My Life Thus Far…

It has been so long since I’ve blogged, it’s amazing to me that I still have a faithful readership.  I’m sure I can atribute most to dear friends and family, but still, it’s nice to see the page count go up, even when I’m not writing. 

I figured, therefore, that it was high time for a new update.  As most of you know, I am student teaching this semester at the high school I graduated from.  I have recently taken over all three classes, so I am teaching full time for two World History classes and one Honors US History class.  I have a great group of kids, minus a couple issues which I won’t really go in to.  There are a couple kids in my World History classes who seem eager to learn, they just need a little pushing.  My honors class is great, it is a packed house with every desk filled, but they are a great group of kids.  Most of them have known each other for a while (which is obvious in the way they joke around) and they bounce off of each other really well.  So far we’ve been able to do several really, really fun activites where they’ve been able to get up and move around.  Creative license is a really big deal for me and I like to see where I can draw it out of my students whenever I can.  And some of the products have been, while at times borderline (thanks to Andrew Jackson’s bigamist wife) have been fun.  Now granted, such as with every group, there are some kids in that class who are about to drive me crazy, but even they aren’t the worst—trust me, I’ve seen worse.  I can’t help but feel a fondness for these kids in all my classes.  Even the ones who drive me insane when the bell rings are generally good kids deep down, some of them just have a lot of bagage. 

In other news: I have FINALLY bought my plane ticket to Dublin! We hadn’t heard anything from the illustrious Dr. Angel in a while, so my mom and I composed a polite, but forceful email inquiring into the status of the situation.  Wouldn’t you know that in one hour, the woman who never responds to emails, responds that very evening with the go ahead to buy my ticket.  We found a pretty good deal through Aer Lingus, the Irish airline, but of course, the frequent flyer points were not going to apply towards that one.  Honestly, I was a little disapointed.  I wanted the whole Irish experience, airline and all.  However, the economy is as the economy does, and Continental will work just fine.  I only hope they are comprable to the Continental flights that Spencer and Dad took to Hawai’i last summer with tvs in the headrests of the seat infront of you and free snacks (unlike American where you now have to pay $6 a pop for a bag of chips–gah!), otherwise, that is going to be a LOOOOOOOONG flight.  I have a feeling that I am going to get a lot of my backed up reading done between March 25 and May 6—-or at least ON March 25 and May 6, because while I’m there, I’d rather be out exploring the streets of Dublin than reading.  And can you blame me?

Well anyway, I think I’ve pretty well covered it.  I don’t have a whole lot of a social life recently (I can’t even remember the last time I saw someone between 20-29).  I’ve been going to Hope Community church, which is a change for me.  I like the college class there a lot, but it is a 3o minute drive away, so we’ll see.  At least there are folks there who are willing to get to know me.  Other than that, I’ve basically been using this post as a procrastination technique.  I’m sitting in the classroom after school waiting for a kid to finish taking a test and this seemed way more fun than writing up an observation report (which are due Monday, of course).  So until next time, when I will hopefully have something more enlightening to write about, I bid thee adieu, faithful readers.

 

IT’S OFFICIAL!

After months of worrying and praying and blogging, it’s finally official:

I’m going to Ireland!!

Thank GOD, they told us before the end of January as they originally said.  This leaves much more time for planning and mentally preparing myself.  I’ll leave probably around the end of March and come back right before graduation.  I’ll spend 10 weeks student teaching here before I leave, and my final 5 weeks will be done in Dublin.  That’s all I really know right now, we’ll have a meeting at the Student Teacher’s orientation in early January, so I’ll post more details as they come, but in the mean time , thanks for the prayers and the constant “Have you found out about Ireland yet?” It’s wonderful to know that so many of you care.  Love y’all!!! I’M GOING!

I made this is photo shop when I found out, I must admit I'm a bit proud of it

 

I’m all Professional and Junk Now

So for one of my classes, I had to create a teacher website.  It was incredibly annoying to do, but now that I’m finished with it…I feel quite the teacher.  It’s just one of those things that makes me feel like I really am on my path to being a real teacher–so close!!

