elvenavari

Well... if I went by Yoda's way of looking at it... I guess I "do not". However, since my life isn't Star Wars, I did try. I HAVE tried.

So why is it parents, my mother in my case, believe that no matter what you haven't tried?

Today my mom and I spent the day trying (there's that word again) to complete various tasks. I'll keep this to just education related things, otherwise this entry would probably dominate your f-list. Come Jan. 19th I will be starting classes at K-State to complete my teaching degree. At the end of our visit, which was good and bad, I was making an appt to talk to someone and mom was in the main room on the phone. I overheard her telling the guy that she was on the phone with that my dad wanted to sue UC. For those who don't know, UC is where I attended to get my undergrad degree.

This was news to me. So on the way home I asked mom why my dad wanted to sue UC. Mom said because they lied to me and I was confused. Mom explained that the Education dept at UC did not tell me that I could take the ACT over until I got the score I needed to be admitted into teacher education. Now I was even more confused. I told her, "But they did. I knew that I could either get the score on the ACT or I could take the PRAXIS I and have those scores stand in. I took the ACT while at UC, I got an 18. I need a 21 or higher."

Mom always says that there's no use talking to me because I think I know it all and will defend everything to the death... which is true, when I'm right. Then she said, "The point is, you should have never left UC after 5 years with anything less than 30 Education credits."

I just took a deep breath and said, "Okay mom." I'm not going to fight with her over this. I think I know it all and will defend something to the death, one guess as to where I get that from.

Ding ding ding! If you guessed my mom, you're right. She is the exact same way.

But what she said hurt. She's implying once again, that while at UC I didn't try. I DID try.

UC's Education program is said to be one of the top in the country. Having taken the majority of the classes I have to disagree but that's another story. The Education program ACT requirements are outlined in the course catalog as the following:

Present an official ACT composite score of 21 or an SAT composite score of at least 990 or a PPST score of
Reading 173, Writing 172, Math 173.
NOTE: Students must have passed the ACT, SAT or PPST as specified above before taking any 300+ level
professional education courses, as well as, to be admitted to the Teacher Education Program.

The PPST is the PRAXIS I.

Now, that said, while at UC I took courses related to Secondary Education because I don't have the patience to teach little kids. The classes required for Secondary Education are as follows:

SECONDARY EDUCATION
The Department of Education in cooperation with other departments offers courses leading to certification to teach in grades 8-12. Individual programs should be planned in partnership with the student’s major advisor and education advisor. The professional education courses which are required include:
BMIS 130 Introduction to Application Software
EDUC 235 Basic Concepts Concerning Education
PSYC 232 Psychology of Human Development
PSYC 238 Psychology of Learning and Exceptionality
SPED 233 Survey of Individuals with Exceptionalities (P-12)
EDUC 237 Effective Teaching Practices- (8-12)
EDUC 331 Studies in Education: Special Topics
EDUC 432 Fundamentals of Secondary Education (Prerequisite: Formal admission to Teacher Education.)
EDUC 492 Supervised Student Teaching: Secondary Education

Let me point something out again.

NOTE: Students must have passed the ACT, SAT or PPST as specified above before taking any 300+ level
professional education courses, as well as, to be admitted to the Teacher Education Program.

I took every Education class up to the EDUC 237 point. I had to stop there. Why? BECAUSE I DIDN'T HAVE THE TEST SCORE REQUIREMENT. At UC there is no way around that.

Also, all those classes (With the exception of Student Teaching) are worth 3 credit hours. Student Teaching is worth 12 credit hours. That means that the Secondary Education degree is 24 credit hours (add the Student Teaching and it's 36).

Now, remember the note. So take off the two classes I couldn't take due to not meeting the requirement. That's 18 credit hours AND I took ALL of them.

For Secondary Education you also have to take classes in an area of discipline. My discipline was Art and English. I completed BOTH of these because none of those classes require a test score.

Unless one of you can point out something I'm missing, I TRIED. I did everything I could while at UC.

So why is it my mother can still drive me to the point of wanting to commit homicide?

This morning after my first class it felt like everything in my life, at least school wise, was about ready to crash and burn. I'll go into more detail later but after my class I sat for 30 minutes convincing myself that I was not going to cry.

Part of me wished for someone to talk to, just to be able to rant... whatever. But the other part I just wanted to be left alone. I hate crying in front of others, hate burdening people with my own (seemingly unimportant) concerns. If someone had sat down with me and asked how I was I know that would have been the outcome.

Thank you to Luke who told me I looked pretty today. He started to turn my day around.

Spanish was great, it always is. Senora just has that spark about her that makes everything interesting and fun.

And then there's American Lit. Normally I don't look forward to this class. According to my prof if I want to be a truly successful writer I have to become one of the following; gay, an alcoholic, crazy or a combination of the three (I'll be uber popular then).

But today we were talking about Langston Hughes... probably the only poet I enjoy more than Emily Dickinson. My prof has a habit of making me hate the people we talk about... today really wasn't all that different but I don't think that even he can stop my love for Langston Hughes.

