New Member Introduction, #3

[Murfreesboro]

Well, if you're persistent, it's possible to find this place without the email. I did.

[MauEvig]

Well, if you're persistent, it's possible to find this place without the email. I did.

Well I bookmarked, just to be on the safe side.

Afraid I'll be a little busier than I used to be, but I'll make sure to pop out of my proverbial grave now and then to check on y'all.

Around here, the prospective teachers often take a 5th year of college to get a master's degree (in education, I think). That sets them up for the teaching license. My husband, whose BA is from Vanderbilt, earned his teaching license through Mary Baldwin education department when I was teaching there.

Well...like I said I got the Bachelor's but I was thinking of going through the provisional license process. But I need to find a school willing to do that, and apparently you need to pass the praxis, the VCLA (which is probably a new thing since you lived in Virginia, it's the Virginia competency and literacy assessment that EVERY new prospecting teacher has to take now) and then you have to submit a bunch of paper work and blah blah blah they tell you at the Virginia DOE if you have enough credits or need to take more.

I REALLY can't afford to take more loans out (less they permit student loan forgiveness, then maybe. I'd hate to get into more debt than I already am. I won't go into politics there. If you disagree with student loan forgiveness, we can agree to disagree and I'll be fine with that. ) but taking a class here and there might be OK, and if I can get on a teacher salary while working on an official license under a provisional, I might be able to afford some classes up front. At the moment I'm only on an Aide salary, which is around minimum wage. I often offset it by doing things like selling tickets at ball games or score board. The school I'm working at right now pays $45 a pop, so that's a pretty good gig if you ask me. Being an Aide is giving me valuable hands on experience and I have some great co-workers. But I'll be honest, the pay really isn't much. I know people complain about teacher salaries, but to be honest I'd be making bank if I was on a teacher's salary and I'd finally get my own classroom that I could set up the way I'd like it. I guess it all depends on where you live, but yeah city teachers though have to pay outrageous amounts for rent or housing costs and any other costs of living. At least here in my neck of the woods it's not bad. A trip to Sam's club now and then allows us to stock up on groceries and we're set for well over a month (We still have some stuff from our first trip up in March from Sam's! It's really worth the membership investment.) between the two of us and our five cats. (Yes, we have five now XD. I'll have to get pictures for the pet's page.)

I don't think I remember what year you stopped posting here. All my kids are through college now, but two of them still live at home with us. My daughter graduated from Sewanee in 2019. I was grateful her college career was unaffected by the pandemic, but, man! Did the pandemic shutdowns take the wind out of her sails post-college. Same for her bros, who are older. It was ok for my husband and me. Being in a holding pattern at our age is ok. Not so much for the young adults.

I'd have to look but I'm not entirely sure myself. Sounds like your kids have made quite the journey. It can be challenging trying to ramp up to a successful career in today's climate. I feel for your kids trying to get their start in life. It's not easy. Sometimes you have to just take whatever job you can get to earn some on the job experience and develop connections, good work friendships and such so they can get people to be professional references for them. When you're young like that I know you're eager to get out into the world and build a life, career and possibly a family for themselves.

I did start taking some pretty amazing road trips in 2020. That year, my older son and I had planned to go to Germany, but it got shut down. So we elected to do the Lewis and Clark Trail instead, and my younger son came, too. The next two years we did the Great Lakes. In '21 we took a cabin on the Erie Shore in Ohio. The next year we did pretty much the whole coastline of Michigan, taking in Mackinac Island and the UP and Sleeping Bear Dunes, etc. This year we hit Texas because of a family reunion in Austin. We added San Antonio and Corpus Christi. So I guess we've rediscovered the Great American Road Trip. Everybody should do this. We have such an astonishing, amazing country!

I've heard Germany is a beautiful country and it's a shame you weren't able to go. Perhaps one day.
The Lewis and Clark trail sounds exciting though! The Great Lakes are beautiful, we have recently went to visit up North in New York and saw Ontario briefly next to an amusement park that we went to. Sounds like you had a good time and were still able to travel despite the restrictions set in place. But if you're camping and keeping to your family, then I hope the states you visited didn't give you too much trouble with all the Covid rules put in place. I wasn't able to make my yearly trip to New York that year due to all the "covid rule restrictions." Sounds like you've seen some beautiful sites though.
I agree that people should do the Great American Road Trip. I know I'm only 38...but one of my retirement goals is to get an RV and travel the country.

[Murfreesboro]

Getting an RV is actually a dream of mine. I'd love that.

The trip to Germany was a very specific thing. I've actually been there on a school trip when I was a student, and yes, it is beautiful. My older son spent his Jr year there and has returned many times. But this trip was set for 2020 because I'd wanted to see the passion play at Oberammergau, which they do once every ten years. It got canceled because of the pandemic, which is kind of ironic, since they started doing it back in the 1600s or something after they were spared from the plague, but whatever. My son wanted to give it to me as a bucket list thing, but we switched to Lewis and Clark as "a worthy substitute for Europe," in his words, and it was. He still wants to take me to Oberammergau and has told me I'd better stay healthy so I can go. I said, well, in 2030 I'll be 75, which is about time for me to start running for President. He got a kick out of that.

I don't recall all those requirements you mentioned for a teaching license, but I do recall my husband's taking the PRAXIS. He did so before he took any education courses at all. The education prof at Mary Baldwin advised him always to choose whichever multiple choice answer sounded most advantageous to the student. He did that and aced it.

