Alumni

So I graduated.
That's the big monumental event that is dangled in front of your nose like a carrot (or my personal preference, a reese's pieces- who wants to chase after a vegetable??) as the prize for all your labors... beginning basically in grade school.

"Study hard so you can go to college!"
"Pass your AP tests for college credit!"
"Work on your class rank to get into a good college!"
"Write brilliant essays to earn scholarship money for college!"

Everything is prep for college, to help in college, to get through college, to complete college.
And I did it.

I'm DONE!

The graduation ceremony/process was a pretty accurate reflection of the sum of my overall college experience.
It started out with the best of intentions of course, and somewhere along the line things got a little messy, I became uncomfortable, somehow it worked out- sort of, and everything happened anyway and at the end everyone really just wanted to go home.

I was graduating with honors; cum laude with a 3.5000. That's called the 'bare minimum' and yes it still counts. So I got an honors stole, a white flat scarf-thingy with the university seal on the bottom. Nevermind that I had to pay $35 for it on top of the thousands I (or rather my loving parents) shelled out for those classes I got good grades in. That's beside the point. The point is in my rush to leave the house I forgot the stupid stole. So now my graduation ensemble is incomplete and heaven forbid someone mistake me for a poor soul who did NOT achieve the bare minimum of 3.5000 and could be classified as one walking the stage without honors. It simply would not do.

So I call my brother, who is coming with my parents a little after me. My brother is on the droll side, with a voice that epitomizes level-headed-ness which falls in sharp contrast to myself, the one with the voice that leaps up octanes as my panic irrationally increases to a state of mental frenzy.

The graduates are being kept like cattle in some vast (yet way too hot) room in the bowels of the Coliseum. We're standing in "lines" (how can 500 people stand in lines in a room shaped like a rectangle?!) according to our department waiting to walk out to our seats. And I'm clutching my phone waiting and waiting.
Finally my brother calls to say he's here. So holding my cap and doing what I like to think of as a light-brisk jog of urgency (in my heels) go out to meet him on the curb. I grab my stole, say some sort of thank you and 'jog' back into the Coliseum tunnel to don my garb.

At which point I discover my tassel is AWOL.

Ok. Now. *breathe* The tassel is important. I need it.

I bet that it fell off my hat when I 'jogged' out to meet my brother. In the most panicked ten seconds of the day, I RUN out the tunnel to see my tassel laying like a wounded animal on the sidewalk. I yell out "Mine!" to no one and grab it. I've got all my stuff. At last.

With the help of a kind friend in the cattle room, I assemble my graduate look. Big sigh of relief. We walk out into a Coliseum full of cheering people. "Yay you're finally done! We're so proud of you and glad we don't have to make payments on your tuition anymore!"

It takes me forever and an age to find my family sitting to the top right. I wave, they wave and then we all sit down for the next two hours to watch like 499 of my closest stranger friends graduate. It's weird to be a witness to such a pivotal moment in a person's life and yet you don't know them.

Then I walked the stage (YES) and didn't trip/fall/stumble (DOUBLE-YES)

After the ceremony all the graduates are marched out triumphantly and we go through a tunnel that winds up with us outside on of the Coliseum gates shivering and holding our green folders that contain a letter from the Registar stating that we'll get diplomas once it goes through that we've met all requirements. Nice.

There were difficulties locating my family after the ceremony because I neglected to have a cell phone with me and I'm not as good at sending out brain signals as I think. Finally after at least 20-30 cold minutes we find each other at which point everyone is a bit displeased. But all anger is muffled by the blanket of the fact that I AM A GRADUATE NOW YAY and no one gets to be too mad at least until tomorrow.

We went to dinner and that was lovely and then everyone was very tired and we went home. The end.
Now I'm an alumni.
I know that seems like an abrupt end to the little epic story going on here but honestly just telling the whole thing is tiring. But it was fun, and I'm glad it's over. Now that's a sentence that sums up college.

Long Term Sub

While student teaching, I encountered one of the holy grails of substituting opportunities: a pregnant colleague.
One of the teachers I had lunch period with happens to be expecting her first baby in February. When a teacher goes on maternity leave, she's gone for a solid six weeks, sometimes longer. That means they need a long-term substitute. I hear that and I think steady work for a month and a half.

Luckily I have become friends with this teacher, and it appears that a coveted long-term sub position could be mine! This teacher is the Media teacher and her classes include yearbook, media tech and speech. While my degree is in history education, I'm fairly computer-savvy, participated in yearbook/media tech in high school... in short I don't feel super underqualified.

Still the task of creating the school's daily video announcements was a bit daunting sounding, so I came back up to school for two days of observation in the Media classroom. Honestly, what else am I going to be doing with my time?

The level of technology available to the class surprised me. The kids were clicking away on programs I had never even heard of. Luckily the kids are so fluent with the tech that they can basically run everything themselves. Which is lovely since all the tech runs on macs anyway and macs and I are quite possibly the epitome of mortal enemies and I refrain from interacting with them. (My iphone is the only exception... and my parent's computers. And my brother's. Okay maybe Macs are creeping into my life.)

Aside from the tech classes, the speech classes I think are fun. I've never had a problem with public speaking and basically speech class is about teaching kids how to communicate in front of others. Part of that process is practicing, aka giving speeches.

