Christmas in a Yurt

For Chirstmas this year, Navigator & I decided to spend a few days on the Oregon coast at Cape Lookout State Park. We rented a yurt for three nights, explored the cape and visited the Tillamook Cheese factory. We brought our tree, decorations, and all the presents that had arrived prior to our trip. It was an awesome Christmas!

Our tree with presents!

Dinner time!

Navigator stuck in the brush on our hike

A stormy coast

The super-cool bike-helmet-strap ear warmers that I made for Navigator

And the front view...

(notice the totally awesome sweater he's wearing... That was his present last year)

Winter Break Musings

I have been such a poor blogger this term. I had planned to blog and blog and blog about how difficult it is to go to grad school, and all the shit I am required to do and blah, blah, blah.

I never had time.

I had a lot of shit to do.

The day before my last classes, I had to finish putting together my work sample and create my transparencies for my presentation of my individual program plan for my focus child. I had purchased a package of transparencies for a presentation during summer term. I was certain they were somewhere in the house. I tore the house apart looking for the tranparencies. When Navigator came home, I was in tears. Everything had come to a halt because of the transparencies. I couldn't function. I couldn't do anything else. I screamed at him, the poor fellow. On top of that, one of the guest cats was scratching at the door to the office and it was annoying the hell out of me. Navigator left, walked to the Office Depot & purchased me new transparencies, then had dinner at John Barleycorn's, the local McMenamin's tavern, and proceeded to get drunk. When he came home to deliver the transparencies, I was too involved in my work to notice his stagger. He was pleased with himself.

I was up until 1AM putting my work sample together. I was a mess the next day, and could barely keep my eyes open in class. I was certain that I wasn't going to get straight A's this term and that I would have to re-do some sections in my work sample. I was certain that Fall Term wasn't over when we hit the bar for happy hour.

Grades were posted last week. I have a 4.0. I have no idea how I pulled that off.

Winter break has been a whirlwind of activity. I've been subbing at Head Start in the afternoons and working with a little boy who has developmental delays in the morning. It's been two weeks and I have yet to have a vacation. The mother of the little boy offered me $20/hour to work next week. I hate to have to turn her down, but I have to turn her down. I need a break.

Thinking back on Fall Term, I think it was much more difficult than summer term. I was working full time during summer term, as well as carrying a full load, but it was much easier than fall term. I have been told that Fall term is the most difficult and winter term is better. I certainly hope so.

We're staying in Portland for Christmas this year. We have no plans to do anything. I'm pretty happy about this.

Well, it's off to work, I go!

Things I'm Thankful For

It's nearly Thanksgiving, so I thought I'd post what I'm thankful for. Here goes:

• Hiking the PCT (it's where I met my honey).
• Kingston giving Navigator that beer in Snoqualamie and convincing him to stay an extra night ('cause that's the night I hiked into town).
• The fact that our roof has been re-shingled.
• The new tires on Grey Eagle.
• The fact that Grey Eagle is still running (and hopefully will run until I get a job and we can buy a new car)
• My nieces and nephews (even though I don't see them that often).
• My siblings.
• My parents and grandmothers.
• My coworkers.
• My classmates.
• My husband (of course!). He's the most wonderful man in the world.
• Double I.
• Teatree.
• All my hiking buds.
• All of my non-hiking friends.
• My kittens (past, present & future).
• My Grandpa.
• Ann Ness.
• Being in grad school.
• Lucy, Scott, Chase & Charlotte.
• Have I mentioned my honey?
• Lara Bars.
• The foot warmers my husband made me three years ago.
• The fact that I haven't had a cavity in my life.
• The fact that I haven't had an incurable disease.
• The fact that I was born in a 1st world country.
• The fact that I don't have a disability.
• The fact that I CAN backpack long-distance trails and ride my bike to work.
• Iyengar Yoga.
• My babes at work.
• My focus child & focus family.
• The team at my practicum site.
• Central Heat & Air
• Moving to Portland.
• Being alive.

