School sucks!

I was absolutely positively worth nothing yesterday. Well let's back up.... I did a lot yesterday. At Free Geek I helped rearrange the store for 5 hours. They have big plans for the place and I helped get a few of them started. It was a lot of work and I was tired when I got done. Of course my day was not done yet, I was headed to the NELA center to be available as a tutor. I almost got a chance to help edit a paper but that fell through as she decided to go home instead. So instead I worked on doing some prep work for my Mad Science classes. I organized the take homes I will hand out Thursday and Friday. It involves little baggies, clay and stir straws. Anyway, when I finally got home I turned on the television.... then the dvd player and watched Naruto. I was planning on doing some homework after watching a show or two. After the first show ended I dutifully turned on the computer with good intentions; instead I got sucked into the internet.
I watched Kyle XY and talked to people on Facebook. Next thing I know I'm yawning and it is 12:30... I failed to post anything in the online class Wednesday and as a result I will need to reply to things on Saturday. I planned to have Saturday off... Let me explain. At the University of Phoenix, online courses (and the mixed physical class and online class that I have) have a standard rule about proper participation. I need to be online 4 times a week, reply to 2 posts from other people per day, and post an original response to all teacher posted questions. I did not do anything on Sunday or Monday and in order to take Saturday off I needed to be online Tuesday through Friday. In the past classes I have been online and posting everyday. The combination of my volunteering and working has significantly reduced my available time but that is not the main issue here. The main issue is that a year into the program I am a little demotivated. Perhaps it's the nonstop method of classes, maybe it's the fact that I am learning more with my after school teaching then I am in these classes, or it could be that the assignments I am doing seem to have little to do with reality, more of a time filler then anything else. Either way I am feeling less and less inclined to jump into the fray and discuss the silly topics. I am tired of the assigned reading that seems to think blathering incessantly about theory will help prepare me for the classroom. Maybe one of the factors in my burn out are struggling to look for a place to do the required observation hours with no tips or help from the school. In a lot of ways this school has made being in school easier but it has made things harder.
Here is an example: I am never quite sure who to talk to or help in an advising role. I have a friend who sent a question off to someone they were thinking might e able to help or at least point them to the right person and a month later still had no answer. There is not a cyber advising office as far as I can tell and it is hard to really figure out what every ones role is in the school. I had experiences at NAU where I ran around trying to talk to the right person and kept getting redirected. I am not sure why there is no clear cut path to follow and there is so much groping around in the dark in academia. In all of my years in customer service and sales positions I was told that I needed to do everything in my power to make sure that I got the customer to the right person who would have the answer. I would call and track the person down before connecting the person (most of the time, unless the customer was in league with satan). Nothing is more frustrating then getting the run around but schools never seem to bother with improving this aspect. They put a lot of the strain of figuring out where to go and who to talk to on the student's back and in an online setting this can become even more frustrating. Considering the money funneling into these places this is a huge bone of contention for me. I should be walking on rose petals whenever I go to campus!

Yet that is not the reason I am tired of school and wanting desperately to be done. The real reason is that for every decent class I get I end up with 4 that are irrelevant. It is even worse with the homework. We do at least one assignment individually each week and usually one as a group, as a result there are plenty of assignments that make me think I am in a creative writing class. Even worse is that a lot of the classes are the same subjects with a different name so I write similar papers over and over again. All these assignments and classes miss the point. You need to teach to really learn to teach. Only after you teach do the theories begin to make sense. Why exactly would you think having aspiring teachers design a role play would teach them anything about being a teacher? So freaking irritating! GAH! Medical students work at a teaching hospital because they need to know more then just what a book says to be a doctor. Why don't teachers follow a soimilar path? Then again that is a totally different discussion better left for another time.

Adolescent Experiences... the paper

I have been very busy today finishing up my school work that is due this week. One of the classes wanted us to write about adolescent experiences and I enjoyed what I wrote even though I did not want to ever actually write it. Since I liked the end result, I am sharing it. Here is what the assignment was:

3. Adolescent Experience Paper, Part I: Think back to your early adolescent years, during grades 6 – 8. Based on your assigned readings for Week One, write a 350-700-word paper describing three experiences (transitions) that could be labeled as the following:
a. Biological
b. Cognitive
c. Social
For each experience, describe the effect on you. Was it positive or negative? Has that interpretation changed over the years?

Here is my interpretation:

Adolescent Experience: Part 1
Michael Williams
University of Phoenix
 
I do not look back on these years and have a great level of clarity. I remember it was awkward but I do not entirely remember why. So this assignment has definitely given me some pause. At first I despaired that all of my memories were beyond my reach so I called on a friend to help jog my memory. This long time friend definitely jogged my memory and quite a few laughs were had at both of our expenses. This is the result of our mutual remembrances.

