Christmas Decorations

When I lived with my parents, Christmas was getting kind of old.  They didn’t even get a tree the last year I lived with them, and no one cared to help me decorate the tree every year for the 5 years previous.  However, marriage and a family (made of me + husband + adorably cute black lab) have re-instilled my Christmas spirit.  We came home from the Thanksgiving festivities and I put up the Christmas tree.  After teaching the dog to stop eating things off of said tree, I invited the husband to help me out.  Our tree looks awesome and I’m so happy to be celebrating with my little family .  Since I hate our house, extensive decorations beyond the tree will have to grow on me, but for now, we’ve got a wonderful tree.  Happy holidays all!

15 pages

That’s it folks.  A 15 page paper keeps me from my diploma right now.  I picked up my thesis from the binder yesterday, and I’ve completed all assignments but this one last seminar paper.  The current problems include the following:  1) I don’t care at all about the topic of this seminar class 2) after finishing the 120 page thesis, a 15 page seminar paper about a topic I could care less about is a mountain of an issue 3) because I don’t care, my writing is really shotty 4) I’ve spent the past 2 hours reading blogs.  I know I will get it done, but my focus is really lacking.  A new background for the blog and then off to write some more pages.

Helping the New Teacher: Part II

New teacher had a parent conference complete with the whole team and principal this last week.  During the conference, a parent basically explained that her son was failing new teacher’s class because he hates her.  Now, I wasn’t present, but new teacher made it seem as though the whole conference focused on the student hating her.  Another teacher came to comfort me in my classroom and stated:  “That was rough.  I wanted to make sure you were ok.”  New teacher lost it and started bawling in my classroom.  Now, I know my principal, and he is very supportive of his staff in front of parents, even if he thinks the teacher is wrong, he always supports us in front of parents.  I also know that there is no way he would have allowed said parent to be hostile toward new teacher.  So, the parent might have been a little harsh, maybe even a little blunt, but I don’t think she was hostile.  I really didn’t know what to tell new teacher.  It pretty much came down to, “Don’t take it personally.  Kids are going to hate you.”  This just made her cry more, so I just stopped talking and let her cry.  Any ideas on what else I could tell her?

The Future

So until last week, I’ve gone to work every day proud to be a teacher and feeling completely fulfilled in this profession.  This week, I started asking myself, “Do I really want to do this for the rest of my life?”  Now, don’t get me wrong, I truly love teaching, and middle school has proven to be an incredible age to teach.  Despite all of that, however, I’m just not sure I will be completely fulfilled doing this for 20-30 years and then retiring.  So, to the horror of my husband and other family members, I have begun grad school research.  I say horror, because said family members have watched me struggle over the past year to finish a Master’s degree and thesis.  Though the thesis truly was a beast, now that I’m done, I am proud of what I’ve accomplished and think I could still go back to school.  A professor I truly respect told me to pursue the PhD only if God called me to it and to pursue it in a field that “truly makes me sing.”  So, as opposed to English Literature, I am looking at PhD programs in Math Education.  That way, I could remain doing what I’m doing with higher pay, I could go to the college level and teach either math classes or credentialing classes, I could write curriculum, I could work for the DO, or I could work for the state department of education.  I guess what I’m saying is I just want as many doors opened as possible.  I’m still excited to go back to work tomorrow and teach the little rascals, but I think I may want to teach some bigger rascals someday.

Thesis

Thesis has been signed off by all committee members!  I have only to make the last few changes, print it, and take it to the binder!!!!!