That's the short list. I have more, but I need to get back to my homework. This term has kicked my ass. I've heard that this is the hardest term. Let's hope so.

Status Anxiety

I have to keep a journal for my practicum. I send it to my university supervisor every week. I'm supposed to send it on Friday, but I end up sending it Saturday afternoon or Sunday. In any case, this week I wrote about how I feel in the classroom. In my practicum classroom, I feel rigid. I feel unnatural. I feel like I'm being graded and I need to do everything correct, so I act unsure of myself.

I also work. I have stayed with Head Start as a sub, and occasionally get called in to work. Friday was one of those days. On Friday, I worked in a classroom and felt natural. I didn't feel like I was being graded nor that I had to do everything correctly, so I felt sure of myself and I'm certain that showed. At Head Start, I'm one of two people in grad school. At Head Start, I'm one of a handful who have a Bachelor's. At Head Start, I have a high status.

My University Supervisor replied to my journal entry stating that I am recognizing aspects of status anxiety, which is a bit unnerving, but a healthy process of reflection. I am fully aware of the unnerving part, and I understand that recognizing this is healthy because I can do something about it. I can recognize when I'm being rigid at my practicum site and imagine myself at Head Start. "What would the Head Start me do?" could be my mantra. I could wear a bracelet that says "WWHSMD?" as a reminder. Then maybe, just maybe, I could be myself in my practicum.

I sent a copy of my journal entry to my cooperating professional. I wanted to get her view on things, and some pointers. Also, because my mid-term observation is on Tuesday, I want her to pay close attention to my rigidity, so that I can work on that for the rest of the term.

I do have one good thing to say about status anxiety. Whenver I have anxiety, I have dreams about airplanes crashing. In one of my most memorable dreams, airplanes were falling out of the sky at the airport. I knew it was unsafe to fly, yet when they called my flight to board, I couldn't keep myself from getting on the plane. It was like trying to walk up a down escalator. I was walking away, but I was moving closer and closer to the plane. When I have anxiety, I have dreams like this. However, with status anxiety, I haven't experienced such things. I've had dreams about buying houses, going to catholic high school, painting the guest bedroom and driving Grey Eagle. They were strange dreams, indeed, but not my usual anxiety dreams.

Practicum

I've been to my practicum twice now, and I have a focus child. Things are going well. I wrote up my site description. I think it sucks because I have been to the site only twice. I'm going to ask my professor today if I can have the option to edit and re-submit my site description in two weeks when I have more time at the site. I wanted to get it in on time since I have so many other deadlines looming in the distance, I didn't want this one to bog me down as well. All of my professors have said that they will push back assignments for me since I got my practicum assignment two weeks late, but I'd rather just go along with the current deadlines. I might re-negotiate later, but for now, I'm full steam ahead.

My first presentation was yesterday. It was a group presentation on Piaget. That was fun. I learned quite a bit about the Sensory Motor stage of cognitive development. I never realized just how much an infant learns, and that only the infant can teach itself these things. It's amazing. I never liked babies that much, but because of this project, I now find them fascinating. When Navigator talks me into having one, it won't be so difficult.

I'm so far behind on my readings that I feel like there is no point to attempt to catch up. What's funny is that over the summer I kept thinking that I would have more time to do things once fall term began. I feel like I have even less time now than I did over the summer when I was working 35 hrs/week AND carrying 12 credits. I have worked 12 hours in the past two weeks. Where is all my time going?

I had some homework to do today. I thought I would have to skip yoga in order to get it all done. I finished it about an hour ago. I still don't want to go to yoga. I'm afraid I'll have to do a hand stand. I have no upper body strength. The only way to get it is by going to yoga and doing such crazy things as hand stands. When I go to yoga and do hand stands, I ache, but I feel better about myself and my ability. I also am way more relaxed. Navigator ordered me to go to yoga today because it makes me a happier person. If I can't get myself there intrinsically, I'll go by order of the husband, and I'll thank him tonight.

