So, how's high school?

Definatly could be better. First off, let me back track and say I had a great and awful weekend. Great because I went to see Much Ado About Nothing at Taproot Theatre with Megan and Jeff. I had a great time both at the show and hanging w/ my firends. Unfortunatly, the awful began about halfway thru the show. All of a sudden my throat began to hurt really bad and I was getting really hot. But it was hot up in the balcony, as many people agreed to, so I hoped it was just that. Sparing you the icky details, I was sick, with a fever and sore throat that also crept up into my ears.

This being the case, I spent a good portion of Sunday trying to find a doctor's office that was open and trying to get all the insurance info from my mom so I could get some drugs or something. I thought I had strep, but the test was negative. I got some antibiotics anyway.

All that sets the stage for Monday, which was supposed to be my first day of observation at Mountlake Terrace High School. Needless to say, I wasn't well enough to go in on Monday, so I stayed at home and watched nothing on TV. Occasionally I stood up, but was quickly reminded why I was lying on the couch. Even so, I was feeling better Monday than I was on Sunday, so I decided I needed to just tough it thru and go to school on Tuesday and just hope (and pray) that I had enough energy and felt good enough to pull it off.

Well, God was good. He not only gave me the strength to get thru the day, He miraculously gave me the ability to be awake at 5am (those of you who know me well know how big of a miricle this is). I found the school no problem and Piper, one of my fellow teachers-in-traning (they like to call us "preservice" teachers), was gracious enough to show me around the school and help me find my coorperating teacher (CT).

So my CT...he's a nice guy, but I don't think he really wants to be a CT. He told me flat out that he's not looking for a student teacher (which doesn't bother me any, I'm not trying to make anyone have one). But that, and a few other comments like the one that came at the end of the day: "ok, from now on I'm just going to ignore you and pretend you're just one of the students. Do whatever you like," make me think he's not super happy to have me observe him. Like I said, he's a nice guy, but I feel like I'm more of a liability that anything else to him.

There you go. I'm not really looking forward to the rest of the two weeks I have at MTHS, mostly because I don't feel super wanted. I'll do my assignment, and then see if I can spend most of my time in some other teacher's classroom; one that is a bit more receptive to my being there. Ok, enough of my grumblings. I'm sure it'll be fine.

There's my update for you all (all 2 of you). Now you have a vague idea what's happening in my life.

Why can't I be me

It seems like I'm not allowed to be myself anymore. In my multi-cultural ed class I'm not really allowed to have an opinon becaues I'm white, middle-class, Christian, heterosexual, and male. Anything I say is taken thru that lens and immediatly dicounted because I "can't understand" or "am biased" or whatever. So who says I can't have an opinion?!

And then there's my personality style. It seems like my way of looking at and processing the world (Beaver, meloncoly, West; take your pick of lable) is not as good or as valuable as other ways. Because I don't like change, I'm bad. I'm not stupid; I realize that change is inevitable and yes I have learned to adapt and flex. That's part of life. But that doen't mean that I have to love change or "embrase change." In my life change has almost always been a bad, negative thing, and leads to pain. Isn't there validity in that?

I'm big on personality types and the differences in the way people thing. It's just interesting to me. But it seems like even when I'm talking about differences, my way is always looked down upon. It's not understood and thereby discounted. I'm very analytical, I like the details, I like structure and words and deffinitions. I fully understand that not everyone is like me and that some people like open-ended topics and ideas, they don't like structure, etc. That's fine, I understand that they think differently and that not everyone thinks like me. But why can't my way be a valid way too? Just 'cause it's not the way you, or maybe a majority of people, think, that doesn't mean it's any worse of a way. I try to validate others' ways of thinking, why can't they recirpocate? Why is my way always wrong or the way that needs "fixing"?

Why can't I be me

It seems like I'm not allowed to be myself anymore. In my multi-cultural ed class I'm not really allowed to have an opinon becaues I'm white, middle-class, Christian, heterosexual, and male. Anything I say is taken thru that lens and immediatly dicounted because I "can't understand" or "am biased" or whatever. So who says I can't have an opinion?!

And then there's my personality style. It seems like my way of looking at and processing the world (Beaver, meloncoly, West; take your pick of lable) is not as good or as valuable as other ways. Because I don't like change, I'm bad. I'm not stupid; I realize that change is inevitable and yes I have learned to adapt and flex. That's part of life. But that doen't mean that I have to love change or "embrase change." In my life change has almost always been a bad, negative thing, and leads to pain. Isn't there validity in that?

I'm big on personality types and the differences in the way people thing. It's just interesting to me. But it seems like even when I'm talking about differences, my way is always looked down upon. It's not understood and thereby discounted. I'm very analytical, I like the details, I like structure and words and deffinitions. I fully understand that not everyone is like me and that some people like open-ended topics and ideas, they don't like structure, etc. That's fine, I understand that they think differently and that not everyone thinks like me. But why can't my way be a valid way too? Just 'cause it's not the way you, or maybe a majority of people, think, that doesn't mean it's any worse of a way. I try to validate others' ways of thinking, why can't they recirpocate? Why is my way always wrong or the way that needs "fixing"?

My new high school

Today's the day! The posted the next school we'll be observing in from October 25th until November 5th. Since I did junior high last time (begining of September), I'm in a high school now. But I'm sure you're all on pins and needles as to which high school. Drum roll please...

The high school I will spend 2 weeks observing in this October is: Mountlake Terrace High School. I know nothing about the school other than the name, but I'm glad that it's not TOO far from home (not like Renton or Kent or something). I'll let you all know more when I know more.

But as for now, I need to get to reading how evil I am since I'm a white, middle class male.

Overwhelmed

That's the word that describes grad school right now. I've only been in class for a week and a day, and I'm already insanely behind in the reading for classes. I know, those of you who've done undergrad are saying "yeah, but you don't really have to do the readings." While this is partially true in undergrad, it is much less true in grad school, at least in my program. There is hardly any lecture in my classes at all; it's almost all discussion of the readings, which makes my having done the readings a bit more pertinant.

An MCE update: well, my prayer for my Multicultural Education class was answered this Wednesday. I've been asking God to make it clear how much to say and how much to keep to myself about my christianity and what I believe on issues. Well, we spent the first hour plus of class on Wed. explaining the lense thru which we view the world. We went around the class and each person had to speak for 2 un-interrupted minutes. I was the second student to speak, and that was when I shared that I'm a christian and how that profoundly affects how I view the world. We'll see how it's taken and what developes in the next comming weeks. Other than that, I'm really not liking the class at all. I don't feel like taking the time to describe how evil I am, but at some point I'll give you what I've "learned" from the class so far.

Ok, that's it for me today.

Really Cool

Ok, I just heard about this today and had to check it out online. Take a look at this site and look at the Quicktime movie clips in the right hand lower sidebar. My personal favorites are the bump test track and the speed bump. Quite interesting in my view. And just so you know, the guy I talked to today at Bose said that it'll only add $8-10 thousdand dollars to a car (I know it's alot, but much less than it could be, believe me).