Student to Professional

I missed some program training back in May that I had to make up for this summer. One of the assignments involved me describing how I would make the transition from student to professional.

I don't suspect it will be too difficult, I have been a professional in a previous life and feel pretty certain I can pull it off again. However, this time is a little more sensitive. I'll have to be conscious of dressing appropriately while dealing with teenage boys. I'll have to hide my little wrist décor. I'll need to buy some more comfy shoes. And lastly, I'll have to adjust my social networking life which means doing away with my Facebook.

Obviously, I won't be able to talk about my experiences here or on any other social network but I can limit what my students will have access to and until I get a big girl job I've decided to do away with Facebook and make my twitter and Instagram private. I will still keep the blog public but will probably be a bit more candid.

I know many of my readers rely on Facebook links to reach my blog but I hope you can bookmark me or follow my blog a different way to keep reading. I'm so grateful for the readers I have and I'd hate to lose you all because I no longer have Facebook. If you have any questions for how to do that I'd be happy to help you out.

Classes start again in two weeks and I'm pumped to be back in the classroom but this time in both capacities as student and teacher.

I've also come up with the brilliant idea of taking pictures of myself in all of my different clothing options and cataloging them so I don't waste time worrying about what to wear. It will be a big task but Drew has agreed to help me. I can't wait to share with you how smoothly that goes.

If Facebook is my only means of contact with you please email me: meghanemh@gmail.com so we have a way to stay in touch!

Life in the Fast Lane

Only not really, it's kind of like life on foot around here lately. I'm down to one more week of my tough summer classes and my formerly rising at 8:00 a.m. to work all day self is back to her old ways. In fact I just got a 96 on a paper I wrote on a book I didn't read. That's classic under-grad Meg peeps. I'm not proud of it but it's summertime and when there's an afternoon thunderstorm like there is today I don't want to be reading about the judicial process in Virginia. I want to either be napping, watching one of the multiple documentaries suggested to me by you fine people or re-runs of The Office on Netflix, or reading something I'm interested in like this little pretty:

Finding the balance of light and heavy content on this blog has been something I've struggled with since starting My Own Yellow Wallpaper. Do I want to pull the serious political crowd whose views of Christianity are evolving like mine? Or do I want to talk about books, birds, and weekend activities. Let's be honest in all reality I'm pulling only one crowd and they are all blood-relatives so they'll read it no matter what I say.

So in keeping with the trend, how about something serious for a while? One of my classes this summer is Multiculturalism and I am riveted by it. We talk about equality for all types of people in our classrooms and how to love. No, we don't call it that in class but that's what we're learning. We're learning how to love children of all races, religions, SES's, abilities, genders, and sexual preferences. Sure we're learning how to teach them as well but the common theme is that we must care about them first and give a crap about where they come from and respect it before they will give a rip about what we have to say.

For some it is easy. I came in knowing which groups I held biases toward and I was ready to face them and move on from them. But I see other people fighting it, I see people who want to hold onto ideals of over-generalizations and stereotypes because they are so deeply ingrained.

I think every person currently in a career and every student should be required to take a multi-cultural class. As teachers, we are not the only ones who come in contact with all different culture types.The content I have learned in this class is more valuable than anything I have learned in school so far and that's not an exaggeration. I just wish I could carry all of you to class with me each week. Your soul would be moved.

My definition of helping has changed.
My belief in the "culture of poverty" has been diminished.
My awareness about white privilege has been raised.
And most importantly I'm once again shown my purpose in this life, to:

A Few Of My Favorite Things

I actually hate that song, especially when it's played on Christmas music stations. Blah! Anyway, one of the bloggers I follow recently did a post of things she loves right now so I thought I would follow suit.


Of Monsters and Men

My friend Nicole suggested them to me several weeks ago and aside from Mumford I've listened to almost nothing else. Try them out on Spotify (Mountain Sound is my fave).


Some Nights

Drew has had this song on repeat since we saw them on SNL a couple of weeks ago. The video is moving and I love this song. Plus Nate Ruess is drop dead gorg. Even Drew said so.

The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Test Scorer

This is one guy's story about grading the writing portions of standardized tests. Maybe I'm totally behind on this but my mind was blown. It is very well written and not terribly long. If you are an educator, aide, parent, or a living, breathing human then read it. You will not believe it. For anyone who knows anything about SOL's and the pressure that students and teachers are under this will make you sick. You can read it here:

http://monthlyreview.org/2010/12/01/the-loneliness-of-the-long-distance-test-scorer



The Men Who Built America

 

I haven't watched all of these but rest assured they are DVR'd and saved up for a snowy day. I've heard nothing but good things about them and I will likely stay in my PJ's all day Friday and catch up on them. You can watch full episodes to catch up here: http://www.history.com/shows/men-who-built-america


Lincoln

I can't describe to you the excitement inside of me about this movie. I hope to see it with my whole family while I'm home next week. Lincoln is our favorite. With the exception of my husband. communist I hope they do this great man justice but judging by the previews I don't think it will disappoint.

