First Day of Class.

Nobody took my picture at the end of the driveway with my sparkly new backpack, like they did when I was a student, but this first day of class was just as exciting for me.

My roommate Erin, as I've mentioned before, has allowed me to visit her 3rd grade class a few times this semester to complete my assigned field experience for my class.  What's really cool is that because I'm actually doing what I know I'm supposed to do and because of the excitement I feel about being a teacher, there was NO nervousness or anxiety about going to a brand new school and signing in as a visitor. There was no concern that the kids might not like me and I wasn't at all scared to meet a bunch of new teachers. I was ready.

I arrived at the school at 8, signed in at the front office and placed my "visitor" sticker proudly on my right shirt pocket. The first cool think I observed about this school was that the classroom doors where all interior, like a school may have in a colder climate, more susceptible to snow or extreme whether. All of the schools I attended had exterior classrooms with no windows. This is entirely unfair in my opinion, but I promise not to hold it against the kids. ;-) When I got to the end of the hall to my left, I opened the door with "Ms. Dow" posted nearby and walked right in.

The class was eager to find out who the stranger in their classroom was and welcomed me once a name had been established. "Hello Mr. Hinkle" they chimed in unison. That is to say as in-unison as a group of thirty 8 year olds could be. Erin then caught me up to what lesson they were working on and I took a tiny little seat nearby her desk to watch the plan in action.

Multiplication was the general idea of the lesson. Working on visualizing the concept of X amount of groups of Y was the task at hand. Each of the students had a white board on which to draw the example the teacher had placed on the board. 5x6 was the first example. I walked around the room checking on the progress, commenting and offering redirection if needed. This was when the students started warming up to me. A positive, friendly attitude takes awhile for adults to believe and warm up to, but 3rd graders latch on almost immediately. When all 30 students had drawn out 5 large boxes with 6 dots in each, tallied the marks and placed (hopefully, anyway) a large number 30 on their boards.

Soon after the lesson we moved to snack time. The school provides a healthy snack to each student every day and today we had a big box of pears to hand out. What was most exciting about this was the fact that many of the kids had never seen or tried a pear. It took a little convincing for some to try it but eventually they all did. Only a few decided pears where not for them. While nibbling on our fruit, the kids took the time to get to know me by asking why I was there, was I married to Ms. Dow. Where did I teach, was I going to play with them at recess. You know, the important things. One kid explained to me that he was no longer confused about this new thing called a pear, because it was, in fact, just a green apple. After bringing him to the poster in the room with detailed pictures of a variety of produce and explaining the visual differences between the two I was reminded once again that It was just a green apple.

Once all of our pears where eaten, or at least gummed sufficiently by those who were missing half their teeth, we met up with the other two third grade classes for a very cool event. There was a live webinar from a group of scientists in Antarctica who study marine worms and a variety of other sea flora and fauna. They began with a slideshow presentation that demonstrated for the kids what life in the Antarctic is like and why there are no indigenous humans. They showed all the clothing and tools they have to use and their methods of drilling into ice and diving while maintaining the highest level of safety possible. They showed a number of pictures of some of the sea creatures they see and the kids really loved this part. My ears where filled with the "oohs" and "ahs" that accompany the mystified expressions of youth.

A bit later in the day, after a few more traditional lessons, we approached the highly anticipated RECESS!!!!! The kids where sorely disappointed that I did not plan properly and bring my lunch to allow sufficient time to play with them on the playground. I had to head instead to a nearby Subway and , sadly, avoid the heat altogether. When I brought my sandwich back to the class I joined a group of students who had gotten A's on their test and had been allowed to watch a movie and eat their lunches in the classroom. The featured film was "Over the Hedge". I remembered seeing this movie with my family when it first came out, but something about sharing the viewing experience with a group of 8 year old senses of humor made the movie that much more funny this time around.

Because there is only so much information you can expect a child to retain at 1 o'cock on a Friday, we spent some time in the classroom playing some group games. We played the mirror game, in which kids mimmic each others movements which results in giggles and falls. Then we moved to a game in which kids sit on the ground, back to back, hook elbows and try to stand in groups of two, three and four. This also resulted in giggles and falls. Once it became apparent that the energy levels where a little too high for the classroom, we decided to bring the activity outside and had a dodgeball match with our neighboring third grade class.

