Back to School

2008-01-06T12:46:00.000-05:00

So my brother told me he doesn't link to inactive people. For the past 3 weeks I've been on winter break and I wanted to make a post, but I suppose I'm just a little to lazy to do it. So today I've decided to break down and make a post.

A little about me. I'm 40 years old and back about 3 years ago I made a semi-midlife career change. I'd been in computers for some...well forever to be honest. I had my own Internet business and decided that it wasn't a very rewarding job not to mention the competition for jobs is through the roof. When I first got into computers there weren't many people doing it. Most assumed it was a geeky job and not many families had a personal computer. Plus there was no such thing as high speed Internet. But as with most things, time progressed and people changed their views on computers and the net and the competition for jobs just skyrocketed.

It probably didn't help that I got divorced and my wife wanted her half of the business. I could buy her out or sell it and give her half of the money. So I did the later. Packed up my bags and moved into an apartment in my parents basement and wondered "what the hell am I going to do with the rest of my life now". After about a year I decided to go back to school.

I started going to Virginia Western Community College, or rather Western as most call it. I went for just over 2 years and finished my last class last semester. I'll graduate with honors, 3.6ish GPA. Not bad considering I went in my 20's and flagged most of my classes or got C's and D's. I love going to school. I suppose the age is a big difference as I hated it in my 20's.

So now I'm starting my 3rd semester at Radford University. I'm sure most people reading this may not have the first clue where Radford is, but most probably have heard of Virginia Tech, especially since the shootings, well Radford is down the road from VT by about 30 minutes. I don't go to the University itself, but take classes in Roanoke Virginia at the Higher Ed center downtown or on a special satellite office on the Western campus.

A word about Community Colleges. For those who think they'll get a better education going straight to a University, I'd have to say you're nuts. Take a look at these two links:

Radford University Tuition Rates
Virginia Western Tuition Rates

So one semester at Radford, roughly $3000. One semester at Community College, roughly $1300. This is without books, so a savings per semester of $1700. Many of the professors at Community Colleges prefer CC's over Universities. I've had several teachers who say the work from a student at a CC is far superior to that of a University student. But overall, the money is the biggest difference. Talk to most Universities and they'll recommend that you take classes at a Community College for your first two years and then transfer. I'm stepping off the soap box now.

So where was I. Oh yeah. So this semester at Radford I'm taking four classes, no clue what they are. I'll fill you in on that on the 14th when I go back to school. I am rather excited to be going back. What I can tell you is that I'm taking three classes on "how to teach" math, science and english and then some kind of special education class. I suppose I should tell you that I'm an Elementary School teacher wanna-be. I'll have a split concentration of History and Special Education. Now before people say, "that's nice, we need more special ed teachers" I have not intention of teaching Special Ed. They get the same money for what I consider twice the aggrivation and work. Most Special Ed teachers get stuck teaching that until burnout occurs and they quit teaching. School systems really need to allow them to rotate out and get a break, but instead they drive them like slaves until they quit. I've heard of one teacher getting out of Special Ed. I've heard another three tell me they had to quit to get out.

So why am I getting a concentration in special ed you may ask? Well I'm in something called a cohort program at Radford. This program is specially designed for Elementary Ed students and that's how they have it setup. I stay with the same group of students throughout my 2 years at Radford. Overall I love my cohort and have made some friendships that I expect will continue outside of my teaching life.

Ok Jeff, there's a HUGE blog for you to read. I'll make another post tomorrow about my upcoming Praxis 2 test and my disappointement in the Praxis 1

Introduction

2007-12-07T12:29:00.000-05:00

Ok so I decided to start a blog about my life becoming a teacher. I'll add more to this later as I still have a few things left to do for this semester. Currently I'm a Junior at Radford University, but attending classes in Roanoke VA.

Becoming a Teacher

Back to School

Introduction