On my 2nd day of observation I got to see about 3 dozen speeches. The topic was "Persuade the Audience to Believe..." and they could talk about whatever they wanted, following a format of course.
I got to see speeches on such topics as "Why Ghosts Are Real" and "The Cowboys are the Best Football Team Ever." Needless to say, I was entertained, especially when the kids pulled out their mandatory visual aides. The Cowboys presenter put up a photo of all the Cowboy's Super Bowl rings and then just stood there with his arms wide and said "No other explanation needed." A moment passed and then the Media teacher had to prompt him that in fact an explanation was needed, his whole speech can't be a picture and one sentence. I was amused, definitely more so than in a typical social studies class.

The long term sub job doesn't start till around February if the baby stays on schedule. I'm going to go ahead and start looking forward to it :)

Miss Martin Says Good-Bye

I didn't expect my last day to be as sweet as it was. Literally, I got a lot of sweets. My students are straight-up bakers.
Truly, it was a very loving day where I realized how deep of connections I had built up with my mentor teacher and my students.

My lovely mentor teacher sent me off in grand super-organized style that was the prefect mix of sentimental and preparatory items for my future classroom.

I have all the things a teacher could need...
- my own set of color-coded buckets
- juicy highlighters that won't a) blend through b) fade out halfway through a line
- magnets
- page protectors (those are expensive!)
- notepads
- sweet card and ornament from a fabulous mentor
- and of course chocolates to keep a weary teacher's spirits up during the home stretch of the busy day
All in all super thoughtful and make me feel loved.

My students went above and beyond anything I could have thought up. By the end of the day I had about 60 cupcakes, a cake (complete with an inch of icing) and multiple little trinkets of affection.

I was touched by any gesture, from an item, to a hug, a note. You work with these kids 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, week after week and then suddenly at the end you realize that they got connected to you too.

*Jacklyn brought me one of her own stuffed animals that she wanted me to have. Sometimes with everything these kids go through, and how crazy they act... I forget that they are mostly barely 12 years old. They show their love to you in anyway they can :) I was just lucky to be on the receiving end all day long.

My sweet *Lilda and the cake she made me :)This got demolished in the teacher's lounge in about two lunch periods. Lilda: the teachers thank you for that sugar boost.

In my 2nd period class I have about 2/3rds of the 7th grade girl's volleyball team. They are an interesting mix of females and most of the time they try and pretend like they are way too cool for Texas History (like anyone can be haha). But when it came time to say good-bye, they all suddenly melted down and I was bombarded with a half dozen hugs/tackles.

The first class I ever took over was 5th period, so those kids will always have a special little compartment in my heart for better or worse. They were the hardest to part with.

This is about as good a group picture as I could get them to take, haha- they act like complete hams all the time but as soon as you turn a camera on them and ask them to smile they freeze up and do a blank stare.
I wanted my 5th period to know all the great things I see in them, so I wrote them each a note.

I just wanted to tell them each the awesome qualities they have and how I will remember them.

The nicest most touching gestures were the notes the kids wrote me. Sadly, my name was misspelled on a lot of them, but it's the thought that counts.
*Petra and I and the big card she made me. "D" wanted a picture of us, but she didn't want the other kids to see so we snuck out into the hall.

This note was from a shy sweet girl in my 5th period who made me promise to wait till she left before I read it.
*Ronnie handed me this on her way out of 1st period. She told me it was a snowflake, so I believe her. It was one of the most creative cards I got... even if it did take me a few seconds to figure it out.

My favorite part of this card (from one of my favorites) is that she misspelled my name... but asked on the actual card "Did I spell your name wrong?" Luckily I am a pretty horrible speller myself and I don't care at all haha

This card was from one of my more boisterous "active-participators" (teacher speak for 'kids who never stop talking') tables who didn't realize I was leaving until that day and made me a card while they were supposed to be doing Independent Practice. But oh well haha it's a nice gesture!

There were many other cards and little presents but I don't have the will to post them all up here. I'm going to keep these tokens somewhere safe so when rough days come up (and I know they will) I can pull out a card or a stuffed animal and remember that the struggles I went through for students past were worth every extra hour and every headache.

*I don't use anyone's real name in any blog, so don't go stalking them haha

Some Results

It’s been an interesting week.

I received my certification exam scores. With Social Studies Content and Pedagogy and Professionalism, I passed. The ESL certification was another issue.

I knew I didn’t do spectacularly on the ESL test. I’ve had some quite awful ESL instructors at my college, so my grasp of the material was a little shaky. But my results for the exam were No Pass- 238 was my score. 2 points short of the required 240 to Pass.

Also known as: Failing by ONE QUESTION

A single question! I don’t even know what to think about that. Mostly I just have bitter thoughts right now.

So far I’ve applied for my General Certification. The ESL cert is something I can add on later, when I retake the test.

There’s no mental break from the exams on the horizon yet, I have the most difficult one- the Generalist Highly Qualified Exam this coming Sunday. :/ Here’s hoping for good results.

Beyond tests, I’m entering my last week of student teaching. It makes me equal parts sad to leave something I’ve become comfortable with, and yet I’m really ready to go. The mental fatigue is getting to a fairly high uncomfortable level.

Yeah I’m good with leaving.