Grad school is done! Now I have a Master’s degree in
Multilingual, Multicultural Education. The content was good, but I learned so much more. Here is what I want to remember.
1. Words of encouragement are life giving. The more specific
the words, the more meaningful they were. Sometimes those words came from
professors. Others were from coworkers, friends or siblings.
2. Sleep is not as important as I thought. The last week of
semesters I spent a lot of late nights…occasionally staying up past midnight trying to get an assignment just perfect before submitting it. The weeks before
the end of this past term I spent consecutive nights past eleven working on
homework and slept a lot less on weekends too.
3. Reading through state standards is something to do
regularly. Content standards get updated, and reading the current standards for
a project I did was enlightening.
4. My inner critic for the work assigned was higher than
others’ expectations. I turned in assignments that I was unsatisfied with at times because of deadlines, but it was enough.
5. I enjoy being a student. I enjoyed the research, the
learning, and the writing. Often something that I was reading about sparked interest for future learning.
6. Full time work with grad school on the side sure was a
lot. I am adjusting to a days and weekends with margin. There is time to do things that I want to do
(or need to do) without feeling that every moment needs to be productive. I did
not realize how consuming my classes were until I finished.
This learning was unlike studying Spanish in Guatemala, but another effective way to ensure I do not become a stagnant teacher.
