The many surprises of 2013

Here we are, on the final eve of 2013. So, like most bloggers out there, I’m reflecting a bit on my past year.

One of the biggest events of 2013 was the semester I spent in Kenya. It was a semester I will never forget. From January to May, I embarked on adventures I never thought I would be participating in. I saw giraffes, zebras, lizards, and monkeys on a daily basis; I rode ostriches (and ate some) and petted elephants; I went on three safaris and snorkeled for two hours in the Indian Ocean; I slept on a beach on a tropical island; I saw incredible sunrises and sunsets; I rock-climbed and hiked several miles; I taught in Kenyan classrooms; I slid down a waterfall and danced with African tribal warriors. It affected my views of my own community as well as other parts of our world, provided new friendships, impacted my view of myself, and overall gave me unforgettable memories.

Shortly after that semester came another highlight of 2013 – working at Grace Adventures. As evidenced by the rest of my blogs, my time working with the high schoolers for most of the summer was challenging, fun, thrilling, and helped me grow and prepare for what is to come in my life.

The fall semester at Trinity was also unlike any other. It included novice teaching, which had its share of challenges but overall gave me confidence for the future. I was able to have real experience in a classroom, and found my excitement for having my own classroom growing and my belief in myself improving. I know I can and will be a good English teacher. It also included another production as the stage manager, as have other semesters at Trinity, but this one was special. I really loved the script, the acting, and the actors in it. Plus, it was my last, which made it even more bittersweet. In fact, the semester held a lot of lasts, and goodbyes to things and people I will miss. The fall semester flew by, and I am just one step closer to being finished with my time as a Troll.

Finally, the most life-changing – and unexpected – part of this year was God placing an amazing man in my life. Kyle is everything God knew I needed. He is a man who loves God with his whole heart, and serves as a spiritual leader for me as well. He cherishes me, and isn’t afraid to show it. He and I fit and it’s fantastic. I cannot wait to see what the years have in store for us, but 2013 will always be special as the year it all began.

There have also been low points of this year. There have been pointless attacks and shootings that have affected our world. Beloved members of the community have passed away, some of them unexpected. The Calvin Christian community lost one of my favorite teachers and an excellent man of faith. It's still hardly to believe he isn't directing the band again this year, but quite a legacy he left. It's a similar feeling for many others from this past year – this feeling of loss, of incredulity that the person isn't around anymore. Despite all the highs, 2013 has brought some heartbreaks too.

So, 2013 draws to a close tonight. I get to spend it with Kyle (first New Year’s kiss I’ve ever had! Woo hoo!), Jess, and Corey (her boyfriend). The most perfect people to usher in 2014 with. This next yearm too, will hold many highs, lows, and suprises. But just as in 2013, God already has it mapped out. I look foward to finding out his plan.

The End... The Beginning

The last time I posted about my semester in general was just before I started novice teaching. In that post, I claimed I would post whenever I could, like when I was avoiding homework or when I had random down time.


As you can probably tell by the lack of posts, random down time was at a minimum. Or if it happened I chose to read a novel.


So my final semester of classes came to a close already and I am anxiously awaiting the start of student teaching. However, before we move on, I'll give a general overview of my semester.


Novice teaching was overall fantastic. I was in the eighth grade Language Arts classroom two days a week, and the seventh grade Social Studies classroom once a week. The students were mostly African American or Hispanic, so it was a diverse experience for me, but fruitful. I taught Language Arts about once a week for most of the time I was there. Through that experience, I started to build a rapport with the students and really look forward to seeing them every week. I also had a good relationship with the teachers, in particular the eighth grade teacher. He was very supportive of me in the classroom; he allowed me to step in and try new activities or methods, he asked about my future, and he gave me feedback on my lessons. Even though I wouldn't use everything he did in the classroom, I appreciated being in his classroom and I felt I thrived in that environment. There are things I need to work on as a teacher, yet this placement built my confidence in my teaching abilities and my excitement to have a class of my own has doubled.


Classes were mostly typical. There were weeks of piles of homework, and there were weeks where homework was completed in relatively good time without too many hairs being extracted. I had fewer classes than any other semester, but with novice teaching also being a component it still kept me with a full schedule.


The Women of Lockerbie was an amazing production. We had eight actors total, plus five members of the production team. Having a smaller cast allowed for more bonding on my part with the whole cast. All of the actors did spectacular and the production went off with very few hitches. Audiences loved it. Most of all, I fell in love with the production and script; I knew most of the lines, I thought the casting was great for the roles, and I certainly didn't want it to end. Nevertheless, it was a great show to end my direct involvement with TCC theatre. Even though student teaching will be great, and though rehearsals often ate up time, I will miss being a part of the production. That black box theatre, the people I've met there, and the memories it holds will always be a big part of my college memories.


I finished the last finals I plan to take. Of course, finals week will remain a part of my life since I'll be grading the finals instead. Yet, for now, the stresses of writing papers and taking tests that comes at the end of every semester is over. It actually wasn't too bad of an end of the semester stress-wise; most of my big projects were finished earlier, and though I had three papers, over half of them had been mostly written a week earlier and workshopped as rough drafts. I was glad to have worked so hard all semester long to make those last two weeks feel like a break.


