Tuesday, September 19, 2006

Y'all Ready For This


Well, We're two and a half weeks in and I'm already exhausted. This is nothing like traveling, lemme tell ya that much. I absolutely LONG to be on a Thai beach right about now without even the thought of a project, paper, or journal article reading.

That said, I absolutely love the program that I'm in right now. For those that don't know, I'm taking UBC's Post Degree Program for Elementary Education. In 12 months, I'll have a teaching degree. How crazy is that?

Anyway, I've been put in this cohort of 30 students and it's called Problem Based Learning (PBL). It's quite different than any of the other cohorts that UBC offers. When I registered for the program, we were told to choose a cohort without much prior knowledge, I chose PBL because the practicum was based in Richmond. That's it. Little did I know that this would be a research based group of thirty students who rotated on a two week schedule with ALL of the same students in every class. We focus on case studies and all of our classes link to one another. Seems to make sense right? Yeah, except all of the other groups don't function like that. We also spend more time in the elementary classrooms than any other cohort. Our first day was on the second day of UBC's classes. A little overwhelming to say the least.

The people in my group are really great, the workload is heavy, but it's nice to know that you're all in it together. I also really like the way that there are no right or wrong answers, we're encouraged to think through ideas, problems, and situations to discover it for ourselves. It just really suits the way that I learn.

Well, not only is this all going on, but my sister is going to be married THIS SATURDAY! So it's been absolute pandimonium trying to be a full time student-teacher AND a maid of honour. Last night's sitting up till 2am working on a picture slideshow on powerpoint for Rachel's wedding was the clincher. As if I have that kinda time!

I'm happy that the wedding is so soon, the chaos will soon subside and I'll be able to be swallowed whole by the PDP program. However I DO love distractions, so if anyone is around and wants to come hang out, I'm living on campus at UBC and would love to see you so that I don't turn into an absolute hermit!!