out I used Blogspot. Yeah, obviously I'm the target blogger. So, this has become a type of journal for me, but a journal which has upped the ante because it is, but definition, public. It's not the reconstructed green journal I bought at a specialty store in the East Village. That is absolutely private, and they type of book I'd be horrified if it were read by anyone. No, instead this blog is a place for me to indulge my vanity in a very Kelli-way. Since I don't throw this URL out there, in a weird way I am controlling the information that people see, because they likely won't see this. That's a but metacognitive, so let's just move along now, shall we.
Let me discuss a little thing here called law school. This is a subject that has been dominating my thoughts for the past few weeks, and before that I had to deliberately push it to the back of my mind to focus on my classes. But now that I've finished them (I received an A in both, of course), I can indulge myself into my research and planning all I want. I get so much joy out of doing this, it's unnecessarily nerdy. Regardless, I've been researching a great deal. There is a website that is uncreatively named www.top-law-schools.com, which has a wealth of information about rankings, programs, and honest reviews from students and graduates. It also has a dynamic forum with absurds amounts of knowledge that I've been sifting through as I pound out my personal statement (I'm currently on draft #5). Like any internet site, there are truly articulate, thoughtful people who want to share their knowedge with others, right alongside people who post idiotic things that make me question the worth of humanity. Mixed in these posts are people who probably don't know how ridiculous they sound, and this is where my thoughts for this blog form.
I would never be cavalier to say that something is absolutely going to happen. I consciously preface statements about law school with a "if I get in" qualifier, because I do believe in Karma (in a Christian way, because I do love Jesus). I even go so far as to avoid the term "safety school", because nothing is guaranteed in this life, and law school admission is absolutely one of those uncertainties. Instead, I say things like "_____ isn't my first choice." But I digress... Without going into the "law school lingo," let's just say there are a bunch of dumbos on these forums, and it's hard not to sit there and think that if they can get into law school, I definitely can.
I have absolute faith that what is supposed to happen will. In fact, I know that I have no real say in the matter, because there are things at work much more influential and powerful than I. Sure, I need to work hard and try my best, but everything happens for a reason. I believe in the deepest part of my heart that this is the right thing for me to do - to try. I know that if I didn't, I would wonder for the rest of my life if I should've gone to law school. At least this way, I know. All I want to do is to make a difference in somebody's life. I want to go to work everyday and make the world a little bit better in some way. That is my dream job. I know that teachers do that, but I am also a firm believe that there are a lot of teachers in the field who shouldn't be, because if there is one profession that deserves only members who are absolutely passionate about what they do, it's teachers. So, personally, for me to enter to field without that passion is hypocritical and retroactive.
That leads me to law school. The profession fulfills a lot of things I was lacking in teaching: the mental challenge and stimulation, the individual nature of the job, and the go-get-'em mentality that defines many areas of law. I could sit here all day and strengthen my argument and tie up loose ends - afterall, I did study non-stop for the LSAT not a few weeks ago. But the important part is doing what you know is right. I follow my gut without blinking. It never steers me wrong, and even when I think it has, the situation usually just hasn't fully panned out yet.
That gut feeling is what led me to be the crappiest friend in the world leading up the LSAT. That gut is why I willingly do the bitch work at the office every day. That gut is why I sit at Mars Cafe on a Wednesday night and handwrite 4 different versions of an introduction instead of go out for martinis at the Lift. When I went to pick up my drunk friend from a bar at 1:30 this morning and her friend asked me what I did, that gut is why I answered without thinking, "I'm going to law school."
Faith is a great thing.
This is my place of vanity. Sure, I have Facebook and Twitter, but I don't actually do much with either site. I use Facebook to keep in touch with people, but were it not for my mates in England, I'd have no qualms about deleting my account. I don't like people all up in my business and I like to control what others know about me, and Facebook is rapidly encouraging the negation of my preferences in both areas. Twitter is where I spout off random thoughts that nobody cares about, and it is a place where you can really carve out who you are for other people to see. For instance, I've never Tweeted about how much I adore the state of Michigan, but I tweet about my teaching experiences. So, in the Twitter-sphere, my "followers" know I teach, but they don't know such a huge caveat of my personality - how I miss going to Michigan and think it's one of the greatest places in the entire world.
I address this only because I do have a purpose for this blog post, and I want to ensure it's understood why I'm discussing this topic here. I have no idea if anybody reads this. Were I a gambler, I would say no, nobody reads this. Why would they? I don't believe I have this URL published anywhere. In fact, I repeatedly tried to sign into Wordpress to find this account, only to figure out I used Blogspot. Yeah, obviously I'm the target blogger. So, this has become a type of journal for me, but a journal which has upped the ante because it is, but definition, public. It's not the reconstructed green journal I bought at a specialty store in the East Village. That is absolutely private, and they type of book I'd be horrified if it were read by anyone. No, instead this blog is a place for me to indulge my vanity in a very Kelli-way. Since I don't throw this URL out there, in a weird way I am controlling the information that people see, because they likely won't see this. That's a but metacognitive, so let's just move along now, shall we.
