It has been awhile since I blogged here. I have been busy with reading and completing assignments for my classes. Anyways, I checked my grades and I did well overall. I'm just waiting for one more class grade. The grading period ends on this Monday, the 19th.
My classes next term will be on Monday and Tuesday evenings. It means I can do my FE (Field Experience) days on Thursday mornings; it means I will have 10 times being there before Spring Break starts. The only thing I can complain is the commute. (I just don't like driving long distances/time traveling by myself.) I now realized why the placement officer set me at King Elementary. It's a safe place for student teachers to learn about being a teacher and practice with experienced teachers. I found out one of the sixth grade teachers there will be co-teaching one grad class in the Spring term. My advisor told me that sixth grade teacher's classroom will be my Spring FE. That will be interesting. I already did two hours observation in that classroom earlier this term. I never thought I will experience sixth grade since my main focus has been fourth grade. Maybe I'm doing first grade is to make me a stronger teacher out in the teaching world. My previous field experience/student teaching was with a class of first and second graders. Maybe it's my second chance to make it right again.
I like Lynne as my advisor. She told me it's all about the learning. With Lynne, she supports me in my development as a classroom teacher. She's my advocate. I feel that the advisors from the program really cares about us and want us to succeed. They will help you find solutions to your problems as you grow as an educator. I'm just glad I'm here at Marylhurst. Even though going here is pricey but I will gain some rewards such as positive support, better preparation for my teaching career and meeting such nice people in our cohort. Funny thought, if I graduated back in '07 from WOU's ed program, I would have been teaching for 5 years now. Life happens.
Actually I am enjoying my Marylhurst experience. I know, the classes this term tend to be a bit crazy and I got lost a few times but overall, they aren't too bad compare to my first ed program experience. See the big picture. This term is just an introduction of the education system and just practice what we know. If I don't know it yet at this point, I will learn it next term and the terms after that. I look at the program's schedule and I like how the MAT program is scaffolding us. I checked out the other MAT programs in the Portland area and their full time programs are done in one year and it's a rush. With them, you won't feel so connected with your cohort members and don't get hands-on experience right away from what I understand when I went to an information night there. No ed program is perfect. But with Marylhurst, at least they are preparing us about the realities of teaching and help us built our professional side as educators. I have a friend who graduated from Concordia's MAT program last May and she feel like it was a rush and she wasn't fully prepared when she went out teaching at her current teaching job even though she did the two year part-time program. But she's doing fine since she has years of experience as an educational assistant and had to teach small groups or individual students. The reason why she got her job so fast after graduation is that she is Spanish speaking since Spanish is her native language. She is working at a Spanish Immersion school.
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