I talked to my professor about switching to a thesis program. I looked it over and I'm still not sure. I'm also not sure about doing a doctoral program. My professor said a good way to decide would be to talk to other professors and ask them about their research projects. Then if anything made me shout "I MUST be a part of this research!" I should write a thesis. At this point, the only project I can think of that would be really interesting would be the peer conflict study one of my professors is working on. She's observing at the child development center and watching how the children resolve their own conflicts.
I'm just so tired right now, and I'm ready to get to my practicum so I can have some hands-on experience educating caregivers.
My next year will be very different. This summer I will take two classes. Then in the fall I have my practicum and two electives. Then when spring comes I will only have my second practicum to do. I will take two other courses to maintain full-time status so I can work as a GA still. I'm thinking about taking another metals class and a course on children's literature. Since I will have completed my other requirements, I think it should be okay. And then I'll be free to work on comps. Ah, comps.
Life is so...strange. I don't remember ever being the girl who had a different plan every week. I thought this is what college was for, not grad school! I stuck with the whole counseling almost to the very end of college, and before that I was going to be an actress on broadway for almost my entire high school career. (Miss Willow will roll her eyes at this, remembering the time she had to stand in front of my car until I calmed down on the day I finally realized that I wasn't cut out for the great white way. Thanks for that, by the way.) At the same time, I envisioned this safe place for children to come and feel loved, feel secure, feel free. And I guess this is what I'm doing. Yes, parent education is a big deal for me, but I also want to take part in an after school program, an educational outreach. I LOVE watching kids learn. Those lightbulb moments are just awesome, and then watching them get interested in something is amazing. Last week at work (I lead an after school program for a few children) we were outside and I heard a mockingbird. They didn't know that the mockingbird is the state bird of Texas (gasp!) and they didn't know anything about how a mockingbird takes the tunes of other birds or other sounds he hears (like car alarms) and reproduces them to find a mate. Then on Monday when we were on our weekly trip to the library we saw a mockingbird and one of the kids told me all he remembered about them. It was awesome.
And under the right conditions (like we actually had funding and I didn't have to pay out of pocket for any activities we chose), with more children, in an established center, where I KNEW who was going to be there every day and could actually plan activities, I would absolutely love to do something like this for quite some time. The hours are a little dumb, but I have so much fun with these kids.
I can't quite wrap my head around the prospect of being grown up. I definitely feel older than these ridiculous college kids, but I think that five years ago when I entered college I would have felt older than them. This school is so very different than my alma mater. I felt so young last summer. And I STILL feel very young. But maybe I'm feeling not quite as young as I felt last year. Progress. Not sure how I feel about it.
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Saturday, March 27, 2010
My life is about to get complicated...
Or maybe not. I should explain.
Last Wednesday I was talking to one of my professors about how I was to work for Sesame Workshop. Then she said "as you work toward your doctorate..."
My WHAT????
I don't know if I am smart enough to make it to my masters some days and here she is talking about getting my doctorate! In addition,she told me to look for a school that is associated with research in that area. Well that's fine, except the university paired with Sesame is a little place known as Harvard. I couldn't get into Wake Forest, even though my GPA and test scores are fairly above average, much less Harvard, and even then I wouldn't be able to pay for it.
Then I looked at the staff list for the Joan Gantz Cooney research center and the only person who doesn't have their doctorate is the administrative coordinator, who still has a degree in child development. Okay, I need that extra degree if I want to work for Sesame.
So, I started thinking about that idea, going to school for even longer. Writing a dissertation. All that work. I'm not sure if I could do it.
Then a dear friend told me wonderful things about my being able to conquer the world and I felt a little better.
So, I have decided to start working after graduate school as planned and if in a while that aching yearn to work for Sesame is still there, if I absolutely cannot picture anything else, I'll go for it. If not, I will be content with where I am.
However, I will probably need to change to the thesis track. That's frightening but probably doable.
So yes, lots of decisions.
Also, I got my practicum nailed down for the fall. I will be working with my local chapter of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children! I get to go around visiting child care centers and foster homes and educate them about safety! It's an amazing opportunity, and I'm so excited to get the chance to do hands-on outreach and education, my big love. And I'll be doing that at the same time I'm taking my Adult Education course. Perfect!
