Change of Major
Sep. 18th, 2010 02:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sorcyressSo, I had my advisor meeting today, in order to sort out my schedule (I was only enrolled for six credits, a normal semester is fifteen) and talk about the state of things. It turns out that the state of things is...well...
Have I ever mentioned that I'm really bad at school? I am. I am a very smart person with absolutely no motivation or ability to get herself going on things like projects or homework. I'm great at coming to class and participating. I suck at writing essays.
At any rate, you need a 3.0 cumulative GPA to get into student teaching. I am not going to tell you what my GPA currently is --you probably won't believe me, even with the above statements of how I am bad at school-- but my advisor (who is a math geek like me) and I did the math. If I got a 3.7 this semester, and replaced my two worst grades with 3.0s, I would be too low to student teach in the spring. If I got a 3.7 in the spring, I might be too low to student teach the following fall.
Yeah. Like I said. I'm not very good at this school thing.
Luckily, my advisor is very good at her school thing, and she sat me down, and told me to stop being a dunderhead (not in so many words, no) and talked about what classes would be easier for me, and then presented options as to how I could keep my future career path, without having to start college entirely over.
The solution we came up with? Very simple --I'm no longer an education major. I'm an education minor, meaning I don't have to1 student teach. Oh, and best of all, I can now (un2)officially declare myself as a mathematics major. I feel surprisingly good about this --it feels right, really.
The other half of the solution comes from the fact that I was discussing that I was expecting I would probably need to take another semester or two of school to graduate, rather than graduating in the traditional four years. "Have you considered a five year plan to get your masters?" she asked, as if it were the most obvious question in the world.
No. No, I honestly hadn't considered that. But it makes a gobsmacking amount of sense --graduate this spring, get into grad school at UMass or something, and spend a full semester or two3 getting a masters degree in education. Then I can become a real teacher, and can get more masters4 in various other things at a more sedate pace.
As for the back-up plan, if I don't get into grad school immediately, I'm going to start casting my net, and see where I can wind up teaching without a licensure --private schools and the like6-- and working to get my masters concurrent with my first couple years of teaching, which was honestly my original plan, just minus the part where I wind up in a private school.
So...yeah. My life is decidedly different, but it also honestly feels more structured and logical. And hey, I'm officially a math dork now, which I really am loving. I may have to make business cards.
And yes, I do swear that someday you will have to call me Dr. D***** III7. Who cares if my first name isn't Richard, or that I'm not in medical services, I am so not passing up a chance to have numbers after my name8.
Now, if only I could get my degree in using too many footnotes, I'd ace that in a second!10
~Sor
MOOP!
1: I'm a little unclear on this --I think I have to take a twice-weekly practicum or something, instead of the full five days a week? But we'll figure that out.
2: Unofficial only until we do the paperwork, which will probably just wait until November, when picking classes for next spring is.
3: Or possibly three? This is definitely going to take a lot of research, not to mention GREs and applications and ohgodohgod. But I plan to stay a full-time student for the 2011-2012 school year (in addition to finding some sort of retail bitchery so I can afford a place to live oh god), which should get me certified and ready to teach as fast as possible.
4: I've been told Boston high schools prefer teachers with masters in their subject area, and my extremely long term plan has involved the concept of just getting various masters degrees in various interesting subjects --math, followed by psych or drama, followed by physics if I can swing it, or possibly chem (I didn't hate chem)-- and basically become able to teach ANYTHING AT ALL until I get bored of paying for school or too overqualified to get a job at the high school level5.
5: Yes, for the Long Reach folk, I basically just want to be Miss Flood. You do know that the woman had like three masters degrees, right? Miss Flood is so damn cool.
6: ...huh. Wonder if uncle Tim is hiring...
7: Posssssibly the fourth. I don't actually know whether my great-grandfather was also a doctor. I think he might've been! For what it's worth, my dad's an anesthesiologist, and his dad is a surgeon.
8: ...do you think I could marry into it?11 Gosh, but I might have just found something to make me consider actually marrying someone! God bless the sanctity of marriage to people for totally petty reasons so long as they are the opposite gender from you9
9: Okay, does anyone actually remember the post I made declaring my gender to be not-male and therefore a comfy chair or something? Am I insane? Did I actually make that post, because I am completely not finding it, which is weird, since I am usually quite good at throwing tags and keywords at the screen until I get what I was searching for in this journal.
AH-HA! Apparently the keywords to search for were "Dan4th couch". See also about two thirds of the way down this post. My gender is overstuffed plaid chair. :D
10: I don't actually have anything clever to say here. But it seemed necessary.16
11: I actually kinda want to go have this conversation before I make this post. Mostly because the phrase "I want numbers after my name, will you marry me?" tickles me. Oo, I've never asked someone to marry me before12, this is all exciting, I wonder what he'll say!15
12: BLATANT LIE! I have eight wives! I am sure I have asked at least a couple of them rather than them asking me. Also, I find this concept quite amusing in light of the fact that I was trying on wedding dresses a month ago13. ZOHEMGAWD14 IT IS WEDDING SEASON HERE IN SORCYLAND!
