Back to School (do I have to?)

Well, I have two days of freedom left before I go back to school. I cannot tell you how much I have both loved and desperately needed this break. Although I was not happy when it came and it still upsets me to think about. If you missed that saga it is here, here, here, and here


I have transferred to Western Governors University. I am actually looking forward to the new experience. This University doesn't have "classes" it has "assessments" and is competency based. If you can pass the assessment, you get the credit without sitting through a class. They take into account you background and what you currently know. Then with my mentor, we decide what resources would be best for me to prepare for the assessment (text, audio lectures, video, a class, etc.). As soon as I am ready I take the assessment, I can and move on. Some assessments are exams, others are projects or presentations. At least this is the sales pitch. It is an intriguing set up and I want to see how it actually works out.

I was actually scheduled to begin at the beginning of July, but I postponed it a month. In dealing with Joshua's eating issues, I had lost a whole month. I don't remember June happening at all.

So August is the month. But I am not getting enough sleep as it is. WHAT AM I THINKING?!?

Well, for one, I will have to start paying back my loans if I do not return. I looked into deferment due to unemployment, but I would have to be actively seeking employment to qualify.

So do I really HAVE to go back? No I really don't. I could just say no and focus on my family and the other things I have been wanting to do. But I also know that I will forever regret it if I don't. So here I go (full of trepidation)

It's Official

Well, my appeal was denied. I am officially kicked out of school for residing in the wrong state. I received no further explanation other than the BS Education program was restricted in Washington. Now I get to go through the hassle of exit interviews, loan paybacks, and applying to new schools. And I was so close.

At least it is a beautiful spring.
It will work itself out somehow.

Using my School Break

The appeal process takes about 4-5 weeks. By then I will not have enough time to complete my classes before the winter 2011 semester starts, so I will not be able to do my student teaching until the next fall. So what ever happens, my May 2011 graduation date will not happen.

I had a good birthday though. We went to the Cub Scout Blue and Gold dinner and had wonderful food that I did not have to cook. I did have to live through some cub scout skits though. Not the best floor show, but all in all, a good evening.

I have enjoyed my break so far. For some time now, I have had this nagging feeling that I need to improve my health and nutrition. About four years ago I came across the School of Natural Healing founded by Dr. Christopher. I was very tempted to enroll in their Master Herbalist's program. Dr. Christopher's own story is very compelling and he spent his life developing herbal formulas and teaching others. I do believe he was inspired. This was when I first read about the mucusless diet. This diet avoided foods that caused mucus in the body that causes disease. For example, wheat is very healthful, but when you turn it into flour and back it at a high temperature, all of the good stuff is killed and the chemical composition of the wheat becomes mucus producing. If on the other hand, you soak the wheat berries and cook them at a temperature below 130 degrees, the wheat is still alive; It will still grow. But Dr. Christopher's guidelines were very vague and I didn't know how to really do it. I found other sources for healthful food not quite as extreme as Dr Christopher's but better than what I was doing.

But that nagging feeling was coming back. I am beyond thinking that I stumble onto things. I firmly believe I am lead to sources of knowledge that I need at the right time. A couple of weeks ago, I began to look for recipes for the mucusless diet. I was not having a lot of success until I found Traci Seller's website. She was faced with health issues and needed to make the mucusless diet work for her. She too was faced with the limited information that Dr Christopher had given and decided to not only figure out how to live the diet, but to make it taste good. I have been reading her book and learning so much. I know this is what I am needing right now and Jonny is even not too opposed to the changes. I will go slow though. I have been sharing some of what I have been learning with Steven too an he is getting into it. He got so excited when I told him about all of the desserts in the cookbook. I had to laugh.

Anyway, I am keeping myself busy.

Happy Birthday to Me: school update

Well, I was emotional for two days, then I wandered around in a confused slump wondering what I was supposed to be doing. Now I am enjoying the idea of no school for a while. I am determined to use this time (however much time it is) as wisely as possible.

I have been unenrolled from all my classes. I will have to return my financial aid money. My program is officially on hold. I am appealing to the student appeals department. We will see. I contacted Washington's certification department. They said they would be fine with the UoP program. Their policy is that as long as the program is regionally accredited and leads certification in the state in which it originates (in this case Arizona), Washington will recognize it. So the problem is some policy of the University of Phoenix.

If they refuse my appeal, that will be OK too. I will get a bit of a break and transfer somewhere else. UW and WWU will not work for me, they have no online options and I cannot leave my kidos full time. I have found another promising online program that I can transfer to though, so my work won't be totally lost. It is even less expensive.