Last Wednesday I was talking to one of my professors about how I was to work for Sesame Workshop. Then she said "as you work toward your doctorate..."
My WHAT????
I don't know if I am smart enough to make it to my masters some days and here she is talking about getting my doctorate! In addition,she told me to look for a school that is associated with research in that area. Well that's fine, except the university paired with Sesame is a little place known as Harvard. I couldn't get into Wake Forest, even though my GPA and test scores are fairly above average, much less Harvard, and even then I wouldn't be able to pay for it.
Then I looked at the staff list for the Joan Gantz Cooney research center and the only person who doesn't have their doctorate is the administrative coordinator, who still has a degree in child development. Okay, I need that extra degree if I want to work for Sesame.
So, I started thinking about that idea, going to school for even longer. Writing a dissertation. All that work. I'm not sure if I could do it.
Then a dear friend told me wonderful things about my being able to conquer the world and I felt a little better.
So, I have decided to start working after graduate school as planned and if in a while that aching yearn to work for Sesame is still there, if I absolutely cannot picture anything else, I'll go for it. If not, I will be content with where I am.
However, I will probably need to change to the thesis track. That's frightening but probably doable.
So yes, lots of decisions.
Also, I got my practicum nailed down for the fall. I will be working with my local chapter of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children! I get to go around visiting child care centers and foster homes and educate them about safety! It's an amazing opportunity, and I'm so excited to get the chance to do hands-on outreach and education, my big love. And I'll be doing that at the same time I'm taking my Adult Education course. Perfect!
Monday, March 22, 2010
Science AND Knitting???? Amazing!
I had NO idea that there was such a thing as conductive thread, much less that it could be used to develop a light-up, coded knitting pattern bag! Simply amazing.
Find the pattern and instructions for this in the spring edition of Knitty Magazine.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Well....
Since I had an overwhelming response to the "Who is your Book Woman?" question...I thought I'd go with an easier one. What was your first book? That is to say, which book got you into reading for fun? Like I mentioned before, the first book I remember reading and getting hooked on was "The Ghost at Dawn's House" from the Babysitters' Club series by Ann M. Martin. What was yours?
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Who is your book woman?
My mom and I went on a shopping expedition today. We started at Borders because I was dead-set on getting a better, more in-depth study Bible than my Zondervan, another devotional/reading guide (that was more reading guide less self help book and went more into the historical and linguistic context...which I didn't find, because apparently the reading public is more concerned with gaining their Best Life Now *shudder* than truly understanding biblical texts, but I digress), and a book called Curly Girl, which is a guide to the care and cutting of curly hair (really a good reference, btw, but that's for another post).
My problem is, whenever I go to a book store, for whatever purpose, I always end up in the children's book section. Always. I LOVE children's literature (though I am ashamed to say that my much loved Borders has become more of a half-toy-infested-half-literature take on children's sections), and I especially love books that are different and surprising (Ricky Gervais, for example, just wrote a pop up book of such hilarity that I am thinking of getting myself a copy just for when I need a laugh). So when I turned and saw "That Book Woman" by Heather Henson and illustrated by David Small, I knew I needed to give it a look. The cover was intriguing as the title.
The book basically tells the story of the Pack Horse Librarians hired to bring books up into the Appalachian Mountains (a program founded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, relative to my favorite president, Theodore Roosevelt). It also tells the story of developing the love of reading. It was so moving that I actually cried, right there in the bookstore. I was so embarrassed I slammed the book shut and carried it with me to another part of the store so I could be alone.
