By “home” I mean an apartment that still has hardly any furniture (as in, two beanbag chairs, one air mattress that actually holds air, one that doesn’t even after patching, and a small cat condo that doubles as a table because it has a flat top).  It also now has cable TV and 7M internet (as in, it’s crazy how fast things load).

So, there are so many gaps to fill in, in the story of what’s been going on.  WOU jerked me around a bit, I need to finish up some things with OSU, and I have to get another piece of paperwork from district HR before I can get the emergency license to let other things process.  Why they only gave me one of the pieces of paperwork, I don’t know.

On the good side, I definitely like the school I’m at.  They’re literally putting all seventh graders into pre-algebra, to get everyone taking algebra in eighth grade.  No pressure on their seventh grade math teacher, though –actually it’ll be OK because they’re giving us double-length class periods for math, so I’ll have time to fill in all the gaps.  It’ll work.  I can make it work.  And it’ll be cool.

The good news is, I’m in Phoenix.  Having a roof over my head and places to be during the day is a good thing.  Air conditioning is a very good thing…”it’s a dry heat” doesn’t apply in monsoon season, which is apparently now, and which involves Arizona being hot and humid.  And the really long tire-devouring (story to follow) road trip is over.

However, most of my stuff is still on the way, packed in the van, and I’m still getting my license stuff squared away which involves my dad hitting WOU with a rock.  Maybe they’ve mailed a transcript, I don’t know.  Argh.  And there’s still also plenty of shopping to do, plus I need furniture.  Which is why moving is only “sort of” done.

Too much to do.

Stuff due today and tomorrow.

Tired.  Even though I got four and a half hours (good by comparison).

School almost over, I think I survived, I may get shot at or puked on but no one can make me write a term paper again.

Actual coherent post to follow, maybe tonight.

kthxbye

I just blocked the first spammer since last month.  Normally, of course, I’m ecstatic to not have to block twelve a day, but I have to wonder why they’re just not showing up.

Classmate in online class: “This last year at school every time I turned on the computer it seemed as though I was not allowed to go to sight to so research for a topic on health do to the filter on the district server” (emphasis added).

Aside from the bold stuff, there should also be a comma between “school” and “every,” and between “computer” and “it.” And maybe an a before “sight” so that I don’t end up reading it with an accent.

This…genius…is finishing up a masters in elementary education and I believe still planning to go into teaching. AARGH!!!

Full disclosure: Oh wait, I’ll be very surprised if I get less than a B, never mind, nothing to disclose.

Here’s where I am:

It’s not about research, and not so much of it is specifically about learning.  I have no problem with the concept of an Issues in Education type of class but it should be properly labeled, not sold to grad students (and maybe the Graduate School Office, not sure about that though) as actual serious research.

Half of the readings are written by one person, the professor who designed the course.  He’s a decent human being and a good professor but he does have a marked social perspective, and I haven’t seen any attempts to provide a counterpoint even in the readings that he didn’t actually write.  I don’t have a problem with examining a particular philosophy of education, but calling it “research” (which has connotations of objectivity and rightness) seems like indoctrination to me.

It’s required for my degree.  So I’ll pass.  But I’m disappointed that I won’t have the chance to learn anything about how to research in my research class.

One of my classmates, an older lady, felt the need to tell me as class was getting going today that she’s offended when I refer to rote learning as dog training because “her dog doesn’t dog train.” Um…what?

I tried to explain what I meant, basically a reference to Pavlov’s dog and conditioning versus conceptual learning, but all I got out was “Well, what I mean is it’s a different kind of learning” before she cut me off with “I know what you mean, and it’s offensive. But you can still say it.” Like I was looking for permission? Seriously? And if someone thinks that’s offensive, either they only think they know what I mean or they’re overly sensitive and have very calm lives.

According to my mom, who I talked to for other reasons (to be discussed once I figure out what’s going on), tea is supposed to be allowed to steep for 3-5 minutes.  I’ve been conditioned in my ideas of what’s a good amount of preparation time for a cup of tea by a concoction I figured out from an herb book, referred to by me simply as “headache tea,” which involves chamomile, peppermint, and rosemary.  It works fairly often, actually, but has to be very strong to work on anything other than sinus headaches (for which a cup of steaming water would work roughly as well and for the same reason; have tissues at hand when trying this).

I brewed up a pot of what was meant to be quasi-traditional chai tea (brown sugar instead of regular sugar, since that’s what I had) yesterday…I think around 6 PM.  Being conditioned by the preparation times for headache tea, well, I’m not sure exactly how long it steeped, but…not 3-5 minutes.  It took me a while to drink my way through it since I wasn’t drinking it quickly, probably around 8 PM by the time I got done.  It was, I thought, fairly good…but then I couldn’t sleep once I tried.  I remember being sharply awake at 2:30 AM, so sharply awake that I wouldn’t be surprised to find out I actually got to sleep around 4.  I started on waking up at 5, actually hauled myself out of bed a bit after 6…I’m figuring somewhere around two hours’ worth of sleep.

I’ve been dead tired all day and somehow getting stuff done anyway, about as well as any other day.  Managed to line a couple of things up as well as do assignment-type stuff.  Go figure.

Right now…definitely not. I’m just too flat out tired of being a student, I want to not have to think about tuition and books and papers for a while. Plus I need to pay my student loans down a bit before I can throw anything else on top of what I’ll be paying.

But…eventually…

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