The Fun Begins

As education in general does, the education program at the University is evolving and changing. Five years ago students went to class for three years and then student taught, occasionally going to observe in the schools. Then the state required education students to observe in the schools two hundred hours before student teaching. Then observations turned into "applied learning," which now has turned into a "clinical model." Because this transformation has happened in the course of the three and a half years I have been in college, the whip lash of all the changes has finally smacked the Education office here in the face. A year ago I would have already been a third done with my observation/applied learning/clinical hours but it was just last week that I was assigned to the school and teacher I will be spending eighty hours with this semester. Talk about a kid in a candy store. I had the initial email that I was going to send her written out by the end of class. Today was the day we sat and introduced ourselves.

I will be working in a school that I did not graduate from but is from my hometown. The school is an Independent school and is somewhat different than all the public schools I have worked in. She is an English and Theatre teacher, just as I am aspiring to be. In fact we are both doing different versions of the same show with her theatre department and the acting school I work at. During her planning we sat down and talked about what is expected of me, what her class schedule is, etc. This semester it looks like I will be working with a general senior English class, an ACT seminar, an AP Literature class, and an Intro to Theatre class. To say that I am looking forward to working in this school and going through some of the things that I am learning in class is an understatement. I return on Thursday so I will keep the readers updated.