Writing to Deal

This past week was very hard for me. My grandfather passed away, and this weekend was filled with wakes and a funeral. I am emotionally and physically exhausted while writing this, but like everyone else I have to hold myself together and go on with my life. Tomorrow, I will go to work until 2:00pm and then go to class from 4:30pm-9:50pm at night and possibly go to the gym after that. As I get older, I realize that the world doesn't stop for your pain. You just have to keep going and hope that eventually everything will be okay.

But I'm an adult, a young adult maybe, but an adult. I have the maturity level to handle all of this, right? But that makes me wonder, what about when something similar happens to my future students? Am I supposed to expect them to just pick up the pieces and continue with their school work and not miss a beat? How am I supposed to deal with my students who are just simply trying to deal?

As a future educator, I will be with my students more often then their parents. At home, it may be easier for a child to hide in their room and be alone to think about a loved one that had just passed or any other tragic experience that may have recently happened in their life. At school however, there is no where for these students to hide, to simply mourn, or to have a moment to themselves. 

I personally feel that because of these situations, it would be a great idea to have my students to keep a journal. Allowing them to be alone with their thoughts and being able to write them down can be very therapeutic. Whenever I'm going through a rough time I always find that if I write about it I always feel better. Not only would students be able to work on their writing skills, they would also have the opportunity to say things that they may be afraid to admit out loud.

Walking Alone is Apparently An Open Invitation

I'm not one to normally make a big deal out of things. I really don't. Especially when I go out with my friends. If we're at a bar, all I want to do is have a good time and get home in one piece (which is probably why I'm almost always the designated driver). I always laugh at the people that tend to start confrontation in a bar for whatever reason they think they have: that guy pushed me, he grabbed my butt, she was looking at me funny, she showed up with my ex..blah blah blah. The fact that I can so easily laugh at other people's so called "problems" when they're under the influence, probably doesn't say anything nice about my character. But I promised I was going to be honest, so there. I said it. 

So back to the point I was making. I don't make problems when I'm out at bars. But this night I'm about to talk about was different. This night, I just had to put my foot down. I think it was a Saturday night and as usual I had a closing shift at work. After I got out, I went to go meet up with some of my friends for my friend's birthday. As usual, I knew that since it was so late and I was in fact driving myself home that I would probably be one of the very few people in the bar that are sober. I'm used to this I guess, and I normally just shrug off stupid drunken comments that people make, especially those comments that come from out of the mouths of the male species. Back to the story.

So as I was walking from the parking lot over to the bar to meet up with my boyfriend that was standing outside with his friend, a group of guys on my side of the street starting saying stuff to me. Normally I would just keep walking. There was about six of them. Walking by myself, I wouldn't have had the balls to say anything back. But I don't know what came over me that night but I decided to say something. Maybe it was because I had just worked a super long shift and was still in my work clothes. I will not repeat what I said to their rude comments on my blog, because even though I want to be honest, I want to keep this PG. My boyfriend hears the commotion from across the street and came over to see what was going on. After explaining that he was my boyfriend, the guys apologized for what they said, but not to me. They apologized to my boyfriend for disrespecting him. (Yeah, this happened. I kid you not.)

 They didn't know that I had a boyfriend, they just assumed I was single because I was walking alone and apparently the fact that they thought I was single was supposed to make what they said to me okay. Apparently another guy barking comments at a girl in a dark parking lot is okay, as long as she's single. It doesn't matter that she's a human being, because what was that single girl walking by herself going to do? Get her nonexistent boyfriend? And do guys really just think that girls should accept the fact that they are going to get stuff said to them? Apparently it's not a form of disrespect in their eyes. Is it a compliment then? Because I didn't feel too flattered. 

So if anyone actually reads this blog, feel free to answer some of the questions above, but I really want to know the answer to these questions: 1) Why is it that a male sees degrading another guy's girlfriend as disrespectful to the guy, but not to the girl? 2) What's a girl got to do to walk across a street without getting harassed by a bunch of drunk idiots? 3)Am I overreacting?

Introductions and My views on Teaching

           In a world where everyone and their mother seems to have something exciting to blog about, I can honestly admit I've never blogged. I don't really think I've ever even read another person's blog until now. I must say this idea that other people are going to be reading what I'm writing here and then having the freedom to respond to it anyway they want is a little nerve racking. I can't promise that anything that I will be posting will be viewed as "exciting" to most people, but I can promise you that I will have no problem stating my opinion about stuff that is important to me. "Stuff" is a very vague word, but cut me a little slack. I am new to this thing after all. I guess the safest thing to do is just start off with a little introduction about myself and just see where it goes.
          First off, my name is Katherine. I'm going for my Master's in Adolescent Education at Adelphi University. I have my BA in English, so you can all guess what subject I want to be teaching. I would love to find a job after I complete my degree in May, but the job market isn't looking too promising right now (but seriously, who's job market is?). A commonly asked question that I get is why I want to be a teacher in a time when there seems to be absolutely no jobs. I know what most people say: "I love children, I'm really good with kids." I personally feel that if that's the only reason why you want to become a teacher, then you should probably reconsider your career choice. Warning: bad teacher bashing will presume in next paragraph. Sorry guys, just keeping it real.
       I personally want to be a teacher because in my own life I have come across so many bad ones. Unfortunately, I've come across teachers from all different walks of life: The old burnt out teacher that hides behind her desk and doesn't even leave her seat to teach a lesson, the brand new teacher that fails miserably into trying to make you think that they know exactly what they're doing, the teacher that gets off topic so easily because its obvious that they would really rather be anywhere else but in the classroom. I'm sure some of these teachers really did love children, but what they seemed to be lacking was motivation to teach them.While these special types of individuals are somehow going to find themselves into the public school systems, I want to be different. I want to motivate my students to want to learn.
        Let's face it, not all students were taught to love reading and writing. I truly believe that regardless of the material being taught, a good teacher will be able to engage their students. I've had a teacher that taught a novel that I absolutely hated, and I was still able to learn because of her teaching style. I honestly feel that any teacher can do this, they just have to wake up and start giving a damn. I'm not saying that I want to be the best teacher in the world. I'm just saying that I want to try.