How Do You Get There from Here?

"Well, you take a right at the redlight and go about a mile.  Then hang a left at...."

I did not always want to be a teacher.  I am not even sure I always wanted to be a college professor.  The path my career took toward teaching in higher education curved and included a detour or two.

After high school, I set off on a path that should have led toward a job with the Foreign Ag Service or the State Department.  I majored in agricultural economics with an emphasis on international trade.  Grades for graduate school were not the issue.  Finding a job that was not in agricultural chemical sales was.  I held a sales job in high school and knew sales and marketing were not for me.  By my junior year in college, I knew I needed a career change, but I was on scholarship.  How could I finance my education if I changed majors outside of the College of Agricultural Sciences?

After a visit with a friend of the family (who was also chair of the education department) at Trinity University, a clearly marked detour emerged.  I could use my last year to complete leveling coursework and matriculate to Trinity’s fifth year Master of Arts in Teaching program for secondary social studies education.  I student-taught in inner-city San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) in the eighth and sixth grades at the peak of a gang war.  To gain additional experience, I agreed to substitute at the school where my mother was yearbook and newspaper sponsor. By the end of the summer of my “fifth year,” I secured a job in Judson Independent School District (JISD), a large suburban district near San Antonio, Texas, as one of thirteen geography teachers for their large, single high school.

For four years, I taught world geography and world history.  I helped pilot a vocational technology course – The World of Ecology – for students interested in environmental careers.  I mentored students in Advanced Social Science Problems and even taught summer and night school for students trying to recapture credit in their social studies courses.  I loved my job and my colleagues, but I had started making a 70-mile one-way commute to work due to a move.  (I had moved to what was once part of my great-grandparents homestead with my growing herd of Morgan horses.)

With gas prices soaring to $0.95 per gallon, I made a move to a school about half the distance as my previous job.  I agreed to teach United States history (post-Civil War) and sponsor the dance team.  My second year at the new campus, the principal agreed to let me teach my passion – ninth grade world geography.  I loved my job and my colleagues, but again I felt the need to do more.  I wanted to be able to teach a dual credit course in geography for our rural students.  I started looking into graduate programs, and the author of my students’ textbook worked just 100 miles away.  I scheduled a visit to Texas State University-San Marcos (then Southwest Texas State University).

It became clear that I could not seek the degree I wanted without becoming a full-time graduate student.  Becoming a full-time graduate student meant: a $10,000 per year pay cut; I couldn’t pay into Teacher Retirement System (TRS); and I couldn’t pay into social security.  So, I sold my parents my car, and they agreed to make payments on my pick-up.  They bought me a laptop – for the car – and I was free to keep the horses at the farm and pay rent on an apartment in San Marcos, Texas, for the next four years. 

Not quite through with my dissertation at that time, I returned to teach in SAISD.  An acquaintance I’d met through the Texas Alliance for Geographic Education (TAGE) was department chair at one of the high schools and welcomed me into her department – first as a world history teacher and then as a geography teacher.  With help from family and friends, I finished my degree (in my sixth year of study) and began looking for jobs in higher education.  All the while, I taught high school geography during the day and as an adjunct professor at night for one, two, and sometimes three of the Alamo Community Colleges.  I finally made the jump to teacher education when one of the ACC campuses was expanding their alternate route program and needed a new staff member.

While working with the alternate route teacher candidates, one of my other applications began to bear fruit.  University of Mississippi asked me for an on-site interview.  I had been to Oxford, Mississippi, on a mother-daughter road trip of historic and literary sites a decade earlier.  Nothing prepared me for the whirlwind of the interview or my response.  OleMiss offered me the position, and I phoned my fiancé from the Memphis airport.  “Can you live in Mississippi?” 

 Within a month, we made a trip to Oxford to look for a house, bought a house, found a job for him, and school started.  All of this while continuing to plan a wedding in Texas for Thanksgiving weekend.

How do you get there from here?

Which route do you want to take?  US-79 to IH-20 to IH-55, IH-35 to IH-30 to IH-40 to IH-55, or IH-10 to IH-12 to IH-55.  They’ll all get you there.


Note to my EDSE 447 students (Fall 2011):  The above narrative is approximately 900 words, three pages, typed, double-spaced, 12 pt. font in MSWord.  Your first blog post may be a bit shorter -- 600 to 700 words.  You are not required to add hyperlinks to this assignment, but it is encouraged.

