Admitted

    Keeping a blog up and running while teaching and trying to keep my life together has been a challenge. To be honest, most of my writing in the past few months has been dedicated to lesson plans, recommendations, and the creation of resources for a new curriculum. Several things have been tweaked since January when I last wrote. The Hafla fell through for a lot of different reasons, though our troupe does have a new project in the works. Our play was canceled. The world around us has hiccoughed. 

    The exciting news now though is that I have officially been accepted to the Masters of Library Science program at East Carolina Univerity. It is the only university that is accredited by the American Library Association in my state, and the program is online so I can continue teaching full-time. I am excited to get started, and I am walking myself through the process to make sure I am as organized and pulled together as I can be. 

    I have been logging on to the student portal for the school so I can get familiar with it. I have built a plan for the courses I know I am required to take (I won't register for another two weeks) and I have looked over the syllabi for the courses online so I kind of know what I will be focusing on. I have been reading blogs and articles for sites that deal with the MLS program and building an annotated bibliography for the articles that I think might be useful. I have so much to do- and most of it won't be useful because I know I am just making myself busy because I am excited and need to feel like I am moving towards my goal, even though I am not 100% sure what the requirements will be yet.

    I know organization and time management will be a hurdle for me. It has always been a struggle throughout my education, though it has improved since I started teaching. I have built a planner to add events and dates so I can visualize things better. I am slowly easing up on some of my responsibilities so that I focus my energy on completing my work. I am "adulting" so hard right now that the back of my brain is ringing alarms of "what did I get myself into?" 

    The coolest part is I can not wait to find out. 

Since I last wrote, I have finished: 

The Witches Heart, by Genevieve Gorniche

A Court of Thorns and Roses, by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Mist and Fury, by Sarah J. Maas

A Court of Wings and Ruin, by Sarah J. Maas

The Hogfather, by Terry Pratchett

Some Things I Still Can't Tell You, by Misha Collins

From Blood and Ash, by Jennifer L. Armentrout

A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire, by Jennifer L. Armentrout

Mortal Engines, by Phillip Reeve

The Crown of Gilded Bones, by Jennifer L. Armentrout

The Winternight Trilogy, by Katherine Arden

Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte

The Ore Knob Mine Murders, by Rose Haynes


I am currently reading:

The Light Fantastic, by Terry Pratchett


    Maybe next time I will figure out how to link my Goodreads account to the blog?


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

First days

Image
I have cleaned and cleaned, and I am still nowhere near done. I am beginning to review resources, weeding, and developing ideas to get more teachers and students into the library. The few days I have been in to watch the kids rotate through, no one ever makes it to non-fiction. The English teachers are the only ones I have seen in the space so far, and they want their students to read fiction. Honors students are not brought in to choose books. They typically stick to the classics and don't have enough time to step outside that box. Challenge number one is that it has snowed so much that we haven't had school for more than a few days. Challenge two: I am new, and teachers aren't used to coming in or collaborating. Challenge three is that the library is set up more for adults than students. Challenge four, the prevailing idea has been that students don't read anyway, so spending money on new books is a waste. Challenge five, and maybe the one that will be the...
Read more

New Year

Image
     In the mountains of North Carolina, the first day of the New Year requires a particular meal if one wants a good year moving forward. Greens (mixed or collard depending on your family) represent dollars. Black-eyed peas represent coins. Cornbread represents gold, and pork represents other forms of luck and health. I typically go the easy route and get canned vegetables and pre-baked ham. The cornbread is such a staple that it doesn't feel like work.     It was my Nanny who introduced this tradition to me. I know it is common throughout my county because finding any of the ingredients on the day of New Year's is nearly impossible. In fact, I met and had great conversations with two older ladies in the store today just because I helped one find fresh collards (she has more gumption today than I do) and the other find black-eyed peas.      Where do these traditions come from, and why do we pay lip service to them? I enjoy the food tr...
Read more

It might not actually be a "New Year", but it is certainly a new beginning!

Image
 Wow, I really suck at blogging, or at least I did last year. I will not say that 2023 was bad, but I will say that a lot changed, and I did not do a good job of taking care of myself. My mother-in-law passed away, bringing a lot of new lessons and decisions for my significant other and me. My master's program was difficult and challenging in the best of ways. We had a new school librarian that I could learn from. I kept dancing as my troupe attempted to become a little more professional. I did not do a lot of crafting or creating. I struggled through the school year, but I did my best to support my students and gracefully (gracefully?) address school politics when they challenged my own moral compass. There are many quotes about 2023 being about surviving, and they really speak to how last year went. Writing was not one of my major concerns since I was doing so much with ECU, but here we are, starting fresh again in a new year. Neil DeGrasse Tyson shared a TikTok (find...
Read more