Denise Stewart asked for Alternative Writing Ideas on the Classroom 2.0 Ning… and wow did she get a lot of good responses! A lot of teachers suggest blogging or other internet-based activities. It’s interesting to see how teachers are so focused on integrating technology in their classrooms these days… when even three years ago when I was in high school, it seemed that the most technology we ever used was PowerPoint!

And here, Lisa Neilsen asks about setting up a Ning-like network for elementary students. I never would have thought about using such a thing for students that young… and one of the replies, from Nancy Bosch, brings up an excellent point. She says, “there are too many nooks and crannies… All it would take is one crude comment or an innapropriate picture or pirated music download to get a teacher in big trouble.“ She has an excellent point. though a part of me finds it difficult to believe that elementary students would post anything inappropriate… but that could just by my naive hope in the innocence of children.

Aaaannnd moving over to the English Companion Ning, we find Leandra Pouncy asking about incorporating “fun” in the classroom. A lot of the responses deal with test prep, since that’s where teachers typically use techniques like review game shows and such to introduce a “fun” element. I’m a fan of the “basketball” game idea explained by Marie G. She uses it with a class of struggling readers to get them engaged in reading and enhance their comprehension. It sounds cool! Review games were always a favorite part of school for myself and many of my peers, so I’m glad that fellow teachers are taking the time to think ahead about things like this! Someone named Marcos warns not to “fall into the trap of feeling like you have to entertain [your students],” which I understand, but at the same time I do feel that it’s the teacher’s responsibility to keep her students engaged. “Fun” activities do this in a very easy way!

And here, my classmate Amber Henry asks for advice about student choice in the classroom. There are only 4 responses so far, but most warn not to give too much choice, stating that sometimes choice and open prompts cause students to take fewer risks and that explicit guidelines often give students the kind of push they need. I agree with this, although that’s likely because I am such a student. I need very clear guidelines and instructions in order to work (which is why I have had such issues with this PLN project…). Not every student is like me, however, which will be important for me to remember when I’m in the classroom.

So in an effort to distract myself from the rest of that conversation, I’d like to take a few moments to ponder this idea of “being” a teacher.

I have defined myself as a teacher in some capacity since some time in high school – likely around 11th grade. Throughout my life I have been the person who changes others. I set people on new paths – whether that path is positive or negative is up to the individual, not me – and introduce people to new ways of thinking, feeling, believing, living. I teach people who are willing to learn, people who need to learn, people who want to learn… even if they don’t consciously know it. I’ve always done this. Even my mother, who discussed this with me some months ago, tells me that I’ve been born to teach and help or change others; that I’ve been doing it since as early as kindergarten with the friends I chose and the interactions I had with them. (She told me it used to worry her, that she feared I would be hurt by it someday… but she also said I’m old enough now to handle myself. A nice little ego boost, there.)

So that’s what I am – a teacher. A changer of people. A signpost, a map, a gps. I was born for it, I’ve always done it, and now I’m at Penn State studying to make it my profession. How many people in the world can say they know what their purpose in life is? How many people can say they know why they were put on this Earth? How many people can say with confidence that their profession is also their passion? I’m one of those lucky ones who can say all of those things.

I want to teach because I want to inspire. I want to help my students grow. I want to guide them in new directions and watch as they gather the confidence to strike out on their own. I want to show them their own power, and encourage them to do great things. I will change the world through my students.

Now, to go back to the conversation I mentioned in the first paragraph, this is not to say I don’t have other hobbies, interests, ideas, etc. I have a deep love and appreciation for music, art, nature; I have a keen interest in the human experience, psychology, literature, photography; I have an affinity for needlecrafts, fashion, interior design. All of these interests can stand alone. But I often choose to align them with my passion for teaching to enhance and improve my teaching. That’s what a good teacher does – she uses her talents and interests to the advantage of her students.

But a good teacher also learns from her students, and I have had more than my fair share of lessons from others. In that sense, we are all teachers somehow – we all affect one another, impart new knowledge, offer a different perspective. (Some are more aware of it than others.)  I take my lessons learned to heart as much as I can, and try to use them to improve myself as a friend, daughter, woman, and teacher. I am far from any definition of “perfect” and I am certainly not “always right,” but I strive to be. That’s all anyone can ever do, and if we do try, we will become better persons for it.

I am a teacher; I am an educator; I am a friend; I am a leader. I am who and what I am – I can never be anything else. I will never apologize for that, and I owe explanations to no one.