Let me discuss a little thing here called law school. This is a subject that has been dominating my thoughts for the past few weeks, and before that I had to deliberately push it to the back of my mind to focus on my classes. But now that I've finished them (I received an A in both, of course), I can indulge myself into my research and planning all I want. I get so much joy out of doing this, it's unnecessarily nerdy. Regardless, I've been researching a great deal. There is a website that is uncreatively named www.top-law-schools.com, which has a wealth of information about rankings, programs, and honest reviews from students and graduates. It also has a dynamic forum with absurds amounts of knowledge that I've been sifting through as I pound out my personal statement (I'm currently on draft #5). Like any internet site, there are truly articulate, thoughtful people who want to share their knowedge with others, right alongside people who post idiotic things that make me question the worth of humanity. Mixed in these posts are people who probably don't know how ridiculous they sound, and this is where my thoughts for this blog form.
I would never be cavalier to say that something is absolutely going to happen. I consciously preface statements about law school with a "if I get in" qualifier, because I do believe in Karma (in a Christian way, because I do love Jesus). I even go so far as to avoid the term "safety school", because nothing is guaranteed in this life, and law school admission is absolutely one of those uncertainties. Instead, I say things like "_____ isn't my first choice." But I digress... Without going into the "law school lingo," let's just say there are a bunch of dumbos on these forums, and it's hard not to sit there and think that if they can get into law school, I definitely can.
I have absolute faith that what is supposed to happen will. In fact, I know that I have no real say in the matter, because there are things at work much more influential and powerful than I. Sure, I need to work hard and try my best, but everything happens for a reason. I believe in the deepest part of my heart that this is the right thing for me to do - to try. I know that if I didn't, I would wonder for the rest of my life if I should've gone to law school. At least this way, I know. All I want to do is to make a difference in somebody's life. I want to go to work everyday and make the world a little bit better in some way. That is my dream job. I know that teachers do that, but I am also a firm believe that there are a lot of teachers in the field who shouldn't be, because if there is one profession that deserves only members who are absolutely passionate about what they do, it's teachers. So, personally, for me to enter to field without that passion is hypocritical and retroactive.
That leads me to law school. The profession fulfills a lot of things I was lacking in teaching: the mental challenge and stimulation, the individual nature of the job, and the go-get-'em mentality that defines many areas of law. I could sit here all day and strengthen my argument and tie up loose ends - afterall, I did study non-stop for the LSAT not a few weeks ago. But the important part is doing what you know is right. I follow my gut without blinking. It never steers me wrong, and even when I think it has, the situation usually just hasn't fully panned out yet.
That gut feeling is what led me to be the crappiest friend in the world leading up the LSAT. That gut is why I willingly do the bitch work at the office every day. That gut is why I sit at Mars Cafe on a Wednesday night and handwrite 4 different versions of an introduction instead of go out for martinis at the Lift. When I went to pick up my drunk friend from a bar at 1:30 this morning and her friend asked me what I did, that gut is why I answered without thinking, "I'm going to law school."
Faith is a great thing.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Blerg.
Ladies and gentlemen, October is almost over.
Holy buckets, Batman!
Not to state the obvious, but October being over means November is here. November means Thanksgiving, which means finals week, which means graduation. College is over, what?
This week was by far the busiest I've had all semester. For that matter, my head feels groggy and I should go back to bed (I took a pseudo-coma earlier this evening), but I feel like I need to update my blog for my pretend readers just as much as I felt the need to labor over lesson plans this week for my pretend students. So, some nuggets of goodness for whoever you are:
- I absolutely, positively abhor Cambus, the University of Iowa's campus bus system. I can hardly talk about it on tours without frothing at the mouth.
- Someone called me a "yuppie" today because I worked at Starbucks once upon a time. I don't even have a good response to that because I'm still scratching my head in confusion.
- A letter arrived in the mail this week confirming that I am student teaching in southern Sussex County, England. I think that's the long way of saying London and London suburbs.
- By far, I ingested more coffee and Halloween candy this week than anything remotely nutritional.
- Ignorance is bliss, and I like to pretend that NPR is a completely unbiased news source. Even if it isn't, I still delight in it.
- I taught at Tate High School this week and it was great. I also whipped up a 4-day lesson plan on Act I of Romeo and Juliet and it was great. I'm going to be a teacher and that, too, is great.
- The Iowa Hawkeyes could very well become 9-0 this weekend. Oh, mylanta!
That's all I've got. Peace in the Middle East.
Holy buckets, Batman!
Not to state the obvious, but October being over means November is here. November means Thanksgiving, which means finals week, which means graduation. College is over, what?
This week was by far the busiest I've had all semester. For that matter, my head feels groggy and I should go back to bed (I took a pseudo-coma earlier this evening), but I feel like I need to update my blog for my pretend readers just as much as I felt the need to labor over lesson plans this week for my pretend students. So, some nuggets of goodness for whoever you are:
- I absolutely, positively abhor Cambus, the University of Iowa's campus bus system. I can hardly talk about it on tours without frothing at the mouth.
- Someone called me a "yuppie" today because I worked at Starbucks once upon a time. I don't even have a good response to that because I'm still scratching my head in confusion.
- A letter arrived in the mail this week confirming that I am student teaching in southern Sussex County, England. I think that's the long way of saying London and London suburbs.
- By far, I ingested more coffee and Halloween candy this week than anything remotely nutritional.
- Ignorance is bliss, and I like to pretend that NPR is a completely unbiased news source. Even if it isn't, I still delight in it.
- I taught at Tate High School this week and it was great. I also whipped up a 4-day lesson plan on Act I of Romeo and Juliet and it was great. I'm going to be a teacher and that, too, is great.
- The Iowa Hawkeyes could very well become 9-0 this weekend. Oh, mylanta!
That's all I've got. Peace in the Middle East.
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