There hasn't been a whole lot going on with me lately. I had my meeting with the dean. That was good I guess. He didn't really solve anything I don't think but it was very stress relieving, and just a good release, to get everything out to him about that professor. He did listen and told me that he would set up a meeting with her. So maybe stuff will change...idk.
Long distance sucks. In case you were wondering. I hate it so much. But it's okay. I'll survive haha.
Recently I received a letter from a good friend that was one of the most encouraging things ever. I don't really know how to explain it because most people don't really understand what I needed encouragement about, but she did. It was beautiful. And I can honestly say that it has helped me tremendously over the last couple of weeks. Friends are great things to have.
This is an incredibly short choppy post. I just wanted to update but didn't have a big thing to talk about. Just lots of little things haha. Okay. Bye.
-Kristina
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Meeting with the Dean
This semester, and last also, I have had continuous issues with one of my professors. She is totally unclear and seems to be clueless about everything relating to her class. For example, here's how an e-mail conversation went between her and I.
Me: Webct says our lesson on Phonemic Awareness is due tomorrow but our syllabus says that it's due next week, which is the correct date?
Prof: That subject is okay.
Me: Uh. So is it due tomorrow then?
Prof: Ok.
If anyone can make sense of that conversation please let me know. She's also the professor from the beginning of the year who said, "I'm not going to teach you how to teach." Which is exactly what the class is for. Here's another conversation that she had with a student in class.
Dana: I don't have a field placement yet, so who do I teach the lesson to?
Prof: Well what school are you at?
Dana: Um. I don't have a field placement yet?
Anytime we ask her a question she completely avoids the question. It's very annoying and makes it impossible for us to know what we need to do. I'm definintely not learning anything about how to teach reading from this teacher.
Yesterday I decided that I want to talk to someone above her about her teaching. While I know that professors have tenure and all that crap and so her getting fired is highly unlikely, I would like to at least bring it to the Deans attention that she is an awful professor. I have no idea what will come of it. But I am armed with examples haha. And I know that my whole class will back me up.
So, Friday, at 1:30 I'm going to talk to the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. The little interaction that I've had with him hasn't gone over too well in the past. But I know that he is where I need to start at least. This probably sounds childish that I'm going to "tell on the teacher." But I think that it is a serious problem. She is teaching reading methods and math methods and those two subjects are the hardest subjects to teach, and most important with NCLB guidelines. I'll keep you updated on how it goes.
-Kristina
Me: Webct says our lesson on Phonemic Awareness is due tomorrow but our syllabus says that it's due next week, which is the correct date?
Prof: That subject is okay.
Me: Uh. So is it due tomorrow then?
Prof: Ok.
If anyone can make sense of that conversation please let me know. She's also the professor from the beginning of the year who said, "I'm not going to teach you how to teach." Which is exactly what the class is for. Here's another conversation that she had with a student in class.
Dana: I don't have a field placement yet, so who do I teach the lesson to?
Prof: Well what school are you at?
Dana: Um. I don't have a field placement yet?
Anytime we ask her a question she completely avoids the question. It's very annoying and makes it impossible for us to know what we need to do. I'm definintely not learning anything about how to teach reading from this teacher.
Yesterday I decided that I want to talk to someone above her about her teaching. While I know that professors have tenure and all that crap and so her getting fired is highly unlikely, I would like to at least bring it to the Deans attention that she is an awful professor. I have no idea what will come of it. But I am armed with examples haha. And I know that my whole class will back me up.
So, Friday, at 1:30 I'm going to talk to the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. The little interaction that I've had with him hasn't gone over too well in the past. But I know that he is where I need to start at least. This probably sounds childish that I'm going to "tell on the teacher." But I think that it is a serious problem. She is teaching reading methods and math methods and those two subjects are the hardest subjects to teach, and most important with NCLB guidelines. I'll keep you updated on how it goes.
-Kristina
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Marriage, through the eyes of a 5th grader
Once a week I go and observe a 5th grade classroom at Mark Twain Elementary. While I'm only with my students for a short time. I have learned to love them each so much already. They are just such a great group of kids. There's Michael T., who has diabetes, and is constantly looking for and noticing how many sugars and carbs are in everything, even food that he isn't eating. There's Trevor, who has had a very rough home life, his mom is a meth cook, his dad is a leader of a gang in Tulsa. He told Mrs. Morgan that while his dad's gang robs stores in Tulsa, his job is to stand outside and be a lookout. Yet, Trevor is usually pretty happy. I think the resiliency in kids is incredible.
Which brings me to the topic of this post. Kids can teach us such valuable lessons I think. Their purity and love for life is incredible to me. But it's their simple-mindedness that I think we can learn from. They are so straight-forward and don't feel the need to make thinks so complex. Every morning, the fifth graders have journal time. They each pull out their journals and basically just free-write for a few minutes. They aren't restricted on what they can write about so as you can imagine some of the entries get pretty crazy.
As I was walking around the room, I noticed one girl, Trinity, was particularly smiley. She looked almost giddy as she wrote in her journal. I decided that I wanted to see what was so funny, so I casually walked around behind her to read over her shoulder. "Dear Mya," it started. It drew my interest because there was a girl in the class named Mya. I almost said something about how she needed to not be writing notes, but I decided hey, it's free writing, let her carry on. So I continued reading instead, "Michael H is my future husband. He's so smart and funny. We're going to get married."
I smiled and moved on to the next journal. I didn't really give it much more thought until later in the day. Recently, I've been thinking about it even more. Why do adults make relationships so complicated? I think much can be learned from Trinity. Now, i know the chances of Trinity and Michael actually getting married are next to none, but still. I think she knows what she wants from her future husband already. She wants someone smart, who makes her laugh. That's so simple. Adults request so much more. We want someone with money, or someone who has a college degree, or someone who doesn't like onions. Why can't it be more simple?