So I realized that I haven’t discussed my Inquiry project (for Elsie Olan’s LL ED 411 course) here yet, and it’s a pretty important topic. I’m researching assessment – specifically standardized testing/assessment and it’s impact on administration and teacher practices. Assessment is kind of my baby; my pet project; my pet peeve. I love it and I hate it. So of course I’d want to study it.

What I’ve found so far is that most teachers seem to feel the same way. It’s a strange thing, standardized assessment… it’s beneficial in some ways, but extraordinarily detrimental in others. On the one hand, how else can we as a nation determine whether or not our youth are learning the appropriate information and in the appropriate amounts at the appropriate rates? How else can we objectively evaluate each and every student? But on the other hand, standardized tests eliminate the individuality of each student as a learner; that is, every student learns differently and processes information differently, and that is often not accounted for on standardized assessments. In addition, test preparation distracts teachers from other potentially vital information in their curricula and from what I’ve seen promotes the lazy habit of “teaching to the test” (which may not be so much caused by laziness as it is pressure from the district/school to ensure that students perform well to earn federal funds… a subject for another time).

So you see why this is such a hot-button issue for teachers and why so many of us are torn between liking standardized assessments and hating them. And then from there we can get into the merits or (SEVERE) dysfunction of NCLB… and that’s a whole different ball game. The general consensus seems to be that we all like what NCLB tries to do… we just abhor how it does it. For example: someone please tell me how it makes sense to deny funding to schools that perform poorly on standardized tests. Those should be the schools that receive the most funding, because they’re most likely inner-city, underdeveloped, socioeconomically challenged… in short, in need of the most help. Schools in wealthy areas score well because they’re well-funded and can pay for the best teachers, equipment, etc… as it is said, “you get what you pay for.” It’s a capitalist system… well, not quite, but in a manner of speaking it kind of is. (Let’s not get started on that, though.)

There’s a lot that starts flowing into my mind when I start writing one of these blogs… but for the sake of coherency and cohesion I’ll save it for another time. I have a lot of strong opinions, though. I wonder if my tendency to be opinionated will ever get me in trouble in the future…?

Those two screenshots are from my blog’s stat page.

Today we’re supposed to evaluate ourselves on our PLN work, and basically give ourselves a grade – which we can improve on. I’m glad for the last part, because in the spirit of being honest I really don’t deserve a good grade right now. I’m extraordinarily inconsistent with working on my PLN and blogging… I have 9 entries, which is just under one a week I think, though it doesn’t work out that way perfectly. I’d give myself a C on that, maybe even a C-. I need to get up to at least 1 entry a week, but 2 or 3 would be ideal. Quality I’d rate myself a little higher on, because while my blogs do get a little personal sometimes, I always end up discussing something with regards to my PLN, educational philosophy, and/or my teacher disposition. I think that as long as the entries have something to do with one of those topics, it’s a good one. And I’ve had some really thoughtful moments, too. I’ll go with a B on that, then. Now, compared to my classmates? Well. I know some people haven’t even been as consistent as I have, so I’m not at the bottom of the ladder, but I also know that some are way ahead. So I’m going to go with a C+ on that. And finally, for conversations through other sites… well, I’ve lurked thus far and not said anything, so right now I have a big fat “0″ in that category. It’s what I need to work on most.

This little personal report finally gives me something to measure this PLN work, however, so in the coming weeks I’ll be able to improve upon it and get myself up to a higher grade. I’ve struggled a lot with this project because I didn’t know how it was going to be evaluated and thus didn’t know how hard I needed to work on it. Now I have a better picture.

Spring Break was last week. And it was great. A week at home with my family is always nice, and a week without classes is even nicer. I did a TON of reading. No kidding. I finished off both You Gotta Be the Book! and Teaching English By Design, in addition to Because Writing Matters and some short stories. That’s three whole classes worth of reading! I also read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, which I’ll discuss in a bit.

The conclusion to Wilhelm’s book wasn’t as exciting as the rest of it, for some reason. It felt as though it ran out of steam. I may reread the last chapter (if I find the time…) just to review it, but it almost felt a little anti-climactic. I dunno. Catching up and finishing Smagorinsky, though, was fantastic. I’d fallen behind on that particular assigned reading, so I was eager for the opportunity to catch up. I’m probably just as enamored with that book as I am with Wilhelm, perhaps even more so, because it actually gives you ideas to use. Not that Wilhelm doesn’t, but Smagorinsky has so much more. I read that book and get these fantastic pictures in my head of how I would use different activities in my classroom, and design lesson plans… the chapters about administration’s role was even interesting to me. And there’s an entire unit plan in the last chapter! It’s great!!