I thought about it and I don't know that I had a book woman. I had trouble reading, more really because I didn't like the material I was assigned ("But WHY is Jill rid of Tim? What did he do? Why is the rat on the mat? The book says the dog is sad but the picture has him smiling! What is going on? This is a dumb book!") and though I learned to read in Kindergarden (when my classmates learned in Preschool), I don't remember devouring books whole until the second grade, and that was quite by accident. I was in after school care at a large daycare facility. So large, in fact, that I often felt overwhelmed with all the children there and I was quite isolated (except for one ne'er-do-well who taught me to spit on people who took your swing, which got me beaten up the only time in my life-by a boyscout). One day I was very bored and I went up into the loft to check the book shelves. I found one of the Babysitters' Club books, "The Ghost at Dawn's House", by Ann M. Martin. I am not a scary story reader. It kept me up LATE and my parents had to come in and tell me to turn off the lights, that it was just a book (and not an incredibly scary one at that), and I would be fine. I was hooked. I proceded to read almost every BSC book, The Saddle Club books, random children's books we ordered through the Scholastic Book Club (back when they, too, sold more books than toys, hmph), any other series I could find about horses, The Sleepover Club, and a Christian series called The Twelve Candles. I read "Just As Long as We're Together" by THE GREAT Judy Blume, I read a somewhat children's version of the Ramayana, I was teased because I would rather read at recess than run around and play with the other children (well, I really assumed they didn't want me to play), and I kept going.
When I really look at it though, my father was always ready to buy another book, be it from Half Price Books or Barnes and Nobel, because he wanted me to read. And he didn't limit my selection by quality. Never pointed out that Babysitter's Club didn't exactly have much literary merit. I think one time I was reading a series that depressed me a LOT and he suggested I stop reading them, but otherwise I was FREE to choose whatever I wanted, free to explore the worlds. So, in a big way, I guess my father was my "book woman."
Who was yours?
My problem is, whenever I go to a book store, for whatever purpose, I always end up in the children's book section. Always. I LOVE children's literature (though I am ashamed to say that my much loved Borders has become more of a half-toy-infested-half-literature take on children's sections), and I especially love books that are different and surprising (Ricky Gervais, for example, just wrote a pop up book of such hilarity that I am thinking of getting myself a copy just for when I need a laugh). So when I turned and saw "That Book Woman" by Heather Henson and illustrated by David Small, I knew I needed to give it a look. The cover was intriguing as the title.
The book basically tells the story of the Pack Horse Librarians hired to bring books up into the Appalachian Mountains (a program founded by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, relative to my favorite president, Theodore Roosevelt). It also tells the story of developing the love of reading. It was so moving that I actually cried, right there in the bookstore. I was so embarrassed I slammed the book shut and carried it with me to another part of the store so I could be alone.
I thought about it and I don't know that I had a book woman. I had trouble reading, more really because I didn't like the material I was assigned ("But WHY is Jill rid of Tim? What did he do? Why is the rat on the mat? The book says the dog is sad but the picture has him smiling! What is going on? This is a dumb book!") and though I learned to read in Kindergarden (when my classmates learned in Preschool), I don't remember devouring books whole until the second grade, and that was quite by accident. I was in after school care at a large daycare facility. So large, in fact, that I often felt overwhelmed with all the children there and I was quite isolated (except for one ne'er-do-well who taught me to spit on people who took your swing, which got me beaten up the only time in my life-by a boyscout). One day I was very bored and I went up into the loft to check the book shelves. I found one of the Babysitters' Club books, "The Ghost at Dawn's House", by Ann M. Martin. I am not a scary story reader. It kept me up LATE and my parents had to come in and tell me to turn off the lights, that it was just a book (and not an incredibly scary one at that), and I would be fine. I was hooked. I proceded to read almost every BSC book, The Saddle Club books, random children's books we ordered through the Scholastic Book Club (back when they, too, sold more books than toys, hmph), any other series I could find about horses, The Sleepover Club, and a Christian series called The Twelve Candles. I read "Just As Long as We're Together" by THE GREAT Judy Blume, I read a somewhat children's version of the Ramayana, I was teased because I would rather read at recess than run around and play with the other children (well, I really assumed they didn't want me to play), and I kept going.
When I really look at it though, my father was always ready to buy another book, be it from Half Price Books or Barnes and Nobel, because he wanted me to read. And he didn't limit my selection by quality. Never pointed out that Babysitter's Club didn't exactly have much literary merit. I think one time I was reading a series that depressed me a LOT and he suggested I stop reading them, but otherwise I was FREE to choose whatever I wanted, free to explore the worlds. So, in a big way, I guess my father was my "book woman."
Who was yours?
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Spring break...why?
