Love and Honor

Tomorrow, I graduate.

I know a lot of seniors step on the seal after
they finish their last final/assignment,
but I still don't feel like I can. 

Thank you to everyone who has supported me and helped me throughout the past four years. I appreciate everything you have done for me, and it's because of your help that I have been able to accomplish all that I have.

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to come to college, and it's hard to believe that it's already over; yet, I'm surprisingly looking forward to donning my cap and gown tomorrow. I'm ready. 

Miami has continuously surprised me with all the doors that it has opened for me, and that is something that I will never take for granted. Miami has afforded me with so many incredible experiences, and I'm so lucky to have come here. 

While the past four may not have always been easy, the struggles were always worth it.

I may be ready, but I still cannot believe that the day I've been waiting for is here. 

Tomorrow, I graduate. 

I appreciate all of the opportunities that Miami has provided me with, but now it's time to move on to the next adventure -- whatever that might be...

Keep on Going

On the left is a photo of me on my first day of class at Miami,
and on the right is a photo of me after I got out of my
last class at Miami today.

In August 2012, I began my college career at Miami as an Early Childhood Education major. The first class I had on campus was ENG 111 (Composition and Rhetoric), and we had to go around the room and talk about what we had eaten for breakfast. I ate a banana that day.

Today, I finished my last undergraduate class at Miami as an Integrated English and Language Arts Education major with minors in Writing & Rhetoric, Linguistics, and English Literature. My last class was ENG 293 (Contemporary American Fiction), and I’m glad to say that I didn’t have to talk about what I had for breakfast today (if you must know, I had cookies), but instead, we discussed graphic novels.

I find it fitting that English classes serve as the bookends of my career here at Miami.

Between my first class in 2012 and my last class in 2016, a lot has changed. I’ve grown in more ways than I would have imagined, and I’ve truly learned so much – both inside the classroom and out.

The past four years have not always been easy, and sometimes, giving up seemed like the right choice, but I am so glad that I stuck with it.  I won’t lie. College isn’t always easy, but it’s worth sticking to the course. Keep your goals in mind, and keep chasing them. Every obstacle presents an opportunity for learning, and you’ll come out stronger and tougher than before.

As my four years draw to a close, I look back at each of the experiences that pushed me to my breaking point, and I have to say that in hindsight, I am grateful for each experience because they shaped me into who I am. If I hadn’t encountered so many challenging experiences, I wouldn’t be who I am today.

In many ways, the past four years have pushed me out of my comfort zone, but without those opportunities to learn and grow, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

I know, I know. This post is full of clichés, but they honestly ring true. I know that I didn’t believe everyone when they said college would fly by, but it’s true.

Keep your goals in sight, and keep on going, because in the end, it will be worth it.

Beyoncé, the Western, and Advertising

The end of my final semester of college is coming faster than I want it to, and once more, I find myself swimming in papers and presentations. A typical end of the semester scenario.

Photo I took in King Library.

But this semester, I’m not overly stressed about the pile of work surrounding me. While I’ve been spending the majority of my free time hiding in the stacks of King Library, searching for books to help me with these papers and projects, I’m not worried about finishing everything.

It will all get done, even if I take a break to go hang out with my friends (this is a mindset that is strangely foreign to me).

Because as much as I love that I’m writing a research paper about societal reactions Beyoncé’s song “Formation” and another paper about gender in advertising, I can’t fully seclude myself in cubicles in King during my last two weeks of college.

I have a bucket list to complete, and while writing an academic paper about Beyoncé may or may not be on that bucket list, there are other things I want to complete, too. I still would like going to a baseball game and visit my favorite spots on campus one last time.

And as exhilarating as I find writing papers about gender in the Western genre to be, I’ve finally come to the realization that this thing which people call “senioritis” is beginning to creep into my mindset. It’s not that I’m slacking off – I’m still doing all my work and I’m still applying for jobs like crazy – I’ve just come to the realization that I need to enjoy what little time I have left.

While I have very little time left, the key is that I have time, and it will all get done.

The Intergenerational Mentoring Program

During my freshmen year at Miami, I joined the Miami Student Education Association (MSEA), which is a pre-professional organization for students who are entering the education field. As a result of this membership, I have been a part of the National Education Association and the Ohio Education Association ever since.