I'm just curious but did anyone else know that Led Zepllian (sp) is considered Blues, at least in my prof's book. Cause... I didn't.

Also, Elvis was a major Blues singer. Hmm... "King of Rock N' Roll" anyone?

My prof also gave our papers back. I chose to do my first paper on Mark Twain, whom I enjoy. I got an A! Yes, this is the light at the end of my tunnel for today. My prof did make a mistake by correcting a quote although it's not how you would originally think.

"There are several kinds of stories, but only one difficult kind - the humorous. I will talk mainly about that one. The humorous story is American, the comic story is English, the witty story is French. The humorous story depends for its effect upon the manner of the telling; the comic story and the witty story upon the matter." -Mark Twain

At the point of "I will talk mainly about that one" my prof did the following... (I will talk main about that one) - Avoid... just go into your analysis. My prof corrected Mark Twain! I don't think he realized that he was still in the quote... -_-;; This quote was from Twain's piece entitled "How to Tell a Story" and yet my prof told me that I should have used a quote from one of his work's...

Oh well I got an A and it made my day.

I will now work on my Comp Imaging piece inspired by Langston Hughes' poem "I, Too, Sing America".

"I'm not concerned about all hell breaking loose, but that a PART of hell will break loose... it'll be much harder to detect." - George Carlin

You always know that it’s going to be a good entry when I start off by saying that I hate someone right? Right. Well I HATE my education advisor Mrs. Patrick. This woman treats me like I’m a complete and utter idiot. I may not have any interest in teaching and the only reason I’m getting my teaching degree is so I can be a librarian in a high school system but I am not an idiot when it comes to school. Sure, there are some subjects I don’t get… like math, bleh. But when it comes to planning what classes I have to take and when, I know what I’m doing. I know that to take this class “Studies in Education” that I have to either have a 21 on the ACT or pass the 3 sections of the Praxis I. As such when I ask, “Do I need ‘Studies in Education’ to take ‘Intro to Effective Teaching’?” I am looking for a simple yes or no answer, at least I think it’s a simple question to answer but nooooooo, I get “As I have explained before you need a 21 or higher to take ‘Studies in Education’.” Is it just me or does that not answer my question in the slightest? This isn’t the first time this woman hasn’t answered a question of mine and what really gets me is her tone. You know how you can just hear a person’s tone even through writing? Well her’s is completely condescending and no I do not appreciate it when I am being as respectful as possible because that is the way I was raised. Not only that but she doesn’t know me in the slightest! She has been my Education advisor for three years and she still doesn’t know that I’m an Art Education major and English minor. Sure I have switched them back and forth a couple of times but I have never added anything else but the Education part. When I go to her at the end of last semester for her to approve my classes she takes one look at the copy that my Art advisor (whom I l-o-v-e) and I had put together and then looks at me and in one of the most stuck up tones I have ever heard asks, “Why are you taking all these Art classes? Why are you taking all these English classes?” I really wanted to smack her but instead I just looked back at her and said, “Maybe because I’m an Art Education major and English minor?” >.< I mean really! Okay… that’s out of my system… for now.

I love Karen. She was my RA last year in Asher and I was very sad to hear that she had been moved to Gillespie this year but the good thing is that we had one class together last semester and three together this semester. Last semester we took one Saturday and had an LOTR marathon. So. Much. Fun. Yes, we are complete Tolkienites and yes I totally laid on her bottom bunk while she was on the top and sent her LOTR facts on Facebook while we were watching it. I will miss her so much when she graduates this spring.

You know… there’s a point in everyone’s life it seems where they lose that thing that makes them innocent. No, I’m not talking about virginity. I think this innocence is lost when the person stops believing in Santa Clause, the Easter Bunny and other such figures that bring us such joy when we are younger. Well I am going to type it out right here and now. I still believe in Santa Clause and at this point in my life I think I always will. Whether or not Santa Clause is a real person who rides around in a sleigh one night a year is not the real question because maybe there is, maybe there isn’t. It is however the thought. A single person that donates a gift to a child in need could be considered Santa Clause in my book.

If anyone reads my fanfics on here you might have noticed that I’ve joined a new fandom. I’ve been a fan of Blood Ties since I saw a few episodes of the show on Lifetime and even more so once I read the books. I haven’t written much for it yet but I hope to delve much deeper into once I find the time.

Thanksgiving break was a much needed break. I was really beginning to miss my family… like hardcore. This past semester was the worst for homesickness that I’ve had since I went off to college. I went home nearly each weekend between fall break and Thanksgiving break aside from two I think. I was so glad to be home. The one bad thing about this break was the homework. It’s just wrong when professor’s assign homework over a break. I don’t think professors understand the meaning of the word, “Break”. Oh well… I think I got it all done.

