I am officially done with my Fall Semester now. I enjoyed having one class that I could focus on for three weeks, though it was definitely intense. Keeping on top of all the work can be quite a task. I'm glad that I have a week to recuperate and relax before the next set of classes start. I have some reading to do in that time for a couple of my classes, but I've already read some of the books I've been assigned, so it shouldn't be too difficult to get that done.
I will be driving out to West Chester, PA tomorrow to check out a possible church placement (Westmintster Presbyterian Church) for Teaching Ministry next year. That's about an hour and a half away from Princeton, so part of this is going to be finding out how bad the drive is and whether I want to make that drive weekly. But this is the one site that has really caught my attention, so I'm hoping this will work out as a good placement. The supervisor I would be working under is from West Covina and is a Fuller graduate, so that will hopefully be a good starting point for building a supervisory relationship.
I'll update again sometime next week to let everyone know how the Westminster visit went.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Saturday, January 17, 2009
Finally A Moment to Write
It has been an incredibly busy over the last two weeks. With the change in Princeton's curriculum came a change in the schedule, so I have been taking a three-week intensive course that meets every morning for three hours. We just finished our second week, and our final is this Thursday. We had our midterm on the past Tuesday, so things move frighteningly quick. There's really no chance to take a breather because if you miss a day's reading, you've missed essentially an entire week of reading for the class. And if you miss a day of class, you've essentially missed a week's worth of class. Thus the reason why I have been absent in posting since returning to Princeton.
My mood has perked up quite a bit since my first post upon returning to Princeton. Dropping my thesis project was a very good decision as it has helped me prioritize things a little better as well as allowing me to put my emotional energy toward more important matters. I was considering taking a leave of absence from school for the Spring semester, but I think dropping the thesis has proved to be a better alternative. A quick side note: some people have been confused about my thesis project, so I want to clarify that here. My thesis was always an elective and something I personally wanted to do. It was outside of my credit and class requirements and is not something necessary for me to graduate. So I'm not jeopardizing my graduation by dropping it, part of the reason why it was a much easier decision than it could have been.
I also switched my schedule around a bit for the next semester since my thesis opened up room for me to take some slightly more difficult classes. So I am going to be taking the following classes:
Children's Fantasy Literature & Moral Formation: Emphasis on Writing Classroom Curriculum
Preaching the Sermon (Workshop class)
Ecumenical Theologies of the 20th Century
Worship as Resistance
Children's Ministry Practicum: semester two
Field Education
To explain the first class a little more, the Children's Lit. class has over 100 students in it, so it has been divided up into smaller groups that will emphasize different areas of interest. My area will be using the information we learn to develop four separate curricula for four different classes of varying age groups. For example, I will probably be developing a curriculum for a young adult/college group, a parent's seminar, a high school bible study, and something along the lines of a senior-aged study group. Other emphases were Drama and Literature, Spiritual Writing, and Writing Fantasy Literature. My other classes should be pretty interesting, and I'm pretty excited about my Preaching workshop. I think it will give me a better opportunity to work on my preaching skills.
I also have found a work-study job for the next semester. I will be working at an organization called Home Front (www.homefrontnj.org). It is essentially a specialized homeless shelter, but my specific area of work will be tutoring teenagers who are a part of the program. I'm pretty excited about the opportunity, and it will be a little extra income to help me with school costs.
Finally, I forgot to post about this during break, but during the break, I was interviewed and accepted for the Teaching Ministry program at the seminary. Basically, it is a specialized internship that is limited to only 10 students. We are placed in church's where we help out with the adult education programs at those churches and teach classes. As part of the program, each student is paired with a faculty member who serves as a mentor to the student. There are six seminars that are held to discuss different aspects of teaching, including the process of determining what degrees are necessary to teach in certain institutions, along with discussions on common readings and other things. It's a really exciting opportunity and one that I'm really looking forward to next year.
This week is going to be a little crazy with finishing up my January-term class and taking a final on Thursday, but I will try to update everyone on what's going on with me once the new semester starts. Hopefully that will get everyone up to speed for now.
My mood has perked up quite a bit since my first post upon returning to Princeton. Dropping my thesis project was a very good decision as it has helped me prioritize things a little better as well as allowing me to put my emotional energy toward more important matters. I was considering taking a leave of absence from school for the Spring semester, but I think dropping the thesis has proved to be a better alternative. A quick side note: some people have been confused about my thesis project, so I want to clarify that here. My thesis was always an elective and something I personally wanted to do. It was outside of my credit and class requirements and is not something necessary for me to graduate. So I'm not jeopardizing my graduation by dropping it, part of the reason why it was a much easier decision than it could have been.