During my sophomore year, I decided to take advantage of a program that is offered as a result of my membership with MSEA that is called the Intergenerational Mentoring Program (IGM). In this program, students are paired with retired teachers who mentor them and guide them as they begin the early stages of their teaching careers.

In my first year with IGM, I was placed with a retired high school social studies teacher and we would occasionally meet for lunch in Oxford and attend the IGM meetings together. We formed a bond that was helpful to me as I was just starting to figure out what my life would look like as I became a teacher.

As I began my second year with IGM, my first mentor moved away, so I was placed with a new mentor and another student. In some cases, mentors will have multiple mentees, and this was the situation that I found myself in last year.

At the banquet, each senior was given a journal
(titled as the one above) with their name on it,
in addition to a yellow rose.

The three of us would meet for lunch and would attend events together, and it was nice to have two other people to bounce ideas off of. While my mentor and the other student are early childhood educators, so it was a bit different for me, I still have appreciated having that bond.

The other student that was paired with my mentor and I graduated in December, and since we were both student teaching last semester, it was difficult for the three of us to meet. However, my mentor and I were able to meet for dinner during my student teaching experience, and we still meet for lunch in Oxford on occasion.

Each year, IGM has a banquet at the end of the year to celebrate the program and recognize graduating seniors. The banquet was this past Monday, and I had the honor of speaking on behalf of all the mentees.

MSEA and IGM have provided me with a support system of future and retired educators who have helped guide me on this path to becoming a teacher. I’m so glad that I decided to join both of these groups early on at Miami, and I would encourage all education majors to do the same.

T-Minus One Month

I’m in a state of denial about the fact that I only have one more month at Miami.

I recognize that this has been a common theme for me this semester, this unofficial countdown of sorts, but my anticipation of what comes next keeps growing, and I keep questioning whether or not I’m ready for the next step. I mean, I know I’m ready, but the question is more of whether or not I’m ready to start over with the unknown.

Photo I took of flowers outside of
Bachelor Hall on campus.

The past four years have (as cliché as it is) truly flown by, and despite my insistence at certain points that I could not wait to graduate, now I’m feeling sad that I have to leave this place that I’ve learned to call home.

In a month, I’ll move away from my friends who have become my rocks over the past few years, and we’ll be scattered around the country. It’s going to be weird not having all of my friends within a one-mile radius (even though that’s probably more normal than living in this tiny bubble in which we currently live).

In one of my classes I sit next to a first year, and on the other side of her is another senior. Yesterday in class, the other senior and I were commiserating with each other about how little time we have left on campus. I turned to the first year girl in between us and told her to make the most of her experiences on Miami’s campus.

While overwhelmingly there isn’t much I would change about my experiences here, there are small things that I wish I would have done, and there are classes I wish I would have taken.

First and foremost, I wish I would have been more willing to take risks. And for me, a risk my first year at Miami would have been actually going through the random roommate process. I ended up using one of Miami’s roommate finding services, and while I still lived with a virtual stranger, I picked who I lived with. And while there was nothing wrong with that choice, I wish that I had gone through the random process. I feel as though I missed out on a somewhat essential college experience.

During my first year here, I also wish I would have joined more student organizations. Miami has so many different organizations on campus, and I wish I would have gotten more involved – I think it would have enhanced my experiences here, and would have given me a better start.

While I can’t go back and change my experiences at Miami (and that said, I wouldn’t trade my experiences for the world), I can take what I learned and use this knowledge as I walk out into the “real world.” While the “real world” offers a whole different set of issues and experiences, I'm ready for them. 

Suit Up: Teacher Job Fair

Resume Copies: Check

Padfolio: Check

Professional-looking Pen: Check

Suit: Check

Teacher Job Fair: Ready.

On Tuesday, Miami hosted a Teacher Job Fair for school districts and schools to come and interview Miami students for potential employment.

In the morning, there was an hour meet-and-greet session in which the candidates (i.e. Miami students) had the opportunity to walk around and talk to potential employers. In these brief meetings, the employer may invite you to sign up for a 20-minute interview that day, or they may say that they are not currently hiring for the position in question.

I was fortunate enough to come out of the meet-and-greet session with seven back-to-back interviews. I chose to knock all of my interviews out in the morning session, which left me no time between meetings, but I ended up enjoying having to hop from interview to interview. Most of the other candidates did not do this, and they spread their interviews out throughout the day.