Student loan forgiveness is a touchy subject, and I am torn about it. In theory I don't think it's right. People should pay their contracted debts and shouldn't expect others to help out. But our daughter did graduate with some college debt, so it would help her if it were to happen. So I do get where you're coming from. I guess I'd say I couldn't in good conscience vote for it, but if it were to happen, well, it's an ill wind that blows no good at all, as the saying goes. It sounds like you're living frugally and doing everything right. I hope everything works out to your advantage re the teaching license. God knows we need good teachers. Around here people are gasping for them. Seriously, not enough teachers to go around here.

[MauEvig]

Getting an RV is actually a dream of mine. I'd love that.

The trip to Germany was a very specific thing. I've actually been there on a school trip when I was a student, and yes, it is beautiful. My older son spent his Jr year there and has returned many times. But this trip was set for 2020 because I'd wanted to see the passion play at Oberammergau, which they do once every ten years. It got canceled because of the pandemic, which is kind of ironic, since they started doing it back in the 1600s or something after they were spared from the plague, but whatever. My son wanted to give it to me as a bucket list thing, but we switched to Lewis and Clark as "a worthy substitute for Europe," in his words, and it was. He still wants to take me to Oberammergau and has told me I'd better stay healthy so I can go. I said, well, in 2030 I'll be 75, which is about time for me to start running for President. He got a kick out of that.

I don't recall all those requirements you mentioned for a teaching license, but I do recall my husband's taking the PRAXIS. He did so before he took any education courses at all. The education prof at Mary Baldwin advised him always to choose whichever multiple choice answer sounded most advantageous to the student. He did that and aced it.

You'd have my vote

I didn't know about Oberammergau, but it sounds ironic that it originated after being spared of the plague. How interesting!
Well I think Germany would definitely be on one of my lists of places to visit should I ever get the chance to tour Europe.

Yeah they made a lot of hoops to jump through...then wonder why there's a nationwide teacher shortage.

I'll keep that in mind when I study for the praxis again.

[Murfreesboro]

Yes, I think I added a paragraph while you were responding to me. The teacher shortage is bad everywhere, so it's ironic that they're making it harder to become a teacher.

[MauEvig]

Yes, I think I added a paragraph while you were responding to me. The teacher shortage is bad everywhere, so it's ironic that they're making it harder to become a teacher.

I see it now. I do that too sometimes where I'll add something I didn't think of or find a photo I want to include.

I think my best bet honestly is to find a teaching job online. I prefer communicating over a computer anyway due to social anxiety and I'm savvy with computers. One of my summer jobs involved installing windows on a bunch of student's computers. I miss that job, but sadly they weren't able to get the funding for that project.

No worries. People will have varying opinions and it's not like I don't see the point people are making who are against Student Loan Forgiveness, but I shan't get into it. Everyone can have their opinion on that and I'm OK with it.

[Andybev01]

Well, if you're persistent, it's possible to find this place without the email. I did.

I never received that email, but with Chris' help I'm back in!

...hi everybody.

[Murfreesboro]

Andy, I'm so glad to see you! I was afraid we'd lost you in the transition.

[HalloweenDot]

I am glad it is working for everyone. Some of the notifications went to spam, some it appeared got rejected, but I think everything is back to normal. If not, please let me know.

You can always email me too: cr1776


And that is at gmail. I don't want to put it all together since spammers will spam me more.

The board does need a minor update, but I am holding off so as to avoid further disruptions until after halloween.

[HalloweenDot]

Well I got my Bachelor's Degree. Turns out that it was only an English Degree and not English with an Education Minor. That was a bit disappointing.
So now I'm trying to jump through hoops to get my teaching license and it's proven to be rather difficult.
I did manage to get a position at a local elementary school as a TA where I assist special needs students who need a little extra support. It's great to have this kind of experience, because I still plan on becoming a teacher at some point. I did work at a local High School for a while as well, but had to quit due to certain requirements they were making me do that affected my health. That's the short version of the story anyway.
How have you been? What have you been up to?

That's great! Congratulations on the degree! I had to move the forums to a new domain, and hopefully I didn't miss anything.

I couldn't tell if the email about the move had actually sent, but it appears that it did. It looked like some had been rejected at gmail, but I couldn't tell if it was for real rejected or an error in the software.

[Andybev01]

I am glad it is working for everyone. Some of the notifications went to spam, some it appeared got rejected, but I think everything is back to normal.

'Normal'?!! Who you callin' normal?!!

[MauEvig]

I'm normal.

Abby Normal that is.

[Murfreesboro]

Lol

I expect most of us are a little Abby Normal, or at least close relatives of hers.

[NeverMore]

I couldn't tell if the email about the move had actually sent, but it appears that it did. It looked like some had been rejected at gmail, but I couldn't tell if it was for real rejected or an error in the software.

That's how I got back on. Lucky too. Lost access to my Nevermore google account because I no longer had the phone to recover it. I still had access to the gmail though. Figured I'd better change my email for this forum before I moved to Windows 11 because I would no longer have access to that gmail either.

Good to see AndyBev and MauEvig too! Where's Witchy?

[MauEvig]

It would be nice to see the whole gang on the forums again.
I pitched the idea to Jadewik to come back, she posts occasionally on DeviantArt and her last post was a pumpkin carving of "Darkness" from the movie legend. She doesn't post on there very much and didn't respond, but I assumed she's just busy.
I saw PumpkinMan came back for a while as Pumpkin_head.
Where did everyone go? Sounds like a mystery to me...