Well, I really lost sight of this blogging thing, hey? and apparently somewhere along the line I turned into a yooper. Oh well. It was bound to happen sooner or later.
So, I've returned from my blogging hiatus. It's been a little over six months since I last wrote, much to my chagrin. I really had every intention of keeping up on this but life gets in the way, doesn't it? Last semester really kicked my bum. I'm now in my final semester at Northern.. home stretch or something of that nature. I'm super burnt out and I'm sooo ready to be done with classes, but I know I'm going to miss it terribly once I leave. I am only taking twelve credits this semester (only eight of which I actually need), which is kind of a nice change from the twenty I had last semester... and the semester before that... and before that... and before that... you get the idea. On the plus side, I'll be graduating with a double major and a double minor in four years. For those who don't know, I have majors in Spanish and Sociology in liberal arts with minors in art history and Latin American studies. As it turns out, this is marketable! whoda thunk.
I found out last week that I've been accepted into Teach for America. TFA is a national non-profit organization which seeks to bridge the achievement gap in education in the United States. This wikipedia entry has some good info about TFA. Here is a little bit about their mission, copied from their website:
"Our mission is to build the movement to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting our nation's most promising future leaders in the effort.
We recruit outstanding recent college graduates from all backgrounds and career interests to commit to teach for two years in urban and rural public schools. We provide the training and ongoing support necessary to ensure their success as teachers in low-income communities.
Our teachers, also called corps members, go above and beyond traditional expectations to lead their students to significant academic achievement, despite the challenges of poverty and the limited capacity of the school system. In succeeding with their students, corps members show that students in low-income communities can achieve at high levels, offering further evidence that educational inequity is a solvable problem."
I've been placed in Kansas City, Missouri. I'll be teaching in a bilingual classroom, which means that I'll be teaching (most likely) in an elementary school setting, but in Spanish. I am extremely excited. I'm happy with my regional placement, my subject placement, and my grade level placement.. it's like the trifecta! I have to be in KC on June 16th for a few days, then from June 20th to July 24th I'll be in Chicago (!) training/teaching at what's called Summer Institute. After that it's back to KC and I start my job in August! Initially I'll be teaching on a temporary certification, but by the end of my two years I'll have both my certification and a Masters degree in Education from Rockhurst University.. not too shabby, hey?
Now that I'm back, I've no intention of disappearing again.. not that I ever intended to disappear in the first place, but let's move on, shall we? So, I'll do my best to update on what's going on with me, as well as write some posts about what's been going on for the past six months. (I also, embarrassingly, have Mexico posts to put up still. I blame Blogger and the fact that adding photos to blog posts is less than easy, since most of those posts are pretty photo-heavy.)
Until next time.. arrivederci. And yes, I was definitely thinking of Brad Pitt in Inglourious Basterds when I said that.