Since there wasn’t much time, the interviews were screening interviews, and I found that they became easier and easier as the morning went on; moreover, I felt very prepared. I was impeccably nervous walking into Millet that morning, but the more I talked with school districts and schools, the more excited I became about my future as a teacher.

For the job fair, we were not allowed to bring our teaching portfolios, but I was glad that I already created mine, as it helped me gather my thoughts prior to the interviews, which made it easier for me to recall different lesson plans and specific occurrences during student teaching that I could draw on for my interviews.

My interviews went well on Tuesday, and I’m expecting calls for another interview from a few of the districts/schools that I spoke with. I’m incredibly excited about the prospect of having another interview with these districts/schools.

When the Job Search Takes Over

The job search is in full swing.

This week, I feel as though I’ve spent the majority of my time drafting answers to questions on job applications, writing letters of introduction, and taking questionnaires that identify my teaching style.  

I’m applying for jobs like crazy.

I attended Grad Fest earlier this week and purchased my
cap and gown.

And it’s hard work. But I’m enjoying it – maybe even too much, as I seem to be applying for jobs in place of doing some of my homework (apologies to any of my professors who may be reading this – I promise I will catch up).

In my defense, however, I am attending two different teacher job fairs this coming week, and I’m trying my best to get all my ducks in a row, so to speak.  

I feel relatively prepared for both events, but I want to make sure that everything goes smoothly. By the end of tomorrow, I hope to have submitted applications to all of the schools I plan on talking to. By Sunday night, I hope to have my portfolio polished and ready to go.

My head is swimming with to do lists of things I need to do, and it’s causing some stress, but I’m also so incredibly excited. I can’t wait to attend these job fairs and see what’s in store.

Attending these job fairs makes me realize that graduation is sooner than I would like to admit, and as excited as I am about everything that comes along with the next six or so weeks, I’m also nervous.

But as I said, I’m enjoying filling out these job applications, and they’re making me picture my own classroom, wherever it may be. 

Spring Break or A-Week-of-Productivity

This year, I spent my spring break being rather productive. While I’ve always gone home for spring break, my productivity levels have usually decreased significantly while I am at home, and I really use the week off as a break.

However, I decided to use the break to my advantage this year, and I was able to not only do some of my homework, but I also spent a lot of time applying for jobs.

Over break, I read On the Road by Jack Kerouac in
preparation for one of my final papers. 

In the coming weeks, I’m attending several job fairs, so I want to make sure that I have all my ducks in a row (so to speak) so that when I attend the job fairs, I’ve already applied to the school districts I will be speaking with.

I’m really looking forward to each job fair I will be attending, and I’m hoping to apply to even more school districts over the course of the next few weeks. I’m glad that I had spring break to finally get started on the process, however, as I was finding it difficult to work on applications in between homework assignments at school.

While I did use some of my spring break for fun, I’m glad that I was able to write a few papers and read some books so that I can really enjoy the last month and a half of my college career at Miami. The more work I can get done ahead of time, the more free time I will have to spend with my friends (and work on job applications).

Despite how helpful spring break might have been in terms of getting everything in order, I’m looking forward to heading back to classes next week and finishing out the rest of the semester.

As cliché as it may be, this semester really has flown by already, and I know that the next month and a half will go by even faster. I just want to be able to enjoy the few weeks I have left at Miami before I graduate and move on to the next step. 

Finding Certainty in the Uncertain

This week, I worked on coding
my dataset so that I can write
my rhetorical analysis. To do this,
I printed out the information I
needed, and then taped it all
to my mirror and used different
colored pens and markers to code
for the information I needed.

It is spring break, and I’ll be spending the majority of my break with family, but the rest of my break will be full of gearing up for my final projects in hopes that I can get ahead and enjoy the last month of my Miami experience.

In most of my classes this week, my professors decided to introduce the final paper I will need to write for each of their classes. While most of these projects are fairly straightforward and similar to papers that I have written in the past, there is one project in particular that is like nothing else that I have written.

In my Writing and Rhetoric capstone (ENG 495: Rhetorics of Participatory Culture), I am working on writing a rhetorical analysis of how people are responding to (thereby, participating) Beyoncé’s music video that accompanies her song “Formation.”

