Student Teaching...ONLY 4 months away!

I got off the telephone this a.m. with one of my favorite college instructors of all times. If you live in the Phoenix, AZ area and plan to pursue a degree in elementary education by taking the prerequisites at community college, contact me and I'll hook you up with the BEST educator of teachers from whom I've had the privilege of learning. I've been worrying about my student teaching placement. Here's the scoop:

I applied for the Rodel Promising Student Teacher program which matches exemplary student teachers with Rodel Master Teachers. It is a prestigious program which awards participants $10,000 upon completing three years of teaching in a Title I school. That would pay for my student loans. So when it came time to apply for student teaching options, I didn't give much thought to my second choice because I was pretty sure I would be accepted to Rodel.

My mom, who knows me better than anyone, was the one who planted seeds of doubt. She really didn't think I would be happy teaching in a Title I school. The more I though about it, the more I realized she is probably right. I wanted the Rodel for the prestige and the $10,000, but I worried about being able to communicate with my students an their parents.

In the meantime, my student teaching application lists as a second choice "Paradise Valley Unified School District, grade 3-6." However, this wonderful community college teacher of teachers previously taught in PVUSD and offered to shop my resume to her colleagues. I took her up on it, and now have multiple options for student teaching. I am so thankful!!

One last thing: when I realized I had put NO prayer into the process of finding a student teaching placement, I was ashamed. I started praying, and this is how things unfolded. God's knows me better than my mom; His plan is perfect. When I follow his plan, I live in amazement of the things he does for me. I am truly blessed.

Lessons learned?

• Take it to God first; seek His plan. It works out much, much better
• Networking: as important in education as it is in business!

School starts today! Oh, the adventure of learning...

This is the fourth time I have tried to post. I let tendancies get in my way: perfectionist tendancies, selfesteem tendancies, lazy tendancies. But I have exciting news and whether or not anyone else reads it, I'm putting it out there for the whole wide world to know:

I passed the content portion of the AEPA! There, I said it.

Despite my fears that the Performance Evaluation question was my undoing (I hadn't had that methods class yet), I passed. Better still, all my cohort budies that took the test with me also passed. Two friends took the whole thing, two other friends took parts like I did. Now my big decision is when to take the last part, and I'm leaning toward the September date. The November date is just too deep into the semester and VERY close to finals.

I've also been developing a study aid to market to my college friends. They are vocabulary flashcards. Content areas are differentiated by color; I've placed them on rings to make them easier to flip through. I'm not totally impressed with all the definitions they provide, so if I continue the project I'm gonig to have to do a little digging for better definitions.

It's hard to believe that the semester is only two weeks away, graduation is only nine months away, and a teaching job is just a little less than a year away! I must admit that finding a job is a little worrisome for two reasons:

1. Our program director told us that this past spring, members of the graduating cohort hard time finding position in the big districts in Phoenix.
2. My cousin in Missouri said that 3000 applicants applied for 300 jobs in the Independence School District near Kansas City, MO.

I guess we'll see what the future holds...

In The Beginning...

Hello all you teachers, future teachers, thinking-about-being-a teacher, moms, believers, and wanders that googled the best Chinese take out in your neighborhood and landed (by some quirt of fate) on my blog! Since this portion of the blog is about becoming a teacher, that's where I'll start.

I have completed my first two semesters of Northern Arizona University's block program. Now you're wondering, "Isn't NAU in Flagstaff and don't you live in Phoenix?" You're quick; you're very, very quick! I'm in a cohort program at my local community college just a few blocks away. I've finished Literacy Methods, Science Methods (sorry, Dr. White, but I didn't learn a thing!!!), Classroom Management (learned TONS, can't wait to try it out!) , Elementary/Middle School Psych (thank you Teeny Tiny Toni!), Elementary/Middle School Curriculum, Schools and Society, and a computer class of which I just can't recall the name. We've had delightful instructors and our program director truly cares about us and wants to see us succeed. On her caring alone, I would recommend this program. Dr. Nancy Duke is a loving person, but even more important, she expresses that love for her students. I've had practicum experiences in 1st and 3rd grades and this fall I'm headed to sixth grade. Should be GREAT fun!

Enough facts, let's talk about the deep stuff...
About three or four years ago, I came to the realization that if my wonderful husband of then seventeen or eighteen years were to die, I would not be able to support my children. Sure, I think I could find a job, but life would get very, very hard. Always before I thought I would move back to the mid-west if something happened to the big guy, but at that point the realization struck that my kids were too old to move; Arizona was their home. About that time, my two oldest kids were starting college (home school...we'll talk about that later). I realized that it was time that I could go back to college.

I started taking the actual education prerequisites that the would be required for admission into any program--such fun! And then I started looking at programs. ASU offered a one year bridge program that would have me finished by December, 2008. Tempting! I talked with husband, made plans, talked with friends, made more plans, talk to my mom, and made more plans. I didn't talk to God, however. A one year intensive program would have had me in a classroom 50 hours a week not to mention homework. You can do anything for a short time, right? God knows me better than I know myself. The very day I honestly began to pray about His will for my educational career, my dear friend came over with information about the NAU's distance program with a degree in Elementary Education. I knew He had opened a door.

Now, I've got one more semester of classroom time, fifteen last practicum hours, and at least the Professional Knowledge portion of the AEPA to take (I took the Content Knowledge portion this summer...we'll talk about that some more, too!) and then STUDENT TEACHING! It gives me goose bumps to think about it--the good kind AND the bad kind...

All my life I know that God has lead me. I know he is leading my through my education. I cannot wait to see what the semester holds!

I love quotes, and this one in particular: "A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary." (Thomas Carruthers)