Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Go Tigers!


As I mentioned once earlier last month, I have been a Missouri Tiger football fan for as long as I can remember. This has been a season like I have never seen, nor like I thought I would ever see in my lifetime. The highlight, of course, was being the number 1 team in the country for one week after beating Kansas and winning the Big 12 North.

However, we did lose in the Big 12 Championship to Oklahoma, and we did get royally screwed by the BCS (hell, we have a whole history of getting screwed in college football). Damn it, we should be in the Orange Bowl, not Kansas. Even though we lost twice, it was to the same team (and an admittedly better team). In addition, we have beaten Texas Tech, Illinois, and, yes Kansas (who is going to the Orange Bowl). As any Mizzou fan will tell you in their most cordial way possible, FUCK THE BCS!

But I am not bitter. This is a season I will always be grateful for, and never forget. It is an honor to be playing Arkansas in the Cotton Bowl. This game should be all the more interesting because one of my best friends is a die-hard Arkansas fan. Bring it on Razorbacks! M-I-Z . . . Z-O-U!!!!!

Becoming a Special Education Teacher

I suppose my first post back with some kind of extra content on it should be education-related, since this is primarily an education-related blog. As a future special education teacher, here is something quite appropriate for me, and for anyone that wants to become a special education teacher. From the website Special Education Teacher in Washington D.C., this is a post from the creator of the blog (and of course, as the title suggests, a SPED teacher herself). It gives 10 suggestions of what makes a good special education teacher. In addition, she links to a page that gives five steps on how to become a SPED teacher. I have not followed these five steps exactly in my own personal experience. Still though, they are good steps that I would recommend for anyone thinking about special education.

Let's get back on the right track!

So here is my first new post in about 2 weeks, and that post was the first one in a really long time. My school is out for the semester, and I did not do as well as I would have liked to. I should have known better than to put more stuff on my plate than I can handle (an overload in credit hours, and a near full-time job as a preschool/kindergarten teacher). But oh well, life goes on. When my classes start up again in January, I will be taking one less class, and I will cut back on my hours at work. This will be important for my health, sanity, relationship with my girlfriend, and my performance at both work and school. In addition, it should allow me more time to keep this blog updated. I have so much to write about. Where do I even begin?

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Sorry, I have been busy teaching

For the one or two of you out there that may stumble across my blog, it has been a while (nearly a month) since I last posted. Well, I have been a little busy lately with school and work. Did I say a little, I meant to say UNBELIEVABLY FUCKING BUSY! I am taking three classes (one online), commuting four nights a week in order to go to school, working nearly everyday of the week, all while trying to please everyone in my personal life. It is really hard! Because of this job, I will have to cut back on a class, or at least not commute so much. I will be grateful after next week when I am done for the semester at my college.

In any case, I have not given up on this blog. I have just been on a bit of an unannounced, unplanned, temporary hiatus. This teaching job I now have came out of no where, and I needed the money and experience. This job seemed perfect. But it has taken up so much of my time. Rather than a part-time gig keeping an eye on some kids (like I thought it would be), I spend roughly 30 hours a week teaching children science and leading them in several different activities. This is something that I have looked forward to for a while, but did not think would come so soon. This is my first real teaching job. So far, it has been a wonderful learning experience, but it is very time consuming. Free time and sleep are both things I do not get enough of. I was sick two weeks ago (and still had to work), and am wondering if I am getting sick again (I'll probably still have to work if I am). There are plenty of other issues I have about my job (which I may go into some other time), but generally though, I enjoy my work.


But getting back to the blog, I promise that in the next 2-3 weeks I will have the it back and going again. I will work harder to get out posts on a regular basis (my goal is at least every other day, if not everyday or multiple times a day). In addition, I will work harder to get my website to more people on the web. I want people all across the web to not only view the content of my blog, but to also interact with me (through email or commenting on posts). I don't want to just post; I also want to do my best to create a dialog between me and other web browsers. I want the (un)Reasonable Missourian to be a truly great blog on education, politics, culture, and a number of other areas of life.

If you are wondering what my blog is about, read a couple of my first posts here and here. The first post is a little bio about my self, while he second one is what I want the (un)Reasonable Missourian to be about.