Yep, I'm out!

I have continued to ask questions just so that I will understand it enough to explain it. UoP should have told me when I first contacted them about moving that I could not complete the program in Washington. Somehow I slipped through the cracks. I should never have been allowed to take the last three classes.

I have tried to explain that we still have an Arizona home, bank account, registered cars, voters registration and driver's license in AZ; I can return to do my student teaching there and apply for an AZ teaching certificate. I could then apply to Washington with an out of state Certificate and get a Washington one. But apparently that won't cut it. Despite the fact that these classes are online and I am capable of completing the work, they can not allow me to continue in the program as long as "I rest my head at night" in Washington. Financial aid may become an issue and they are risking their accreditation by allowing me to continue in a program that is not recognized by the state in which I am residing.

One of the first things Jonny said was maybe it is OK; if we had known back in August that my school would be interrupted, we would likely have not moved. Maybe we were kept in the dark because we needed to make the move. I hate to sound negative (Allen seems to think that I should not have bad days and feel negative) but I cried most of yesterday. I just was not expecting this; it was not part of the plan.

Now I have to see if I can transfer to Western Washington (their campus is an hour away) or if the University of Washington has some extension programs here I can do. I have made calls and left messages; now I need to wait for the answers. I don't know if I can manage an April 1 deadline for applying to one of these schools or not. I sure hope I can make it work somehow. My biggest fear at this point is that life or school requirements would get in the way and I not finish. I have plenty of loans to worry about too which just are not justified without that piece of paper.

A change of plans is in order

Oh, my goodness. I am in shock.

When we were debating whether or not to take this Washington job, one of the big considerations was if Washington would recognize the University of Phoenix Education degree program. I was assured that it would.

This morning I received a call from my education counselor at University of Phoenix. Yes, Washington does recognize the Masters Education program but not the Bachelors Education program. I can either switch to a major other than education, move back to Arizona for the next 15 months, or transfer my credits to a Washington school. A different degree major makes no sense at this point; it sure wouldn't save me any time. I do not like the idea of leaving my family for a year. So I will have to transfer to a Washington school. Either way I am done for now.

I will try to appeal, but I am told there is no one to appeal to. I do want to make sure of all of this though before I just accept it. Though I am not holding out a lot of hope.

I just received a hefty financial aid check and paid off our moving expenses on the credit card. I'll have to figure out how to get that back. That will be a huge headache. Maybe our tax refund will cover that.

Now What?!?

18 down, 8 to go

Yippy, Yippy, Yahoo. One more done. This class I enjoyed very much. It was about techniques for teaching English language learners. I liked it because it was so holistic. They stressed making connections to other subjects and building on past experiences and such. One of my big complaints about school is the tendency to compartmentalize everything and not make those connections to other subjects, past, future, and life. But this one was right up my alley.
Now I get to take a whole entire week off.

I know I am talking education a lot, but that is my life right now. I would much rather be learning about using and growing healing herbs. Maybe I will pull out a book or two on that topic this week.

17 Down, 9 to Go!

Yippee, Yippee, Yahoo! One more down! I'm on the down hill side now. This class was a wonderful introduction to "the exceptional child." Now I get to focus six weeks on one demographic of those exceptional children, the English Language Learner. This next one is the only 6 week class, the rest are all 5 weeks. So they are pretty special.

16 Down, 10 to Go!

(plus the 12 week student teaching part)

If I didn't take any breaks at all, I could finish all my classes in the next 52 weeks, but that would be insane. Besides, in Washington, the winder semester doesn't start till the end of January, so I can take a few weeks off in the mean time. I still have more than half of my 100 observation hours left to do, and now that I moved away from my convenient babysitter (Grandpa Johnson) I have to start being creative. I could get it done real quick if I didn't have to worry about what to do with my kids. I asked around yesterday at church and hopefully found a few leads for people who might not mind watching four, mostly school age, children.

This last class was all about assessments. The tests in school and how teachers chose to score them seemed to be a mystery to me in school. Now I feel like I have had a glimpse into the forbidden other side and see that there is some rational for the many approaches. I definitely have a couple of preferences.

Tomorrow I begin "Introduction to the Exceptional Child" (special education, gifted, at risk, culturally and linguistically diverse)

15 down 11 to go!