Difficulty Blogging

I thought I would be able to Blog over my break from school. It didn't happen. I never got my journal up on Trailjournals, so nobody knows about my near-death experience. I still haven't downloaded the pictures from my camera. One of these days... (As I say this, I'm reminded of a poem by Nimblewill Nomad).

I went back east to visit my family. Attended my brother-in-law's surprise 40th birthday party, visited friends in New York City and drank too much, and purchased some artwork from the National Gallery of Art in DC. I also finally got to see the new WWII memorial and say hello to Honest Abe when I was out there. The pictures are still on my camera.

When I returned, Paul flew out to Tahoe & I moved our stuff into our new condo because school was starting that monday and I didn't want to have to move when I was in school. We are still living out of boxes and I have no idea where our Netflix movies are packed. I took pictures, but they're still on the camera.

I'm supposed to be transcribing Teatree's journal right now. I haven't found any time. I'm thinking about mailing it to Northerner and telling him that I just can't do it. I was doing a stellar job for a while, now I suck.

School has been going well. I finally started my practicum and things are due soon. I'm beginning to freak out, but I think I'll get over it soon. I've started to eat more chocolate.

I go to yoga every Wednesday. My instructor kicked me out of level 1, so now I'm in level 2. I'm glad I'm in level 2. It's difficult and some times I think how much I really hate it, but in the end, I love it. I can do a head balance (it looks like a head stand, but you're not really standing on your head, you're just balancing on it. All of the weight is on your shoulders and upper body on account of the fact that it's not safe to put all that weight on your head and neck). AND I am almost able to do a hand stand. It's amazingly difficult and my body screams the next day, but I feel good that I'm actually gaining upper body strength.

I rode my bike 21 miles yesterday. On my way home from class, the battery for my headlight died. I was pissed. That's not safe, especially when it gets very dark pretty early.

We are fostering cats right now. My friend Leticia has a friend who is taking care of her daughter's cats. Her apartment complex gave her an ultimatum and she needed a safe haven for the kitties until her daughter gets back from Germany next month. Since I was fortunate enough to have people take care of my kitties when I needed it, we decided to do the same. So, now we have two sweet kitties, a mom & her daughter, Zelda and Gordis. They're spanish speaking cats. Luckily I know a little spanish, so I can get them to come to me by saying "Ven aqui!" They are spoiled kitties. Their collars have rhinestone initials on them, they have a big fluffy bed, two scratching posts and a special thing that hooks on the window sill so they can sit and look out the window. Sweet babies! I'll take pictures and leave them on my camera for a couple weeks.

We're going to fix up the guest bedroom for the cats since they are our first houseguests. Right now it's full of boxes. :)

Goat Rocks Backpacking Ordeal

I returned Monday night one day early from my backpacking trip to the Goat Rocks with my friend Sharon. I'm still processing everything that happened. Saturday and Sunday were wonderful days. Monday was "The Ordeal," which is what we are calling it. I will be posting my journal to www.trailjournals.com/belcher06 later this week. The following Woody Guthrie song pretty much sums up our last day. These were lyrics Woody wrote, but never put to music. Ellis Paul put them to music and does quite a job with it. Enjoy...

God's Promise

I didn't promise you skies painted blue
Not all colored flowers all your days through
I didn't promise you sun with no rain
Joys without sorrows, peace without pain.

All that I promise is strength for this day,
Rest for my worker, and light on your way.
I give you truth when you need it, my help from above,
Undying friendship, my unfailing love.

I never did promise you crowns without trials,
Food with no hard sweat, your tears without smiles,
Hot sunny days without cold wintry snows,
No vict'ry without fightin', no laughs without woes.

All that I promise is strength for this day,
Rest for my worker, my light on your way,
I give you truth when you need it, my help from above,
Undying friendship, my unfailing love.

