So, being a senior in college is hard. Who knew?? I feel like maybe this is the reason I've been in college for so long because if I had to do what I'm doing right now 2 years ago, I honestly don't think it could do it. But anyways, update on my life:
I got my (tentative) student teaching placement!! As of right now I'll be student teaching in Mesa, Arizona at Mesa High School. I wanted to teach at a middle school, but I guess there aren't any in Mesa that take student teachers from BYU-Idaho, so I'll deal. First off, getting this all sorted was such a mess. It all started when I was talking to my friend Scott who saw on i-learn that his placement was posted, so of course I darted to my computer...I've only been waiting 3 years to find out where this crazy thing called student teaching would take me (though I was pretty much positive it would be Mesa because I had been in to the Field Services Office on more than one occasion to discuss with them my need to student teach in Mesa). So, when I pulled up my i-learn page I was so excited and nervous and once I glanced on the screen, irate. Almost to the point of tears. I saw four letters, not M-e-s-a...
U-T-A-H
That word never upset me more than at that very moment. I was all kinds of out of sorts. So, after sulking and seething and complaining, I finally decided that I'd call them in the morning and give them a piece of my mind. I SPECIFICALLY told them I needed to go to Mesa, Arizona because that way I would be able to remain a Campus Representative for the Disney College Program under the same recruiter (my amazingly funny boss John), so that he could write me a recommendation for the Professional Internships I want to do at WDW after I student teach. They were messing with my life and my dream. I was NOT alright with that. They were gonna hear about this. So, I called them, and after jumping through several hoops and filling out a few more forms, I now have my tentative student teaching placement in Mesa. Whew! And it is honestly such a relief.
Next thing, I LOVE MY JOB. As a Campus Rep I get to relive all of my awesome Disney experiences by telling other people how great the program is. We have a lot of limitations on campus here at BYU-I, which makes our job as a Rep Team more difficult, but we still get it done and have such an awesome time doing it! The season is in full swing now since our recruiter is coming in 2 weeks! We still have so much to do and honestly, sometimes I worry we won't get it all done, but we always do and we do it with flying colors. We were one of the most successful Rep Teams in the country last semester, and we are working hard again to keep that true of our team this semester. My goal is to make it onto the list of the top 50 reps this season. That would look so amazing on my Professional Internship applications, so I'm really working as hard as I possibly can!
Now, onto my classes. Deep breaths. That's all that is getting me through them right now. Well, that and listening to music from the Disney Parks as a consistent reminder that in approximately two months I will be back in Florida. I will be away from the snow and biting wind, but more importantly away from English majors who can't help to act superior to everyone else because they are applying for law school or because they feel cultured because they are well read or because they are an editor-in-chief of a FAKE magazine that we are being forced to write for a class. Note to these people: get off your high horses. You are trying to "impress" the wrong people with your snooty attitudes. We are your peers, we don't care what score you got on the LSAT or why you believe you are the best thing since they put the pocket in pitas. Save that for your grad school admission interviews and spare us the headache of listening to you drone on about how excellent you are. We know. You told us yesterday. Now that I have fully gotten off the subject of the classes I'm taking...
Rhetorical Studies: Tons of busy work and we are in groups creating our own magazines. My group's is called The Understudy and it is about overlooked and under-appreciated films, actors and theatre productions.
Senior Writing Seminar: Again, tons of busy work and little projects. I'm team writing a paper on how the graphic novel Maus helps increase literacy in 8th grade boys. I love partner papers, you only have to write 8 pages. It's awesome. Love it.
Directing: At the beginning of the semester it was my largest cause of hair loss, but now that we are done with assignments of reading 4 chapters in our textbook and discussing them in class, it's a lot less stressful. Now we are spending a big chunk of our class time rehearsing the scenes we are directing. I'm directing a scene from The Show-Off by George Kelly. Then I'm also in two scenes, I'm playing Mama in A Raisin in the Sun (yes, I'm still white. no, we are not doing it minstral style in blackface) we are just taking the scene out of context a little, we're basically going to be poor southern women. The second scene I'm in is from Proof, in which I play Catherine, a mathematical genius that could be on the verge of mental illness (cool, right??).
Reading in the Content Area: Basically I finished that class today. I was in a group of 3, all of us are English Ed. majors and we had to come up with 2 separate week-long units in our content area. At the beginning of the semester we had the students write their own stories that we then made into comic books, which was really fun and they loved it! Then this past unit we focused on Dr. Seuss books and used them to improve the students' literacy skills. Today, we had an early birthday party for Dr. Seuss (it isn't until March 2nd). It was a fun unit. We had one really rough day, but other than that it was really successful.
I'm also taking English 201, but that's basically not worth mentioning other than the fact that I have Brother Brugger, he seriously is the best. But, the class is essentially a bunch of English classes I've already taken condensed into one course for the foundations program.
Now that I've given you the Reader's Digest version of my life for the past 2 months, I'll stop bombarding you with my life and get back to the massive pile of reading I have to do and continue to remember that in approximately one month and a week I will be walking across a stage in a cap and gown having my very last great day at BYU-Idaho.
Love,
A Southern Girl Taking Deep Breaths and Listening to Disney Music in the Land of Potatoes :)
