It Amazes Me...

I am in a teacher education program. You would think that those entrusted to teach teachers how to be teachers should be the best of the best of the best - especially here at BYU with such a big education department. Yet I continually am amazed by how much busy work and poor instruction I come across here. I consider myself a teacher - I have taught for 3 summers at a day camp, I helped to teach 1st grade for a month last year. While this is not a lot of experience, I am not just a student trying to impress the teacher into giving me a good grade.

As graduation looms ahead of me, the most important thing to me in a class is no longer the grade - it is information that will help me in my own teaching. Making me jump through hoop after hoop of junk will not make me a better teacher. Making me do an assignment 3 times, once in a whole group with the teacher, once with a partner, and once on my own will not help me when the assignment is so simple I could have done it on my own the first time is not efficient. Filling time with useless activities is not helpful. Making a class hard, full of bunk, because "teaching is hard, so we're trying to get you used to that" is just plain stupid.

ok, I'm done ranting.

In the Library...

So this semester I have become much more acquainted with the library on campus than I have in past years. I got a locker for the semester down on the first floor and keep all of my textbooks down there. After classes and work every day, I come down to this basement of all basements (no cell service = no less distractions) and do my readings and homework, then drop everything in my locker and go home with a light backpack and a lighter conscience. It's been working pretty well.
I realized something today as I was going to my locker to drop off my books. I have developed a personal attachment to my corner where my locker is. There was a library stool (you know the ones I need to stand on to reach the shelves) out of place and I felt like someone had messed up my newly made bed. That was a weird feeling.
Also, I made a discovery. There are a lot of weird books in the social studies area of the first floor. I came across a whole section of books on clothing and makeup. There were books on wedding dress around the world, why we where uniforms, and womanly adornments. Wow. Who knew people wrote books about all these things, and that people bought them?