Judson College :: Senior/Transfer

It is the beginning of a new semester. I am so excited about the year 2010. By this time next year, I will be a high school English teacher. This is my last spring semester of classes at Judson. Can you sense the excitement?  I love it here, but I think that I am experiencing a slight case of senioritis.

 This semester, I am taking six classes. I have two education courses: Educational Psychology and Secondary Methods. I believe that I am going to like these classes a lot. I love taking classes that are directly related to my major. Plus, I absolutely love my teachers in the Education Department. They care about us so much, and they truly want us to succeed.  I am also taking an independent studies Oral Interpretation class and my second journalism class. To round out my 18 hour semester, I have Women in Society and my fourth and final Spanish class. Each of my classes seems promising. It feels weird not to be taking a Literature class this semester, yet I am pleased with the classes as a whole.

I am interested to see how my Women in Society class is going to go. It is a 101 class which is not a typical class for seniors. But, I have to take it in order to wrap up my coursework by the end of short term. I must complete all of my classes before beginning my student teaching internship. Women in Society looks as if it is going to be… dare I say it… Fun? We are going to cover many of the different women’s issues that exist in the world. I think that many of our classes will be filled with interesting discussion. I’ll be sure to let you know.

 For the love of Mother Judson, Anne Kirtley, and Sandra Fowler!

~Jodie~ 

In my last blog when I said “a little snow” it was certainly an understatement! I can honestly say that I was in Washington, DC. for the Blizzard of 2009.  When I woke up Saturday, I was extremely disappointed to find that DC. was completely shut down. The Smithsonian Museums were closed and so was the Metro that we needed to get to Arlington Cemetery. What a bummer!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        We tried to visit the White House, yet it was a nearly impossible task in a white out.

On Sunday after the snow stopped, Anne Kirtley arrived for a visit. I guess she just couldn’t resist a trip to a snow covered DC. She visited the Capitol building, the Washington Monument, and the Lincoln Memorial. Anne enjoyed herself! She even played in the snow. We were sure that we got pictures at each stop; I knew that no one would believe she actually made the trip to visit me if we didn’t. 

It may seem strange that Anne visited me while I was in DC., but many of the Judson students both past and present probably understand. Anne Kirtley is an important woman on the Judson campus. As freshmen, many of the girls get to know Anne, because they live in the Kirtley Dorm. But Anne really likes to travel around campus.  She makes appearances at random events on campus. Although I was never a freshman at Judson, I recognize the significance of Anne. I guess you could say that she is a part of the Judson Tradition. I was ecstatic when she joined my trip. On Monday, I was ready to head home. I loved my trip to DC. , but I was sick of snow. I was eager to feel 50° weather of south Alabama.

Now I am home and it is almost Christmas. I wanted to remind you of the reason for the season. What a wonderful God we serve. He sent his son to the world so that we would have an opportunity to experience eternal life.

Luke 2:10-11 ¹⁰But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. ¹¹Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord (NIV).

Romans 6: 23 ²³For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (NIV).

Jesus is the best gift a person could ever receive. Yet, he is a gift that we must all choose to accept.                      Merry Christmas everyone. I’ll write to you next year!

~Jodie~

After what I would call the toughest semester of my college years, it is time for a break. My friend Terri and I decided to go to Washington, DC. We flew out on Wednesday and it is now Friday.

When we landed we hit the ground running. As soon as we arrived at the hotel, got warmer clothes, and ate lunch, we began our tour of the city. We began at the Washington Monument, where we saw DC from a bird’s eye view. It was cool to see the Capitol Building, the White House, and the Lincoln Memorial from one spot.

After taking a million pictures, we headed to the WWII Memorial, the Korean Memorial, and the Vietnam Memorial. Each of these memorials was so different. Terri and I were solemn as we read the numbers of men killed, injured, and missing at the Korean Memorial, as well as, the names on the Vietnam Memorial wall. I know that it may be strange, but one word that I would use to describe the memorials is beautiful. The creators of the memorials worked hard to recognize the sacrifices that American soldiers made and, to me, it was beautiful.