How I Spent My Summer

Traveling, reading, fishing, and teaching.

Once K-12 schools were out for summer vacation, I was off to sort student responses to the free response questions on the Advanced Placement Human Geography exam.  En route, we stopped at the Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill (just out side Harrodsburg, KY).  We spent two wonderful days playing tourist at the 3,000 acre, historic village.  We stayed on-site in an 1821 family dwelling complete with reproduction furnishings.

Instead of books on tape, we shared books of interest with each other as we drove, trading out reading and driving responsibilities.  The book for this leg of the journey was And One Was A Priest, the biography of the Episcopal priest at St. Peter's Church in Oxford, MS, during the early 1960s.  I have so much respect for this man and his ministry to the people of Oxford during those turbulent times.  The author did a nice job weaving Gray's homilies into the narrative and including different perspectives on the night of the riots in 1962.

Then, it was off to Cincinnati for the AP "reading."  Just over 80,000 students took the AP HG exam this year - exponential growth for a exam that is only 10 years old!  We enjoyed the nightly (free) events in Fountain Square and took a friend from Kenya to his first MLB game (Reds vs. Cubs).  We had in-field seats on the third base line.  It was wonderful!  I truly enjoyed reconnecting with some wonderful geographers and high school geography teachers.  I missed the National Underground Railroad Museum again this year, but I hope to make it next year.

Next stop - Plymouth Bluff Environmental Center, Columbus, MS.  We the People and Project Citizen held their summer professional development workshop for K-12 teachers in mid-June.  With the help of Sarah Sumners and Carol Paola,  a wonderful crew of teachers learned more about the programs sponsored by the Center for Civic Education (www.civiced.org)  The week was bittersweet since I will no longer be coordinating the We the People program (and funding was lost for the 2011-12 school year in the federal stop-gap spending bill).

We then took a short break to visit family in South Texas.  They were early in the drought at that point.   I feel for my family and friends who have been battling the heat and have had no significant rainfall in almost a year.

Summer Session II brought a return to Oxford and OleMiss.  A energetic crew of teacher candidates met all of my expectations (and then some) when we met each Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in July.  The long weekends gave us all time to refresh ourselves, and we headed to the Mississippi Gulf Coast to enjoy some saltwater fishing and beach combing.

Our book for this journey was the common reading assignment for the Class of 2015 -- The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.  What a powerful read!  I was tempted to add it to the reading list for EDSE 447.  Instead, I will highly recommend the text.  I can't say enough about the book, and you really must read it.

We absolutely loved our stay in Bay St. Louis.  While we expected to see some re-building and recovery from 2005's Hurricane Katrina, we were not prepared for the numbers of lots left vacant because homeowners and businesses could/chose not to rebuild.  It was oddly surreal.  On a high note, we visited the Walter Anderson Museum of Art in Ocean Springs, MS.  And, in all, I think it's a trip we'd like to do again.

Alas, August meant at least one of us had to return to full-time work.

I purchased a copy of the acclaimed young adult literature piece, The Hunger Games in the airport en route to my next adventure.  A dear friend's seventh grade daughter recommended the series, and I started it.  I devoured it!  I passed my copy on to another friend's eighth grade daughter who was coveting the book while I read it.  (It's so cool when kids WANT to read!)

While I traveled to Portland, Oregon, for the National Conference on Geography Education's annual meeting.  While in Portland, I visited Haystack Rock and the Waterfront Park.  A highlight of the annual meeting is a community service project in the host city.  This year, we helped remove English ivy from a section of one of the largest natural city parks in the nation.  We got hot, sweaty, dirty, and had lots of fun.

On my way back to Oxford, I couldn't find the second book in The Hunger Games series, so I found a used copy of The Help.  Again, a quick read.  I knew/know the types of people in the book.  However, after reading the book, I really don't want to see the film.  I have an image in my head of the characters and their voices.  I'd like it to stay that way.

Now, the semester is off and running.  We're all looking forward to a great year and more adventures (and travels) as we go.  I've sent my youngest niece and my grandson (both starting Kindergarten this year) copies of Skippyjon Jones Class Action!, and I'm set to start The Fourth Part of the World.

Welcome Fall 2011!

A short note to all EDSE 447 students -- You will use blogspot's Blogger to post many of your assignments this semester.  Your classmates will be able to post comments to your posts.

I'm excited to learn about your road to social studies educaiton and how you all define social studies!