Scholarship: SAWE Scholarship / Frank Fong Memorial Scholarship

Scholarship: SAWE Scholarship / Frank Fong Memorial Scholarship

Application Deadline: April 1, 2017

Link: http://usascholarships.com/sawe-scholarship-frank-fong-memorial-scholarship/

“How many pens do you have?” “The limit does not exist.”

Powering through studying for my two finals that are one day apart. Just 6 more days and I’ll be done with my undergraduate degree in Nutrition. Keeping my eyes on that and my head held high.

You can do it too!

xx, Sarah

Scholarship: The Farm Kids for College Scholarship

Application Deadline: April 13, 2017

Link: http://usascholarships.com/farm-kids-college-scholarship/

Ulrich Franzen & Associates, Bradfield Agronomy Building, New York State College of Agriculture at Cornell, Ithaca, New York, 1968

Scholarship: Nordson BUILDS Scholarship Program

Application Deadline: May 15, 2017

Link: http://usascholarships.com/nordson-builds-scholarship-program/

I Lie About My Teaching

Here is an interesting article I came across in The Atlantic. 

The story of a Teacher and how we portray our lives to others in the field. What are your thoughts? 

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I liked Devon. We were all first and second-year teachers in that seminar—peers, in theory—but my colleague Devon struck me as a cut above. I’d gripe about a classroom problem, and without judgment or rebuke, he’d outline a thoughtful, inventive solution, as if my blundering incompetence was perhaps a matter of personal taste, and he didn’t wish to impose his own sensibilities. When it fell upon us each to share a four-minute video of our teaching, I looked forward to Devon’s. I expected a model classroom, his students as pious and well-behaved as churchgoers.

Instead, the first half of Devon’s four-minute clip showed him fiddling with an overhead projector; in the second half, he was trotting blandly through homework corrections. The kids rocked side to side, listless. For all his genuine wisdom, Devon looked a little green, a little lost.

He looked, in short, like me.

Teachers self-promote. In that, we’re no different than everyone else: proudly framing our breakthroughs, hiding our blunders in locked drawers, forever perfecting our oral résumés. This isn’t all bad. My colleagues probably have more to learn from my good habits (like the way I use pair work) than my bad ones (like my sloppy system of homework corrections), so I might as well share what’s useful. In an often-frustrating profession, we’re nourished by tales of triumph. A little positivity is healthy.

But sometimes, the classrooms we describe bear little resemblance to the classrooms where we actually teach, and that gap serves no one.

Any honest discussion between teachers must begin with the understanding that each of us mingles the good with the bad. One student may experience the epiphany of a lifetime, while her neighbor drifts quietly off to sleep. In the classroom, it’s never pure gold or pure tin; we’re all muddled alloys.

I taught once alongside a first-year teacher, Lauren, who didn’t grasp this. As a result, she compared herself unfavorably to everyone else. Every Friday, when we adjourned to the bar down the street, she’d decry her own flaws, meticulously documenting her mistakes for us, castigating herself to no end. The kids liked her. The teachers liked her. From what I’d seen, she taught as well as any first-year could. But she saw her own shortcomings too vividly and couldn’t help reporting them to anyone who’d listen.

She was fired three months into the year. You talk enough dirt about yourself and people will start to believe it.

Omission is the nature of storytelling; describing a complex space—like a classroom—requires a certain amount of simplification. Most of us prefer to leave out the failures, the mishaps, the wrong turns. Some, perhaps as a defensive posture, do the opposite: Instead of overlooking their flaws and miscues, they dwell on them, as Lauren did. The result is that two classes, equally well taught, may come across like wine and vinegar, depending on how their stories are told.

Take the first year I taught psychology. I taught one section; my colleague Erin taught the other.

When I talked to Erin that semester, she’d glow about her class. Kids often approached her in the afternoons to follow up on questions, and to thank her for teaching their favorite course. Her students kept illustrated vocab journals totaling hundreds of words. They drew posters of neurons, crafted behaviorist training regimes, and designed imaginative “sixth senses” for the human body. Erin’s mentor teacher visited monthly and dubbed it an “amazing class” with “incredible teaching.”

Catch me in an honest mood, and I’ll admit that I bombed the semester. I lectured every day from text-filled overhead slides. Several of my strongest students told me that they hated the class and begged for alternative work. I wasted three weeks on a narrow, confining research assignment, demanding heavy work with little payoff. One student openly plagiarized another. I wound up failing several students who, in hindsight, I should have passed. Yet I know that this apparent train wreck of a class was, in truth, no worse than Erin’s.

That’s because I made Erin up. The two classes described above were the same class: mine. Each description is true, and neither, of course, is wholly honest.

I’m as guilty as anyone of distorting my teaching. When talking to other teachers, I often play up the progressive elements: Student-led discussions. Creative projects. Guided discovery activities. I mumble through the minor, inconvenient fact that my pedagogy is, at its core, deeply traditional. I let my walk and my talk drift apart. Not only does this thwart other teachers in their attempts to honestly evaluate my approach, but it blocks my own self-evaluation. I can’t grow properly unless I see my own work with eyes that are sympathetic, but clear and unyielding.

I had a private theme song my first year teaching: “Wear and Tear,” by Pete Yorn. It was my alarm in the mornings, my iPod jam on the commute home. The chorus ended with a simple line that spun through my head in idle moments and captured the essence of a year I spent making mistake after rookie mistake: Can I say what I do?

