Family

Last night I went to dinner with my friend Lindsay and we were discussing family--the family you're born with versus the family you choose. I've come to depend a lot more on my chosen family in the last year and didn't even realize it until our conversation. Kimberly and Lindsay are two of my favorite people in the world and I'm grateful to have them in my life. They are both such an encouragement to me. Thanks so much, ladies! Hope you don't mind the very public shout-out (hee, hee).

The Mister and I are off to Wyoming this weekend for my EdD orientation. I am hoping that my peonies will work very hard on breaking the surface while I am gone.

Roadblock

On March 30th I sat down at my computer to register for my first class toward my doctoral degree. The fall schedule opened that day and I wanted to jump right in. Picked my class, went to register, found out there was a registration hold. Already?!? I haven't even started yet! Turned out I needed to submit proof that I'd had an MMR immunization before I could register.

OK. I know I was probably young when I had this shot, so the first course of action is to call my mom. Her response: "You're 35 years old, the pediatrician died 20 years ago, I have no idea where your immunization records are! Who would have guessed you'd need proof NOW?" Good point, Mom. It does feel a little strange to be asking the question.

Long story short...no one knows when I had my MMR, but it had to have been done because they were required when I started kindergarten. My insurance provider can draw blood and submit a letter that I have the immunity to those diseases, therefore I must have had the shot. The University of Wyoming will accept this as good enough. I'm already cheating on grad school!

Philosophy

In May I'll be teaching Philosophies of Education, a course designed to survey people who have influenced education, directly or indirectly, through their personal philosophies. For instance, one of the textbooks profiles people such as Confucius, Socrates, John Dewey, and Jane Addams. At the end of the course the students are to write their own philosophy of education. This has provoked some challenging discussion in my head. Who has influenced my beliefs? What is my philosophy of education? How does that influence my teaching practice?

I think this is going to be another instance where the teacher learns more than the students...

School Blues

Well, my plans, they must change. I was originally hoping to get accepted into a doctoral program at the University of Colorado at Denver. I knew they'd shut the program down for a year so they could reorganize, but I never expected that the reorganization would turn the program into something that is completely uninteresting and not applicable at all for me. This information wasn't posted in time for me to re-think schools I had previously rejected because their deadlines have all passed. So...now what? To say that I am disappointed is a huge understatement. My heart was all set and ready to go to school in June. Now the deadlines have passed (the other programs weren't as appealing, anyway) and I am stuck. I am seriously considering asking the Mister if we could rent out the house and move to a city that has one of the programs I'm really, really excited about. When I floated the idea to him this afternoon he wasn't totally horrified, so that's a start.

I am trying to be positive about this and accept that the program at UCD wasn't for me. I am trying to look at this as an opportunity to find a program that would be a better fit. I am trying.

What I'm Reading

I heard Sir Ken at a conference last year and he was so good I listened to him give the speech again on the TED website. A co-worker bought his book and loaned it to me, so I started it the other night. I'm only 30 pages into it but I'm already intrigued. Do you ever worry that the changes in technology happen so rapidly that you'll be left behind? Is the fact that my husband is a JAVA programmer and I am still not really sure what that is going to keep me from being a qualified employee in ten years? Do you worry that the education our children are receiving is completely inadequate for the kind of thinking they MUST be able to do to be able to be contributing members of society? So far this book has only made me more concerned, but I'm optimistic that Sir Ken has some good ideas about how to handle the future. One thing I do know...this book has already challenged me to be a much better teacher.

2009

Have started to think about my New Year's resolutions. I don't really believe in them, but there are a couple of things I want to accomplish in 2009. The most important goal for my professional life is to get into the PhD program at the University of Colorado at Denver. There are several hoops I need to jump through (improve my score on the GRE, take a statistics class) before the April application deadline. It's doable, but I need to get serious in January.

I think I'm posting this to the internet now so that it's out there and I can't change my mind! I've been wanting to do this for a while, and if I'm going to advance in my career I can't put it off any longer. Time to do one last degree!

Sir Ken

I heard Sir Ken speak a few weeks ago at a conference here in Denver. It was so hard for me not to stand up and shout, "Hallelujah!" because so much of what he was saying confirmed what I've believed for a long time about education. This video is a similar speech he gave a few years ago. It's long, but if you are at all interested in children or education, it's worth the investment of time. Sir Ken is also charming and funny in his delivery, so it's not hard to stay focused.