Ah, the sweet smell of done. Yes, as of last night at 9pm, I was officially done with the summer semester. And what a semester it was! Never again will I take four classes over a summer session. Not because of the difficulty (although that’s definitely a factor!), but because I will not have to take summer classes again after this!
Of course, I say that now, but when I start working on my master’s degree, I’ll probably end up taking summer classes since I won’t be working (unless I want to). I’ll cross those bridges when I get to them.
I stayed up later than I should’ve, putting away books and filing papers. My attempt to purge my person of summer classes. I still have a couple of small things to do, but I’m not in any hurry. I need to clear off my flash drives and copy that info over to my PC. Actually, I think that’s the last thing I need to do to close out summer. Cool! Around the house though, I’m just getting started. The place is a wreck. Not only was I not around to do the cleaning, I wasn’t around to delegate it, either. Basics have been kept up – the litter pan is not overflowing and actually has clean litter in it, for instance – but there are some pretty big cleaning jobs that I am going to have to take care of before the 25th gets here.
That’s right. I go back to school in two short weeks. That’s the extent of my summer, if I don’t count the couple of weeks I had off at the beginning. Which I don’t because frankly I can’t remember them anymore. So, to really wrap up my classes, I need to commiserate about them for a minute or so.
Informal Geometry – Dr. Fox is leaving UHCL. He’s going off to San Antonio, to St. Mary’s, to become a brother. So, he’ll be Brother Doctor Fox. Or Doctor Brother Fox? I don’t know which comes first. Oh well. He’s a good guy, truly interested in properly training teachers, holds no illusions about the teaching profession, and is hilarious, to boot. He was supposed to teach one of my algebra classes next semester, but he won’t be there for it. I will miss him. This class was great because I got to re-live my high school geometry class. I really liked that class. It was the only math class I’d taken in which I didn’t feel like a retarded monkey. I don’t feel like one anymore, but at the time I did. I took a lot away from this class that I know I’ll be able to use in my classroom, as well as to pass my content exam.
History of Math – I had such high hopes for this class. I love history; I love learning about the history of things. But Dr. Boler killed this class. His focus was on the mathematics, and not so much the history. But his knowledge of mathematics is so much greater than any student in the class, that few of us (and a few times, none of us) understood what he was doing. The book was dry, and was written by an uber-academic who was occasionally condescending and insulting. He straight up said that it would be impossible for a person to truly study the history of math without having a deep knowledge of the subject itself. I disagree. You just have to study the history differently, that’s all. A statement like that is a clear sign that the author is not a teacher and has no imagination. He is only a mathematician, and that’s probably all he knows how to do. How sad for the little man. Come to think of it, that’s probably why Dr. Boler connects with the book so well. He and the author have SO much in common!
Reading in Content Areas – Never again will I take an education class that’s only four weeks long. The School of Education requires the instructors have certain assignments in their class, and won’t eliminate them nor scale them back for a shorter session. I kept hearing crap about “compromising the integrity of the class” and other such bull, but any teacher worth his or her salt knows how to scale back the assignments without sacrificing content. I can learn the material without all the busy work, thank you. But, once again, I got through it, and I am better for it after all. I had to teach, which is good, but more importantly, I had to do an overly comprehensive lesson plan. It was good practice. I’ll never have to do one that detailed for any school district, but understanding how to accomplish all the different parts is very useful. Also, the teaching strategies we focused on will really come in handy for how to approach different topics. So, I don’t regret taking the class, I just wish the School of Ed would realize that more work does not equal better learning.
My fourth class was Survey of Exceptionalities, but I finished it four weeks ago and have already re-capped it.
Today, I finished putting things away, straightened up a few things, and hit Crosby’s and Baytown’s web pages to try and figure out how to apply as a substitute teacher. Crosby’s website is less than useful. It truly is a waste of internet space. For fifty bucks, they could pay a high schooler to set up a better site. It’s so sad. I couldn’t figure out which application they want substitutes to use, because there is no mention of substitute teachers anywhere on their website (that I’ve found, anyway). I called and called and called, but all I ever got was voicemail. I am guessing that the district is either not working on Fridays yet because classes are not yet in session, or they leave early on Fridays for the same reason. I will try again on Monday. Hopefully, I’ll get a better result. For Baytown, however, they had clearly outlined instructions for people wanting to apply as a substitute. I downloaed their application, filled it out, printed a copy of my resume, and drove it right on down to the office it needed to go to. When I called them initially, I got voicemail, but since I was calling around noon, I decided to wait until after 1pm – in case personnel was at lunch. They were, because they picked right up when I called at 1:30. It’s so nice to deal with people who know how to be professional. I am constantly running into such unprofessionalism when I deal with Crosby ISD. It’s alarming, to be honest. I’m beginning to wonder if this behavior is isolated to their technology and personnel departments, or if it’s district-wide. I’ve been pretty steadfast in saying that I wanted to work for the district I lived in, but if this is representative of Crosby, this unprofessionalism, then perhaps I should rethink my logic. Baytown’s not that far away, after all. The new high school (just opening this fall!) is about 20 minutes away. That’s really not a bad commute. I’m going to withhold any kind of decision until I’ve substituted for both districts. If, that is, I ever reach personnel in Crosby to be able to apply for a job!
Anyway, I’m kinda tired, so I’m going to go find a book with a paper cover to read. Maybe I’ll just go to bed. That sounds nice.