On the field I stood in the shade with the kids who had not quite earned the ability to participate based on various actions. I spoke to one in particular who surprised me with his overwhelmingly bleak outlook on the future. He began by asking why I was there today. He had shown up late and missed my previous explaination. I told him I wanted to be a teacher to other students like him and asked what he wanted to do when he grew up. His response? "I don't want to be anything. I don't have a future" Aghast, I asked "Why do you say that? Of course you have a future". He replied with "No I don't, my future is Black. Empty" Excuse me? How do I deal with that? A high schooler I could expect this from, but a 3rd grader? I told him everybody's future is empty, because we're each supposed to fill it with whatever we want. I also asked him to think about what he would want to be so he could tell me the next time I visited the class. He reluctantly agreed right about the time the game was over. When we were lining back up to go to music class he was off fidgeting in the grass and oblivious to the fact that we where all waiting on him. I called out his name a few times and said he was being disrespectful of the rest of the class who was eager to go inside and get a drink of water.  He looked up at me and said "oh, sorry. I was just getting this for you" and he reached out his hand. He was holding a clover he described as being 4 leaf and told me it was to have good luck becoming a teacher. I know that there is always the chance that he happens to be a highly intelligent individual who was capable of coming up with something on the fly that was sure to evoke a feeling of guilt, but I prefer to believe his intentions where sincere and I'm going to take from that a lesson for the rest of my time with this class as well as my future endeavors as a teacher. Don't speak until you're sure of who'm you're speaking to.

Once all the kids had bellies sloshing full of water, we took a trip to the music room and dropped them off for the next 45 minutes. I feel somewhat bad about leaving that poor nice woman with 30 smelly and sweaty kids, but not bad enough to stay with them. I, instead, followed Erin into one of her meetings which was also a great experience. They sit together as a group of 3rd grade teachers and one coordinator to discuss what the universal lesson plans are going to be for the following week. They discuss what issues their class is having with current curriculum and what ways they may be able to correct the problems. The coordinators job is to spend the rest of the week researching teaching methods and tried and true methods of education and is responsible for bringing the findings to the next meeting. Excellent support system in place if you ask me.

I tried finding a pic of my first day of
3rd grade, but the closest I could find
 is this, which I believe was in
 2nd grade. 

The day ended when we picked the kids up from the music room and brought them back to the actual class. They had been given a few pieces of candy each and where bouncing off the walls. I'm pretty sure this was payback for dropping them off when they were all sweaty, but we'll never know.

Before dismissal we had to hand out reminders for the children to bring to their parents that they are going to be setting up parent teacher conferences. Once the blue papers where handed to each child, the importance of their successful pass to the parents was discussed at length. The bell rang and the class cleared out within seconds, leaving behind a wake of blue papers, some still gliding down to the ground in the form of paper planes.

Can't wait for the next visit!

This may be the direct result of an unconscious desire to win!

Just had my first Psychology exam today. Finished it in 30 minutes and got a 95%. The section on the scientific method was super easy from my experience in other science related courses. The section on which scientists/researchers/etc have contributed what ideas/theories/data to which areas of psychology was particularly hard. Obviously everyone knows Freud and his contribution of latent desires in psychoanalysis, and most people know of Pavlov's dogs and behaviorism, but there are quite a few people that have brought us to our current state of thinking that nobody ever talks about outside the classroom!

I wont bore you with the details, but for at least the next few months (while its needed) I've got a whole bunch of memorized info all about it ;-)

Damien's Brain at 9 this morning.

Motivational Video

Ok, I've finished the video assigned to us last week. I'm not going to lie, I'm not super excited about it. Firstly, its done to a song of Miley Cyrus'. I can move past this by justifying the fact that the age group it's intended for can probably get into her music. I, however, have had to listen to it so many times during editing that I want to hurt someone.  Secondly, the pictures chosen are very difficult to work with. They are low quality images, some have watermarks that say the image is copy-write protected (like I'm going to post that on YouTube!) and only a few of them relate in any respect to the song. There also seems to be a heavy influence in religion based imagery. I'm aware that the word "Faith" tends to represent a religious standing, but this is a school presentation and I find the assumption that faith has to be in the Christian god and not something you can have in yourself a bit ludicrous.

