class day 1

Bright and early I rose from my bed this morning... 6:45 am... and after grooming myself, having a bowl of cereal and some hot tea, and spending a little time with Jesus, I went to class.

SPED 508: Survey Of Persons With Exceptionalities. This class is a combination of undergrad education majors and graduate licensure students (myself being the latter, of course). So in this class I get to experience "practicum" hours of observing at-risk students, present a group advocacy project about a selected category of exceptional persons, and because I am a grad student I will write a research paper. I also have the privilege of taking my tests in the form of take-home case studies instead of short answer/fill in the blanks objective tests. This delighted me very much, since research papers and take-homes have been the last two years for me with the Duchess. She really was preparing us well.

TESL 565: Language And Culture. This morning we spent the entire class playing a simplified version of Spades without speaking a single word. Much to my surprise, I won the entire tournament. I wanted to make my opponents understand how unusual this was, but I couldn't talk to them! So I told them later how nobody ever wants to be my partner in that game because I always lose. Most of the other students in this class are Asian, many from Korea, and I ate lunch with 2 of the girls. Everyone seems so friendly. For this class we have to do projects and research on different aspects of American culture and how to incorporate them into language teaching. I think it's going to be a lot of fun, and the same people will be in most of my classes, so I guess they will all be fun!

Overall I would say my first day has been a blast. I love love love being with so many international students, and I can't even tell you how exciting it is to know that I'm learning how to do what I really want to do.

...now if I could find a job and a man, I would be living my dream :D haha