School is Cool

So, in general, I enjoy school. I always have. I attribute it to my mom who was my first teacher. I distinctly remember, among other things, sitting at the kitchen table with her, a stack of magazines and a piece of paper, blank but for the upper and lower-case versions of one letter of the alphabet. We would talk about the letter and what it sounds like. My favorite part was opening the magazines, finding pictures of things that started with the letter on the paper, cutting them out, and gluing them to the page. Thanks to Mom, learning has always been fun for me and school therefore cool.
Then there were Lois and Pam, my preschool teachers.
Mrs. DeLorenzo, my kindergarten teacher who came to the house to meet me before school started.
Miss. Sullivan who eased my transition to a new school mid-fifth grade.
Ms. Pepin who managed to make high school math bearable, maybe even enjoyable, for me.
Even at the first two colleges I sampled my first and second year out of high school, there were teachers and classes I enjoyed.
Now here I am 27 and so close to earning my degree that I can taste it. I have had my rough patches, but school is still cool.

What is not cool is my having not blogged since Sunday, but school took priority. I wrote a very long paper and put together a thick portfolio of my Fall 2008 mentoring experience at Teen Voices for my independent study. It didn't start out as a major project. It just turned out that way. It started out with my adviser asking me to write a paper describing my Fall Experience at Teen Voices in order for her to understand what I did then so she can help me design my independent study for the work I am doing at Teen Voices now. When I got to our meeting yesterday and handed her the portfolio, she was flabbergasted. "What I am holding in my hands right now is worth at least the three credits you are taking this entire course for. I suggest you do an add/drop and take this independent study for 6 credits, instead." So that is exactly what I am going to do. We then outlined the rest of the semester.
My adviser for my independent study is also my overall academic adviser. Since my stick-to-it-ive-ness has been waning as of late, I asked her to go over what I have left so I can write it out and see it spelled out in front of me. This is what I have left or, as I fondly call it, Project Graduate:

This semester - Changing Views of Nature in American Literature
Independent Study - Teen Voices Magazine

Summer - One class (perhaps Applied Ecology, a two weekend class)
Some elective

Fall - Research Seminar in preparation for thesis
Thesis I

Spring - Thesis II

Graduate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Can there be too many exclamation points?)

So, dear blog friends, I am on a mission. This means I may go missing for a couple days at a time. It does not mean I love or appreciate any of you any less. Rest assured I will never abandon you because that is just not cool.

Sign Me Up!

Just in the nick of time, I signed up for Spring Semester classes last night. Yes, last night, thanks to my adviser clearing me for on-line registration. Classes start on Monday.

I am turning my Teen Voices time into an independent study for three credits.

My other class is Changing Views of Nature in American Literature which meets on Wednesday from 4-6:30 (Yippee for being home for dinner with the Mr.). We will be comparing the Native American view of nature with the dominant cultural view of nature. I am psyched (did I really just type "psyched"? Bringin' it back old school...) to read Emerson, Thoreau, Whitman, Faulkner...

(swoon and sigh)

and to be exposed to more Native American oral tradition/folk tales/literature.

Does anyone else remember reading the Tomie DePaola versions of Native American folktales? The Legend of the Bluebonnet was my favorite! He also wrote The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush and The Legend of the Poinsettia.

I'm pretty sure Tomie DePaola's books won't be on the reading list, but I look forward to reading whatever is.