I’m really excited about where this project is headed, but I’m also rather uncertain about what exactly I’m doing. In the past, I’ve done papers on case studies, as well as other rhetorical analyses, and I’ve come to the realization that this paper falls somewhere in between, but I’m still daunted by the task.

This week I’ve been working on the rhetorical analysis portion of the paper, and as much as I would like to say it’s going well, I have my doubts.

The dataset I am looking at is quite expansive, so I’m struggling to put it all together because I have so much to look at and so much to examine.

I know that in the end, I’ll end up with an interesting paper, but because of my perfectionist tendencies, this is hard to recognize that when I feel so uncertain about where my paper is currently.

I’m learning to find certainty in the uncertain.

I’m recognizing this same sort of feeling with my future, too. It’s all up in the air for now, and I’m finally at a point where I can reconcile the uncertain feeling by realizing that someway, somehow, I will end up employed.

It may not happen as quickly as I would like, but one way or another, I’m certain that everything will work out.

Mock Interview

Photo of the outfit I wore to my
mock interview.

Earlier this week, Career Services had a mock interview event strictly for teacher candidates. To help with the interviewing process, Career Services brought in individuals from nearby school districts.

I decided to sign up for an interview, but I wasn’t really sure what to expect in terms of how helpful I would find it.

The night before my interview, I perused the Career Services website and found a list of potential interview questions for teacher candidates. I read through the list and answered the questions, realizing that I readily had an answer for each question. Before I even set foot in the Career Services office, I felt confident about the interview.

The mock interview process itself was definitely a huge confidence booster as well.

The woman who interviewed me made the whole process very easy, and we got started right off the bat.

It started with the basic tell me about yourself questions, and from there, we moved on to more situational based questions where I was able to draw on my student teaching experience.

After each question, she would ask me how I felt I answered, and then we would discuss what I did well, and where I could possibly improve.

At the end of the interview, she even asked what questions I would have for a potential employer, which was also very helpful in terms of making sure that the possible questions I may have were valid.

However, the most helpful piece of feedback I received was that I am interview-ready. While I’ve always been fairly confident in my interview abilities, there’s something about interviewing for a teaching position that scares me more than interviewing for a company.

While I was unsure about how helpful the mock interview would be, I’m definitely glad that I had the opportunity to go through the process, especially now that I’m starting to apply to schools.

70 Days Until Graduation

Photo of me speaking at my high school graduation 4 years
ago. I'm excited to don Miami's red cap and gown in just
a few months.

It just hit me this week that I'm graduating in 70 days.

This means that I have 70 more days to check off the remainder of my senior year bucket list, 70 more days to work on my classes, 70 more days to hang out with my friends in Oxford, and 70 more days to (hopefully) find a job.

It may sound silly that I just now noticed that I will be graduating, but until this week, it didn't feel any different. It felt like a normal semester (albeit, a very busy one), but one that would end in May so I could return to Miami in August, just as I have for the past few years.

But that's not the case this time.

This time, I'll be getting my diploma. I'll be finishing my collegiate career and (hopefully) begin teaching in my own classroom.

I'll admit it: I'm scared.

Not scared in the sense that something feels wrong or off, but scared in the sense that I'm not sure where I'm going to be in just a few months. I'm not sure if I'll be employed. And if I am employed, I'm not sure where I'll be living. There are a lot of unanswered questions swirling around life after graduation.

While it is common for school districts to wait until April (and even beyond) to post job openings, I started my search this week. I've signed up for a mock interview with Career Services on Miami's campus and I've also signed up for a few teacher job fairs. Additionally, I've submitted one application for a position, and over spring break, I hope to submit even more.

I feel somewhat more at ease because of these small, but significant, steps.

I'm looking forward to my future with eager anticipation, but with all the unknowns surfacing, I started to become nervous. I'm excited to start the next phase of my life, but I'm also afraid to leave what is familiar and known.

In 70 days, the real adventure begins.

The Complex Art of the Teacher Resume

I have multiple versions of my resume, and they were all relatively easy for me to put together. However, when it came to starting my teacher resume, I was at a loss.

I’ve heard a lot of different ideas surrounding the teacher resume. I’ve been told that it has to be two pages, no exceptions, no excuses. But I’ve also heard that for recently graduated teachers, it should only be a page.

