Judson College :: Senior/Transfer

WoW is the word that both Lauretta and I used to describe the day. Actually, both of us came home and posted “WoW” as our status on Facebook without the other knowing it.

Today was eye-opening in many ways. At times, we were surrounded by beautiful scenery, yet we were also surrounded by things that were so ugly. The Dominican Republic has green mountains and crystal blue water at the beach; the pineapple here is exquisite and rice and beans are quite tasty. But there are people with no food here, and children that run around naked. There are whole communities of people that are discriminated against here and people that live day to day off of what they can scavenge in a dump.  See, beautiful and ugly...

This morning we went to a village called Aguas Negras (Black Waters). We went to see a house that one of the young women in the village was building. It was a wooden home and to American standards it would not be considered a great place to live, but compared to the surrounding homes it was pretty nice. This young woman was doing the best she could to have a real home. I am excited that she is going to have a place to live soon. The best part of our visit to Aguas Negras was when we walked to Pastor Jacob’s church. Lots of children followed us to the church and when we walked inside the kids sat down as if they were ready for a service. We responded by beginning to sing a children’s song in Spanish. The kids seemed to really enjoy singing; they all wanted to lead a song. Actually, many of the kids lead at some point. We clapped and sang and just enjoyed our impromptu worship service. It was really exciting to see the kids smiling and singing.

After lunch and a little bit of rest we headed out to another village called Hollo de los Puercos. That means the Hole of the Pigs and I could see why. The village is home to Dominicans and Haitian refugees. It is located near the Puerta Plata dump; the smell there was one of the worst I have encountered in my lifetime. I have never seen houses so close together or streets so narrow. The main reason for our visit to the village today was to distribute baseball equipment that we collected before we left the US. When we arrived, the baseball team was waiting for us at their field. This team had zero equipment to call their own until today. We gave them bats, balls, hats, and gloves. The boys were ready to begin using the equipment right away. They were excited to see the portable bases that we gave them, too. Before our day was over the team played a game just to try out the new stuff. For me, it was very exciting to see the kids throwing and catching and hitting. I loved playing ball with them. Yes this Gringa loved catching for one of the boys as he hit ground balls to his teammates. I am sure that we will post pictures of this event soon. I know Lauretta got some good shots; sadly, my camera died halfway through our visit to this village. Towards the end of our time in Hollo de los Puercos, Lauretta, Brad, Abie, and I all walked to the Haitian portion of the village. We crossed over a trash filled river and spoke to just about everyone we saw. Several kids started to follow us and we played with them as we walked through the village. One of the little boys that we were playing with had the most intoxicating laugh. It actually brought tears to my eyes; he had so much laughter despite his sad surroundings. I don’t think I will ever forget his laughter...

It is now the end of our day. Lauretta and I just looked through our pictures and we talked about what we did today. We are both tired and ready to sleep but we are excited to see what tomorrow will bring.

Thanks for sticking with it and reading this lengthy blog. I got a little carried away!

Dios te bendiga! 

Today is December 27, 2010. That is 2 days after Christmas and 8 days until I go to the Dominican Republic. It has also been exactly 46 days since I finished my course work at Judson College. I still can’t believe that path of my life has been travelled and that I am no moving on to a new chapter of my life.

 I thought that I was busy when I was student teaching, but I could have never guessed that I would be as busy as I have been in the past few weeks.

As soon as the turkey was put away and the shopping trips were over during the Thanksgiving holidays, I set out on a Graduate School Preview Trip. My friend Terri and I visited the University of Georgia at Athens. Wow! that was a huge campus. I guess I was spoiled at Judson College; I grew accustomed to small class sizes and a small campus. I enjoyed my trip to UGA, but after speaking with an advisor I decided that I would not be attending graduate school, at least not right away.

According to several sources it is slightly more difficult to get a job teaching if you have your master’s degree.  Why, you might ask? According to these sources, I can blame the economy for this recent hiring anomaly. Therefore, I will not go to graduate school this year, I will apply for a job. You will read all about my job search over the next few months.

After my trip to Georgia, I spent a week at home, and then I travelled back to Judson. There I spent a week with a group of my Judson sisters on a mission project called Restoration. Several groups of young ladies spent time working at Siloam Baptist Church, at Sowing Seeds of Hope, and at Albert Turner Elementary School. We cleaned stairs, painted walls, read books to children, scrapped floors, raked yards, and passed out diabetic shoes. I was glad to have the opportunity to serve in my college community and enjoyed my last few days on campus. It is really awesome that we have so many opportunities to get involved in the community surrounding Judson.

Stick with me, a few more lines and you will be up to speed.

I spent Christmas at home with my mom, and now I am in Troy with my roommate/sister’s family. When we leave Troy, we will go to Georgia and then Tennessee for a friend’s wedding.

Now read closely because this is the best part of my story; On January 4th I am leaving Birmingham, Alabama for Puerta Plata, Dominican Republic. With that fact I am back to the beginning of my blog, eight more days and I will be on a short term mission trip. I am extremely excited to go to the DR. While I am there I will be working with a baseball team and helping teach ESL classes. These are two of my favorite activities and I am rather pleased that I can do them on the mission field.

I will write to you from the DR ASAP!