That being said...
Lights, Camera, ACTION!

Blue. NO, GREEN!!!

I had a fun assignment today. I was told to either come up with my own team building activity, or research one that I thought would be fun for my future 3rd grade class. Once I had one in mind, I was supposed to write up a brief description about it, including the steps and any examples that would be needed. The goal is to assemble each of our classes' activities into one packet that we can each take with us into the real world. I can't wait to see what everyone else came up with, but I'm even more excited to try mine out as soon as I can. 

I was reading tomes of activity games and found that quite a few would be fun. It was when I found  a brief clip on YouTube (it's dominating our lives) that I was sure of the activity I wanted to assemble. The video had no directions or rules posted, so I had to infer them from watching a couple times, but I think I've got it down pretty well.

Here is what I've written and submitted to the teacher. Followed is a simple chard I made and added to the submitted work.

COLOR MAZE

Materials: One white sheet with painted dots or pieces of colored paper.

Objective: To work as a team to follow an “invisible” line that carries the students from one end of the mat to the other. (Facilitator should predetermine path)

Set up: Paint large dots (big enough to be seen under foot) in a grid on the sheet or tape colored paper on the floor in a pattern similar to a twister board, but make sure no color is next to another dot of the same color.

Play: Taking turns, each student will make an attempt at following the path by stepping from one color to the next. They may make the decision by themselves or utilize the help of the surrounding kids and work as a team.  If the guessed color is the correct next step in the path, they may make another move. Once the student in play steps on a color that is not in the correct path, they must leave the area and allow another student to start from the beginning. The team may coach the student in play through the previously determined steps and remind the student in play which steps not to take. Once a child makes the entire journey across the mat, have any students who’ve not yet had a turn make an attempt at completing it themselves, now that they know the correct path. Ensure that other students are still focused and give assistance, rather than not being there to help all remaining kids across mat.

Example:

Kid 1: Blue? Yes. Yellow? Yes. Purple? No.

Kid 2: Blue. Yellow. Green? Yes. Blue? Yes. Purple? Yes. Yellow? No.

Kid 3. Blue, Yellow, Green, Blue. Purple. Green? Yes.

The Extra Degree

Our biggest project in my Intro to classroom relationships class has been assigned and is due in less than two weeks.

We are tasked with making a motivational video, about a songs length, for our desired teaching age group. I have been paired with 4 other individuals who are also seeking an Elementary Education Certification and have divided the work as follows.

I will be assembling the video and posting it to YouTube (as per the assignment instructions)
One other girl will pick a song that we find appropriate and "moving".
Three others will be dividing the task of assembling photographs to show as a montage during our video.

Sounds simple enough, however this will be a huge undertaking for me, because while I work very well with others, I tend to completely disagree with the quality of work most people put forward. I'm a bit nervous about how I'm going to complete the video without changing the song and pictures to better suit MY liking. This will be a good lesson because I'm obviously not going to be able to grade and commend on a scale according to how similar to MY idea a student got.  I can do this. I think I can, I think I can...


Here is one of the videos the teacher showed as an example that I actually like a lot. I don't really think we'll be able to do something similar because our viewer age will be about 8, but you'll get the idea.

Ding Ding! Round two

(A high pitched and scratchy announcer can be heard) And in this corner we have Damien. Damien took a pretty hard beating last night in the ring. Did he come back today still broken from the previous round, or did he bring with him the pain of last night to use as a new strategy for tonights game?!

No, to be honest, today was much easier to survive. Once the morning portion was done that is. We started off with two videos that could put even the cheeriest educators into a bout of depression. The first was a short film done in the 70s called Cipher in the Snow. Its about a boy who dies of a broken heart because nobody in his life showed him love. Its actually based on a true story which is the saddest part. Here it is in two parts on youtube.

