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Okay so there is the regular list of required courses needed to obtain my MA in Education. Most of them can be taken in any order except the last two, which is my student teaching (where I am in an elementary class everyday with the regular teacher) and the very last course is called a capstone, which is a fancy word for saying i have to make a portfolio/ resume of all my school work in hopes of getting hired somewhere.

My very last NEEDED course before my student teaching ended in March. However, I needed to maintain year around attendance in my university so I would not lose my student aide, so I took a Measurement and Assessment course, which from the description lead me to believe that it would help me learn how to create my own tests and quizzes to give to students and then how to grade such things. I was wrong, it basically covered all the statistic things that are acquainted with grading rolleyes

So that was my very first F ever. Since the class began three days after my return from Australia I was jet lagged, and then became too busy to care about the class since I was helping one of my friend's with her wedding and throwing a baby shower for my youngest sister. 3nodding

Well now that it is fall, I assumed that I would be doing my student teaching as I had turned in my fingerprints and all over needed paperwork. My university was stupid and did not submit my fingerprints to the FBI to be run in time, nor did they contact the correct people within my school district which is THEIR job. I would have done it myself but it is not allowed... weird... but whatever, so I finally got an email from the university telling me to go see this principal whenever it fit my schedule!!! This is obviously wrong, since principals are very busy and you must call and make an appointment with them before visiting them. So I met with the principal and I was placed in a classroom with a WONDERFUL lady who was very willing to teach me all she knew.

I was in the classroom for one day! I called my university and requested the needed packet of information for my mentor teacher to follow. I was told it would be in the mail the following morning. A half hour later I recieved a phone call from my university and I was told that I had "flustered" the mentor teacher and she felt overwhelmed and that I would not be doing my student teaching this fall semester. I was very confused, so I called the principal the following morning to verify what I had been told.

She told me that I had not been cleared through the Human Resource department and that i should not have contacted her! I was so pissed at this point since the lady (Mary) at my university had told me to, and then Mary had the audacity to BLAME me for messing up when it was TOTALLY her mistake! I printed off the emails I had received from her and maintain them for my records in case I ever need them for something, I had also given a copy of them to the principal.

All this happened about two weeks into the semester... so I would have been denied two weeks of student teaching, and that would have been horrible since my course is only 7 weeks long to begin with!

Before this all started I told Mary (the university lady) that if she could not place me in student teaching, I wanted to retake the Measurement and Assessment course so I could change my F to an A. She told me this would be fine. Of course she LIED. She finally told me that the only course she could place me in is the Human Resource and Management one (teachers such as myself to not need or care about such things until later in their careers when they want to move up into a principal position!)

So now I am in this course and we are suppose to meet on campus the first weekend of December. I drive for 45 minutes to my school to discover that my teacher is not there, that I am the only student and that the course should have been canceled! I do not know enough words to express my anger adequately at this point!

I called up Mary the following Monday and left her a voice mail. She FINALLY realized how very upset I was and apologized, saying she is not sure who's fault it was mine, hers, or the national section of my university! I told her I didn't care, but that I had better not be dropped from a course when I had done nothing wrong, and I had attempted to contact the teacher several times through email which were all ignored!

They found a wonderful lady who took me on as an independent study so I am still in my class... But it is very hard since I do not understand a lot of what I am reading and I have no classmates to discuss it with! I fell behind with the moving and everything so I am trying to cram 6 weeks of work into this weekend! I hope I get it all done.... and I should shut up and go do my studies.

*hugs to Luna and Sassy* whee