the future of me
heavy sounding topics, indeed. at my friend's prompt, i am updating my livejournal. i should really be sending an email out to everyone about this, which i will do soon enough, possibly today. but, for now it will be on the live-o-sphere in the form of textual pleasure. without further delaying, or digressing, here's the news: i'm in grad school. (waiting for the shock to subside..)
i never planned on it, actually. i had researched some stuff all the while during my bout in chile, but with the thought of the much more distant future, like, say 2009. earlier, i had the idea that i would get some sort of teacher's assistant job, or substitute teach for a while, garner a bit of experience while working somewhere else, and then enter grad school for education. i realize the basic flaw of that is that you must apply and wait and wait and until the light turns green (so to speak). so i sat in limbo for a long time, doing some visits here and there (this is now fast forwarded to august) to DC, to NY, and kind of freaking out. not knowing what to do is trying on the mind and the insides of your chest.
so we jump to a little more than a week ago. i emailed someone at the program i had found before on the UMass website called 180 days in springfield. it sounded like a cool program, where i'd teach at a school while i take grad classes and then after one year get a masters in ed. so, i emailed them, and they said "of course we're still accepting!" "great," i thought, "they haven't started yet!" "we start next week," they said. "oy," i said. by starting, it was the orientation. i had a great interview (it did not, however, occur to me to print out my resume until later on that day, after a small and unsuccessful interview at Amherst schools where they asked, "where's your resume?" and i said, "oh lord..". needless to say, i printed it out at a copy shop) with the lady in charge, and she said to come to orientation, pretending i belong to the group. that same day of the interview, i knocked off a personal statement wicked fast, submitted it to graduate admissions at UMass, and headed home after some korean food.
after the orientation, i found the english advisor (i'd be teaching english at a middle school called duggan middle school, something we can go into later) had signed off on me, and i'm now in the bureaucratic process of becoming an official grad student. a masters in education! wow!
it'll be an intense year. an incredible year. something quite special. i've said nothing about the school. it's all part of the plan...i think i'll be updating a lot come this month of september. i'm supposed to journal about my observations all of this month as i, well, observe teachers, administrators and others. i'll talk about the character of the school, what it's about, and other things. we'll be good friends you an' i.
andrew
i never planned on it, actually. i had researched some stuff all the while during my bout in chile, but with the thought of the much more distant future, like, say 2009. earlier, i had the idea that i would get some sort of teacher's assistant job, or substitute teach for a while, garner a bit of experience while working somewhere else, and then enter grad school for education. i realize the basic flaw of that is that you must apply and wait and wait and until the light turns green (so to speak). so i sat in limbo for a long time, doing some visits here and there (this is now fast forwarded to august) to DC, to NY, and kind of freaking out. not knowing what to do is trying on the mind and the insides of your chest.
so we jump to a little more than a week ago. i emailed someone at the program i had found before on the UMass website called 180 days in springfield. it sounded like a cool program, where i'd teach at a school while i take grad classes and then after one year get a masters in ed. so, i emailed them, and they said "of course we're still accepting!" "great," i thought, "they haven't started yet!" "we start next week," they said. "oy," i said. by starting, it was the orientation. i had a great interview (it did not, however, occur to me to print out my resume until later on that day, after a small and unsuccessful interview at Amherst schools where they asked, "where's your resume?" and i said, "oh lord..". needless to say, i printed it out at a copy shop) with the lady in charge, and she said to come to orientation, pretending i belong to the group. that same day of the interview, i knocked off a personal statement wicked fast, submitted it to graduate admissions at UMass, and headed home after some korean food.
after the orientation, i found the english advisor (i'd be teaching english at a middle school called duggan middle school, something we can go into later) had signed off on me, and i'm now in the bureaucratic process of becoming an official grad student. a masters in education! wow!
it'll be an intense year. an incredible year. something quite special. i've said nothing about the school. it's all part of the plan...i think i'll be updating a lot come this month of september. i'm supposed to journal about my observations all of this month as i, well, observe teachers, administrators and others. i'll talk about the character of the school, what it's about, and other things. we'll be good friends you an' i.
andrew