the beginning of the fall.

and so begins my last semester of college.
the dreaded student teaching internship.
the end of the road.
the beginning of the fall.

i spent most of this previous summer saying that i was going to further prepare myself for the semester ahead. i did a good amount of organizing, but hardly any educational reading or researching. and here i am, less than five days away from the big one and i'm still organizing previously used resources. trying to catch up on old educational journals that i've forgotten about until now. and generally...well, i'm just freaking out.

right now i'm taking part in what winthrop university likes to call "internship institute." i refer to it now as internship camp. there are a bunch of seminars for us to take part in - dealing with things like legal issues (stuff we could be liable for or potentially sued for), ADEPT standards (how we're evaluated even as first year teachers), our huge internship work sample (a big semester long project thats due at the end), and possible educational associations that we can join as students. tomorrow comes "stress management" and "communication in the internship" among others. really, its a lot of small details, really useful and important information that in the long run will save us a lot of trouble, grief, and surprise when we are finally on our own. i think its a pretty good idea myself. eh?

the facts until this point are...i passed the praxis II, which means (according to my aunt who works for the school district that i graduated high school from) that i can actually start the teacher certification process in something like october. i can also starting applying to school districts then. its all based on a letter of intent. basically, "you finish your internship, you graduate, you get certified...we'll take you!" she informed me of all of this about a month ago. and i must admit that things are moving a little fast for me. at the beginning of the summer i had told myself that when i graduated i was going to go home and take 6 months off just working as much as i can at small jobs. but then i found out how much health insurance costs and that if i started teaching (which is a good possibility cause they always need science teachers) that insurance and benefits would be covered immediately. and i would get paid a teachers salary without the bills for rent, groceries, insurance, life which means i can save more in order to prepare for when the real real world actually does come. so the idea began appealing more to me. i have to admit that the reason i was reluctant before is that i would be coming into a brand new class, the middle of the year, with what i figured would be no experience. but i would have experience! i would be leaving straight out of a full time internship at one of the best educational university departments in the state. i would have a mentor teacher and my family close by for good support. i would have plenty of time to focus hard on the teaching without all of the other aspects of living on my own to worry about. i would be taking it one thing at a time. i would be able to do that.

so now i'm back in school(!) and i've been assigned to my internship school. first it was york comprehensive high school with susie ferguson as my mentor teacher. but a woman from WU's students academic services called last week and said that they switched with someone else and that i would actually be at fort mill with maria torres. i happy with the switch cause the drive is shorter and fort mill high is a school that (at this point) i would potentially be interested in teaching at. so i start monday. and guess what...monday night is open house at 7pm! i'm going to try to make it even though i have class scheduled until 8. but i really hope i can make it.

i'm writing in this blog (separate from my other blog) because its a good way of chronicling my journeys through student teaching. to post cool things that i find or come up with. to describe the good and bad parts of interning. to process thoughts about the semester, my class, my students, my assignments, my life as a teacher in a written/verbal way. this way, my roommates and good friends dont get bored by hearing all about it! so keep coming back...i'll be sure to keep you all updated.