Currently, I’ve managed to keep my resume to one page, and as I go on to teach and obtain a master’s degree, I’m sure that my resume will expand to two pages.

As with all resumes, it should look clean and professional and at the very top you should have your name and contact information. In terms of formatting, I found it easiest to use a template from Microsoft Word and then I made it my own. This helped me create a professional looking resume with relative ease.

In terms of the content I have included on my resume, I start with my objective, which is a simple statement about what it is that I hope to obtain in terms of employment. Through my objective, it makes it clear that I am seeking a job as an English teacher, which makes it easy for a potential employer to see quickly what it is I am seeking.

After my objective, I have my education. This is a relatively small section, as I only have included my bachelor’s degree from Miami and my minors, as well as my GPA. Once I obtain my master’s degree, this will be included in this section as well.

Immediately after my education, I jump into my educational experience and I move from the most recent to the earliest experiences I have had. The first item under this header is my student teaching experience, which is clearly marked as such. Under this, I list where I student taught, when I student taught, and then I offer a few bullet points explaining key points from my experience.

After student teaching, I move on to my general field experiences in schools in the Cincinnati area. For each school, I also create a bulleted point list for key points from the experience, but they are much more abbreviated than my student teaching experience, as not all of these experiences took place in an English classroom, let alone in a middle/high school.

The section I have following this does not apply to everyone. After my educational experience, I have a section for education-related work experience. If I ever have more than one teaching position in my career, this is where I would notate those positions. However, under this section, I list my other job on Miami’s campus as a tutor. For this section, I format it as I would for any of my resumes with a bulleted list of my duties.

From here, I go on to a quick and abbreviated list of accomplishments, awards, and activities where I give a brief overview of awards I have received and any accomplishments or activities I’ve been a apart of that relate to my future as an English teacher.

It really doesn’t take much time to put a resume together, the key is simply to make sure it is professional and that it accurately reflects you as an individual and that it reflects your goals as a professional. 

Home Away from Home

Over the past four years, McGuffey has become my second home in Oxford.

The walls of this building have seen me at my absolute worst, and at my very best. They’ve helped shape me into the teacher that I want to become. They’ve watched me grow from a freshman who was unsure about her major, into a senior who survived her student teaching experience and is ready for the next step.

McGuffey has seen me laugh and cry, tears of both happiness and sadness.

This picture of my friend Jordan
and I was taken in May 2015
outside of McGuffey. I met Jordan
in my EDL 318 class (which was
in McGuffey), and we've been
friends ever since.

I’ve made friends in McGuffey, I’ve worked on group projects, I’ve gotten into heated debates, and I’ve questioned everything. McGuffey has pushed me to grow.

In this building, I’ve succeeded and I’ve failed. I’ve gotten into disagreements (with both professors and classmates) and I’ve worked with those professors and those classmates to resolve the issue(s) at hand.

I’ve learned more about becoming a teacher, and thereby, I’ve learned a lot about myself.

I’ve watched my friends succeed in this building, and I’ve watched friends fall, but I always saw them get back up and move forward.

Becoming an education major is not for the fainthearted. We’re some of the hardest working students I know, and we push ourselves every day to be the best we can.

We care for those around us, and we want to watch each other succeed. McGuffey welcomes us with open arms, and makes us feel at home.

My cohort met in this building, and we grew to become a close-knit group of friends.

This is my first semester at Miami (excluding last semester when I student taught) that I do not have a class in McGuffey. It didn’t hit me until this morning when I sat down to write this that I miss my morning walk to McGuffey (with coffee in hand, of course).

I miss the familiarity of the building that has pushed me to become the best me over the past four years. 

Education Majors Should Go to Career Fair, Too

Photo of the booklet describing the companies
that appeared at this year's Spring ICE.

Since my sophomore year, I have been attending the regular Career Fair that Miami offers in the fall, as well as Spring ICE, which is the spring version of the same event.

As an education major, I often feel out of place at these events, but I’ve found a lot of value in attending these events in terms of approaching potential employers, which is a skill I can transfer to the teacher job fair later this semester.

I chose to go to Spring ICE during my sophomore year in hopes of finding an internship. I hoped something would pan out, but I was exceptionally nervous about attending as a result of the fact that I am an education major.

