Private or Public, That is The Question

November 18, 2008 / Dawn Kasal-Finley / 11 Comments

school that is…

“The early years are transcendentally the most important and if this nation wishes ultimately to achieve excellence, we will give greater priority and attention to the early years and start affirming elementary teachers instead of college professors as the centerpiece of learning.”–Ernst L. Boyer

As I go back and forth, I am reminded of the above. Private school is expensive and no all private schools are created equal. I cringe at the idea of spending more on a year of pre-school than I paid for my entire undergraduate degree. But I also balk at the idea of not giving my kids the best education available to them. The foundation of the rest of their educational life is early childhood and elementary education. It is so important to early on get kids interested in learning and to give them excellent opportunities for learning. Am I saying that there aren’t good public schools and awesome teachers at these public schools? No, I’m not. There is a different feel and atmosphere at public schools than there is at the private schools we are looking at.

We are beginning to tour schools and fill out applications–hard to believe–and it’s an unnerving task to be evaluated for pre-school when all I have to do is sign him up at our local school–which I wouldn’t consider doing for any reason–it’s not a good district and has many many issues. I want my kids to go to a school where the kids are put first–where the children are the main focus and where the goal is to educate the whole child and offer many different types of learning opportunities.

Where do your kids go? Why?

Underway

August 20, 2008 / Dawn Kasal-Finley / Leave a comment

I had a meeting yesterday with my Doctoral Advisory Committee. I was torn between the EdD and the PhD. The EdD is more based in practice and the PhD in research. We talked a long time about what I “want to be when I grow up” and because my end goal is college professor we have decided that I should pursue the PhD. I am really happy about the decision as the PhD is more widely accepted and recognized. This decision means 3 more classes that I have to take and two of them are statistical/research method courses. I am not looking forward to it, but I am happy about deciding to take that on. My projected end date is now May of 2014–I know that seems impossibly far away.

I can’t believe it. Class starts tonight and I am now on my way. It’s hard to believe that there really is an end in sight. Just about the time Zo will be ready to start first grade I should be done and be ready to go back to work too. Yay!!!

Getting Ph.D Behind Your Name Isn’t Easy

August 6, 2008 / Dawn Kasal-Finley / 2 Comments

Unless you use one of those online schools. If only I wasn’t interested in really learning.

I am up to my neck in forms and committees and who likes me enough to give up chunks of their time to work with me…being on a doc committee as a professor is not easy. It takes time and work and consideration for your doc student. I am happy that I have two committee members who I adore and who really like me. They also don’t have any other doc students which is really super awesome.

There are so many steps and classifications and things have to be done at a very specific time. I am a newly accepted doc student and will become a pre-candidate as soon as my committee meets and we approve my program of study–which is mostly laid out but might change once everyone on the committee looks at it. It’s crazy.

I have to start thinking seriously about my future and where and what I want to be teaching when I graduate. I need to start researching and polishing papers to present at conferences and scouring journals for “calls for manuscripts” so that I can start attempting to be published. I need to get my shit together and really begin planning for my eventual tenure as a professor of education.

UGH.

A Perfect Day

May 10, 2008 / Dawn Kasal-Finley / 5 Comments

Thanks Hubby and Minnow for all of your love and support.

I Am Back, Baby

May 5, 2008 / Dawn Kasal-Finley / 3 Comments

Well blogworld. I have surfaced from the vast deepness that is the end of the semester. I turned my last paper in today. I taught my last class of the semester today and now all I have to do is sit and relax for the next 3 1/2 months until the school madness starts again….

Reality: Peepers’ court date is next Tuesday–yes that is right only one week away. Then we will travel about 4-5 weeks after that. Holy shit. In about six weeks, I will be the mother of two. What have I gotten myself into? I am exciting and I can’t wait to post pics of our little Peepers. She is a beaut and I am so totally in love with her. Minnow talks about her being in Ethiopia and knows that Mommy is going to fly and get her. He knows where her room is, etc. I am not kidding myself by thinking for even one minute that he really understands what it means the he has a sister and she is going to live with us. But I am so very excited and cannot wait to meet her.

There is so much going on here this week I don’t know when I will see straight again. I am happy to say that most of my sickness is gone—praise antibiotics–and the only writing I have to do over the next 3 1/2 months is blogging. I am excited. I have some pics to post from Jazz Fest and from the last weekend with Minnow. So please humor my photo craziness…I am just using thumbnails as it would take entirely to long to resize them all…So just click on them and you will get to see the full picture.

At the Fest Need A Tie?