Of course, it goes without saying that you will not miss many things; so, feel free to mention those, too. But, I do not want this to turn into an "everything that sucks about RIC" thread.
So, as you think back on your days in your teacher education and English programs, and as you think about the life ahead of you, what will you miss the most? What do you want to remind yourself to cherish and hold on to as these memories of our time together fade into the back of your minds?
Teachers are always students, so in that sense you are not leaving the spirit of studentship behind. But, you are leaving the lifestyle, the routines, and the relationships and status of "student" behind.
What sentiments or yearnings come to mind as you contemplate the impending ending to your collegiate career as you know it?
11 comments:
This is something that's been distracting me these last few trips I have made to campus. As Dr. Cook started us off, there's plenty I won't miss, but it's not even worth going into. One thing I'm finding myself somewhat surprised that I will miss is the seminar itself. Of course we'll keep in touch, but, of course, some of us will keep in touch more closely than others. There's really something to this ritual of coming back to RIC, fighting for parking, and then conversing with the small group of people experiencing many of the same highs and lows that we each confront in our own classrooms. I won't miss the element of hyphen work, but I'll miss our meetings.
I'm torn about the whole full-day-teaching-schedule thing. There's a part of me, if I'm to be honest, that will miss the breathing time afforded by a 3-class-a-day teaching schedule. But mostly that will be lost in the glee of really and truly having my own classes.
To that end, I'm gonna miss my kids. MY KIDS, DAMN IT. I've had them half the year, I don't want to just drop them in the middle of everything... But I have to give them back. Bleah.
I'm going to miss the security of my flexible, reliable job on campus. WC hours work around ANYTHING (except half hours, haha), and now I have to leave that behind because I will no longer be a RIC student. Eww for job-searching.
I'll miss knowing where I'm going in the morning. There's something oddly reassuring about ritual. I know just the minute I need to get out the door (except when there's snow on my car!) in order to make it to Vets on time. The very minute. I know where I can push the speed limit and where I can't (eek, I shouldn't say that online, eh?). I won't have that anymore when I start subbing. Finding out that morning that, "oh, hey, you're working! And it's an hour away!" isn't something I'm looking forward to.
I have a killer headache right now, forgive me if this is a little disjointed and, well, bloggy.
Leave it to me, two weeks left of blogging, to write my entire thing, and poof, it doesn’t post. I will never learn haha here its goes again.
Do you remember the days of “gen eds?” For a good laugh, picture me in my first college class at RIC; my core 3, The History of Asian Philosophy. Every Monday and Wednesday at 8 am with Professor Shogenji. If you haven’t noticed, I am not exactly the philosopher type. Let’s just say, I will never think of clay the same again.
I am going to miss the beginning of the semester. At the beginning, everything seems so new. With my new classes and new (but used) books, I feel like I am ready for anything. I am going to miss the end of the semester, when I am mentally and physically drained, but the feeling of accomplishment sets in and I know I am one step closer to my goal (which is now two weeks away).
I am going to miss campus. I am going to miss night classes in the Fall. I am going to miss CRIAG LEE! After all, as an English major it was my home for four years! Even with the ceilings falling in most of my classes there, well it just adds character! Haha!
I am going to miss you guys! We have spent tons of our time writing papers and reading books, we have had some seriously fun times together. We have made each other laugh as much as we have learned from each other!
I loved college.
But I am ready to go through the transition to being a teacher. I hope my life is full of days that challenge me and make me smile.
Corny, I know, but true.
Thanks, Ashley and Aimee, for capturing the precise spirit I hoped to cultivate here. Yes, RIC is a big pain in our arses for lots of reasons, but we have all done such good work as students here and have all had a good time doing it (most of the time, anyway). Thank you for finding the good memories between the cracks.
I remember my very first Writing 100 class my first semester here--fall 2004. My students had to teach me about "bakery pizza." I had never heard of such a thing!
I also remember Ashley Cosgrove--in my Honors Writing 100 class-- in her King Richard's Faire costume. Please ask her about it when you have a minute. Good times, Ashley. Good times!!