The second video we watched is a little bit more known today. It's called Bang Bang You're Dead and it's titled after a play that was written in the wake of the Columbine tragedy. It portrays a troubled High School student who's self worth has been depleted by a group of jocks but finds himself through the help of a very concerned teacher. Here's, in my opinion, the most powerful scene.

The second part of the day took a 180degree turn as we focused primarily on motivation. We discussed one of our two projects which is going to be to produce a video or powerpoint that includes music and imagery, along with some sort of motivational speech tailored to our particular desired age group of students.

We also had another team building activity designed around mortification, I mean group participation. We were divided into 5 groups to enact our own version of the show "America's got talent" One group where the judges while four groups had to perform. We were all given an hour to come up with our talent. Correction, we were given an hour to come up with our take on the talent assigned to us. Our group was instructed to write a song and use instruments on friendship. Let me tell you, instructing 4 other people who've never played music in their lives how to play all the instruments we were assigned wasn't the easiest task, but I managed. Eventually we had finished out 60 second song and where ready for the judging.

We got the worst review from the judges, but if you ask me (go ahead, ask me) we were jilted. The other three groups had super easy tasks compared to ours. Two of them had to dance to a preselected song, which where "thank you for being a friend" and some Black Eyed Peas Song that sounded like nails on a chalkboard. One had to perform a skit of a joke that was provided by the professor. Talk about unfair! Oh well, I'm over it. I know who REALLY one that round.

Did I have to sign a release for this?

The first day of my second EDU class started today; Intro to Classroom Relationships. It's a hybrid class so the schedule is a little wonky. We met today, Friday evening at 4 until 9pm and we will meet tomorrow at 8am and stay until 5. We repeat this schedule, not next weekend, but the one following. In between, we have two online projects to complete and turn in. I normally don't like online classes but who can pass up 3 credits and a chance to complete my electives requirements over the course of three weekends. Certainly not this guy!


What to say about this class. Well, let me first begin by saying that I have no doubt my professor's intentions are all in the right place and I believe that he truly has a passion for children. The flip side is that he can come across as a little... eh... very creepy at times. As well, some of the lesson plans were pretty difficult to muster the proper energy to complete adequately.


We began our night with a "get to know you activity" in which we were to divide into groups, introduce ourselves to our partners and then... get this... write a rap about the other person, including all of their likes and dislikes. Excuse me? Did you just say rap? Im Irish and German... Time fo' some Riverdance in the Haüs! In all fairness, I did get partnered with the only African American in the class, so I had the house advantage. This was not without it's own awkwardness though, because as it turns out, the rap my partner wrote about me was a tale about how women apparently flock to me and I know how to keep them "satisfied" For those of you who truly know me, you can imagine how mortifying this would be to perform in front of 30 people I've never met. 


After the musical portion of the evening, we then continued to the lesson in being creeped out. I'm not sure if that was the goal of the lesson, but it was definitely the result. Once we were all back in our proper seats, the professor took his digital camera (do we still specify digital today, or is it just assumed?) Anyway, he took out his camera and took our pictures. First there was the individual close up with smiles, followed by the individual close up with "wacky faces" Great, now that's done, now how about group shots of us all hugging each other! That's appropriate because now we've spent a total of 2 hours in the same room so we are practically besties! Here comes the kicker, once the hugging photos were complete we went outside to take our "jumping in the air" photos. Should I be reporting this? 


Eventually we found ourselves back inside discussing some powerpoints that where intended to make us think about the power of good relationships. After the discussion we had a dinner break. The professor suggested that the tradition in this class is to go to Sweet Tomatoes (a salad buffet) as a group and eat together. Well, when you've already been photographed hugging and jumping together, I guess it's also fine to eat together. One hitch; we had to take a photo of ourselves in our groups doing something embarrassing in public before we were allowed admittance back into the class. Aside from being seen with 30 people in the corner of sweet tomatoes, not talking to anyone while everyone else is photographing themselves doing embarrassing things, I could not think of what to embarrass myself with. Eventually the girl in our group decided that we should take a pic of her and I forcing our partner, the rapper, to eat ice cream straight from the soft serve machine. Immediately my "food handler" instincts tried to stop this from happening, but as I looked over at all of the assuredly booger covered little hands fondling the machine, I began to loosen up. 