I also switched my schedule around a bit for the next semester since my thesis opened up room for me to take some slightly more difficult classes. So I am going to be taking the following classes:
Children's Fantasy Literature & Moral Formation: Emphasis on Writing Classroom Curriculum
Preaching the Sermon (Workshop class)
Ecumenical Theologies of the 20th Century
Worship as Resistance
Children's Ministry Practicum: semester two
Field Education
To explain the first class a little more, the Children's Lit. class has over 100 students in it, so it has been divided up into smaller groups that will emphasize different areas of interest. My area will be using the information we learn to develop four separate curricula for four different classes of varying age groups. For example, I will probably be developing a curriculum for a young adult/college group, a parent's seminar, a high school bible study, and something along the lines of a senior-aged study group. Other emphases were Drama and Literature, Spiritual Writing, and Writing Fantasy Literature. My other classes should be pretty interesting, and I'm pretty excited about my Preaching workshop. I think it will give me a better opportunity to work on my preaching skills.
I also have found a work-study job for the next semester. I will be working at an organization called Home Front (www.homefrontnj.org). It is essentially a specialized homeless shelter, but my specific area of work will be tutoring teenagers who are a part of the program. I'm pretty excited about the opportunity, and it will be a little extra income to help me with school costs.
Finally, I forgot to post about this during break, but during the break, I was interviewed and accepted for the Teaching Ministry program at the seminary. Basically, it is a specialized internship that is limited to only 10 students. We are placed in church's where we help out with the adult education programs at those churches and teach classes. As part of the program, each student is paired with a faculty member who serves as a mentor to the student. There are six seminars that are held to discuss different aspects of teaching, including the process of determining what degrees are necessary to teach in certain institutions, along with discussions on common readings and other things. It's a really exciting opportunity and one that I'm really looking forward to next year.
This week is going to be a little crazy with finishing up my January-term class and taking a final on Thursday, but I will try to update everyone on what's going on with me once the new semester starts. Hopefully that will get everyone up to speed for now.
Friday, January 16, 2009
Flight Information
It's early for me to be thinking about going home for spring and summer, but with the economy the way it is and the unpredictability of the market, I figured I'd take advantage of the fact that Crazy Ernie has taken over almost every company and is giving away his merchandise for ridiculously low prices! So I managed to find some great deals on airline tickets, finding Spring Break tickets for cheap and a ticket home from school for under $120. So here is my more immediately pertinent flight information and I'll post the other flight info at a later date. So here is when I'll be home for Spring Break:
United Airlines
March 6, 2009
Departing: PHL - 6:48 am
Arriving: LAX - 10:00 am
March 14, 2009
Departing: SNA (Orange County) - 6:45 am
Arriving: ORD - 12:55 pm
Connect: ORD - 1:45 pm
Arriving: PHL - 4:40 pm
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Update coming soon
I'm going to post an update pretty soon. The January intensive class has been pretty ... intense, so there hasn't been much time to update on goings on. But in the next few days I will give an update on how things are going. Stay tuned.
Monday, January 5, 2009
Back at School
It has been an interesting transition going from Christmas break to school. I have not really enjoyed being back at school very much, mostly because I feel very distant from home. But with classes resuming today, it has been a little easier to keep my mind off of that fact. I am taking Presbyterian History and Theology for my January intensive course, and so far it has been an enjoyable class. The professors are two of my favorites, so it will be a joy to go to class in the morning.
I had to make a difficult decision regarding my thesis. Because of events that happened over break, which I am still dealing with emotionally, I did not feel that I could put in the effort necessary to complete a thesis that I would feel confident presenting to my adviser. I needed to do quite a bit of work on it during December and I was not able to put that work in. So this afternoon, I decided to drop my independent study and no longer work on my thesis. I don't regret putting the work into it that I did, and though I am disappointed that I was unable to finish it, I am also relieved. I have enough stress to carry around for now. My thesis felt more like a self-inflicted wound than an exciting project toward the end of break, and I didn't want that burden anymore. I hope that sometime in the near future I can return to it and complete it for a later date. For now, it needs to be shelved.
I am hoping that the transition back to school will be smoother as classes continue to progress. More updates to come soon.
I had to make a difficult decision regarding my thesis. Because of events that happened over break, which I am still dealing with emotionally, I did not feel that I could put in the effort necessary to complete a thesis that I would feel confident presenting to my adviser. I needed to do quite a bit of work on it during December and I was not able to put that work in. So this afternoon, I decided to drop my independent study and no longer work on my thesis. I don't regret putting the work into it that I did, and though I am disappointed that I was unable to finish it, I am also relieved. I have enough stress to carry around for now. My thesis felt more like a self-inflicted wound than an exciting project toward the end of break, and I didn't want that burden anymore. I hope that sometime in the near future I can return to it and complete it for a later date. For now, it needs to be shelved.
I am hoping that the transition back to school will be smoother as classes continue to progress. More updates to come soon.
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