I finished one more class today: "Classroom Management." It wasn't all about how to boss and control people, but that was an important aspect of it. We discussed things like classroom rules, procedures, discipline and room arrangement. I got to write such items as my "beginning of the school year letter to parents" and writing out classroom arrangements and procedures for a substitute. It was all interesting to think about, but since I really have no intention of teaching in a regular classroom, I don't know how much is really applicable for me.

Now I'm going to take a two week break!!

14 down and 12 to go!

This one was a short one. Instead of the usual 5 week 3 credit course, this one was a 3 week 1 credit course. It was essentially an introduction and orientation to what will be expected in my 12 week student teaching that I will do in the beginning of 2011. Now I get to take a week break, and I need it! I haven't taken a break since May. I will spend a lot of the week doing some classroom observations (I need 100 hours worth) and getting ready to start homeschool next week.

13 down, 13 to go.

I finish another class this weekend. Yeah!! This one was Ethical and Legal considerations. It was interesting. Because education was taken over by the government, courts have ruled that first amendment rights (freedom of speech, expression,association, and 14th amendment rights (due process)apply to public school teachers and students, but not to private. The Constitution states that "Congress shall make no law..." In this case, Public schools are considered "an arm of the Government" or "one of its creatures." So, if you tell off your boss, or wear something offensive to school at a private school, you can be fired and that is the end of it. But if the same thing happens at a public school, that individual can sue for his job back and, considering the circumstances, get it back.

For some reason, this surprised me. Why should it be any different at a private and public school? Almost all of the cases we looked at were of this type.
I mentioned this to Jonny. He pointed out that if they were going to be consistent, 2nd amendment rights should also be allowed. He is right. If they were trying to be consistent, a teacher should not be denied the right to carry firearms onto school property. Not that I am advocating such a thing. The point is that it doesn't make sense.

The only time I could see where public school was not considered and arm of the government was in the case of copyright laws. Schools can not fudge on the copyright. In this case, the courts have ruled that public schools are not an arm of the government and thereby have to obey copyright laws. - probably the doing of the textbook writing companies.

It is just the inconsistency that gets me. I thought schools were there for the students, not to employ teachers. - what was I thinking?!?

The other interesting part of this class was my research into high-stakes testing. I was supposed to write on the value of high-stakes testing (tests being used to determine grade promotion, teacher and school quality, etc. mandated by the No Child Left Behind). I could not find anything positive. All I found was article after article, and study after study, on how this was bad policy for everyone involved. It is ineffective, not producing the desired results, very expensive to implement, and in many ways doing harm instead of good.

But, I'm off to my next class.

12 Down, 14 to go!

12 classes down and 14 to go! (plus 12 weeks of student teaching) I do like taking classes one at a time. I am scatterbrained enough, that this really helps me focus a bit. I’m almost at the half way mark. I will be all finished with my classes by Christmas of 2010 and finished with this degree thing around spring of 2011. I wish I were done now, but it is closer than it was.

So why did I choose University of Phoenix? Well the first reason is that I am so rural. The local community college does have a partnership with Northern Arizona University, so I could have done it through them. But for one, they didn’t like my transfer credits. The biggest reason I decided against them is that it is all evening classes. I decided that three years is just too long to be gone in the evenings with such little kids. Now I am glad that I decided against this route. They need a certain amount of students to begin a program. They didn’t have the numbers, so they won’t be starting another group until fall of 2010; I will be almost done by then.

So I started to look at online options. There are a few, but not as many as you would think. Most online Education programs are for Masters Degrees. There are actually very few online options for Elementary Education Bachelor’s Degrees. Of the 5 I found, in only 2 did I not have to deal with two different schools. Grand Canyon University and University of Phoenix looked to be my best options. University of Phoenix was slightly less expensive and provided me more flexibility if I needed to take some time off. They also took all of my Olympic College credits. So that is why I ended up there.

I am a full time student and the classes are 5 weeks long. This way I can check them off of my list relatively quickly. I finally finished my prerequisites and am in the Education part. The classroom is set up like a discussion board. In order to get credit for classroom participation there is a minimum number of postings required each week on assigned discussion topics; usually from the textbook readings. There are individual assignments and team assignments; usually these are either papers or powerpoint presentations. No typical tests. The team assignments have been the most frustrating for me. Now that I am in the Education core classes, I have found a great team. Since most of the education students take the same classes in the same order we should be able to stick together for a while.

I will be glad when I am done. I am putting a lot of my other interests on hold simply because I do not have the time. Mark Twain said, “I never allow school to interfere with my education.” In a lot of ways I feel that I am putting my education on hold so that I can get a degree. I know it will be worth it in the long run; it is just frustrating right now.