I remember skunks with pretty eyes in SED 445. And, the whole bunch of you taking Cobb's Lolita seminar--he is out in Hollywood now on the red carpet. Can you believe it?
Okay--enough of my trip down memory lane. How about the rest of yous? ;-)
I'll miss sleeping late (I already miss that this semester), getting a discounted bus pass, long hours in the library, and using the computer lab's printer ink instead of my own. I'll miss English classes, education classes (although I'm sure I'll be working on that master's soon enough), professors Zoronado, Nabo-Cobb, Scott, and Brown (Stephen....yes Stephen Brown). But I'll especially miss all of you. Dr. Cook your advising has been amazing, especially coming from URI where my advisor made it a habit of ruining my academic life. I'll miss being in your classrooms where many of my most memorable learning experiences happened. I'll miss you Aimee, Kellen, Rich, Allie, Rebecca, Ashley, and Charlene. It's going to be hard not having you guys to turn to every Thursday night for some commiserating, laughing, collaborating, and general silliness. Like Ashley said, some of us will stay closer than others, but I hope you all know if you ever need anything from me I'm just an email away.
Aimee - You don't have to miss the new semester, you just get less of them! We will still have that element of new, it's just that most of the time, it will be year by year instead of quarter by quarter. New-but-used-books will repeat themselves, but each time, it will be a chance to experience it with new eyes, both your own and your students'.
Kate - Please remind me about Yellow Submarine. You will either laugh your butt off or look at me like I've lost my mind, but hopefully it will bring you as much glee as it has brought me, and Charlene, too. =P
As I sit down to write this, I am putting aside for the minute that I can the fact that I am not about to leave the college world, and I get the luxury of being a college student another semester!
I, like Aimee, sat in my first college class at 8am in a Philosophy class. I couldn't understand the professor's thick accent and when I got out of class it was pouring sheets, and of course, I was parked as far away as possible. No umbrella. But, in that downpour, I met a friend. He walked me to my car with his umbrella and then ended up bringing me for a coffee and we talked about English, about the 161 class I was about to go to. I knew, sitting in a cafe (wishing I remembered where he took me) talking about books with a person who was a stranger not 20 minutes ago, (but not in a creepy stalker weird guy way) that this was what it was like to be a college student.
My best conversations usually happen in similar situations like going to the coffee exchange with Ashley after class last week. And I know I will still do these things, but...it's a college thing for me...something that started here.
I will miss just "kicking a book around" in a class and talking about it. And, I too will miss Stephen Brown, you are not alone Kate! I took FIVE classes from that man, and he NEVER ONCE gave me anything about a B+. N_E_V_E_R. Always saying "I know you can do better" and I did. I learned a lot from him, even if it hurt my GPA a little!
I will miss people watching on the quad. Enough said.
I will miss not having class on Friday (even though we are experiencing that now).
I will miss the moments when the course bulletin comes out and you get more text messages that you ever have before in your life from friends looking to take classes together.
I will miss all of you. Even in my short semester with the cohort, you made me feel a part of it, and I will miss you all, my adopted student teaching family. I guess more of a foster home...regardless, I will miss you.
Most of all...I will miss the moments when I didn't shine at first (papers, projects, life...whatever) because as a student...you're allowed to try again, to polish yourself until you do shine. I am concerned because I know the "real world" isn't as forgiving. I will miss that!
I will miss my conversations with Thomas Habershaw.
We had many lengthy conversations upstairs in Donovan about life and love and education. On many occasions, those conversations were a well-needed distraction from deadlines and science labs. I have lost touch with Thomas because I do not have his number anymore, but I know that he is probably teaching like a ninja somewhere on the east coast and I wish him the best.
I will also miss the simplicity of being able to get a black coffee from the cafe and on some occassions, smoke a clove cigarette (not anymore since they are illegal) outside of the library and ponder my future.