13: For Dr. Horrible Live at Dragon*Con. I was Fury Leika, and got to wear my grandmother's wedding dress. It is a _weird damn feeling_ to put on your grandmother's wedding dress, seriously.
14: I think I tried to write both "ZOHEMGEE" and "OHMYGAWD". So...yeah, that did not turn out well. Still not as happymaking as "oh my lol" which I used a week ago by accident and quite liked.
15: He rejected me. :( Apparently he is only willing to marry for convenience, not pettiness. Like so unfair, seriously guys. Wedding season here in Sorcyland is officially over. :( :( :(
16: It's worth noting that the footnotes for this entry got completely recockulous, and for that I apologize, though not very much, mostly because I had a lot of fun writing them. So yeah. That.
Have I ever mentioned that I'm really bad at school? I am. I am a very smart person with absolutely no motivation or ability to get herself going on things like projects or homework. I'm great at coming to class and participating. I suck at writing essays.
At any rate, you need a 3.0 cumulative GPA to get into student teaching. I am not going to tell you what my GPA currently is --you probably won't believe me, even with the above statements of how I am bad at school-- but my advisor (who is a math geek like me) and I did the math. If I got a 3.7 this semester, and replaced my two worst grades with 3.0s, I would be too low to student teach in the spring. If I got a 3.7 in the spring, I might be too low to student teach the following fall.
Yeah. Like I said. I'm not very good at this school thing.
Luckily, my advisor is very good at her school thing, and she sat me down, and told me to stop being a dunderhead (not in so many words, no) and talked about what classes would be easier for me, and then presented options as to how I could keep my future career path, without having to start college entirely over.
The solution we came up with? Very simple --I'm no longer an education major. I'm an education minor, meaning I don't have to1 student teach. Oh, and best of all, I can now (un2)officially declare myself as a mathematics major. I feel surprisingly good about this --it feels right, really.
The other half of the solution comes from the fact that I was discussing that I was expecting I would probably need to take another semester or two of school to graduate, rather than graduating in the traditional four years. "Have you considered a five year plan to get your masters?" she asked, as if it were the most obvious question in the world.
No. No, I honestly hadn't considered that. But it makes a gobsmacking amount of sense --graduate this spring, get into grad school at UMass or something, and spend a full semester or two3 getting a masters degree in education. Then I can become a real teacher, and can get more masters4 in various other things at a more sedate pace.
As for the back-up plan, if I don't get into grad school immediately, I'm going to start casting my net, and see where I can wind up teaching without a licensure --private schools and the like6-- and working to get my masters concurrent with my first couple years of teaching, which was honestly my original plan, just minus the part where I wind up in a private school.
So...yeah. My life is decidedly different, but it also honestly feels more structured and logical. And hey, I'm officially a math dork now, which I really am loving. I may have to make business cards.
And yes, I do swear that someday you will have to call me Dr. D***** III7. Who cares if my first name isn't Richard, or that I'm not in medical services, I am so not passing up a chance to have numbers after my name8.
Now, if only I could get my degree in using too many footnotes, I'd ace that in a second!10
~Sor
MOOP!
1: I'm a little unclear on this --I think I have to take a twice-weekly practicum or something, instead of the full five days a week? But we'll figure that out.
2: Unofficial only until we do the paperwork, which will probably just wait until November, when picking classes for next spring is.
3: Or possibly three? This is definitely going to take a lot of research, not to mention GREs and applications and ohgodohgod. But I plan to stay a full-time student for the 2011-2012 school year (in addition to finding some sort of retail bitchery so I can afford a place to live oh god), which should get me certified and ready to teach as fast as possible.
4: I've been told Boston high schools prefer teachers with masters in their subject area, and my extremely long term plan has involved the concept of just getting various masters degrees in various interesting subjects --math, followed by psych or drama, followed by physics if I can swing it, or possibly chem (I didn't hate chem)-- and basically become able to teach ANYTHING AT ALL until I get bored of paying for school or too overqualified to get a job at the high school level5.
5: Yes, for the Long Reach folk, I basically just want to be Miss Flood. You do know that the woman had like three masters degrees, right? Miss Flood is so damn cool.
6: ...huh. Wonder if uncle Tim is hiring...
7: Posssssibly the fourth. I don't actually know whether my great-grandfather was also a doctor. I think he might've been! For what it's worth, my dad's an anesthesiologist, and his dad is a surgeon.
8: ...do you think I could marry into it?11 Gosh, but I might have just found something to make me consider actually marrying someone! God bless the sanctity of marriage to people for totally petty reasons so long as they are the opposite gender from you9
9: Okay, does anyone actually remember the post I made declaring my gender to be not-male and therefore a comfy chair or something? Am I insane? Did I actually make that post, because I am completely not finding it, which is weird, since I am usually quite good at throwing tags and keywords at the screen until I get what I was searching for in this journal.