We had one more project after dinner in which to make even bigger asses of ourselves. We were once again divided and in group we had to act out a series of animals or scenes that were called out by the teacher until told to "freeze" Once frozen, a judge would determine which group performed the best and then there was time for an encore for all others to see in detail. The scenes were as follows;


1. One person is a super model and the other 3 are photographers.
2. One person is an elephant trunk and the other three are the ears. (Asian and African elephants have two ears, but ours had three)
3.One person is a Queen bee (my job by the way) while the others acted as the wings. (same freaky evolutionary hiccup)
4. One person was a donkey with a flatulence issue. The others where to follow making the distinct raspberry sounds and wafting the air as if their noses where offended. 


Super.






I'll put the pic of the ice cream incident here when I get a copy.

The Last Lecture

We had sort of a depressing and empowering lecture today in class. It wasn't by our professor. It was oddly enough from a video.

I can't really say much that isn't said in the video. What I can say is that, if you've got an hour, its definitely worth watching. If you don't have an hour, it's definitely worth watching anyway.

If you are interested, this man is named Randy Pausch and he had also written a book called The Last Lecture




There is also an abridged version that Randy did on Oprah before his passing that is quite good if you can only spare 10 minutes.

Top 10 Things You Don't Learn About Teaching in College

Today in class we watched a pretty cute clip. I'm not sure who edited it, but It's one I'll keep on my favorites for sure.

Have a look

Bang Head Here

This is what I could swear I heard the wall say to me this morning after my meeting with the Financial Aid Representative.

Basically, I explained to her the situation I've been dealing with and she looked utterly confused. Quite frustrating if you ask me. I then watched as she brought up the facilitators version of the student portal and kept an eye as she examined the hold on my financial aid.

Here's where I get really ticked off. As she was explaining to me that it was a standard hold for students, one that gets removed after completing two weeks of classes, she was moving her mouse around the screen, changing the hold reason from a repeat of the previous letter to a whole new type of hold that didn't reflect before that very moment. I asked her what she just changed it for and she denied having changed anything. Furious, I told her not to lie to me and just admit if there was an error in the second denial and she blinked and looked scared and said that she didn't change a thing. I stormed out of the office because I was too angry to look at her any more. I immediately logged online and to my surprise, there was no longer a Financial Aid denial any more. She had in fact changed it to a standard hold.

I understand that mistakes happen. Neither humans or machines are perfect, but why do you have to lie to me about it? Just calmly explain the situation and apologize for making me get up at the crack of dawn to get to your office in time to see you before my class when there was no reason to in the first place. That's all I'm asking.

Thank you for your time. Hope I never see you again.

Fool me once... Fool me twice.

So remember that happy feeling of getting things in their proper place and finally getting my financial aid? Go ahead and throw that all out the window.

I just received a supplemental letter from my school saying that I am already in non-compliance with the school's Satisfactory Academic Progress because I stated on my application that I already have a degree. The rule is that you can borrow government money for an associates or a bachelors degree, but not a masters.

The problem is, the letter states that I claim to already have a bachelors degree so I can't borrow any more. This isn't true however, I have an associates and definitely need the money in order to continue "progressing" like they want.

So, once again I'll need to visit the financial aid office. When, I'm not exactly sure, considering I now have class in the morning and work directly after every day that the office is open. I'll figure something out I guess.

Show me the money!

I just got a notice in my student portal that my Financial Aid appeal has been accepted. Thank goodness, because I've just borrowed a LARGE sum of money from my amazing parents to replace the leaky roof on the condition that I pay them half of the total back with this money. Things are starting to look good! I just have to wait 2-5 weeks for the check. Cha-Ching!

Life Changing Teachers

Today in class we were tasked with discussing the teachers that have shaped our current view on education. We were allowed to discuss both teachers with positive influence as well as negative.

My top pick could not have been easier.

I picked the principle at my elementary school, Webster, in Mesa, AZ. As far as I'm concerned, Webster was the greatest school in America and it was all to do with it's principle, Dr. Finley.

