Saturday, March 28, 2009

End Of A Season, Start Of A Dream

I finished up my face-to-face pedagogy training today (pedagogy is a fancy word for "how to teach good"). I learned about classroom management, lesson design, multiple intelligences, reading, assessments, parent conferences, the power of repetition, the power of repetition, and how to land a job. It was a lot like being in college again. Funny, I don't remember enjoying college as much as I enjoyed the past two months.

The dream part of all this began several years ago when I was taking some involuntary leave from college. I was up long after I should have gone to bed and channel surfing. I finally hung ten on PBS. They were showing teacher resource videos for elementary math teachers. I was immediately hooked. At some point in the wee hours of the morning, I said to myself, "I could do this." It was a statement of ease based on my love of and success with math in school. Over several weeks, that seed germinated into a full-fledged dream.

I called several former teachers, asking where to go to get an education as an educator. They all recommended Southwest Texas State University. I applied as soon as I could, even driving my application packet to the SWT admissions office. I guess I thought that would give me an up over some other candidates. In the end, it didn't matter. I was accepted but I had missed the deadline for the next semester and had to wait some more.

Since the time I restarted my college career, SWT became Texas State University, I changed my major several times, and generally lost sight of the original dream, both of teaching and of mathematics. After I got married and graduated, I became friends with Kristi Chase.

At the time, she was pursuing a teaching career. A spark of envy reignited my old dream but the flames had no real fuel to burn. However, it wasn't long after she started teaching 7th grade math that I found myself helping her with some ideas for her classroom. One night, she was hanging out with Marissa and me and another idea shot out of my mouth. She very quickly remarked, "You should do this." That sounded to me very much like what I'd said to myself years ago. The dream came raging back as a mighty inferno.

And now, as you know, I'm highly qualified to teach math. I've finished my pedagogy training. I had an informal interview yesterday in Lockhart and I've got a teaching job fair to attend on Wednesday. I'm excited about all of this and really feel like God is leading me on a grand old journey. I eagerly await the next step!

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