Now I am home until the end of February; the “real” teaching experience will begin as classes start up in January. I'll be in a 9^th and 12^th grade English classrooms at Northpointe, then return to Illinois for the end of the semester to teach in an 8^th grade Language Arts class. While I'm at home, I hope to also spend some time volunteering for Winter Blasts at Grace, though am hesitant to make too many commitments when I know weekends will be filled with planning and grading.


I'm pumped to start student teaching; I think it'll be a good experience. But I also know there will be a lot of stress involved, and perhaps even some moments of doubt in myself. What I need for the next semester is prayers that I will remember God is guiding me, and this is undoubtedly the path he has planned for me – teaching.


Dark chocolate might also help.

Punctuation Jokes and Puns

“For any true stickler, you see, the sight of the plural word “Book's” with an apostrophe in it will trigger a ghastly private emotional process similar to the stages of bereavement, though greatly accelerated. First there is shock. Within seconds, shock gives way to disbelief, disbelief to pain, and pain to anger. Finally (and this is where the analogy breaks down), anger gives way to a righteous urge to perpetrate an act of criminal damage with the aid of a permanent marker.”


For those of you who are grammar and punctuation geeks like me, you probably have had a reaction similar to the one Lynne Truss describes in the quote above, though only now see it in line with the stages of grief. And you laughed. Especially at that last line.


I was assigned to read the book Eats, Shoots, & Leaves by Truss for my teaching English course. It was probably the most I've ever laughed while reading a textbook. So I'm going to be a dork for this post and share with you some of my favorite quotes and examples from the book.


Back cover joke:
A panda walks into a café. He orders a sandwich, eats it, then draws a gun and fires two shots in the air.
“Why?” asks the confused waiter, as the panda makes towards the exit. The panda produces a badly punctuated wildlife manual and tosses it over his shoulder.
“I'm a panda,” he says at the door. “Look it up.”
The waiter turns to the relevant entry, and, sure enough, finds an explanation.
“Panda. Large black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China. Eats, shoots and leaves.”


About us grammar sticklers:

• “While we look in horror at a badly punctuated sign, the world carries on around us, blind to our plight. We are like the little boy in The Sixth Sense who can see dead people, except that we see dead punctuation.”
  
• “Stand outside a... cinema indicating – with a cut-out apostrophe on a stick – how the title Two Weeks Notice might be easily grammatically corrected (I did this), and not a soul will take your side or indeed have a clue what your problem is. ”
  

Comments about a student who said he punctuated his texts correctly because he has an A level in English: “Evidently an A level in English is a sacred trust, like something out of Lord of the Rings. You must go forth with your A level and protect the English language with your bow of elfin gold.”

Poor punctuation: “Now, there are no laws against imprisoning apostrophes and making them look daft. Cruelty to punctuation is quite unlegislated: you can get away with pulling the legs off semicolons; shrivelling question marks on the garden path under a powerful magnifying glass you name it.”


Some examples:

• “Next week: nouns and apostrophe's! (BBC website advertising a grammar course for children)”
  
• “Frog's piss (French wine putting unfair strain on a single frog)”
  
• “Member's May Ball (but with whom will the member dance?)”
  
• “New members welcome drink (doubtless true)”
  
• “Childrens' education... (in a letter from the head of education at the National Union of Teachers)”
  
• “The driver managed to escape from the vehicle before it sank and swam to the river-bank”
  

(I found it frustrating and discouraging that two of those came from people or programs that were supposed to be educating others)


The importance of punctuation even has relevance to theology. Since the original text of the Bible wasn't punctuated, there can be interpretations by translators that have different meanings:
“Verily, I say unto thee, This day thou shalt be with me in Paradise.” versus “Verily I say unto thee this day, Thou shalt be with me in Paradise.” (the second leaves room for the option of purgatory)
“Comfort ye my people.” versus “Comfort ye, my people.”(there's a difference in whom is being comforted)
“The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” versus “The voice of him that crieth: In the wilderness prepare ye the way of the Lord.”


“Law of Conservation of Apostrophes... states that a balance exists in nature: 'For every apostrophe omitted from an it's, there is an extra one put into an its.'”


“Between the 16^th century and the present day, [the comma] became a kind of scary grammatical sheepdog... the comma has so many job as a 'separator'... that it tears about on the hillside of language, endlessly organizing words into sensible groups to make them stay put... Commas, if you don't whistle at them to calm down, are unstoppably enthusiastic at this job.”


“The big final rule for the comma is one that you won't find in any books by grammarians. It is quite easy to remember, however. The rule is: don't use commas like a stupid person.”


“Semicolons are dangerously habit-forming. Many writers hooked on semicolons become an embarrassment to their families and friends... the writers rock back and forth in their office chairs, softly tapping the semicolon key and emitting low whimpers.”


I didn't make it all the way through the book yet (sorry Dr. BC) but I hope to. I hope some of you also enjoyed a laugh over some of these. Others probably just have more reasons to roll their eyes at me. Oh well. I, Rebecca Reed, claim openly that I am a lover of punctuation, and the humor it can bring.

It even has a punctuation repair kit! These are stickers I can stick to incorrect signs.