Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Educational policy rant, balanced out with cute baby pics

As if I wasn't freaking psyched out of my mind for this weekend, my sister sent me more motivation to get there ASAP. 


Then my mom sent me the behind the scenes view - on her new iPhone! I felt pretty special that they put so much work in for me.

Getting a smile isn't easy sometimes

Unfortunately, the weather isn't being quite as cooperative. The race is Sunday. 30% chance of major chafing in our future.


Today I did another easy 7, no watch or music or anything electronic. I swear I've been dehydrated since San Francisco. I can't seem to get it under control. 

I'm going to take a second to rant. Sometimes blogs say things like "feel free to skip it and scroll down", which usually makes me think "apparently you aren't aware of this, but I always feel free to do that if I am bored with what you're saying".

Teachers are required to get a master's degree in some states, Maryland being one of them. I guess the idea is to make us better at our jobs? Except, teaching isn't like engineering or something, where extra education helps you learn more about your specific specialty, unlike working with children, which no amount of classroom education prepares you for. Maybe. I don't really know anything about engineering, but you get my point.

What this boils down to is that last night, I really wanted to stay late at work to do crazy things like plan lessons to teach my class and interventions to help kids work on skills they are weak in. But I couldn't, I had to rush out of work shortly after the kids to make it to my grad class on time. Then I sat there for three hours listening to.....theories. Abstract theories. Which was super helpful, because if there's one thing I know, it's that kids always behave in the way a theory developed in the 1800s dictates they should.

Funny College Ecard: I hope college teaches you everything except how useless college is.

So I'm getting this masters, which means that I've spent countless hours writing papers, sitting in a classroom, or some other pointless activity instead of my actual job. And I get to pay for this privilege!

In thanks for reading my educational policy rant, here's something hilarious. Read the reviews for this product. Watch out though, it's incredibly addicting.

Did your education prepare you for your career? I certainly learned a lot about how to make bulletin boards look pretty and a classroom library look inviting in college. Not so much about what to do with things like students writing death threats about you on the side of the school building.

11 comments:

  1. omg Harrison is so freaking adorable! I think he needs to make a trip down to Hartford in a few weeks.

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  2. Haha, I consider college a pretty big waste of time and energy, I've done nothing with my education. Experience definitely outweighs theories!

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  3. Oh my gosh the reviews on that link are HILARIOUS! Had me laughing out loud. My education did not prepare my for my career (hello administrative assistant). What it did prepare me for is all of the things that I do that is outside my job duties that I'm technically not "qualified" to do because I don't have a master's degree. Go figure.

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  4. That picture of Harrison is adorable, it makes me really want a baby. Oh wait....

    If it makes you feel better, Jeff hardly ever uses his master's in engineering at work. Either of the master's degrees.

    In contrast, I did actually use mine when I worked (well, the first job I had post grad school). It was a magical time.

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  5. Did my education prepare me for my career? Do you mean did my degrees in Journalism, Spanish, and Education prepare me to own a landscaping company? Absolutely :)

    I do find it ironic, however, that my master's prepared me for all of the volunteer work that I do. Glad that I paid thousands to work for free!

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  6. your nephew is so stinking cute and did your sister seriously just give birth?!?! really?

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  7. College education? What's that you speak of? I don't know what that is. I take care of peoples money. They trust me with all their money. Well, not me personally but they trust me to be able to count their money and properly put it into their account and set up accounts and write notes on their accounts and answer their questions about their accounts. I don't think I need an education for it, BUT some day I will get one :D

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  8. That photo of your sister from the side looks so much like you! I had to check to see who it actually was. Even though my degree was in Modern European History, I do think I use the writing skills a lot. The actual history part, not so much.

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  9. College did NOT prepare me for work, but law school sort of prepared me for being a lawyer. Not that I learned a bunch of laws, but I learned to read cases and write legal briefs. Of course, I'm not a lawyer anymore so I guess...no.

    Two more days until the race! Good luck!!

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  10. Harrison is so freaking cute, I can't handle it. I'm excited I get to meet him.

    30% chance of chafing, JACKPOT.

    I'm pretty sure my hobbies have better prepared me for my job than my actual education.

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  11. I was a high school teacher for 7 years. The pressure to get a master's kept mounting and I watched colleagues go through education master's programs and I just couldn't imagine spending the time and money to do exactly what you described-theories and a lot of BS papers. The best way to be a teacher is by teaching. Anyway, I quit my job and went back to school full time to get a degree in environmental policy. I was a government teacher who loves environmental issues. It only made sense to do something that was meaningful and that made me more of an expert in my topic area.

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Thanks for commenting! Comments make me probably more happy than they should.