Hello again.
I am Heather.
I am a sometimes-Whovian.
"Hello Heather!"
I have not watched a Doctor Who episode in six months.
"Good job! Keep up the good work! Fight the good fight!"
Having dropped my Master's Thesis for the time being, I am considering substitute teaching again while awaiting the results of my interview. Meantime, the mindless drudgery of factory work leaves me free time to write and read and see whatever culture i can get my hands on.
I consider it a win-win situtation, except when I look at the time on the lower right of the computer screen and realize that I have to go and get ready for the above-mentioned mindless drudgery of factory work now.
Perhaps I will post more often.
Hello again. I'm ambivalent about factory drudgery, too. I've subsisted on it a number of times, and it's good in that it gives you steady money, leaves your mind free, and doesn't follow you home after you punch out. But much of the time you feel like a member of the undead. What's your Master's thesis on?
ReplyDeleteFor practical reasons, or out of an extreme idealism on my part, I am exploring the use of literature within the classroom to explore issues of injustice and integrity. The catch-phrase for this would be "addressing anti-bullying issues," or perhaps "Character development," but of course nothing is as simplistic as the administrators would have it, and no one can really address another's character for them.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't help but notice when exploring To Kill a Mockingbird with students that they respond more passionately about these issues than any other. High School students are not so depraved as some of the general public might assume - even the worst of them have a strong sense of justice. In fact, "the worst of them" are more acutely aware of injustice than any others. Oftentimes these are the students who are devestatingly intelligent but frustrated at societal restrictions on their lives. My job often seems to fall toward being the guide who shows them the way out of the hole they've fallen into.
And so I find myself looking at anti-bullying programs currently in use - what they address and how they address it. Then I get to talk about what I really want to talk about: How staggeringly powerful when a special education student with emotional impairment and at a 5th grade reading level can one day stand before a "jury" of his peers and read with passionate certainty that "They're certainly entitled to think that, and they're entitled to full respect for their opinions... but before I can live with other folks I've got to live with myself. The one thing that doesn't abide by majority rule is a person's conscience," or "I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."
Admiring and becoming Atticus Finch meant a lot to this student. It gave him the courage to voice his own convictions and not to worry what anyone else thought.
I would love to see that in all my students.
So I'm either developing a curriculum (Ferris allows "projects" in lieu of papers) or I'm simply researching other curriculum - perhaps a bit of both.
I see. Are you working toward a Masters in Special Education or Spec Ed Administration at Ferris? Are you an intermittent spec ed teacher (I assume you're not teaching now--not full-time, at any rate--if you're doing factory work)?
ReplyDeleteI'll be subbing by day and factory working by night if things don't get a little better. I worry about making enough money substituting, but judging by the paper I should have no shortage of work. My Masters is in Curriculum Design and Evaluation with an Emphasis on the Reading Specialist Endorsement.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I wonder why.
I got into teaching because I love literature.
I'm an English major with a minor in Speech.
I could never be an administrator - it would take me out of the classroom and seems like pure drudgery to me.
I graduated some time ago and have done subbing and permanent subbing ever since, with occasional side-jobs such as this factory business to keep me going.
I almost miss the idea of the Medici family - if a wealthy family were to sponser me, I would do nothing but paint, write, attend concerts and art shows, and travel to other countries - and teach something on the side.
I'm not lazy, mind you - just tired of looking for a job that is more permanent.
Perhaps I was meant to be a Gypsy wanderer all of my days.
Certainly the temptation is there to go off into the woods like Thoreau.
What do you do with yourself professionally? You must most certainly have gotten an education and value it - I gathered from some Blog entry or another that you may have substituted or abjunted at one time or another.
I once taught entry-level English at West Shore Community College. It was an interesting change from the Secondary classroom.
I have a BA in English and an MFA in Creative Writing. I'm certified to teach English and History to grades 7-12, but I have yet to teach in a middle or high school. Until Jan. I was adjuncting at 3 community colleges in Detroit and Ann Arbor--I taught writing. I'm now subbing and applying for teaching jobs. No bites yet except from out of state. I'd like to stay near my family. Tomorrow I'll be the gym teacher all day at Foster Elementary. I'm going to need my voice!
ReplyDeleteLOL. Whenever I substitute in a gym class, I invoke the voice and stance of the infamous Mr. Lindeman, known fondly among former students across the state as "The Wave" due to the amazing heights to which his hair aspired. In a deep voice, he would intone, "Drop and do ten," whenever anyone giggled while in line. I hated gym, but appreciated his personality. He was like a flat character in a short story.
ReplyDeleteYour History certification delights me. I love history. Such interesting people and great stories. My brother is finishing up his Dissertation at FSU (Gaters, not Bulldogs.) He has a degree in Medieval History with an emphasis on Religion. He's writing about the first formally declared athiests in France during some century or another - I'm sure it was all quite fascinating at the beginning, but he's sick of reading about it.
Did you enjoy getting to adjunct in your actual field? I loved teaching English at West Shore, although at the time my job as an Early Childhood Specialist at the local Head Start kept interfering with my lesson planning and somewhat muddied my performance. Time is a thief and a cheat.
I'm applying for teaching jobs as well. I had an interview last week with the MOISD to be a travelling English teacher among the Juvinile Detention facilities - Eagle Village and the like. I'd be good at it, but I'm not entirely certain that I've convinced them of that. They're still contacting references and so forth. I hope Benjamin Franklin was right when he said that he who practices patience can have anything he wants.
I love Ann Arbor. My sister graduated from U of M with a Bachelor of the Arts. Sadly, instead of painting, she works online doing data entry for Western Governer's University. I'll say one thing for the job, though: She knows WAY more about State Standards and Common Core now than I do.
I have two other sisters - One who is a frustrated artist and vet technician (Loves animals) and one who lives here in Manistee at an Adult Foster Care Home. She is part of the reason I live here now rather than in Grand Rapids or Big Rapids. She has TraumaticBrain Injury and has been ill. No one else lives near enough to be there for her.
Does your family live in the area?
Yes, they live in Manistee, as do I--with them, right now.
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the gypsy teaching job. I just applied for a job living in and maintaining a lighthouse in Whitehall--just because I'm not hearing from the teaching jobs I've applied for recently.
Teaching writing for Detroit-area ccs was wonderful, and evidently I'm v. good at it; but I had to take on heavy course loads in order to make enough money, and writing classes entail SO MUCH paper-grading. I was staying up late grading and prepping, drinking too much coffee, stressing out. Eventually I started having panic attacks. At first I didn't know what they were; they feel exactly like a heart attack or stroke. & so I was embroiled in troubles I'm trying to put behind me. But yes, it was great, and I'd like to go back to it under certain conditions.
I got my MFA at U of M and lived in Ann Arbor for many years. It's my kind of town.
Mine, too. I was rather fond of certain areas of Grand Rapids as well - especially during ArtPrize and The Festival of the Arts seasons.
ReplyDeleteI am well acquainted with the mechanics of a panic attack. It's such a difficult thing to understand for people who have never experienced one. I have been fortunate in having the opportunity to downshift a little and get myself back into a state where such things do not occur with any regularity anymore. It's all what comes of us when we don't care for ourselves.
I read about the lighthouse job - sounded interesting. I'm sure it's quite a bit of work and there must be some training involved, but it would be employment and I imagine excellent writing material.