So, overall, I’m very impressed with the two books. I’m glad they were required readings for LL ED 420, and they’re probably the most useful books I’ve had to buy in my entire college career thus far. Definitely keepers! (Oh goodness, I couldn’t imagine selling them back!!) I have this feeling that in my first few years of teaching, I’ll be pulling them out to use at least once a day… heh.

I also received word over break that I will be student teaching next spring in the Pittsburgh region. I can’t say I’m not a little disappointed to have to leave State College a semester early, but I’m also not unhappy about the placement. If all goes well I can live at home during student teaching, which will save me GOBS of money. After finding out my placement I talked to my best friend from home, who is currently student teaching in the Derry Area School District, about her experiences so far. She’s having a blast, and had some great pointers about how to keep kids in line. Talking to her about teaching is always fun, because we have an equal passion for it and enjoy bouncing ideas off of one another. I also talked to my best friend from here at PSU, who is going for Spanish Ed, about teaching and her degree program. She’s already been in classrooms for two semesters, and never had any formal classes about how to teach or how to make lesson plans and such… she said that she was given a template and told to run with it. My gut reaction to this is: “…LAME.” Granted, her degree program is for K-12, so I can see why the program would throw them in and say “GO!”. It would be difficult to teach them all of the skills necessary for each age level. But still, I can’t help but think that the SecEd English program is better… I’m biased, of course, but even a friend of mine in the Math Ed program doesn’t seem to get the training we do. (Then again, he could be getting it and just doesn’t pay attention. I can’t trust him as a source too much.)

And now, for the activity that completely DEVOURED my time over break: Atlas Shrugged. I’d been told to read it back in September, tried, got about 50 pages in, and quit. I thought it was impossible. But my boyfriend, determined to get me to read the book, made me promise to read it over break. So I did, and wow am I glad! It’s 1069 pages of pure awesome. Subject matter aside, it’s written extraordinarily well. Rand’s style is kind of like Emily Bronte: it takes some getting used to, but once you get it it’s as easy a s breathing. Well, for me, anyway. But that’s beside the point.

I love that book! I think it has a lot of great ideas and values that students and adults alike can (and should) adopt to better their lives. And it’s a great commentary on political practices… even the practices of today. In fact, especially the practices of today. Pardon my political bias.

Actually, no. Don’t pardon it. This is something I’ve always been peeved with, even while I was in high school. What’s with this idea that teachers aren’t allowed to have a political opinion? I remember my tenth grade world history teacher constantly hedging our questions about what he thought, because he couldn’t show a bias in the classroom. This practice is complete and utter junk. There is no such thing as an unbiased classroom. A teacher is a person, and a person’s ideals, values, beliefs, etc. affect every choice he/she makes. What’s wrong with stating your opinion? Students want to know. If you make your case with rational arguments and sound evidence, and give due acknowledgment of the opposing opinion, I don’t see the problem. It certainly applies to history classrooms, but English classrooms are just as subject to the issue. I can barely recall a mere handful of times we ever discussed an author’s agenda or bias when reading a text in my English classes. This is bogus! Every author writes with a purpose, and it’s not just “to inform” or “to entertain”! There’s a third one in that list, “to pursuade,” and even works of fiction can be written with this purpose – Atlas Shrugged most certainly is!

…All right, I’ll get off of my soapbox now. Haha.

In other news, I thought I’d take a moment to rave about the English Companion Ning. I spent a good three hours or so on it one morning before break just browsing forums for the 420 Wiki project. I AM IN LOVE. Finally this PLN thing is starting to make sense to me – if nothing else, it introduced me to this wonderful Ning and the invaluable resources it has to offer. Wheee, connection to fellow teachers! There’s so much information here, and as a preservice/new teacher there’s a TON of stuff that veteran teachers can offer advice on! It makes me so happy! There’s threads about how to teach specific books, there’s threads about how to handle rowdy kids (or rowdy parents!), there’s threads about choosing new books… it makes me so excited!

I think this Ning will become my springboard for the rest of my PLN. As I strive to be more active in building said PLN, I’m going to find persons on the ECN to follow on Twitter, and through them blogs to subscribe to in my RSS reader, and add them to my LinkedIn list.

