Weather and Unrelated Topics

If you live in a beautiful place and you can't go outside without melting, what's the point? It's been hot Down South. I think the high today is going to be around 94 degrees. And it's only May! It's hot and here I sit, in the radically air-conditioned library, watching the beautiful green branches of the tree outside the window swish in a breeze that feels like hog's breath. You get the picture.

I received my FTCE results yesterday and was delighted to find that I passed both the Professional Knowledge exam and the English 6-12 Subject Area exam on the first try. Whew! That's a load off. I should have popped a bottle of champagne or eaten an entire chocolate cake by myself, but instead I ended up watching a disaster movie on TV with my husband until bedtime. Then, I wallowed, too hot to sleep. Anyway, I'm in contact with someone in the personnel department of the local school district and am in the process of setting up a screening interview. The web site shows NO teaching positions listed for 2006-2207. Something's up. Perhaps they don't post them until later in the summer. I shall find out. Walton County has a few openings, but they are in Freeport and Santa Rosa Beach, the latter definitely too far for me to commute. I'm sure things will work out. I'm just delighted I passed the FTCE.

Tomorrow is the last night of my Teaching and Learning Process class, and I will be glad when it's over. Our professor did cancel the final exam (made my day), but reading 150 pages of educational psychology is enough to drive anyone over the edge. I remember, now, how much I hated this subject when I was studying for the FTCE. Those School of Education types just take everything too darn seriously -- classifying, analyzing, scrutinizing, making up stupid words for terms they invent ("timewiseness" for example or "withitness"). I've had enough of their pointy-headedness. I have noticed, too, a whiff of elitism coming from the School of Education people whenever alternative forms of certification (such as EPI) are mentioned. Like, if you didn't go to school to be a teacher in the first place, what makes you think you can be one now? I have my own ideas about that, and since you are captive to my blog, you're about to hear them.

Seems to me that knowing about teaching doesn't make you a good teacher. You can read the theories, analyze the data, and write reaction papers until your eyes bleed and you still won't BE a good teacher. What makes a good teacher? IMHO, a good teacher is someone who is passionate about what he/she knows and wants to pass that good feeling along to someone else. Really good teachers are crazy about literature or science or math or whatever. They are crazy enough to want to pass on what they've learned, so they go to school to learn a few techniques and get some practical advice. Only they find themselves sucked into a program that focuses on theory. There's nothing like theory to deaden passion. Try to scientifically explain your sexual attraction to your mate and you'll see what I mean.

So, I guess in the best of all possible worlds, you'd go and get your degree in English, science, math or whatever and, if you thought you might be interested in teaching sooner or later, have a few education classes thrown in. Why would this be a good idea? Well, you'd be in classes with people who are all going to teach the same thing. That might be helpful. You'd be able to write and discuss lesson plans that everyone in the class could relate to and use one day. Also, while you're learning a little bit about education, you're still exploring your subject area, keeping on top of developments, thinking about the way you want to design a lab experiment or the way you want to show kids the beauty of calculus. This makes sense. Instead, I find myself in a teacher education program where little reference is made to subject area, where I have to sit through dozens of presentations on elementary level lesson plans, and where I have serious anxiety about losing touch with all the things about literature and writing I was once so passionate about -- heck, the very reasons I decided to become a teacher in the first place.

I'm just saying this whole experience could have been better thought out and designed. Last week at class, we were told that a portfolio would be required for graduation from the EPI program. It's true that a few of our teachers have asked us to do elements of a portfolio, but we were told that it would be a personal project and that we could be as creative as we wanted. Now, we're being told that it's a state-mandated part of the program. There will be a specified format and we will have to submit it in order to "prove" that we've mastered the 13 accomplished practices. We've never seen anything in writing on this "requirement." Also, don't our grades prove that we've mastered the required competencies? Seems that this information should have been given to us by the program coordinator at the beginning of the program, not when we've completed five of seven classes and the practicum. There was a big roar when all this was announced followed by an email from the coordinator this week assuring that there would be no "additional" work required, and that we would receive assistance organizing the portfolio. Whatever.

If I had time this summer, I'd go to a deserted isle with a suitcase full of books I haven't read and might want to teach to future students. I'd immerse myself in deliberate reading under the nearest palm and, perhaps, in the process rediscover the love of literature that pointy-headed people have conspired to drive away. But, perhaps I give them too much power when I say that. I need to reconnect. I realize it's up to me.

Work on the house continues apace. The crew should be done with the dry-in this week, then the white metal roof will go up. We chose brick last week and went to pick out a tub and shower yesterday. The house pretty much has a temporary roof on it now. It blocks the view from the kitchen window of the trailer. I keep thinking about what one of the guys pouring the slab, not realizing WE were living in the trailer, told my husband. "Man, that is rude. Somebody building a house and blocking the view." My husband smiled and said, "Yep, and when it's done, we're going to move in." It will be a while, but if you're thinking of a visit, next January or February might be a possibility.