Dr. Finley had a way of hiring only the best teachers available. First years, middle aged and soon to retire teachers all had the right energy and concern for student's wellbeing. The fact that I can remember the name and face of every single teacher I had, as well as many others that roamed the halls is a testament to the environment. To help drive it in, I can only remember the names of two of my High School teachers, and even then, both of their names are stuck only due to the extreme aggravation they caused me on a near daily basis.

Webster was a Title 1 school, a title given to school with a 66% or greater population of families below the poverty line. Walking a day around the campus, you wouldn't know it. The insufficient salaries didn't phase the staff. The field trips on a budget where always exciting to the students. There was a drive of volunteer work from parents and families and no kid was without adequate school supplies, even when Dr. Finley bought the crayons out of his own pocket. Dr. Finley had a way with names and always made sure everyone felt important and welcome. He was incredibly involved with the students, spending more time in the halls then tucked away at his desk.

He developed incentive programs for students to work hard and act responsible. Once a month, any student who managed to work hard and earn approval from a teacher would have a half day recess on the field with booming music, sprinklers, popsicles  and giveaways. He organized small gatherings of students to celebrate cultural backgrounds in which he would educate us on his native culture and he brought exciting artifacts, like whale baleen from his life in Alaska. We would then tell him about our families and bring him "artifacts" from our homes. He made it a point to be able to say hello in every language that was represented in student families so he could greet every visiting member.

This is all stuff I explained to the class. Then something really strange happened. My professor called me up to the front of the class and pulled out his cell phone. He began scrolling through the contacts and settled on one in the D's. Dave, specifically, Dave Finley. He pressed the little green button below and a familiar ring was heard on speaker phone. To my extreme astonishment, Dr. Finley greeted the phone and listened to my professors explanation of the unusual daytime call.

"Dave," he said, "I've got an old student of yours here in my class named Damien who thinks you're a pretty good guy"

"Damien Hinkle?" questioned Dr. Finley.
"How are you Damien?! It's been a long time. Do you still see your friends Mercedes and Emmalee?"

He then proceeded to reminisce with me about bygone days and caught me up with what he was doing these days. He congratulated me on my career choice and told the class (via speakerphone) his reason for joining the orchestra program with the three of us friends when we were in the 4th grade, which was to try and bolster the percentage of male orchestra members, due to a prominent population of girls already in orchestra.

It felt good talking to one of the inspirations in my life today and I look forward to visiting him one of these days, degree in hand, asking for a job.

This is a recent image of Dr. Finley
that I found posted on his current
school's website.

First day of School

Ok, today wasn't my first day of school, but it WAS my first day of an EDU class. EDU221 to be specific; Intro to Education.  The teacher has explained that basically, his goal this semester is to introduce us to a few different learning styles as well as explore a few statistics of the American school system. He's given us a task of spending 30 hours assisting a teacher in the grade level we most desire to teach. In his syllabus, it looks like his method of teaching is going to be pretty easy to follow. He shows us some media on teaching, articles written from teachers, power points of his compiled data, videos of news stories pertaining to the field, etc.

At first I was real nervous about completing the classroom observation assignment because of my work and  school schedule. Then I remembered, my roommate, Erin, is a teacher and she just so happens to teach the grade I want to teach myself. Could this be any more perfect? Well, maybe, but I don't want anything to make me feel bad about the cards I've been dealt so the answer is definitely NO.

Oh, also, in case any of you where wondering, the grade I want to teach is 3rd grade. The kids really start delving into responsibility and separate class subjects. EXCITING!

FAFSA Fine, School Fail.

Ok, so here's an update on yesterday's Financial Aid blog.

As it turns out, it's not actually FAFSA that I wasn't qualifying for. It's apparently the school's acceptance of the money the government is loaning me.

They explained that they only examine previous time in their own school when determining if I've passed at least 66% of my classes. My first and only year at Scottsdale Community College was difficult due to medical reasons, and although I passed my first semester, my second semester I had to withdraw before failing because of all the time I was spending at the hospital.

They also explained that the due date I was given is actually the final date allowed to file as a brand new student to the system. There was, apparently, an earlier date that previous students where supposed to use to submit all necessary paperwork. This date I did in fact miss.

