<p>I know most here won’t remember me, as it’s been a few years since I posted, but I felt as though I needed to say something. The last time I posted, I was in the midst of deciding if it was worth spending my college years, and subsequent life, doing something I was good at but did not enjoy, or changing my major to something I wasn’t sure I was good at and losing over 30 hours of credits, but I felt was worthwhile in life.</p>
<p>My first major was photojournalism. After my first several classes, I was being hailed by my professors as being one of the best and brightest the school had ever produced. I enjoyed the attention, but I hated getting up every morning to go to class. There was no challenge and my classmates were more apt to show up to class drunk than actually do any work. I despised the style of writing, but could create witty leads and heart-wrenching closings in the blink of an eye. I tried to find value in the classes, but eventually ended up crying most every morning out of the misery of having to go to class. I wanted my life to stand for something, and I most certainly wasn’t finding that something here. </p>
<p>Against all reason, I wanted to change my major to Elementary Education. The world needs more great teachers, and because of my diverse educational background (homeschooled from fourth grade until graduation) and interest in alternative teaching methods (Regio-Emelia / Montessori), I thought I might be one of them. Even though all Communications majors had a reputation for partying (please note I was not a party person!) and not do much work in their classes, Elementary Education majors had a reputation for spending their days coloring in class and throwing around glitter like life was a party. On the student section of CC, it was considered by most to be a “vocational major” that meant one would never amount to anything in life. It wasn’t until I talked to my parents and the parents on CC that I decided to make the jump.</p>
<p>The change was viewed negatively by a lot of my friends, and even my “peers” in classes, as they believe I am too smart to be a teacher. I still refuse to believe them. I do, regrettably, have to say that there are a lot of things about the teacher education process that should be changed and cause me to see why my friends view teaching the way they do. I see many people skate through with barely passing grades and getting written-up numerous time in the field experience portion, but the professors don’t want them to fail. On one hand, it’s nice to see the professors care about their students, but at the same time one has to wonder what kind of teachers these students turn out to be. Their results at the end of college will be the same as mine, a diploma and a teaching certificate, only they will not have as many cords on their necks nor any Latin in front of their names. I’ve only missed a handful of classes (all due to be sick with a stomach bug freshman year except for taking my state test instead of watching a movie in class), had the highest possible marks in my field experiences and only made 2 B’s in my collegiate career (one of which was with an 89.4). How will this cause future employers to look at me?</p>
<h2>All I have left on my degree is student teaching, which I will do in the fall. The change added a year to my degree, but it was worth it. I’ve never been happier in my life! While there has been a considerable amount of coloring and glitter-tossing, the heavy-duty science and math classes were far more memorable to me. To date, I’m the only A in one of the math classes. Those cutesy coloring project are actually quite time consuming, and can be challenging if one wants to do them well. I could quite happily never write a paper about an educational theorist ever again after writing 20+ in each of 3 classes.I was told by one of my advisers before I changed that the department might work you to death, but it would never be hard. She lied.</h2>
<p>Without the people here at CC, I would probably be locked away somewhere in a padded room, babbling about the different types of leads and the meaning of different apertures. I truly would not have made the jump without the encouragement I received. This is my first summer off since mid-high school (at my parents request, no job and there are no classes I can take), so I’ve been revisiting the past a bit to see how things have changed. In my free time, I’m catching up on non-class reading and am hoping to soon start studying for my GRE and learning Chinese. I do want to pursue my masters, but I do want to see what “the real world” is like before I specialize in anything.</p>
<p>Kiki</p>