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.