We begin with something that would definitely lend itself to the social realm of an adolescent’s development. It also highlights a shift in thinking about girls, which means it also dabbles in the cognitive development realm. Yes, I no longer felt free to shove a girl off the jungle gym to get ahead of her but my new feelings were not completely clear. The female half of the population had become somehow intriguing, utterly incomprehensible and truly terrifying. As I understand, there is an intense need to socialize with peers during adolescence but not everyone is gifted enough to do so smoothly. I was far from smooth and tended to stick close to friends when I was in social situations. I remember one particular time that my best friends and I went to our first dance. The three of us were holding up the wall fairly well, daring each other to talk to the young ladies who unknowingly struck fear and longing to the very core of our beings. As we stood there, wasting time trying to goad each other into making the first move, the poor girls were forced to also sit and wait. I am sure that none of them wanted to become a social outcast by asking a boy to dance, which meant they had to wait for us to gather our courage. Finally I decided to take that first step. I asked a girl to dance and she immediately said yes, much to my relief. I had taken what I believed to be the first and hardest step and I was now dancing with a cute girl. It was the most frightening and awkward dance I have ever been a part of. I just lightly held her, unsure where to put my hands, attempting to think about baseball (not that I knew anything about baseball) and swayed back and forth like a robot from a bad 1950’s sci-fi flick. We didn’t speak nor did we make much eye contact either. All my bravado and convoluted planning had been focused on getting her to dance with me, not the actual dancing part. When the longest song on earth finally ended, I bolted back to my friends. In my haste to find the security of insecure male bonding I probably sent a very confusing message to the girl. I won’t even attempt to decipher what my hasty departure meant to her but I am sure it was as awkward for her as the asking and dancing had been for me. I then spent the rest of the time daring my friends to take the plunge but managing to feel completely relieved that I had “made a move.” I still remember that first dance as a great adventure although I look upon it now and see how silly I truly was.

My voice changing was the biological development that I clearly recall. I am not sure when it happened or how long it took but it could not end fast enough. I was embarrassed and people’s reactions didn’t help. Whether it was an amused glance or an escaped giggle it sent heat through my cheeks turning them deep scarlet. What I wanted to do was not speak ever again but that is not an option. Knowing that the voice change was just a part of growing up was not any help at the time. I figure the best thing for an adult to do is to not react and just keep on talking with them. After all it is something natural and it should be treated that way. Of course the problem was generally with kids the same age and I am not sure how to get them to cut each other some slack. Now that I am past that stage I definitely see how a smile or giggle is also natural but try to remember that everything is “utterly and devastatingly” embarrassing at that age.

My Vocabulary Activity

So in school one of the things we are doing as a group is creating a unit plan. Each of us are responsible for one lesson. I did the lesson about the various body parts that make up an insect and my team mates are doing other insect lessons. Another task is to come up with a vocabulary activity and I decided to share with you my vocabulary activity so that you can all be glad not to be in my class while I teach you about insects.

Acrostic Poem Madness
What is an Acrostic Poem?
An Acrostic poem is a poem that takes a word and lines it up horizontally. Then uses each letter of the word to start a new word or sentence related to the word itself.
An example of an Acrostic Poem:

I stepped on an insect this morning and
Not even a startled cry escaped it’s mouth.
Surely it was not happy to be stepped on,
Even though I swear it was a totally unintended accident.
Crunch! Was the only sound it made.
There was no time for a burial, because I had to get to school.
(Mr. Williams, 2008)

The Assignment:
Pick a word for the vocabulary list and turn it into your very own acrostic poem. Using a separate sheet of paper write the word horizontally. You can brainstorm ideas to help you pick sentences or words for your poem. Helping your fellow students is ok as is asking for a little help from your mean ol’ teacher.
Vocabulary Words:
abdomen, antennae, anthropod, entomologist, exoskeleton, insect, invertebrates, thorax, and vertebrate



A good question would be what demented child would pick invertebrates?

The Weekend in summary

Orientation for school was all about what we needed to do to become a teacher. We need to take several tests that the school districts require: the cbest, the orela and a few praxis tests. The praxis tests are for middle school and high school teachers and I would think that since I want to be an elementary teacher I could skip all of that. The reality is my degree is for elementary and middle so I think I do have to take them. All of these tests cost money of course and they need to be done before I can student teach. That is at the end of 2009 but there are not that many test days so I need to get on it so I am signing up for the next test which is in April. Then we found out we need to get fingerprinted. Which means 15 bucks for the fingerprinting and then we need to pay 62 bucks for the processing. Yeah..... I have been fingerprinted like 12 times for insurance but none of that matters. So yeah I am real excited about getting fingerprinted again.... Anyway I have to because for whatever reason fingerprints aren't shared anywhere for any reason. Maybe my fingerprints change depending on the reason for the fingerprint being done. Like maybe my fingerprints for the California insurance license look different then the Oregon License. So naturally teacher fingerprints will look different then insurance license fingerprints. Right? Anyway that has nothing to do with what we do at school... all that is separate. So it will cost a bundle of money! Yay! At least there were free snacks at orientation.

I headed over to California Pizza Kitchen after the orientation meeting because I had a gift card. I ordered a sangria and a barbecue chicken pizza then finished it off by an alcoholic coffee. This was a decent meal and would have been satisfying if that stupid gift card had not expired. Of course they did not believe that it was valid or that I never had used it and advised I ask the person who gave it to me to bring in the reciept. Well... that would be fine if the person who gave it to me had bought the damn thing. So anyway I paid for the meal that I had only ordered because I thought I would not have to pay for it. Had I known I would be out of pocket on this one I would have went to Fuddruckers which was up the road from the place. It would have been much more satisfying.... next time. I went home and watched Old School until I recieved a call to go out. I went to a bar down town and played pool and had a few beverages. It was a nice evening.

I slept in on Sunday and when I got up I had a nice surprise. The sun came out on Sunday..... which seems appropriate considering the name of the day. I wandered through the neighborhood and soaked up some sun. I ended my walkabout with a stop at the Daily (a great coffee, restaurant, market near me) for a cappuccino and then when I got home I hopped in the car to do some shopping for lunches. I ended the night by watching the premiere of the terminator show and the new family guy show. It was the most boring Family Guy episode ever...