I sure didn't say I'd give you heaven on earth,
A life with no labor no struggles no deaths,
No earthquakes no dryspells, no fire flames no droughts,
No slaving no hungers, no blizzards no blights.

All that I promise is strength for this day,
Rest for my worker, my light on your way,
I give you truth when you need it, my help from above,
Undying friendship, my unfailing love.

I promise you power, this minute this hour,
The power you need when you fall down to bleed,
I give you my peace, and my strength to pull home
My love for all races all creeds and all kinds.

My flavors my saviors my creeds of all kinds,
My love for my saviors, all colors all kinds,
My love for my races all creeders all kinds,
My saviors my flavors my dancers all kinds,
My dancers my prancers my singers all kinds,
My flavors my saviors my dancers all kinds.

New Words by Woody Guthrie
Music by Ellis Paul
Words © Copyright 2001 by Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc

Other Exciting Reads

On Friday, I plan on hiking the section of the PCT I skipped in 2003 due to a fire. I have to skip a section this year due to a fire. One of these days, I'm going to complete the entire freakin' trail...

I'm keeping a trailjournal. I've posted to it a few times in the past three days. This is my first advertisement of the trailjournal. However, I have had 350 hits already. People are weird. My trailjournal is not funny.

Because I no longer have school, I can finally introduce the blogs that are on my blogroll. Drumroll please...

My first blog is A Sort of Notebook by Nina Baxley. It's a fun little daily journal of my friend, who is a writer, pianist and aspiring half-marathon runner.

The second is The Adventures of Scott, AKA "Batteries Included." This is a personal blog of a fellow PCT thru-hiker living in Wisconsin. He has some amazing pictures of the PCT up there.

The Adventures of the Painted Ladies is an adventure blog that my friend Double I and I put together to log our fun and wacky adventures. We have a quite a few contributors to the blog.

My cousin Jason has two blogs. Dispatches from a lost student's mind details his thoughts and ramblings about his life in college. He'll be entering his Sophomore year at Stanford in the fall. He's brilliant and is thinking about becoming a neurosurgeon. His second blog, Hilarity, is a log of funny video clips he's found on the internet that he finds amusing. It's a blog typical of a college dude.

My friend from the AT, Bear Bag, is currently cycling across the US. He's blogging about it at Gary Buffington's Bike Ride Across America.

Letters from Lisa is a blog about issues in special education, and how to handle being a parent of a child with special needs.

What's the Point? is my brother's seemingly forgotten blog that is rather funny. I don't know if he will ever post to it again, but what's up there so far is mint.

I got A's in my last two classes and work will be over soon. I'm feeling good!

This Is Bad

I just read my Google Horoscope. It's bad when your Google Horoscope is correct. This must mean the world is about to end. Here's my Google Horoscope:

You are on a pendulum now, swinging back and forth between the responsibilities in your life and your desire to escape from them. Hopefully you aren't planning on a day of easy relaxation, for your life can now be fraught with complicated choices, especially about relationships. Your sense of identity is being challenged but if you just act with kindness, others will accept you.

I want to escape from Hell, Part 2. I have just a few more classes left, but still. It sucks. I'm ready for my backpacking trip.

Hey Asshole in the silver Mazda!!

Sometimes I wish I had a horn on my bike. Not one of those silly bells, but a horn that's as loud (or louder) than a car horn. Maybe one that says "HEY ASSHOLE" since that's usually what I scream at the people who make me feel like my life may end when I'm riding my bike.

For instance, I was on the scary bridge on Barbur Blvd. today. It is scary in that there is no bike lane and the sidewalk is raised and the width of my rear end. There is a big yellow sign that boldly cautions the cars travelling at 45+ mph that bikes are on the bridge since it is obvious that it is too dangerous to ride a bike on the elevated sidewalk. There are two lanes travelling the same direction on this bridge. It seems obvious to me that if there was a slow-moving vehicle in the right-hand lane, I would get into the left-hand lane to go around said slow-moving vehicle. For some reason, people who drive cars at 45+ mph on this bridge think that it's quite alright and safe to pass the slow-moving vehicle with six inches (or less) of space between them.

