Remember when..

..I turned 30, went to Hawaii, quit my job, helped to set a Guinness World Record and started school again?! I didn't think so (I barely remember it myself).

I'm currently sitting in my dorm room at Coppin State University. Here's a picture of the outside.

Don't let it fool you, it may look new on the outside but it's stuck in the 70's on the inside. And you know what...I'm loving every minute of it. (More pictures to come of the interior).

What am I, a little white girl, doing on THIS campus on THIS side of Baltimore? Only the best thing I've ever done in my life! I can't even begin to describe how guided I've felt and been throughout this whole process. To "randomly" decide to join a listserve of Young Education Professionals when I wasn't even in the education field (where I subsequently found out about UTC). To not get accepted to a summer of awesomeness in France working at an English language camp. The timing of everything was so perfect and so directed. I know God's hand was in it and I'm extremely grateful for His watchful and diligent care over me and over all of His children.

I've been in the program for a week now and it's a little crazy being back in school again. But I feel very blessed to have this opportunity to learn something new and exciting and I intend to be one grand student by fully engaging myself in the work, asking as many questions as I can and practice my little biscuits off!

I'm in a cohort program called the Urban Teacher Center which is parterned with Lesley University to provide us with a Dual Masters Degree in Education and Special Education. I couldn't have found a better program anywhere else.

We're working in summer programs in Baltimore until mid-August and guess who got placed with the 7th graders? Um, me. Yes a bit scary. I definitely panicked a little when I walked in the room to meet the class, but my excitement is building to have the opportunity to work with my 7th graders.

The head teacher, Mr. Barner is from Jamaica. Just thinking of him makes me smile/laugh. I'm sure I'll have plenty of stories to share about him. He is like a roasted marshmallow, hard and crusty on the outside but warm and gooey on the inside. Well, he's not warm/friendly with the kids much, he is a discipliner, but when he talks to me or the TA he turns into his chill Jamaican self. I'm gonna love it.

And just in case, I've decided to teach myself some Jamaican phrases that I can use to build a good working relationship with him. Here's what I have so far.

"Ello, mi can help yuh wid someting?"

Translation: "Hello, can I help you with something?"

"Mi love chaklit cake with nuff icenin."

Translation: "I love chocolate cake with plenty of icing."

"Yu can cyarri dis cow pan yuh chuck?"

Translation: "Can you carry this cow on your truck?"

And finally, this one will probably get me the most use with those 7th graders:

"Im jook mi inna mi yeye."

Translation: "He poked me in the eye."

The people in my cohort are pretty fantastic! They are people that are passionate about this work and you can tell. We enjoy spending time together on site at our schools, during mealtimes, during class and most especially during the nightly frisbee game. No one will ever understand how much I love to play frisbee. I haven't played it for so long and the last few nights playing with my UTC friends has brought me tremendous joy. And thankfully we'll all be doing one of my other favorite things, going to a baseball game.

Well I hope to be blogging more frequently in the future, you can thank me later.

~Miss Woolley