Of course, it would help if the wonderful office of field experience would bother to actually place me for student teaching (I got a call on Thursday saying that the only placement they could find for me right now was at the high school I graduated from, and they feel that this is a conflict of interest, even though I know more people at other high schools in Raleigh over mine, but whatever…:-P) Anyway, I’m almost there!! I’d love it if y’all want to check it out.

Ms. Jones’s Webpage

 

Still waiting on Ireland

Those of you who are faithful followers of my blog, will know that the reason I started this whole thing was to document my student teaching experience in Ireland, beginning with the application process.  You may also remember that, according to my blog, I was supposed to know whether or not I was going in September.  You’ll also notice that after an entry titled While I’ve Still Got Time to Have Them any mention of Ireland fell by the wayside.

Well that entry, dated September 28th, was meant to be the night before I found out.  And then that dragged on for a week, then another, until all Ireland applicants received an email stating that there were only 5 spots open, and 11 applicants.  The Assistant Dean (who runs the program) asked if we could all please meet to figure out the next step.  Well, it seemed to me that they should be able to narrow us down by our applications, but I was not going to complain, so I left my internship early the next day to be back in Boone in time to make the meeting.

Waiting outside her office door was slightly awkward.  Six of the applicants showed up and so there was the cloud hanging over that one or more of us would not be going on this trip.  The ast. dean shows up 15 minutes late, and we all pile into her office and she begins by saying, “You are all qualified and I would like to be able to place all of you, but it is not going to happen.  Therefore, since you didn’t realize how competitive this was going to be when you wrote your original application questions, I want you to tell me how you think we should narrow this down.”–wait a minute, you’re a big girl, shouldn’t you be able to narrow this down? Of course she should, but that’s no matter. And might I add, that yes, I did write my original essay as though it were a competitive process, thank you very much.  Most of the girls aren’t saying anything, so one girl pipes up with something, and again, there is silence.  Well, I’m not going to sit in silence, I’m going to say something that benefits me.  Know that most of (if not all of) these girls are elementary education majors and will not get nearly as much out of the trip as I would (what could be better than studying Irish and English history, my area of specialty, in the place where it happened and with a different world view?!), I say, “Well, I think you should take into account how this trip will be beneficial to us and what we are going to get out of this experience.”  No one else says anything.  So those are our two new criteria.  We leave with the impression that we are to write something about these two new issues and that we will have an interview eventually, wait for an email.  This meeting was October 24th.

A week passed, she hadn’t sent out an email with official questions, nor had she set up interview dates.  I decided I would go ahead and send her my interpretation of the questions, and I signed the email, “Looking forward to our interview!” And I waited.  I heard nothing from her, no confirmation she had received my email and still nothing official.  Still no interview. Another week dragged on. She was never in her office. Then another week and another, and still no word and I was tired of waiting.  I sent an email, as politely as I could, asking if she would please let me know what was going on.  That was what was driving me crazy the most.  I had no clue if I was missing the emails because of Span Blocker, if she had forgotten about us entirely, if she had made her decision, I did not know and I felt left in the dark.  I was fine with waiting, if only I knew what I was waiting for.  I attached a read-receipt to that email. I never got it back, I never got a response.

FINALLY, yesterday, she sent out a mass email to the Ireland applicants:

“Hello,
I wanted to give you an update on Ireland.  We are attempting to secure
placements for each of you if you are still interested.
Please keep in mind that I’m still not at all sure that we will be able
to place all of you, and I am fairly certain that we will not have any
final information before the end of January and perhaps not then.
So, if you are one of those students who can flow with this, then you
will feel all right about the process.  If you are one who needs to plan
your life right now and be sure about it, then you need to come to see
me immediately.
I’m still asking the question about whether any of you would like to
consider Mexico or Costa Rica.  Let me know as soon as possible.”

Ah Ha! Well this email came across to me as, “leave me alone, get out of my hair, I’m working on it.” And that is FINE with me, but at least we know now that she isn’t sitting on her hands doing nothing.

And so, dear friends, there is still a good chance I may be going to Ireland.  I don’t know yet and I won’t know for a long time, it would seem.  But please continue to keep me in your prayers and pray that everything will work out.  My heart wants this so much and I know that I am meant to be there.  I’m still seeking, still longing.  It is coming. . .