They are allowing me to file an appeal which, if approved, will still get me the financial aid, but as a reimbursement for the tuition that I've had to pay out of pocket.  It's better than nothing I suppose, but definitely a pain. I have to go to the hospital and acquire medial records proving I was unable to make it to a bulk of my classes. I also have to meet with an advisor and work out my classes for the next 5 years and sign something saying I commit to abide by all Satisfactory Academic Progress regulations in order to get my money at the end of the term. I also have to write a letter to the financial aid department explaining why I didn't get my forms in on time.

So basically, I'm learning a valuable lesson here. How to deal with the red tape in the education system. Also, that the red tape is pointless.

FAFSA FAIL

Classes haven't started yet and my devotion to education is already being tested.

For those of you who haven't heard of FAFSA, I'll take a minute to explain it.  FAFSA is an acronym for "Free Application for Federal Student Aid" Its a government program that analyzes your current financial situation (and that of your parents if you are considered dependent) in order to determine what amount of financial need you have. If you qualify, FAFSA will set you up with federal grants and loans.

I filed my FAFSA for this semester for my local community college and according to the government, I qualify for a substantial loan but no grants. Apparently, with my leaky roof, and call center job, I make too much money to qualify. Anyway, I signed up for the loans and provided the important documents to my school well before the date I was told would be the cutoff.

This morning, I checked my student portal (an online scheduler and communication forum for students within the Maricopa Community College District) and received a notice saying that I would not be qualifying for financial Aid. They listed two reasons; during my previous year at the school I withdrew from over 33% of my classes, and I missed the filing deadline.

You can imagine my surprise at having already attained a degree two years ago, purchased with FAFSA money, that it would be difficult to believe I didn't qualify because of something that happened 6 years ago. Also, I made sure I submitted my paperwork well within the allotted timeframe. The date written on my paperwork from the admissions staff isn't for another week!

It looks like tomorrow I will be visiting the administration office and demanding some answers.

So you want to be a teacher...

Put simply, yes, more than anything actually. I know to some individuals it may sound a little random. This is understandable, considering it's only something I've mentioned a few times in passing. I've never really made it my life goal until recently because I've never ALLOWED it to be my goal. After all, teachers don't make very much money. The benefits are decent but you have to put up with a lot of bureaucratic tape throughout your career. There's also that old adage, those who can't do, teach.

Wow, they're right, who would want to be a teacher? Well, the answer is still me. Over the past few years of my adult life, I've come to terms with the fact that money may make the world go round, but it certainly doesn't guarantee a population of happy inhabitants. I work very hard for what I believe to be a decent living. My back aches almost daily from the stresses I take on. My wallet is thick, full of credit cards with maxed out lines of credit. I currently owe more than my yearly salary in student loans from a degree I've never used (depressing!) and my house, my American Dream, leaks into buckets and I'm not convinced I'll ever be able to stop the internal downpour. These are all things I can deal with though. I mean, millions of people are dealing with some of these very same issues.

What I can't deal with any more, is the fact that while I work hard, I work hard for nothing important. Scratch that, I work hard for nobody important. Very few people do. Upper management at countless companies will try to say otherwise, but the truth is, a small percentage of people enjoy what they're doing. There aren't that many jobs that leave people feeling important, accomplished or appreciated.

So here I am, left with the realization that I could be in a boat of debt for a very long time, feeling sorry for myself. I could work off my financial hardship in a company with slightly higher pay. I could be a drone for corporate America until I've saved enough to retire. Maybe I'll have enough in my 401k to see the world, or as much of it as I can with weakened joints and looming medical bills. Maybe I'll start a family and give them a prime example of what it means to be a hard working man and an outstanding parent.

I don't want to be just an outstanding parent though. I want to be an outstanding person. I want to be someone who changes the course of peoples lives. I want to inspire children to explore their true potential. I want help parents grow with their kids and nurture responsibility. I want to fill my 401k with memories and success stories of fully grown students. Most of all, I want to show my children and loved ones the importance of doing something that makes you happy, even if it means not having a ferrari.

So, yes. I want to be a teacher.

If you want to check in now and then, I'll have posts with details of my journey.