It’s no easy task for teachers. But I think we owe it, to ourselves if to no one else, to tell the most honest stories that we can. I’ll only advance as a teacher, and offer something of value to those around me, if I’m able to say what I do.

Source: The Atlantic

Share some feedback. What are your thoughts of the article? 

Scholarship: Accenture Student Veterans Scholarship

Application Deadline: March 31, 2017

Link: http://usascholarships.com/accenture-student-veterans-scholarship/

The first weekend

After the intense 9 month wait to begin school, my three day weekend was spent in equal parts study, play, and rest. In an attempt to get some sleep for week two, insomnia strikes once again, ensuring a cranky, unmotivated morning to come. Thus, this blog was born. I hope to generate an accurate record of my uneasy transition from military to civilian to student, so keep tuned in for the adventures to come.

Scholarship: Forest County Potawatomi Foundation Lois Crowe Scholarship

Application Deadline: March 30, 2017

Link: http://usascholarships.com/forest-county-potawatomi-foundation-lois-crowe-scholarship/

WELCOME BACK COLLEGE FOOTBALL!

Scholarship: Forest County Potawatomi Foundation Lois Crowe Scholarship

Application Deadline: March 30, 2017

Link: http://usascholarships.com/forest-county-potawatomi-foundation-lois-crowe-scholarship/

Jourdan Lewis, that is how you end a game

Scholarship: The No Bull Sports scholarship

Application Deadline: March 1st, 2017

Link: http://usascholarships.com/no-bull-sports-scholarship/

YA book recs

no one personally asked me for this, but i have a couple of friends who might take interest so here you go!!! (i’ll give brief summaries and warnings next to the titles. my favorites are marked with ***)

LGBT+

*** aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe (sequel coming soon!) - coming of age, best friends turned lovers, slight homophobic slurs and violence

the song of achilles - greek mythology, war, gore and violence, greek gods, brief nsfw scenes, angst

*** carry on - magic, wizards and mages, fantasy, enemies to lovers, strong female characters, action and adventure, “chosen one” main character

openly straight (sequel coming soon!) - friends to lovers, sports, slight homophobia, college students, drama and angst

will grayson, will grayson - two sides of the same story, theater production, depression, homophobia, if i remember right there’s slight nsfw content

more happy than not - depression, suicide, sci fy, homophobia, angst, plot twists

simon vs. the homo sapiens agenda (movie in production!) - secret admirer, slight homophobia, fluff, blackmail, kind of a “who dun it?” story line, a little bit of nfsw content

*** all for the game (trilogy) - made up sport, action, angsty romance, slow build, homophobia, self harm, torture, rape, strong female characters, gang members and the yakuza, drug use, violence, nsfw content, basically a lot of warnings and probably cannot be called young adult

perks of being a wallflower (has a movie) - has lgbt+ themes, coming of age, highschool life, slight adult themes, diary format

boy meets boy - fluff, angst, drag queen side character, coming of age, breakups and makeups

*** i’ll give you the sun - two sides of the same story, two perspectives, siblings, art, metaphors, coming of age, straight and lgbt+ relationships, mentions of ghosts

NON LGBT+

*** unwind (series, movie in production!) - sci fy, futuristic, action, adventure, gore, slight romance, some violence, black marketing

*** the outsiders (has a movie!) - greasers, gangs, violence, angst, strong sibling bonds, coming of age

cirque du freak (series, has a movie and a manga) - circus setting, vampires, monsters, adventure, action, best friends turned enemies, very brief romance, apprentices, a bit of everything

go ask alice - heavy drug use, diary format, rehab, long road to recovery, might be mentions of rape

me, earl, and the dying girl (has a movie) - cancer, highschool life, quirky, light and briefly mentioned romance, film production, slight violence, angst

that’s all for now! if i’m wrong on describing any of these books please let me know. if you’ve read some of these and want to talk to me about them i’m more than happy to chat! 

Scholarship: Forest County Potawatomi Foundation Lois Crowe Scholarship

Application Deadline: March 30, 2017

Link: http://usascholarships.com/forest-county-potawatomi-foundation-lois-crowe-scholarship/

On Thursday morning, chancellor Beverly Kopper of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater sent out a public message condemning two students for posting a picture of themselves on Snapchat wearing blackface. Thing is, the students weren’t in blackface at all.

Scholarship: SAWE Scholarship / Frank Fong Memorial Scholarship

Application Deadline: April 1, 2017

Link: http://usascholarships.com/sawe-scholarship-frank-fong-memorial-scholarship/

1/8/16 Just your typical Friday night rage fest. Ya know. The usual.

Scholarship: Nordson BUILDS Scholarship Program

Application Deadline: May 15, 2017

Link: http://usascholarships.com/nordson-builds-scholarship-program/

Advancing Black Male Student Success From Preschool Through Ph.D. by Shaun R. Harper  and J. Luke Wood

Advancing Black Male Student Success presents a comprehensive portrait of Black male students at every stage in the U.S. education system: preschool and kindergarten; elementary, middle and high schools; community colleges and four-year postsecondary institutions; and master’s and doctoral programs. Each chapter is a synthesis of existing research on experience, educational outcomes, and persistent inequities at each pipeline point. Throughout the book, data are included to provide statistical portraits of the status of Black boys and men. Authors include, in each chapter, forward-thinking recommendations for education policy, research and practice.

[BOOK LINK]