Sooo... remember that post I made (a couple of times) about not falling off the face of the Earth? Yeah. Not so successful at that.

So I've finished my student teaching (and have been done in fact for almost a month) and have spent a lot of time really processing what it all meant to me. I've been, to be perfectly frank, kinda lost since I stopped student teaching.

For better or worse, I really committed myself to the student teaching. I think it was an amazing experience, but when I finished I found myself feeling aimless and really without any distinct sense of purpose. I didn't know what to do or what I should be doing (which is a tiny lie -- I knew quite distinctly what I should be doing, but found a huge mental block preventing me from focusing on doing it). So I decided to throw myself into social activities and really catch up not only with old friends at the College but meet some new people as well.

On the whole it's been a fairly mixed experience so far. I am, unsurprisingly, a bit behind on where I planned to be at this stage. I really don't want to resume writing papers now, and I want even less to be chained to doing a licensure portfolio. Bleh. I just want to get into a classroom and be a teacher! There is so much extra work that goes with that career choice however!

I know it's all stuff I have to do however. So I am going to use this week to really get myself ready for the upcoming Spring Residency and do my best. I don't know what the future of this blog will be, but I may continue to update it (or not) as things develop. It was initially meant to just be my student-teaching blog, but I've found I enjoy reflecting here and talking about my philosophy of teaching and education in general.

This is far more of a ramble than I'd initially intended, but there's so much I want to cram into one post that it's causing me to talk in all manner of directions. I've also managed to pull a muscle in my abdomen from hiccuping for almost 24 hours. And not dainty little hiccups -- oh no, these were body-shaking hiccups. They would begin and end seemingly sporadically, and no cure seemed to stifle them for long.

I'm feeling better now, but the grim spectre of the hiccups remains... plus imagining trying to teach while I have the hiccups is simultaneously hilarious and painful.

I hope things are going well for all of you readers/teachers/teachers-to-be out there in the Internet-Lands!

~ Bryon ~