See? Told ya it was finally making sense to me!

Something my mom said over break also helped this PLN thing to click. She’s always been about the networking idea, telling my brother and me to make friends in high places, meet as many people as possible, yada yada yada so that when we go to find jobs, we have a web of people to whom we can go for advice, help, favors, whatever. She was expounding on this a little one afternoon, talking about how Penn State is the best network out there, since PSU grads tend to hire PSU grads, and with so many PSU grads out there it’s next to impossible not to run into one when searching for a job. So I’ve got that going for me, sure. But then I started thinking, “Wow, this PLN thing could seriously help me out… not just for getting a job, but once I have one, I might already know someone in the area! WHOAH!” Epiphany moment! Haha! So now that this project actually makes sense to me, I’m going to do my best to turn over a new leaf and work harder on it. I have a lot of work for my other classes in the coming weeks, but my goal is to work on this for at least a few hours a week. Aside from this morning, I plan to spend a big chunk of time on it this weekend (I’m locking myself in the library for as much of Saturday and Sunday as possible).

(Even though I’ve been terrible at being consistent with it, I like this blog thing. I can ramble and rant… but with a purpose. It’s fun!)

If you didn’t already know.

First of all, I’m obsessed with our LL ED 420 text by Wilhelm. Every time I start into a chapter assignment, I find myself engrossed in the pages. I feel like I’m having a conversation with Wilhelm, and instead of him talking at me he’s talking with me as a colleague and fellow teacher. And he’s talking with me as a friend, as a reading enthusiast, and as a valued contributor to the education world. This fascinates me.

Second, I have discovered a newfound love for non-fiction. The above text is included in this, obviously, but more than that I’ve found myself checking out books about politics and reading news articles online and much more. I never used to do this. For some reason this semester, I’m so much more interested in the political climate of our country and how it affects the field of education. My Delicious bookmark list is full of news articles right now. (Definitely check them out, they’re super interesting: http://delicious.com/this1voice)

Third, I have regained my intense love of fiction. Since my second semester of college I lost all interest in reading for fun – I was reading so much for school that I had no interest in reading for myself. But since this past Christmas, I’ve read at least four novels just for fun. I missed it! I love how a novel can take me away from the world and let me live somewhere else for a while. Perhaps that’s a dangerous kind of escapism… but then again, we all need an escape from life’s pressures every so often. What’s most fun about this is that now, thanks to Wilhelm and co, I’m more cognizant about how I read and what I’m doing when I read. It helps me identify with the students in Wilhelm’s case study, and I hope that it will help me identify with future students.

Speaking of future students (and Wilhelm – see, I told you I’m obsessed!), this week’s reading really hit me. In Chapter 5 Wilhelm finally discusses the three students in his case study who, in spite of the dramas and reading activities, still “weren’t getting it.” After he introduced these students I paused a moment and thought about how I would react to students like Walter, Tommy, and Kae. I knew I wouldn’t have a clue what to do with them, and I felt just as frustrated as Wilhelm wrote he felt when dealing with these students. And then, as I read on to discover how Wilhelm began to break through to these kids, I became sad for the hundreds, probably thousands of students just like Walter, Tommy, and Kae who never receive the special care that Wilhelm gave those three. How many students, every year, are left in the dust? How many of them would be perfectly willing – and, indeed, enthusiastic – to read, write, and share if we only stopped to listen to them? Those kids knew they loved reading best when the story was illustrated… they didn’t think about it in “school” terms because no one ever challenged them to. But it’s clear that they are very visual learners, given how much they enjoy drawing and how (I believe it wtas) Tommy began taking notes with pictures as often as possible.

What’s also interesting to me is how those students didn’t react to three-dimensional representations of pictures like the freeze-frame tableaus. They required two-dimensional representations… a different kind of physicality… I’m not sure I’m getting my point across correctly here. Hm. But I wonder what it is about those students that they can easily grasp two-dimensional pictures but not three-dimensional, physical representations. I wonder what the psychology behind that is. I very strongly wish that our teacher education program here at Penn State included more Educational Psychology. We’re only required to take one introductory course, and it barely scratches the surface! There’s so much more to learning than we (even currently) understand… Understanding how the mind works and how learning works in different ways is so crucial… Wilhelm was obviously tapping into this idea during his case study, even if he wasn’t formally thinking about it in psychology terms.