AH-HA! Apparently the keywords to search for were "Dan4th couch". See also about two thirds of the way down this post. My gender is overstuffed plaid chair. :D
10: I don't actually have anything clever to say here. But it seemed necessary.16
11: I actually kinda want to go have this conversation before I make this post. Mostly because the phrase "I want numbers after my name, will you marry me?" tickles me. Oo, I've never asked someone to marry me before12, this is all exciting, I wonder what he'll say!15
12: BLATANT LIE! I have eight wives! I am sure I have asked at least a couple of them rather than them asking me. Also, I find this concept quite amusing in light of the fact that I was trying on wedding dresses a month ago13. ZOHEMGAWD14 IT IS WEDDING SEASON HERE IN SORCYLAND!
13: For Dr. Horrible Live at Dragon*Con. I was Fury Leika, and got to wear my grandmother's wedding dress. It is a _weird damn feeling_ to put on your grandmother's wedding dress, seriously.
14: I think I tried to write both "ZOHEMGEE" and "OHMYGAWD". So...yeah, that did not turn out well. Still not as happymaking as "oh my lol" which I used a week ago by accident and quite liked.
15: He rejected me. :( Apparently he is only willing to marry for convenience, not pettiness. Like so unfair, seriously guys. Wedding season here in Sorcyland is officially over. :( :( :(
16: It's worth noting that the footnotes for this entry got completely recockulous, and for that I apologize, though not very much, mostly because I had a lot of fun writing them. So yeah. That.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2010-09-18 06:53 am (UTC)no subject
on 2010-09-18 02:50 pm (UTC)~Sor
no subject
on 2010-09-18 05:35 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-09-18 11:10 am (UTC)no subject
on 2010-09-18 02:51 pm (UTC)~Sor
no subject
on 2010-09-18 03:13 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-09-18 12:30 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-09-18 02:52 pm (UTC)And I always have fun, you should know that by now. I am very good at fun!
~Sor
no subject
on 2010-09-18 01:32 pm (UTC)I'm glad there's folks like you in the world to make up for people like me. Once I saw the T-shirt that reads "English major--you do the math," I forever regretted not majoring in English, 'cos a Computer Science major can't really wear that shirt, but it is oh-so-me.
no subject
on 2010-09-18 02:29 pm (UTC)- 1st practicum was just observing one class twice per week for a month then another class for a month.
- 2nd was team teaching a 3-day lesson in one class, revamping it and reteaching it in another class.
- 3rd practicum was assisting in one class for a semester.
- Finally we had student teaching which was eventually taking over all classes of one teacher.
It worked well for us and I got to see a lot of different teaching styles.no subject
on 2010-09-18 04:00 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-09-18 04:34 pm (UTC)*poingpoingpoings!*
on 2010-09-18 05:41 pm (UTC)In other words, it totally feels Right to me too, for whatever that's worth!
. o O (and although i also got hopelessly lost in the footnotes, i still loved them because they are an aspect of you that i really love very much (so much that i have totally adopted them in replacement of my even more difficult to follow nesting parentheseseses) and so it really doesn't matter to me that they got recockulous.. au contraire, that is what made all the more delightful ^_^)
no subject
on 2010-09-18 07:09 pm (UTC)I actually started out this comment wanting to write about college. I absolutely have no difficulty believing that you have terrible grades despite being bright and showing up for classes and participating and all that good stuff. My first semester at college, I got three Cs and an F. The second semester, I totally reversed that: three Fs and a C. I took a hiatus at that point.
Some time later, I went back and tried again; it was, if anything, even more disastrous. So, no more college for me; time to go do something easy like computer programming (they actually *pay* people to sit and play around with computer code -- who knew?).
Fortunately, it seems likely that you will actually graduate at some point if you just keep plugging at it (and getting decent advice, which I did not get). I encourage this. I despise the system which requires what is for many people a totally arbitrary series of hoops to jump through in order to prove that you're worthy of quite unrelated work (me: good at work, bad at hoops), but since that's the system now (and likely to be for quite some time), it's probably best to play along if you possibly can.
[pauses briefly to do a doctoral dissertation on Sor's footnotes, then exits stage left]
no subject
on 2010-09-18 08:39 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-09-18 11:01 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-09-19 01:32 pm (UTC)...*offers up grudging congratulations*
no subject
on 2010-09-19 05:51 pm (UTC)I know all about the whole being-smart-but-lazy-and-grades-suffering. This is why I switched from Aerospace Engineering to Math. Even still, my graduating GPA wasn't all that great.
But, woo! Congrats! Make the positive energy last. :)
no subject
on 2010-09-19 06:30 pm (UTC)And yeah. Congrats on having a plan and stuff.