However, if I hadn’t chosen to go, I wouldn’t have landed an internship as an intern for the training team of a mortgage banking company. Through this position, I was able to teach classes, create material for the classes, and the experience as a whole gave me more confidence going into my field experiences during the fall 2014 semester.

Moreover, through this internship, I was given the opportunity to apply for a position as a campus ambassador for the company, which also gave way to some really cool experiences.

When I returned to Miami for my junior year, I was able to host information nights on Miami’s campus, and I attended career fairs alongside the recruiters, which gave me a new perspective for what employers look for in their employees. As a result of these experiences, I feel I’ve been given an edge when I introduce myself to future employers.

Which brings me to why I think it is so important for education majors to attend these events too. While there are a limited number of education-based companies that attend these events, I think it’s more about the experience of learning how to talk about the skills that you possess and why you are the best individual suited for a particular job.

Because of these experiences, and the fact that I am more comfortable approaching potential employers, I feel more prepared than I think I would have otherwise in terms of attending the teacher job fair that Miami will host later this spring. 

Hindsight is 20/20

If I could go back and start my student teaching experience over, there are some things that I would like to do differently.

First and foremost, I would have liked more information about the school and the specific classroom in which I was going to be teaching. While I certainly had some general knowledge, I wish that there had been a better opportunity for me to gain a better perspective for what exactly I would be stepping into, especially since the classroom I was placed in was so unique.

Moreover, I wish I would have been better prepared in terms of dealing with being tired all the time. I knew student teaching would be exhausting, but I didn’t realize the extent to which it was until I was in the midst of the experience.

Staying organized was more difficult than I had imagined as well. I think I attribute a great deal of this to the type of classroom I was in, and the new grading system my cooperating teacher and I used, but I wish that I would have been able to come up with a better system from the get-go.

Photo I took in September 2015 of one of
the covered bridges in Oxford.

While I figured there would be bumps and surprises along the way, I wasn’t prepared for the problems I did have during student teaching that were unrelated to the actual act of teaching. From the car problems I had to deal with, to issues with technology for the edTPA, I wish I had been able to handle these more smoothly.

On all fronts, I learned a lot from student teaching, and I’m definitely glad that I went through the experience. But if I could go back and change a few things to make the transition easier, I would. Either way, student teaching is a bridge to cross, but the easier it is to cross in terms of the factors outside the classroom, the more enriching I think the experience can be. 

Towards the end of my experience when I finally had a better idea for how to manage the workload and stay organized, I noticed a shift in how I perceived the experience as a whole. It became even more fulfilling than it had been all along, which made it that much more fun.

Student teaching is hard. It’s a lot of work and it’s exhausting, but it is such a rewarding experience in the end. 

My Last Semester

I can’t believe that I’ve already started my very last semester of undergraduate classes. It’s hard to believe that in a few short months, I will be getting my diploma.

Photo I took in October 2013.

Prior to my student teaching experience in the fall, I had finished all of the required education classes for my major. This semester, I am finishing out the classes for my minors, as well as one lingering Miami Plan credit, which also counts for the last credit I need to fill for my major.

My schedule for the semester looks a little something like this:

ENG 293 (Contemporary American Fiction)

ENG 495R (Capstone in Writing and Rhetoric)

ENG 406 (Discourse Analysis) Capstone

ENG 450J (Studies in Genre: The Western) Capstone

FRE 131 (Masterpieces of French Culture in Translation)

ENG 298 (Introduction to Literary and Cultural Study)

KNH 110T (Social Dance)

As per usual for me, this semester will involve copious amounts of reading and writing. But something that is new to this semester, is that I will also be watching a lot of western films. My capstone on the western is cross-listed as a film studies class, so I will be learning a lot about how to dissect a western, which is a genre I know very little about.

Since I’m not yet as organized as I would like to be, it’s hard to say whether or not my semester will be as difficult as it looks. I’m hoping to get to a point where I can start to work ahead in my classes so that it feels easier and less stressful.

It’s still hard for me to believe that it’s my last semester here at Miami. I thought that coming back to classes after student teaching would be a difficult transition, but it turns out that it wasn’t. I’m looking forward to everything that I will learn throughout the semester, both inside the classroom, and outside.