Okay, somehow this turned into the "entertainment" portion of my favorite things but there you have it. The interests of an aspiring historian/educator. Thrilling.

“We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.”

Quote by Oscar Wilde

So I have been preparing to take the PRAXIS tomorrow and have been taking practice tests online. For the writing portion this was the topic I was given on my practice test today. The multiple choice portion of the test they grade for free but these SOB's wanted me to pay $29 to get my writing graded. So instead of paying them I thought I would let you all judge me today. Here is the response I gave:

This statement could not be more true in today's society. We live in a world where "things" rule our lives. And to make matters worse these "things" are completely unnecessary.

It is no longer acceptable to simply have a phone in your home, you must now keep one on your person at all times. The same is true with Internet access, it seems you now need it with you at all times in order to function. It is also now seemingly necessary to have 250 television channels instead of only 60. While, sadly, the reality of what is truly necessary is completely lost on us. We have turned some of the little extras in our life into full-blown requirements for daily living.

 Our consumer-minded society has taught us that anything we desire must be a need. We need to remind our children the difference between the things they want and they things that they require. By reading of extreme poverty in The Grapes of Wrath, you are quickly brought back to reality. The things that we see as necessary in our society are simply perks. The basics of what we need to live can be found outside our front door, if we dare get off of the couch. 

How often do we go to dinner and see a family of people not speaking to one another or even glancing up at the waiter because they are too distracted by their cell phones? Recently, I witnessed a grown man and his father having dinner together while the son played "Words with Friends" on his Ipad he had brought into the restaurant with him. We seem to be spending quality time with things instead of people. We are so distracted by what a celebrity is tweeting that we may not notice the status of our children's education or a friend in need of help.

It is easy to get caught up in "keeping up with the Jones'" but if we begin to require less perhaps we could become the Jones' that everyone wants to be like. There is something to be said for living a simple life. It would not be a perfect life but it would be less stressful, more fulfilling, and probably more rewarding. Therefore, it's important to think about what "unnecessary necessity" we could begin to live without.

Ta-da and that was a half-hearted effort because I was hungry and Ike was pestering me to take him to the dog park. Here's hoping I do a little better on the real thing tomorrow and don't get so distracted and completely off topic.

Thinking.....quite dangerous

It's easy to sound elitist when talking about education or lack thereof but I want to preface this post by saying: college is not for everyone, I firmly believe that. Thank God I have the daddy I do or I probably wouldn't have finished.

A childhood friend of mine's blog (The Acorn Underfoot) got me thinking the other day. She was posting in response to a new term "tralier park intellectuals" which has since been changed to "mountain intellectuals." The definition given by the author is as follows: "people who are intelligent yet didn’t get a higher education, who often have jobs that don’t require–or perhaps even value–their innate smartness and problem-solving abilities."  Said blogger explored the connotations (positive or negative) dealing with this term and seemed to have a hand in it changing to "mountain intellectuals" (which I prefer).

This is the link to the actual post so you can get all of the details of the terms origin and do your own research to make your own conclusion: http://acornunderfoot.blogspot.com/2012/02/new-term-to-explore.html

After reading this post my mind was running absolutely wild. So many people crossed my mind. But one so much stronger than the others for some reason, my dad's brother. My dad is one of 3 boys and the only one of the three that graduated from college. I consider him a brilliant man and value his opinion. However, I know my dad would agree with me, his older brothers knowledge (in some ways) goes so far beyond anything my dad or I learned in the classroom.

My uncle is a single dad who works in construction, and as far as I know he always has. But it makes me grin to hear him give some of our "educated" relatives a run for their money when discussing current events. I feel as though he is a walking Farmer's Almanac and newspaper. And I just laugh to myself as he gets a response of "How did you know that?" from said relatives.

I can't help but think, what could he have accomplished had he earned a degree? But then I have to stop and remind myself, not everyone wants the same things out of life and I firmly believe he is far more of an intellectual than me and he doesn't need a degree to prove that. I want to end my little praise session by saying I would be MORTIFIED if my uncle read this because he is, more than an intellectual, a hard ass. So I will stop talking about him.

I have had people say to me about others "Well that just shows her lack of education," and I cringe. It doesn't take an education to be intelligent. My husband can tell horror stories of professors and engineering students alike who can barely form a sentence in a social setting. Don't get me wrong I am proud of my degree and I intend to further it, however I am also proud of those without degrees in my family because I still think they all know a lot more than me.