I first encountered the word matriculation via Buffy. I thought Willow was punning mastication (among other things) until I realized much later it was an actual word. Anyways, it's about time I start the process of matriculation again.
Grad School.
Oh, how this fills me with an irrational terror. I’ve been on the other side of the learning process for three years now. I’m so used to being in control of my own little domain (of which I am the supreme awesome ruler-queen) and it’s very hard for me to relinquish that control. I tend to boss around waiters like they’re fifteen and find myself counting off wait times in my head during everyday conversations. I’ve got the teacher bug, and I’ve got it bad. The only times I have to practice being a student are during PD sessions. Most of these are spent grading papers or shhhh…facebooking. I’d beat a child if he or she were facebooking in my class. **not really** But yeah, I think getting in the groove of grad school would be hard for me.
I don’t know if I’ll remember how to be a good, respectful, A+, hardworking student. I can get a little sassafrassy when I feel like something or someone is wasting my time. I don’t think I’ll be able to turn to the instructor and say, “Look dude, time will pass as you sit here and do nothing, but YOU may not.” See, that works really well with reluctant students. It’s funny enough not to be mean or confrontational, and it gets my point across clearly: GET OFF YOUR LAZY BUM AND DO SOMETHING CONSTRUCTIVE WITH YOUR LIFE YOU LAZY BUM!! Hey, maybe I will be able to be tactful.
After all, I survived Petty’s class not once, but twice, AND I only threatened to vandalize Dr. Dickhead’s billboard.
Dirty Secret Time: I started grad school the summer after my first year of teaching. I was commuting back and forth between home (with summer preps, volleyball stuff and my own general summer debauchery) and school (statistics and something about Marzano). There was a lot on my plate, but I persevered and finished my summer classes. Then school started back up including longer VB practices and a fuller schedule. We had switched to trimesters, and I had all Honors classes (it was an honor to have them…yeah, I went there…). Softball was looming in the spring. (P.S. Softball is about twenty million times more stressful and time consuming than VB ever is.) I was swamped. There was no debauchery to fall back on to blow some steam like in the summer. It just became too much, something had to give, and I quit. I’m not proud of this. I’m not a quitter, but there it stands. I couldn’t find a way to do it all- which is pretty aggravating in and of itself.
That question still bugs me a little: will I be able to do it all this go around? I don’t want to leave the classroom. My plate is a little less full and I can eat faster now, but I’m worried that I’ll start up another program and have to drop it again for sanity’s sake. The solution here is to only do the things that I’m passionate about for healthy amounts of time. As long as I love it, then I’ll make time for it. I OBSESS over VB and Speak lesson plans. I don’t mind devoting hours to figuring out rotations or constructing new pbl plans. It’s actually pretty fun stuff. Ask me to plan for Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God though, and you’ll just get a rant about the evils of Puritans.
Damn Puritans.
The Plan: I’m going to focus my grad school in a field I LOVE: English. Not teaching, not best practices or administration (God, forbid!) but the pursuit of Literature. (That’s right, capital L. Yeeeah, call me Ted. ) This is a given. I little l love teaching. I big L love lit. And, over the course of this year, I have to decide WHERE I want to attend grad school.
Option #1: If I’m still ok with living in the ‘burg and have decided to stick with my current job with all of its perks and problems, then I will attend the University of Memphis. Not coaching softball would be a huge help here, as I’ll have more time to devote to school stuff for the majority of the year. The only rough time would be during VB season and I’d just have to take a lighter (or more compelling) course load.
Option #2: Move away and attend grad school somewhere else. By move, I mean MOVE like get up off that thing and dance til you feel bettah!
a. Texas- it’s warm, things are larger there, it gave us W. W as in Why not?
b. Florida- again, it’s warm and I love the ocean. Location, location, location.
c. Phoenix- I think it’d be a fun city to live in. Plus, the chance to see Steve Nash on a semi-regular basis. It would help our romance along, I think. Love you, second favorite Canadian! (Especially since Shane Battier is no longer a viable option. Silly marriage. Silly babies.)
d. California- Warm, and just really different from where I’ve been before. I loved Berkeley and San Francisco. A lot. A lot a lot. Plus- it’s really pretty.
**Caveats to Option #2: Depending on where I end up, I might still teach and go to school. Why not? I like challenges and two new environments would be stimulating. OR I could go to school full time. Again, why not?
We’ll see how the year progresses. I got me some larnin’ to do.
This nifty little index card came from one of my favorite blogs: thisisindexed.com
No comments:
Post a Comment