Sunday, 16 December 2007

At Last

Freedom.

I am done with another semester. This might have been the most taxing exam week, though.

No regular exams to speak of, and my final jury was one of the best. I truly was excited to have Dr. Richmond that pleased-it was a nice salute/farewell to the voice department.

Papers, papers, papers... good grief I had a lot of writing this semester. Let's take a look at the major writing projects I had.

Lifeview paper: every student that graduates from Hope College writes one of these. We did presentations in my class; mine was shortly before Thanksgiving, which meant I had to have a first draft about 7-8 pages long. I had to have my final version finished the week prior to exams. That's not too bad, except that it was butting up against my presentation in the Seminar in Music Symposium, PLUS it was due the day after my middle schooler's choral concert. I ended up staying up until 4 a.m. on that Wednesday finishing this paper.
Total length: 15 pages

Senior research paper: I will assume most every student that graduates from Hope College, or any four-year institution worth its salt around the world for that matter, also writes a large research paper. These are to be proud of-it takes a significant amount of research, reading, gathering information, synthesizing, conferring with classmates, time in the library, and a frenzied meeting or two with the professor asking, "WHAT DO I DO?!?!" That was my experience, anyway. I had to hand in a first-round "draft" that was between 10 and 11 pages a little before Thanksgiving. My presentation in the Seminar in Music Symposium was on Thursday, which meant I was up again until 4 a.m. the night before/that morning finishing the "presentation version," plus the handout and CD accompanying my presentation. The presentation went well and I seemed to please the attending faculty and my classmates. I finally finished the 20-21 page version on Monday and actually interrupted a study session Dr. Randel was holding with her World Music students to ceremonially hand over my paper. I was thrilled.
Total length: around 20 pages (hard to tell with formatting)

Professional practices paper: This was a nightmare to write. It's as open-ended as the lifeview paper in terms of formatting and being more reflective rather than research-based, but it has make references to discussions in Secondary Principles, the textbook, class handouts, and other stuff (I referenced conversations with Dr. Richmond, Mr. DeBoer, the conducting practicum in Collegium Musicum, and things like that), all set against the backdrop of my field placement this semester. It had to include an attached lesson plan, a technology assessment, and management of diversity as well. Because I was so busy with the lifeview and senior research papers, I put this one on the back burner until they were finished and also suffered from a severe lack of desire to write it. I had pretty much had it with papers and didn't want to write another one. Finally backed into a corner, I ended up doing something historic this semester: I pulled my very first all-nighter, and I absolutely hated it. Don't do them. They're not funny. But I finished the paper, and when I finished editing the paper, it seemed decent to me.
Total length: between 12 and 13 pages (lesson plan doesn't count)

I may have only taken 13 credits, but there's accomplishment in those 13 credits. I learned how much work it takes to teach and conduct a peace with college students. I also did the same thing with middle schoolers, with a much smaller timeframe. I had six songs memorized and ready to go for my final jury at Hope and nailed them. I also wrote 48 pages in papers.

Not too shabby. And now I'm glad I'm done. Welcome to Christmas Break.