I probably won't get to post very often in the next three weeks. They are my last three weeks of my semester, and they are guaranteed to be the craziest three weeks of my college career. But you can look for an "I MADE IT!" post soon :)
So, this weekend, we
finally got a new car!! We got a 2009 Ford Edge SEL, and so far, I'm in love! After our first run in with credit checks and financing, I think we're going to bite the bullet and have to get a (joint) credit card to start hiking up those credit scores. Neither one of us wanted a credit card, ever, but it seems its the only way to start out when it comes to building really good credit. It kind of sucks how the government pretty much forces you into having to have a credit card in order to drive a decent vehicle and have a roof over your head. We'll be buying a house in about two years, as well as another car, and getting close to starting a family, so there are many things that will require good credit in the next few years! This new car payment will kick start that. I'm the only one who has credit right now, and only because of my school loans. We're still youngins!
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| The exact year, style, and color of ours! |
Also, I start teaching my new unit tomorrow on Veteran's Day and Cultural Awareness through reading. Seeing as I knew my unit would take place during Veteran's Day, I figured it was a good opportunity to make students aware of the military and veteran culture in the United States and all over the world. We're going to be focusing on Tim O'Brien's
"The Things They Carried" (1990). We'll be discussing the historical fiction genre--what it is and why it's important. Then we'll be reading the first chapter of
The Things They Carried, which is, of course, historical fiction. Then, students are going to write "friendly" letters to a soldier and tell their soldier about something
they carry. I'm going to be sending these letters to David's unit, and I'm hoping David can snap some photos of some of the guys reading the letters--or even get them to write back and tell the kids about something they carry, and I can give them to the kids. They'll eat that up. Then the second part of my unit is a PSA for military and veteran affairs. I'm going to give students a list of current issues or debates in the U.S. military/government, and assign groups to script and record a PSA on their issue. We'll be going over the characteristics of a PSA beforehand and watch examples on the
Ad Council website. As my bio reads, I have wanted to join the military (I went back and forth between Army and Navy for a while, and decided on Army), and I've always been interested in historical fiction and movies on war. My favorite movie has been
Cold Mountain since I was, like, fifteen. So, I'm hoping my passion for this will transfer to the kids, so at the end of the unit they've learned (1) how to do a friendly letter and PSA, (2) why historical fiction matters, and (3) awareness of other cultures--including military culture, "enemy" cultures, and war culture in general.
David should be back in the next few hours, so I'm looking forward to talking to him and telling him that we have a shiny, new car! I'm really nervous he won't like it or he'll think I could have gotten something better, price-wise, but it was the second best deal within 50 miles of my home zip code. I test-drove the "best" deal before I went to go see and drive this one, and it was surely not the best deal. It had awesome features (leather heated seats, sunroof, navi, etc.) but there were some nice dings in the paint, the right blinker was out, and the worst was some horrible clicking sound in the right rear axle. I told them if they fixed that, I'd take it, but they said no, so I found an amazing second choice that I'm very happy about. I just hope he will be, too!
So that's where this week is headed. In about 20 minutes I have to leave to go to campus to be interviewed by NCATE--the national accreditation folks. They're more or less going to see how well my university has done at preparing me for my career. Then it's class at 4 and time to prepare for Day 1 of my unit :)