That is why I wish I had a big horn. Right now, I scream, but my voice is not as strong as most car horns. In fact, I doubt that it's a strong as a bicycle bell.

What would be even better would be a bicycle horn that had more than one "beep" that you could program yourself to say different things. It could be on your handlebars, close to your gear shifters so you wouldn't have to move too much to blow it. Imagine if with a flick of your thumb, you could have your horn say "Hey buddy, that's a parking lane, not a bike lane. I'm obeying the law! What about you?" or "Yeah, I have a horn too. However, your horn doesn't tell me that you're about to cut me off, so maybe you should just wait two seconds you stupid Tri-Met bus driver!" or "Yes, I may be stopped, but you don't have the right to pull into my lane to make a right hand turn in front of me. Back it up shithead!"

Maybe it's the stress of school rubbing off. Maybe it's because I generally suffer from road rage and since I don't drive much anymore, it's translating to my cycling. Either way, I wish I had a third arm so I could just give people the finger while I'm riding. That would make my commute so much better.

4.0

I got my grades from Hell, Part I. I got A's in both classes! I think the Tom Petty concert this weekend is well deserved. And I think I just might have to buy myself the new Tom Petty album. And go to Sweet Tomatoes.

Oh shit! I just realized that I forgot to pack my lunch today.

Hot For Hubby

So I wrote a post yesterday (which I just deleted) about my lack of concentration in class over the fact that my professor is hot. When my husband came home, I attacked him. I think that the similarities in their appearance simply renewed my infatuation, lust, desire, etc. for my husband. I'm totally hot for hubby right now. It was difficult to let him go to work today.

My professor is short (though, not at short as Navigator). He has dark brown hair and a beard. If he was in the same room as my husband, along with a bunch of other people, and I described my husband to a stranger, they might see my professor and think he's my husband. I checked out Navigator this morning. I mean, really checked him out. He's way hotter than my professor.

I think I've just been really stressed out with school that I haven't had time to think about just how unbelieveably attracted I am to my husband. We've been married for almost a year, but we've been together for three. You'd think that by now, we would be past the stage where we can't keep our hands off each other, and be in the happily comfortable stage. I thought that's where we were last week because I wasn't feeling totally crazy about him.

It took the cute professor to get me going again. That's why I think it was stress from school. I just have 3 1/2 weeks left, then a week of work. After that, I'll have a month of no responsibility and all the time in the world to be crazy about my husband.

A Meme

I was tagged for a meme by Waterfall. I've never done one before, so we'll see what happens...


The "4" Meme

4 jobs you've had:

1. Hot Shot Investment Banker
2. Campus Security
3. Database Administrator
4. Papa John's Pizza Shift Manager

4 movies you could watch over & over:

1. Casablanca
2. Office Space
3. Walk
4. Monty Python's Holy Grail

4 places you've lived:

1. Cranford, NJ
2. Raytown, MO
3. Plaquemine, LA
4. Stockton, CA

4 TV shows you love to watch:

1. Stargate SG-1
2. Veronica Mars
3. Smallville
4. The Biggest Loser (Although I'm not sure that's on anymore. When it was on, I loved watching it)

4 places you've been on holiday:

1. The Appalachian Trail
2. The Pacific Crest Trail
3. Alaska
4. Vancouver Island

4 websites you visit daily:

1. google.com
2. weather.com
3. myspace.com
4. craigslist.com

4 of your favorite foods:

1. applesauce
2. bagels (really, it's any bread product, but bagels are my favorite. Of that category, NJ bagels win.)
3. berries
4. popcorn

4 places you'd rather be:

1. In a house with air conditioning (we're on the downside of a heat wave)
2. In the woods
3. At the beach
4. In Colville, working on our property

4 lucky people to tag:

I'm new to this blogging world, so I'm going to pick the only blogging people I know (and I know I can't tag waterfall again...). Hopefully at least one person will respond...