…In at least two of my classes this semester – LL ED 411 and ENGL 202B – we’re discussing philosophies of education. I’ve worked with mine before, for EDTHP 440 with Madhu Prakash (one of my favorite professors here). But I feel that even in just the past week my personal philosophy has been evolving and growing and changing so much. I’m obsessed with assessment, of course – it’s kind of like my pet project and pet peeve all at the same time. But I’m recognizing that I’m also very passionate about connecting with and understanding my students. Making a personal connection with them. Without that kind of personal connection, how can you truly teach them? What reason would they have for listening to you? Why should they care? But with that connection… students are humans too, and we can always recognize when people legitimately care about us. It makes us pay more attention to that “caretaker,” makes us (perhaps subconsciously) value what he/she says more. And for whatever reason, when you care about someone and what he/she says, it tends to “click” with you more. I’ve learned this through both my personal/private relationships and, now that I’m thinking back on it, through my relationships with teachers. (One of the reasons why I loved Dr. Prakash’s class so much is that she truly valued us as future educators, as students, and as individuals.) It even affects the classes I have now – I won’t go into specifics, but the professors who continually affirm that they value my fellow students and me as equals and encourage us to do the same are the ones who’s classes I enjoy the most. This isn’t something that only college students experience, it’s universal with every student and every teacher.

I’m running out of time to type, since I have another class very soon and the only reason I was able to write this is because 420 ended early today (thanks for that Jason, by the way!). But this is something that I’ll be thinking about quite a bit today, and likely for the rest of the semester…

Well, it’s been some time since my last blog. This is obviously an issue, and one I’ve truly thought about in the last week or so. My problem is finding the time to do everything I’m required to do with the limited amount of time I have. Oh, balance, why must you be so difficult to find?

Balance is an interesting thing. Students – and teachers, and just about everybody else – struggle with it for entire lifetimes, it seems. How does one maintain a healthy sleep schedule, a personal life, and professional life all at once? What does one do in the unique situation I and my block-mates are in, as both students and teachers (which Elsie frequently likes to remind us about)? And in a college atmosphere like Penn State, where there’s never a dull moment with clubs, sports, THON, and the like… how can we do it all?

The obvious and perhaps most blunt answer is: we can’t. Which is a shame. But I’d like to think that part of this teacher education program is also learning about this balancing act and learning about how much we can handle at one time. I’ve learned in the last two weeks, for example, that I over-emphasize my personal life to destress when I feel pressured about my professional (schoolwork) life – which turns into a vicious cycle, because that extra emphasis creates less time for schoolwork and I gain more stress! Do classroom teachers find this to be an issue, or is it a unique problem to my situation?

I’d like to think that, since teachers are people too, they have similar problems. Grade those Julius Ceasar essays or have a family movie day? Plan next month’s short story unit or work on cleaning the house?

At the same time, I have the perhaps egotistical idea that teachers don’t have as many pressures as a college student. After all, we are dealing with multiple classes, multiple sets of work, plus financial worries, plus housing worries, plus personal lives.

…After just typing that, I realized that “real” teachers have house mortgages and electric bills and multiple class periods to prepare for and families and… yeah. Okay. Reality check complete.

Nonetheless, it’s tough finding balance between all of that. And I wonder how often teachers let their stress and struggles in finding balance affect their classroom performance. I’d like to say that I wouldn’t, but I know for a fact it isn’t true. A bad day in my personal life could easily translate into my having a bad mood in my classroom. I know it shouldn’t be that way, and I do hope I’ll be able to control it as much as possible… but we’re only human, right? We all have bad days.

…Suddenly, some things about my teachers in the past just made a whole lot more sense. Hmm.

All right, well, I’ve rambled enough. My PLN work is lagging, but I’ve set aside some time today to work on it – read a few things on Ning, Tweet once or twice, finally get around to Classroom 2.0, maybe write another blog. Post-it notes and To-Do lists are my best friends right now… I feel like I wouldn’t be able to get anything done without them. Yeesh…

ETA (Edited To Add): My best friend, who is studying to teach K-12 Spanish, linked this to me on my Facebook profile: Cutting Senior Year. CRAZINESS. I also put this up on Twitter for anyone who’s following me there.