The Lincoln Memorial was also amazing. Lincoln’s words were carved on each side of the memorial. There were so many people there just standing in awe of the portrayal of Lincoln in the center of the memorial. I can only say that the things that I saw on Wednesday will be forever etched into my memory. We figured out how to navigate the Metro Wednesday night. We made it back to the hotel without getting lost. I thought that this was a fantastic feat for two small town girls navigating through DC!

The next few days were filled with much of the same. We took a tour of the Capitol building. We became readers at the Library of Congress, which I might add was a long process. I thought we could just go in and look at books, but the Library of Congress is not that easy to access. We had to get reader cards and then we couldn’t even take our coats into the reading rooms. We also visited the National Zoo and the Nation’s Botanic Gardens.  When we got off the Metro and began walking to the National Zoo we went the wrong way. It wasn’t until we crossed a random bridge and noticed that we were no longer on the map that we discovered we had taken a wrong turn. My friend Terri was studying the map and we were trying to decide which way to go when I noticed another pedestrian on our side of the road. I looked at Terri and said, “Should we ask him? Should we?” Of course she responded, “NO don’t. NO.”  He must have noticed the big LOST written on our foreheads because he said, “Excuse me,Ladies, are you lost?” He was very helpful and we found the zoo soon after we headed in the right direction.  At the end of our Zoo day, we went to the National Cathedral. This was one of my favorite places that we visited. The architecture was astonishing.

Now it’s Friday and the forecasters are predicting snow. I am excited about the snow because it is just not something that we see very often in Alabama. But I am expecting a visitor from Judson. I hope that she is not hindered by a little bit of snow.  

For the love of Mother Judson, Anne Kirtley, and Sandra Fowler!

~Jodie~

Finals are finally over! It seems that a college student should try to sleep as much as possible and save it in a sleep bank or something before they start taking all these tests.  There is no real time to sleep once we begin studying for exams.

I didn’t get a wink of sleep Sunday night. I stayed up trying to perfect a couple teacher’s packets for my Children’s Literature class. I also had to study for my exam in another Education class. I was so glad to get all of that completed, although I did enjoy working on the Children’s Literature assignment.

Tuesday followed with a few naps and more studying. STUDY STUDY STUDY!

More of the same Wednesday, but I also had to take my Spanish exam. When I finally finished with my seated exams, it was time to focus on my English classes. My Mythology teacher happens to also be my British Literature teacher. In each of these classes, I was given a take home essay test. The English major deep inside of me loves to write essays rather than taking a sit down test. I completed nine pages of my Mythology final pretty easily.  I even got to sleep that night.

Thursday night was a different story. It was kind of a sad day because my friends were beginning to leave for the break. I was terribly sad that my friend Christina left because it was her final semester at Judson. She is going to spend next semester studying in Australia. You should actually check out her blog. I am sure that she will not disappoint her readers! She will have so many interesting topics to discuss.  When I finished helping Christiana load her stuff, I had to begin working on my British Literature final. I spent fourteen hours on that test! I worked the entire night with a few of my friends who were working on tests and papers, as well. At one point in the night we began laughing uncontrollably at things that were really not all that funny.  One of my friends actually told us that if she didn’t make it through the night that we needed to tell her friends that she loved them. Its amazing what sleep deprivation can do to a person.  We did a pretty good job of keeping each other awake. Although, when I was told to wake one of my friends up after she took a power nap, I failed to complete my mission. She was not interested in waking up and she told me that she was not moving. This short encounter with a sleepy friend provided for quite a bit of laughter in the morning. I was so tired, but at 9 a.m., I could not have been happier to turn in my exam.

Christmas Break has begun!

For the love of Mother Judson, Anne Kirtley, and Sandra Fowler!

~Jodie~