I miss my Judson sisters during the holidays, but look forward to seeing them when I return to the US.

SISTERHOOD is something I just can’t leave behind.

Last night was a late night. I fell asleep at about eleven. (That is a good time to go to sleep right? Well not last night; I had far too much to do to go to sleep so early.)

Well I woke up at about 2 am. I jumped up out of bed and put myself in “high gear.”

 By 5 am I had completed everything and I was ready to go to bed. So I took a 2 hour nap, only to be awakened by my roommate's alarm clock at 6 something in the morning... I finally rolled out of bed at about 7 and got ready for the day.

The reason that I told you so many details about me getting up and how much I had to do last night is because today I had my Senior Exit Interview.  Perhaps one of the biggest days in my life at Judson College. 

In the Education Department, we present our work from our student teaching placements. This presentation is in front of the entire Education department. That may sound a bit scary, but honestly I wasn’t even nervous. 

(If you can stand in front of high school students all day, then you can present your work to your education peers and professors. Sometimes high school students could care less what you are trying to teach them, but at this interview everyone is interested, everyone CARES.)

At the presentation I shared my Eportfolio. You should check it out and while you are at it you could send it to your local principal if you wanted. :) I do need a job after all. 

It was so great to share my work with everyone. It was also a sad moment. Dr. Sheek, one of the education teachers, also one of the most wonderful women on campus, read a section from a children's book. The section was about birds leaving the nest. Honestly, I sat in my seat holding back tears (as I do right now as well) because as excited as I am to be finishing college, I am sad as well to leave such wonderful people behind. I feel like I am one of Dr. Sheek’s birds. We started Judson College together. She began teaching here when I transferred in and now I must leave the nest. She is the best teacher that I have ever had. She cares so much about the Judson Girls and really wants us to do well.  I know that I am prepared, Dr. Sheek and the education department made sure of that, but it is a happy and sad time. 

I should probably move on before I cry too much.... 

Some amazing girls came to my interview too. Anna, Jill, Sally, Anna M. - you girls mean the world to me. Thank you so much for being there.  

After it was all over with, Brandy, Heather, and I (all seniors that completed student teaching) went to Mrs. Massey’s, the education certification officer, office. We began working on our certification paperwork. 

So all of this means that I am finished with college because I PASSED the interview and student teaching. 

WOW!! Do you know what that means? 

I am a TEACHER! 

Like a real, living and breathing, giver of knowledge.

Yea that is a lot to say all at once. Take a deep breath in and out, that is what I needed to do. (You high school seniors will know a little bit of what I am talking about when May comes.) I have so many emotions right know.

• I am super excited to be done student teaching; I loved it, but it was time to move on.

• I am glad to have a BS degree. 

• I am ecstatic. I can get a legit job now. (Actually I worked on my application for the State Department of Education. I have a few more blanks to fill in and then I can hit the “submit” button. From there it is in God’s hands.) I honestly do not care where I work. I am just excited to have the opportunity to be in my own classroom with students that I can teach. 

• I am slightly nervous because I have no immediate plans, but I trust that God will take care of me.  I am moving back home with my mom and plan to substitute teach until a door is opened somewhere. 

• I am sad because I have to leave my best friends, my Judson sisters. 

Well, I must say that even though I am finished with school, I still have that college student procrastination in my blood. I should be packing my room right now, yet I have decided to write an EXTREMELY long blog. 

 

But I do need to begin packing, so I guess that means that this is all for now. I will write to you again soon I promise. I have to keep you updated on my job search and my grad school search. Both of which will require great amounts of time and energy. 

 

~For the love of Mother Judson, Ann Kirtley, and Sandra Fowler~

 

I love you all! 

 

-Jodie 

My unit, a nine-day study on writing, is COMPLETE! I taught my last lesson on Friday! I was so excited to be finished with it, but now I have to grade papers and complete my final lesson reflections. YAY! Then three more days at HCHS, and I am finished with student teaching for good. 

 

This past week was great, but trying at times. I worked extremely hard with the students. My cooperating teacher was out for three days, so there was a substitute in the room. I took on all responsibility and it all worked out well. I missed my cooperating teacher, but it was a short test run for what things may be like for me in the future. I was happy to take over, but I will be happy to hand the students back over to their teacher on Monday! 

 

On Friday when I left school, I dropped by Judson for supper and then I headed to Auburn. I went to visit my friend Amanda. So, it may not be the most responsible thing to do to spend the weekend before my last week student teaching and before my HUGE exit interview (on Thursday) having fun. But I am a college student, and I am entitled to a few free passes every once in a while. Right? 

 

Amanda and I went to the AU vs. UGA game. (As a side note, I am applying to graduate school at UGA, so this counts as research :) I think.) We also spent time just catching up. She and I have been friends since fourth grade. She went to Auburn, and I came to Judson; we just don’t get to see each other enough.  Drifting away from old friends seems to be a pretty common problem in college, but then a person can make so many new friends while in college. These new friends definitely don’t replace the old ones they just add to your life! I am so thankful for the friends I have at JC. I will miss them when I leave.

  Speaking of leaving, I will do just that next Thursday. It is hard to believe that I am almost done here. It makes me a bit sad but I am joyful at the same time. I have so much to do between now and then! So I better get to work. I will let you know how it turns out! :)