Something that I will miss and always remember is the teaching writing in secondary schools course when I met Dr. Cook. I remember the original classroom that we had and it makes me laugh. I remember feeling really great about that class from the moment that Dr. Cook introduced herself. I remember getting out of class and instantly calling Sheri to tell her how excited I was about the class and my new Professor. From the moment that I met Dr. Cook to this moment now, I have experienced many high and low moments in my life. I also feel that I have slowly, but surely evolved into a person and an instructor that I can be proud of.
I will miss being able to sit and talk horror movies with my main man K-Ellen. Meeting him has been a pleasure. We both teach, play music, and love horror movies. It is actually quite fantastic.
The interesting thing about this post, is that, while I will miss these memories, and I can't have them back exactly, I am graduating, not dying.
K-Ellen is still a phone call away (I will see him at Horrorfest, I hope),
Dr. Cook is still my mentor and a major influence in my life (we will stay in contact, I hope)
The coffee at the cafe will always be black and delicious and if I really wanted to, I am sure that I could track down good ol' T. Habershaw.
And as far as being a student is concerned, isn't being a lifelong learner what teaching is all about. It may not mean, that I am paying tuition or sitting in Craig Lee watching water drip from a rotted ceiling tile, but I am still a student.
A student of my surrounding, of my friends and familiy, and colleagues, and students and anyone else that is willing to put something out into the world for others to enjoy and question.
Yes, I am becoming Mr. Polseno, but I will always be that young and eager student that raises his hand when the teacher taking attendance says, "Richard Polseno?"
I am going to miss like Aimee, the feeling of the first day of a new semester. I really love the feeling of starting fresh, getting new notebooks and books and seeing what my classes have in store for me. I love receiving a syllabus...weird I know. It is comforting to me to know what is going to take place in a semester even if that means I am going to have to read 239487238947289347 books and write 239480320948 papers. I like the quaintness (yes I think I just made up that word) of RIC. I really enjoy early spring and fall walks through the quad...looking at the blooming flowers or the changing leaves. In my experience, the students at RIC are friendly people. If you are walking by someone they will say hi even if you dont know each other, and people hold the door for you...also really nice, especially if you have a boatload of things in your hands.
All of the work for the Ed program may have been a hassle at the time we were going through it...Praxis tests, requirements, portfolios, but I really feel like I have accomplished something at the end of my college career. We have had to prove to the college, the state, and our professors that we are ready to be teachers...at just about the end of my student teaching experience, I know that I have proved to myself that I am a teacher. Thanks RIC, because without you it wouldnt have been possible.
Thursday before last seminar I was sitting in the same chair in the same building of the same campus i have been for 4 years prior, eating and drinking the same thing; mountain dew and cape cod chips. as i was trying to relax before class, one of those campus tour groups came by and they were explaining to students and their parents what it was like to be at RIC. I took a second to think back at when i was in one of those groups, and i started putting together everything big that has happened to me up until that very moment in my chair. It was a big list. this is all i remember...
i will miss writing papers and analyzing literature. strange i know, but now that i am not doing it so much i realize how much i like it and hope to be back into it sooner than later. we are English majors right? i will miss those professors that have really moved me with their lectures, or just took the time to stop and say hey in the hallways between class. i love the feeling of learning, and i felt i got that in many of my English classes at this campus.
i will certainly miss the great education professors i have had along the way. i will miss trying to figure out how Kate beat me to woonsocket middle every day during practicum. i will miss impatiently waiting to tell rich about a new horror trailer just posted online. watching "ugly betty" with allison and laughing with aimee all day will be hard to live without. but, as rich put so perfectly, we are not dying, but starting a new chapter in life. everyone in our seminar has touched me somehow, and it will be weird not seeing everyone all the time. it was the best of times, it was the worst of times, but it was our time together and i loved it.
Kellen... "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, but it was our time together, and I loved it" BEAUTIFUL! We need to add this to the bumper sticker list!
Agreed.
You have left me (almost) speechless here.
You are beautiful writers and wonderfully sensitive and reflective souls.
Thank you.
Post a Comment