1. Double I
2. Gloves
3. Bear Bag
4. Batteries Included

Cycle Oregon - The Weekend

This weekend, temps got into the 100's. Instead of sitting in front of the fan, sipping iced tea and lemonade, my husband & I joined the Cycle Oregon weekend ride from Eugene to Oakland.

It would have been a fairly easy ride, if it was 30 degrees cooler. There weren't too many major climbs and it was mostly flat. Saturday morning, it was cloudy for most of the day, but Sunday was brutal. Navigator nearly succumbed to the heat. I had to wrap him in cold, wet towels to cool him off. I had a headache Saturday night, but only because I didn't drink enough water.

The town of Oakland was fun. I don't think they have one stop sign in their downtown area. We camped on the ball fields at the high school. The high school and the elementary school share the same grounds, cafeteria and multi-purpose room. The elementary school has about 8 classrooms and one bathroom. That's how small this town is.

Downtown, there was one tavern (which was closed) and a soda shop/restaurant/bar, one hardware store that sells everything and a grocery store about the size of a 7-11. Every other building in town was an antique shop. In fact, the soda shop/restaurant/bar also sells antiques. What is it about small towns and antique shops? I don't get it.

I didn't take too many pictures on account of the heat and the fact that we were kinda miserable. I also packed the camera in our overnight bags on Sunday, so I didn't even have it during the ride yesterday.

I have ass rash on the crease where my butt meets my legs. I'm not looking forward to riding to work today.

The good news is that I found my I-Pod on Friday. The bad news is that one of our kittens, Cholla, succumbed to the heat and passed away this weekend. She had been losing weight for a week and was failing to thrive to begin with. My roommate had to work until 10 and when she came home, Cholla was in bad shape. She was seizing every so often, and hadn't had any water or food all day. She finally passed at 3am. Reuben is 1.5 pounds, Meesha is 1 pound, and when Cholla died, she was less than 1/2 a pound. She was also the runt of the litter. She was part siamese, and some cats in heat will have more than one partner. This means that Mom probably had a siamese partner a while after her first, and Cholla was probably a premie, so her chances were already slim. I miss her. She was super sweet.

We still have Reuben and Meesha. Reuben is currently attacking the cords on the computer. Silly kitty!

Good News... and Some Bad

The good news is that I need to get only 5 points (out of 15) on my final today to get an A in the class.

The bad news is that I seem to have misplaced my I-Pod. I honestly can't remember the last time I had it. I think it was at work on Friday. I hope it is still at work, under a bunch of stuff on my desk. It's not in my car. I just hope I didn't put it on top of my car before I left work and drove off. Shit. I hate it when my mind is so cluttered, I can't remember a damn thing.

Hell, Part 1

On Thursday at 4:50pm, Hell, Part 1 will officially be over. We will celebrate with happy hour, then go home, recouperate, read two chapters in a new book and return on Monday for Hell, Part 2.

What is this Hell in Two Parts? It's the Summer Session of the PSU Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Ed Grad Program. This is the idea:

Take two classes that usually meet four hours per week in 12 weeks, and shrink them into two classes that meet eight hours per week in four weeks. Follow that up with another round, and you have Hell in Two Parts.

The only good thing about it is that after Thursday, I will be on the downhill side. I see the light at the end of the tunnel and my only hope is that it has a 3.5 (or better) dancing in it.

Students with Deafness and Hearing Loss Presentation

Tomorrow is my group presentation on Students with Deafness and Hearing Loss. I'm exhausted, but I'm almost finished. I was hoping that my sister-in-law would have the time to put together a first-hand account on being a parent of a child with hearing loss, but I haven't heard from her. She probably has a lot to do besides my homework. Luckily, she kept a journal of my niece's progress, so I think I'll print it out tomorrow morning and just make that supplemental material.