It is Thursday. My spring break is almost over. What have I done with it? I'll tell you: nothing!
I went home on Tuesday (with a several hours long stop at my alma mater)and woke up the next day with an earache. I thought little of it and took Penny for a walk and then went shopping, got some shoes, took her to the park, and then realized I was running a slight fever. Yup, sick on spring break! I'm a little better now but haven't gotten to do anything I wanted! Sigh! Tomorrow, though, I hope I can bring Penny to the dog park before spending time with my friends (for the first time all week! How does this happen?). I was going to go to the Tejas Storytelling Festival but none of the workshops were too appealing. However, Grapevine has a chocolate festival going on Friday and Saturday, and I must say that one thing I love just as much as a good story is good chocolate. At the very least, I didn't have to work this week and I didn't have huge assignments due. And I have just ten weeks until classes are over.
I went home on Tuesday (with a several hours long stop at my alma mater)and woke up the next day with an earache. I thought little of it and took Penny for a walk and then went shopping, got some shoes, took her to the park, and then realized I was running a slight fever. Yup, sick on spring break! I'm a little better now but haven't gotten to do anything I wanted! Sigh! Tomorrow, though, I hope I can bring Penny to the dog park before spending time with my friends (for the first time all week! How does this happen?). I was going to go to the Tejas Storytelling Festival but none of the workshops were too appealing. However, Grapevine has a chocolate festival going on Friday and Saturday, and I must say that one thing I love just as much as a good story is good chocolate. At the very least, I didn't have to work this week and I didn't have huge assignments due. And I have just ten weeks until classes are over.
Saturday, March 6, 2010
I learned something today...
I'm just as bad as my father when it comes to being overprotective.
Went to the river with Penny and I was so proud of her! I got her to get her feet wet and while she wouldn't go into the deeper water, she would lie down in the more shallow water. Later she saw a REAL golden retriever (not a mix like her) and ran around with her for a bit, including following her into the water! She didn't go all the way out where she couldn't touch, but all in good time! I will have to get her a retractable leash so I don't break the law and take her leash off for me to stay dry! I definitely got to use my ballet leap skills when she dragged me across a small creek. Not a drop on me...there. The other time when we were both in the water (me just up to my shins) and a dog distracted Penny into pulling me so she could say hi, I just barely excaped soakdom. Bad day to wear white shorts, I say.
After that, we decided it would be best to have an experience at the groomer's at our Petsmart. While we waited for our appointment, we ate lunch (I ate lunch, Penny ate ice) outside of the brand new Chick-Fil-A and bonded with the lady who was working the front door. I learned all about her husband's former dog, an untrainable Jack Russel, and her mom's dog, a stubborn Basset, and she repeatedly spoke of how beautiful and sweet my Penny is. Penny behaved like a perfect lady and, after accepting a Chick-Fil-A cow toy and finishing her ice, laid down politely and let me finish my meal.
Then we went to the groomer. I had to hand my dog off to someone else and let her alone for hours! I watched through the window as they took her in the room and she looked a little scared. That was all it took, really, for me to be nervous about these strangers trying to bathe, brush, clean her teeth, and trim her nails. I perused a few shops but didn't leave the general vicinity, and ended up sitting in my car in the parking lot watching tv on my iPhone. I got a call from the groomer and one of the first things I heard was "I just want to give you an update on Penny..." Oh dear. Turns out my pup does NOT like any form of air dryer. At all. She tried to bite the hose one and didn't like the other she tried, either. She told me I could wait a little longer with her in the dryer kennel (a kennel with a dryer in the room, much less anxiety inducing) or I could come get her. That was enough. I told her I was on my way and basically shot through to the groomer at the other end. Yup, I don't like leaving my dog alone in a strange place. And I was worried about her the whole time. I'm kind of ridiculous. On the up side, Penny smells like Sweet Peas.
Went to the river with Penny and I was so proud of her! I got her to get her feet wet and while she wouldn't go into the deeper water, she would lie down in the more shallow water. Later she saw a REAL golden retriever (not a mix like her) and ran around with her for a bit, including following her into the water! She didn't go all the way out where she couldn't touch, but all in good time! I will have to get her a retractable leash so I don't break the law and take her leash off for me to stay dry! I definitely got to use my ballet leap skills when she dragged me across a small creek. Not a drop on me...there. The other time when we were both in the water (me just up to my shins) and a dog distracted Penny into pulling me so she could say hi, I just barely excaped soakdom. Bad day to wear white shorts, I say.
