My journey through Graduate School to earn a Masters of Art in Education. I was on track to become a teacher, but now everything has changed, and I'm on the job hunt with a Bachelor's in Liberal Arts and a Master's in Education with no teaching certificate.

 
I never did summarize the end of the last term. I survived. If you look at my transcript it appears that I did well, since I got an 'a' in all three classes. I had three weeks off and on Monday, Auguast 25 it all started up again.

I had to buy a parking permit, and I thought I needed it for that day, so I left home earlier than I wanted to to get to the Campus Security building. I have mislaid my proof of insurance, but they sold me a parking permit anyway. It is one of those small stickers you put on the inside of the windshield. Mine broke in two as I was removed the backing paper, so it is in two parts on my windshield. I hope nobody bothers me about it. I found out that they aren't required this week.

After I parked and was on my way to the 8 a.m. "Welcome Back" meeting, I noticed the campus was crowded with undergrads. We got spoiled having most of the campus to ourselves over the summer. I tried to figure out who all these kids were and why they weren't wearing any clothes. It was hot, and they were mostly wearing the bare minimum of modest clothing.

We spent three hours in seminars about coming back to school and what the year held for us. We also met the fourth year undergrads in the school of Ed who were starting their professional year of student teaching. Lots of us heard for the first time where we would be student teaching. I don't have a placement yet. The Directory of Placements said that he thought I was in a school just across the river from me, but then we heard that I am not placed there. I have been waiting all day to hear from him today because I am supposed to be in a school today, tomorrow, and the rest of the term up until Thanksgiving.

Our first class (out of four) was Assessment. The professor is great. Dr. M. inspires confidence in the subject and she is very personable. The term is sixteen weeks long, and there is a break in the middle of it, so we only have 15 classes, each of them three hours long. It's the same amount of classroom time as the summer courses, now that I think about it. Three hour blocks are more difficult to sit through. We discussed the basics of assessment. What it is, why we do it, and some ways we do it. The text is pretty good, but the author is biased towards a certain philosophy of test writing that I'm not sure I entirely agree with.

Monday's are going to be long days. The next class was also three hours long, starting at 4 and going until 7. Methods of Teaching is taught by the same prof who ran our Schools in Society class (or whatever it was called). So I know the teacher, I know a bit about how he is going to run things, and I appreciate his philosophical approach to teaching. We will get into a lot of practical stuff, but knowing that it is backed with a thought out reason makes it easier to swallow. We were asked to create a metaphor for teaching, and I couldn't come up with one at first. Talking to other students we came up with "Teacher as Trail Guide." The teacher knows where the students need to get to and how to get there, but there are different paths to take and different stops along the way. Other examples were Teacher as Sculptor, Teacher as Architect, Teacher as Gardener. Dr. R wants us to think about the Teacher as Decision Maker. Teachers make thousands of decisions that have degrees of importance and effect in three areas, and we are going to examine those questions to some degree. There are decisions about curriculum, instruction, and assessment. Since we have an entire class dedicated to assessment, he won't go into a lot of detail on that.

I did have to spend another $112 on books for Methods. Ouch.

Wednesday I have a class on Educationsal Research, and on Friday a class on Classroom Management.


posted by Josh English at 8/26/2003 12:52:00 PM

 
I've had a week of summer break, and now I'm spending $162.81 on books. There is at least one more to buy as well. I've ordered five books. Oy vey.
posted by Josh English at 8/12/2003 04:12:00 PM