Hi guys! Here’s a brief tutorial on how to change the URL of your blog, as we discussed in class today:

BEFORE YOU DO ANYTHING ELSE
Create a new account for yourself with a username/url that you actually want to keep! Remember Prof. Whitney’s suggestions: not your PSU ID, something professional(-ish), etc etc.

Done that? Sweet! TRANSFER YOUR BLOG!

STEP 1

Go to your current blog. There should be a WordPress toolbar at the top of your browser now.  Click on “My Account” and click “My Blogs”.

STEP 2

You’ll see a screen like the one below. Mouse over the name of your blog, and “Transfer Blog” will show up underneath the current URL. Click it!

STEP 3

You’re taken to a page with a big red box on it. Read it carefully, then click the little checkbox you see underneath it. That will bring up a text box for you to enter the new account’s email address. Click “Transfer blog” and you should be good to go!

Since I was misinformed regarding Flogging Molly tickets being on sale today (grrrrr, Daily Collegian, get your facts straight!) and was therefore up FAR too early for a Tuesday, I chose to spend some time adding my LL ED block classmates here on WordPress and Twitter. I’ve started adding them on LinkedIn as well, and over the next week or so will be working on adding them on Ning, etc. Looks like I forgot about a Classroom 2.0 account, so I’ll be making one of those, as well. And working on the Wikispaces project we started in LL ED 420 last week.

To any classmates reading this: Find me and add me to your various accounts if for some reason by the end of the day I haven’t found you!

(Side note: Dear Twitter – I’ve decided to give you a chance. Don’t screw up. Love, me.)

On the bright side, I’m getting tickets to see Daughtry today. And the final season of LOST begins tonight.

On the down side, it’s very possible I have mono. AGAIN. Will be going to UHS tomorrow to get it checked out… I had it freshman year and it was basically a cold that didn’t go away for 2 months; I’m having similar symptoms. I really thought the antibiotics for the tonsillitis infection I had two weeks ago fixed me up… guess not. Tonsils are definitely still infected. Stupid things should’ve been out ten years ago anyway… Grrr… =(

No, really! Granted, 120+ pages in one night is daunting, but I’m the girl who read an entire 650+ page book in one day last weekend – so it’s really not much of a challenge to me. Heh. (It was Stephenie Meyer’s The Host, if you’re interested. Wonderful story – completely different from the Twilight Saga and much improved in writing style and mechanics.)

The POINT is, though, that I’M SO EXCITED TO BE A TEACHER!!!! These books make me itch to get out of college and into the “real world” – into a classroom. This is why I’m so happy to be in the pre-service block right now. This is why I chose to pursue a Secondary Education degree in the first place. It’s all coming back to me!

I want to share with my students the joys of reading and writing – how the two, individually and combined, make the world a richer place to live in. How they can serve as a springboard for personal growth, for understanding the world around us, for making friendships and solving problems and so much more. I’m getting all sorts of ideas of how I want to run my classroom: different types of discussion activities, weekly writing journals, multimedia projects, themes to cover…!

I lost sight of all this the past few semesters, because I was so immersed in content courses like “British Literature” and “The Victorian Novel” and “Reading Drama.” Don’t get me wrong, I loved those courses and I gained a great deal from them. In particular, they exposed me to authors and works that I would not have known otherwise. But it’s been so long since I focused on teaching that I was beginning to forget just what my intended degree was.

My friends typically categorize me as “an English major” when we discuss our degree programs. I often allow this, since most of my classes do revolve around what they consider “English”: lots of reading and critical analyses. It’s becoming increasingly important to me, now, to correct them. I am a Secondary Education major with a focus in English. I’m glad that Penn State structures their teacher education program this way. My best friend from home attends Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, PA (she’s currently student teaching in the Derry Area school district, I believe), and there they major in their content area instead of education itself. I can’t help but wonder how this affects her preparedness for student teaching… but then again, she’s extraordinarily dedicated to her profession as well as her subject (American history), so I don’t know that the difference in focus would affect her much. But it could have affected me, and once again I am supremely grateful that my father insisted I give Penn State a chance when I began to look for schools to apply to.

…I need to finish the required Wilhelm readings, and I have much more to do tonight, but I was simply too excited to focus. Writing this has calmed me down a bit (or at the very least provided a good, temporary distraction), so I’ll be able to hunker down now. Tomorrow’s goal is to sort through the metaphorical stack of emails sitting in my inbox regarding my PLN… and hopefully, FINALLY, pick a book to create a lesson plan around for LL ED 420. I just have too many favorites to choose from!