After that, we decided it would be best to have an experience at the groomer's at our Petsmart. While we waited for our appointment, we ate lunch (I ate lunch, Penny ate ice) outside of the brand new Chick-Fil-A and bonded with the lady who was working the front door. I learned all about her husband's former dog, an untrainable Jack Russel, and her mom's dog, a stubborn Basset, and she repeatedly spoke of how beautiful and sweet my Penny is. Penny behaved like a perfect lady and, after accepting a Chick-Fil-A cow toy and finishing her ice, laid down politely and let me finish my meal.
Then we went to the groomer. I had to hand my dog off to someone else and let her alone for hours! I watched through the window as they took her in the room and she looked a little scared. That was all it took, really, for me to be nervous about these strangers trying to bathe, brush, clean her teeth, and trim her nails. I perused a few shops but didn't leave the general vicinity, and ended up sitting in my car in the parking lot watching tv on my iPhone. I got a call from the groomer and one of the first things I heard was "I just want to give you an update on Penny..." Oh dear. Turns out my pup does NOT like any form of air dryer. At all. She tried to bite the hose one and didn't like the other she tried, either. She told me I could wait a little longer with her in the dryer kennel (a kennel with a dryer in the room, much less anxiety inducing) or I could come get her. That was enough. I told her I was on my way and basically shot through to the groomer at the other end. Yup, I don't like leaving my dog alone in a strange place. And I was worried about her the whole time. I'm kind of ridiculous. On the up side, Penny smells like Sweet Peas.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
"I'll just throw something together"
Apparently when I say that it means spaghetti and chicken with bell peppers and spinach in a lemon butter sauce.
Next time: more cream, more lemon. Maybe some garlic. And I won't overcook the pasta (you can really tell with whole wheat spaghetti...)
Otherwise, it's quite edible!
Next time: more cream, more lemon. Maybe some garlic. And I won't overcook the pasta (you can really tell with whole wheat spaghetti...)
Otherwise, it's quite edible!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Does anyone know how to sing this song?
I can find lyrics but no music!
The flowers are all sleeping
Safe in their starlit beds,
And as the moon comes creeping
They nod their fragrant heads.
The drowsy, budding branch lets fall
An air that seems to call:
Sleep a while, sleep a while,
My children, sleep a while.
The birds that sang so bravely
Are silent in the nest,
The sun itself has gravely
Found pillows in the west.
The cricket as he grinds away
Works all night long to say:
Sleep a while, sleep a while,
My children, sleep a while.
The Sandman comes in gliding
Up to each sleepyhead
To see if someone's hiding
Who should have gone to bed
And when a yawning child he spies,
He drops sand in his eyes.
Sleep a while, sleep a while,
My children, sleep a while.
The flowers are all sleeping
Safe in their starlit beds,
And as the moon comes creeping
They nod their fragrant heads.
The drowsy, budding branch lets fall
An air that seems to call:
Sleep a while, sleep a while,
My children, sleep a while.
The birds that sang so bravely
Are silent in the nest,
The sun itself has gravely
Found pillows in the west.
The cricket as he grinds away
Works all night long to say:
Sleep a while, sleep a while,
My children, sleep a while.
The Sandman comes in gliding
Up to each sleepyhead
To see if someone's hiding
Who should have gone to bed
And when a yawning child he spies,
He drops sand in his eyes.
Sleep a while, sleep a while,
My children, sleep a while.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Poll (of sorts)
I'm trying to decide what tales to retell in my retellings journal next. So far I've Maid Maleen and the Selkie. I will of course do the Allerlairauh type retelling and a Six Swans/Three Ravens type. What else? What stories (that are not the usual Disney overdone and overculturalized [seriously, Cinderella is not the best story in the world. I hope I do NOT randomly have to marry some rich guy simply because my shoe is sort of loose]) do you want to hear again and again and again?
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