I think this has been on my mind because I realize how much I expect out of people. Especially Lucas. I know that I am usually asking for too much, but for some reason I continue asking for too much, and then getting disappointed. The reason I fell in love with Lucas isn't that much different than Trinity's love for Michael. Lucas is smart, he makes me laugh, he cares about me, and he cares about God. These are the things that are most important to me and so I'm going to try to step back and see those things in him, instead of continually asking for more.
I don't really know if that makes any sense. Possibly not. But to me it does. And to me, it was a good reminder of what is important to me in my relationship with Lucas.
-Kristina
Which brings me to the topic of this post. Kids can teach us such valuable lessons I think. Their purity and love for life is incredible to me. But it's their simple-mindedness that I think we can learn from. They are so straight-forward and don't feel the need to make thinks so complex. Every morning, the fifth graders have journal time. They each pull out their journals and basically just free-write for a few minutes. They aren't restricted on what they can write about so as you can imagine some of the entries get pretty crazy.
As I was walking around the room, I noticed one girl, Trinity, was particularly smiley. She looked almost giddy as she wrote in her journal. I decided that I wanted to see what was so funny, so I casually walked around behind her to read over her shoulder. "Dear Mya," it started. It drew my interest because there was a girl in the class named Mya. I almost said something about how she needed to not be writing notes, but I decided hey, it's free writing, let her carry on. So I continued reading instead, "Michael H is my future husband. He's so smart and funny. We're going to get married."
I smiled and moved on to the next journal. I didn't really give it much more thought until later in the day. Recently, I've been thinking about it even more. Why do adults make relationships so complicated? I think much can be learned from Trinity. Now, i know the chances of Trinity and Michael actually getting married are next to none, but still. I think she knows what she wants from her future husband already. She wants someone smart, who makes her laugh. That's so simple. Adults request so much more. We want someone with money, or someone who has a college degree, or someone who doesn't like onions. Why can't it be more simple?
I think this has been on my mind because I realize how much I expect out of people. Especially Lucas. I know that I am usually asking for too much, but for some reason I continue asking for too much, and then getting disappointed. The reason I fell in love with Lucas isn't that much different than Trinity's love for Michael. Lucas is smart, he makes me laugh, he cares about me, and he cares about God. These are the things that are most important to me and so I'm going to try to step back and see those things in him, instead of continually asking for more.
I don't really know if that makes any sense. Possibly not. But to me it does. And to me, it was a good reminder of what is important to me in my relationship with Lucas.
-Kristina
Monday, September 6, 2010
Refusals
I have a few things that I'm having to struggle hard to refuse right now. But I'm surviving. I just want to talk about it so I can feel more confident in my no's.
School Stress
I vowed to make this semster calmer, to not take on so many things, and to just relax instead of becoming completely overwhelmed by school and what comes with it. I'm only two weeks into the semester and it's been incredibly difficult to stay true to this. I will be so glad when my methods classes are over. It's hard to handle one of my professors and this should be the last time I have to answer to her like this. She makes no sense in the way she teaches and I feel like it's impossible for me to learn anything from her.
Relationship Stress
For the first time in a very long time, I feel very confident in the friendships that I do have. I feel like I can lean on them when things to happen and they will actually care It's very nice. So this stress, is a lot easier for me to say no to. I don't have to stress about these things.
Jealousy
Staying supportive and happy for all of my friends who are getting married is getting harder and harder. I am still very happy for them, it's just so hard to not be jealous. It sucks seeing everyone else getting something that I want so badly. So, I really need prayer to stay happy with my life and where it's at right now, regardless of how difficult it is.
Sex
I'll be honest. No one reads this blog anyways haha. So I'll talk about my "tabou" issues. Yes, I'm 21 and have been in a relationship for 3 years, but I'm still a virgin. In a culture that says people should have sex, this is incredibly difficult. So please, if you do happen to read this, pray for me in that. I need all the support I can get in saying no.
Short-temper
For awhile I was doing really get at staying patient and slow to get angry. That seems to have all dissapeared. I need to gain my patience back cause I was much happier with that.
I think that's all I have for you for now. Thanks for reading.
-Kristina
School Stress
I vowed to make this semster calmer, to not take on so many things, and to just relax instead of becoming completely overwhelmed by school and what comes with it. I'm only two weeks into the semester and it's been incredibly difficult to stay true to this. I will be so glad when my methods classes are over. It's hard to handle one of my professors and this should be the last time I have to answer to her like this. She makes no sense in the way she teaches and I feel like it's impossible for me to learn anything from her.
Relationship Stress
For the first time in a very long time, I feel very confident in the friendships that I do have. I feel like I can lean on them when things to happen and they will actually care It's very nice. So this stress, is a lot easier for me to say no to. I don't have to stress about these things.
Jealousy
Staying supportive and happy for all of my friends who are getting married is getting harder and harder. I am still very happy for them, it's just so hard to not be jealous. It sucks seeing everyone else getting something that I want so badly. So, I really need prayer to stay happy with my life and where it's at right now, regardless of how difficult it is.
Sex
I'll be honest. No one reads this blog anyways haha. So I'll talk about my "tabou" issues. Yes, I'm 21 and have been in a relationship for 3 years, but I'm still a virgin. In a culture that says people should have sex, this is incredibly difficult. So please, if you do happen to read this, pray for me in that. I need all the support I can get in saying no.
Short-temper
For awhile I was doing really get at staying patient and slow to get angry. That seems to have all dissapeared. I need to gain my patience back cause I was much happier with that.
I think that's all I have for you for now. Thanks for reading.
-Kristina
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