Details of When I Start the Program

The program starts on Sept. 22nd with Orientation from 4:30-7:30 pm. They plan to provide activites to orient me to campus and introduce me to several important places--for example--a tour of the library and technology options for students. We find out the name of the school and cooperating teachers for our field experiences. (We learn more about the field experience procedures at our first Field Experience Seminar on Thurs. Sept 29th.) We finish the evening off with a free dinner to my cohort and me.

My first class will start on Tues. Sept. 27th. I will have classes on Tuesday and Thursday evenings with a few Saturday classes. Here are the Fall courses I'm taking this term:

1. Socio-Political and Social Justice Issues. This sounds like a good class. MU is very big on social justice since it's part of the school's motto/personal statement.

2. Child Development and Learning Theory. I took this class before at Western. But it has been years ago. This will help me refresh myself. Maybe there will be new learning theories I didn't know about since last time.

3. Elementary Wellness and Nutrition. Now this class I haven't taken in the ed program at WOU.

4. Culture and Diversity Considerations. This sounds like a fun class to take. The professor will help us re-examine the cultural aspects of schools as well as our own cultural backgrounds.

5. Field Experience I: Professional Identity, only meets 3 times. This course will help us discover our professional identity in the classrooms. Plus I think we start our classroom experience sometime in October. It will be 3 hours a week.

Basically I am going to be a full-time student while working part-time this school year.

I am so looking forward to this new "old" adventure. This time I will succeed. I have a few real life experiences. The MAT staff at MU seem to be so supportive. A friend told me how close-knit the staff and students are. So far I heard that my cohort, we are called Cohort V, has about 20 people currently. Maybe a few more on the way. Someone there told me that they are still interviewing.