Courtesy of my friend Jill

The Ultimate Midterm Manifesto

The summer after my sophomore year of college I did a People to People Program in New Orleans. I loved New Orleans; what an amazing city. I also met some pretty amazing people, including my friend Jill, who is now a graduate student at Oxford (so impressive!). I wish I had read this Midterm  Manifesto when I was working on my Term 2 assignment! Alas, the motivation will have to carry me through Term 3. Happy reading!

- Rachel

Two-fifths of the way there...

This became my theme song at 11:30 pm on Friday night when I turned in my 48 page Term 2 assignment. As I may have neglected to mention, the Teacher Education Program is broken up into 5 Terms, and Term 2 ended when I hit "Submit" to turn in my Term 2 paper. I promise to tell you what the Terms are in my next post. I'm too excited and relieved to talk about anything other than finishing my Term 2 assignment.

The Aftermath looked like this:

I know there are some of you out there who wrote a thesis in undergrad, but as a Music Education major, let me tell you…I was NOT one of those students. I've written large papers before for group projects, but this was the first long paper I wrote all by myself, complete with six sweet Appendices (super fancy), and references to boot. Even though I know I still have more months of work to do before I graduate, I'm really proud of myself for keeping it together this far!

I'm saying that I'm proud of myself now, but this week of stress and anxiety definitely brought out some ugly moments of self-doubt. Thankfully I have a very supportive boyfriend who can simultaneously cheer me up and shut down my negativity (his best line: "You can go to that place, but I'm not going there with you" - serious, yet loving). I also have another great motivator which is the fact that every assignment brings me one step closer to being a teacher! How can I be upset when I know what waits for me at the finish line?

I already get to work with some amazing kids. I'm student teaching with kindergarten students, and they are wonderful for a lot of different reasons, one being that they speak with such candor. It's hilarious sometimes. Here is an excerpt from a conversation I had with a student:

Rachel - What kind of animals do you like?

Child - Not cats, because my first cat scratched me. Just hamsters and fish. I like guinea pigs.

Rachel - Do guinea pigs and humans have anything in common?

Child - They stink and we don’t.

Rachel - Okay, but do we have anything that’s the same? (I point to my eyes)
Child - Eyes, mouth, and nose. But we don’t have fur.

I was trying to see if he could find similarities and differences between humans and animals. He found them alright. 

Best,

Rachel