My cousin who is six months younger than me is now married. She didn’t tell anyone, not even her parents until they had already said “I do”. Eric is almost 20 years older than her (although he looks 29) and is in the Secret Service. I know, how lucky. He’s a really nice guy; the family met him over Thanksgiving break. He’s completely crazy about my cousin from what I can tell and I’m really happy for her. At my gran’s for our Thanksgiving dinner Kaylee (my cousin in guess you didn’t guess) was being very secretive. She had this small piece of paper that was rolled up tightly and after the meal she started passing it around to a select few. Ultrasound pics… yup Kaylee is pregnant. This time next year she will have a baby of her own. It’s really hard to believe. No, I don’t think that’s the reason they got married without saying anything to anyone. I think that she was already pregnant but didn’t know it when she said those words.

This year I attended my very first anime convention. It was a very small one; this was its first year. Kajonk-A-Con was so much fun! My friends Lexi and Whitney went with me, they played a new role playing game for the majority of the time that we were there. The best part about KAC was that I got to meet my online friend Frobsy. We weren’t shy at all either, that was what made it so great. We were talking on our cells while she was in the elevator and once the doors opened we hung up and ran at each other. It was a total tackle/glomp. ^_^ We had to leave soon after that, which was very sad, but was snowing and the road to get back to school can be very treacherous when it snows so we didn’t want to take any chances. Frobsy and I are trying to work it out so she can come stay a weekend with me at school. It’ll be so much fun if we can work it out.

I think I mentioned… or ranted… about Dr. Eskay in my last entry. Well he decided that he was first going to give us our final on the Thursday before finals week but we still had to come in on the Thursday of finals week to turn in our notebook. The second he said that we all looked at each other and said, “No” as a class. Other than his final I was done on Tuesday and if all I had to stay for was to turn in a stupid notebook… SCREW THAT. After nearly a full class period we convinced him that it was just better to have everything due the Thursday that he wanted us to take our final. He agreed –finally- but then the next class… we had to discuss it again, all because the MWF class would only have an hour to take the final and we had 30 minutes more being the TTH class. We agreed to take it in one hour and that settled that but we still had to discuss everything. The Tuesday before our final he had totally forgotten that we were supposed to have our final the next class meeting and we had to remind him. Another thing was the way he did our study guide this time. At midterm we went over our study guide and he told us the correct answers but for the final study guide he refused because “this wasn’t high school”. Instead he wanted to do the process of elimination, which is all fine and dandy IF you tell what the right answer is at the end but nooooo. He would read the question someone would answer, if they got it right he would say “Proceed”, if not then he would say, “Alright, process of elimination, take away A… take away D.” Someone would then choose between B & C but he would not tell us which was right but we’d proceed anyway. I did not study for this final. There’s no point in studying the wrong answers.

Lexi and I got away from the college campus for a night. We went to Huddle House and stayed for nearly 3 hours just talking and laughing. When we got ready to leave the manager asked us if we had noticed the angel’s on the door at the back. We hadn’t so he took us to the door and told us about the various angel’s then actually took us into the back of Huddle House and showed us all the things they had collected thus far, nearly $4000 worth of stuff! Lexi and I agreed to split an angel for a 14 year old girl. We went out and bought her three shirts, two pairs of jeans, some socks and a whole slew of books. We totally made her a rocker. XD

My finals this past semester were pretty easy. I think my Drawing final was my best. Mr. Weedman told us that we could draw anything we wanted, using any medium, as long as it represented something important to us. I played with the idea of drawing my parents but then I realized that I wouldn’t be home long enough to draw them and I don’t think I could get them to sit still long enough. After that my mom suggested that I draw books since I love them but I couldn’t really figure what to do with them. After my family and books my friends are the most important things to me so I decided to draw something that represented our suite. Here is the final product:


Also for your viewing pleasure (hopefully), here is my final figure drawing from class. I wanted to use different colors, one’s that stood out from each other nicely and this is how it turned out:


Christmas break was great. Lexi and I were able to leave on Tuesday afternoon; I was going to take her to the airport in Lexington the next day so she could go home to Arizona. It was great to be home and know that I didn’t have to go back to school until January. Lexi and I got lost on the way to the airport but since I didn’t know where I was going I had allowed about an hour extra just in case. After I got her to the airport I waited to make sure they were going to let her on the plane then I headed back to Frankfort to see one of my fave people at the place where I had worked two summers ago. She retired Dec. 31st; if I ever get to go back there I will miss her muchly.

Over break I got my PPST scores. I dunno if I mentioned it last time or not but I had to make a 172, 173 and 173 on the sections of Reading, Writing & Math to take certain Education classes. I received a 178 in Reading, a 168 in Writing and a 166 in Math. I was sad that I didn’t pass the other two sections but I was also pleased by how well I had done. The good thing about the PPST is that I don’t have to take each section over, once I pass a section I only have to take the one’s I didn’t pass again.

Another thing I did over break that I do every year is stand in my town’s Living Nativity. It was very cold and my cheeks got wind burn but I always feel so good after doing it. If I have anything to say about it I will stand every year unless I’m sick.

End note: Final grades; B, B, B, C, E. The E was in Convo but I got 96 hours so I'm not required to take it anymore! Boo-ya!