In the mean time, I've created beautiful transparencies, a Deaf Time Line and a most wonderful outline that will wow our professor (at least I hope). I know I'm putting more work into this than I need to, but I can't help it. I am a perfectionist.

I have strong feelings about my professor, textbook and the class in general, but I have neither the time nor the energy to express such thoughts. Right now, I must put all my stuff together, take a shower, turn off the lights, kiss the kittens and go to bed.

More Pictures of Kittens

I couldn't get these pictures to upload on my last post.

Kittens sleeping in their corral. From top to bottom: Reuben, Cholla & Meesha

Meesha tangled in my backpack strap!

Who Wants a Kitten?

The Shmuffinator passed away last month. He'd been having digestive tract problems that got complicated into kidney trouble and eventually complete shut-down. It was difficult in that the kidney problems and shut-down happened so quickly that we were pretty surprised when the vet gave us the choice to euthanize or put him through more trauma to attempt to keep him alive for another couple months. He's been creamated and sits next to Rocky Cat on my dresser.
I decided that I didn't want to get into another relationship with a cat in the near future. However, my roommate wanted one, but wasn't sure if she could make a long-term commitment. We decided that she should foster cats. She signed up with the Cat Adoption Team. We got our first set of kittens w/ mom on Friday. They'll be with us for the next 4-6 weeks. While they were in the shelter last week, they all lost weight and mom stopped eating because it was so stressful on them. Since coming here, they have all been nursing very well and mom has eaten quite a lot. We haven't seen much weight gain yet, but that'll probably take a week.

We've named them Reuben, Meesha and Cholla. Mom is Sheba, though she was misnamed. When Heidi went to pick up the cats, she was told that she was getting an all black set. She thought that an all black cat would make a cool Sheba, so when the woman asked her what she wanted to name the mom, she said "Sheba." Then she got the tuxedo cat and it was too late.

Sheba is about two years old and she likes to play. She isn't as active as a normal two year old right now because she's nursing and needs to keep her strength to make milk. However, she does like to play with the little yarn toys we've made for the kittens. She's also a big lover. She sleeps at the foot of Heidi's bed every night and likes to be around people. She hates to be locked in the spare bedroom alone with the kittens. She will make a wonderful lap cat for somebody.

Here's a picture of the sweet lumps of fluff. If you are in the Portland area and may be interested in adopting a kitten or cat, let me know!

Mama nursing her kittens

Philosopy of Teaching

We have an assignment due in my Intro to EI/ECSE class today. We have to write our philosophy of teaching. We weren't given any guidelines. In fact, none of my assignments so far have had any guidelines, except for amount of pages. My philosophy of teaching is to be a page or less, double spaced. This is my first draft. My instructor will look it over, make comments, and I will use those comments to rework my philosophy and turn it in to another instructor in another class. The idea is that by the time I'm finished with the licensure program, I will have a lengthy philosophy of teaching that is succint and solid. So, here it is folks, Delphi's current short but sweet philosophy of teaching:

Learning is a continual process of which every human being is capable. Everyone acquires skills and knowledge at different paces. No one pace is correct. The pace is correct only to that individual, as one must master a certain set of skills before moving on to the next.

As a teacher, I hope to foster a lifelong love of learning in my students. Therefore, it is my duty to help the students in the mastery of each set of skills, determined by their pace. If I require that a student who is learning at a slower pace learn at the pace of her peers, she may lose self esteem and any desire to continue to learn. Conversely, if I require that a student who has mastered a set of skills to continue to practice those skills without building on them while his peers reach the same level of mastery, the student may lose his desire to learn because of boredom.

In order to attain such goals, it is important that a teacher form a partnership with parents. Parents are a child’s first teachers. As such, they have a wealth of information about the student’s strengths and learning needs. I believe that supporting a parent’s role as the first and continuing teacher and advocate for their child is vitally important to the success of a child’s learning. If a parent does not get that support and their interest in their child’s learning is lost, the child’s own desire to learn may be wasted.