Had major issues completely unrelated to WGU itself, causing a hiatus of several months, described below.
March 23 - Essential Practices for Supporting Diverse Learners marked as complete. Got fully accepted & into database for exchange student coordinator stuff, had a meeting about that with what to do next. Attended a random webinar by a decades-experienced teacher regarding how to teach writing for kids who are wildly different writing levels in the same class - the webinar used tons of teacher jargon without explanation, which I understood only thanks to what WGU has taught me so far. Read units 3/7.
March 24 - Break due to work stuff - total rehaul of management + how we do things.
March 25 - Creating and Managing Engaging Learning Environments marked as complete. First day of substitute paraeducator work at elementary school.
March 26 - Hiatus. Problems with insurance suddenly refusing to let me take out my meds (regardless of if I paid out of pocket or not) caused me to go into severe medicine withdrawal. Too sick to focus on WGU.
April 12 - Received student internship permission (“pre-residency clearance”) from state Department of Education, which I had applied for on March 19th = took 23 days (3.3 weeks) to get.
April 22 - Received Emergency Substitute Teacher license (valid for 1 year) from state, which I had applied for on March 19th. Began doing substitute teaching work alongside paraeducator work.
May 5 - Submitted 3/5 assignments for “Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment”.
May 7 - 2 assignments need resubmission. Fell into several month hiatus due to medical issues (totally separate from the previous ones!). Improperly prescribed meds which affected serotonin and dopamine, caused extreme memory, motivation and anxiety issues, causing me to fear even looking at the homework or checking my Email plus forget I was even enrolled in WGU. I felt extremely confused and stressed when I even tried to look at the assignment instructions. I ended up skipping work or not caring if I was late, not even showering or brushing my teeth, etc, and got extremely depressed, and started making major mistakes at work. Doc kept changing my dosage but I kept getting worse.
May 16 - Attended Introduction to Preclinical Experience (PCE) WGU webinar, required before you can get an internship placement.
End of May - Mentor notified me that if I wanted to start my internship in autumn, I’d need to get 3 courses plus WEST-B or PRAXIS, plus my ID card etc done before June.
June 3 - Took WEST-B math, reading, writing exams essentially without studying - will find out results on June 28th. Some stuff on the math exam was not on the practice exams nor could I even find any info about the terminology online, but that was only a few questions and might even have been dummy questions. If you pay for the entire exam in one package you have to take it in-person at a testing center, if you pay for each of the 3 exams individually you can take them at home with online proctoring, I messed up and bought the package so had to book a time at the closest test center.
June 16 - Medical issues finally resolved when I quit the "serotonin" meds of my own accord, thus ending my lethargy and lack of motivation. Took a few days to sort out all the stuff I had been putting off for months.
June 20 - Mentor sent me an SMS reminding me that I hadn't done anything at WGU for weeks. Resubmitted 2/2 assignments.
What I learned this section:
- No grade level is safe, and paraeducator work is easier than substitute teacher work. Kindergarteners threw chairs at classmates, 1st graders were cheating on all their assignments or screaming and crying “don’t look at me!!” to their fellow students, 3rd graders were ripping up their own math textbooks, 5th graders were climbing on top of library bookcases. Most kids can barely read, some can’t read at all, because they are only using text to speech and speech to text on the computer. In every grade level, the biggest behavioral issues with the kids suddenly pop up when we switch to math or when we either get the computers out or put the computers away.
- Mental health is largely rooted in biology.
- Don’t let yourself take a break! Do a little WGU every day even if it’s only 5min.
March 23 - Essential Practices for Supporting Diverse Learners marked as complete. Got fully accepted & into database for exchange student coordinator stuff, had a meeting about that with what to do next. Attended a random webinar by a decades-experienced teacher regarding how to teach writing for kids who are wildly different writing levels in the same class - the webinar used tons of teacher jargon without explanation, which I understood only thanks to what WGU has taught me so far. Read units 3/7.
March 24 - Break due to work stuff - total rehaul of management + how we do things.
March 25 - Creating and Managing Engaging Learning Environments marked as complete. First day of substitute paraeducator work at elementary school.
March 26 - Hiatus. Problems with insurance suddenly refusing to let me take out my meds (regardless of if I paid out of pocket or not) caused me to go into severe medicine withdrawal. Too sick to focus on WGU.
April 12 - Received student internship permission (“pre-residency clearance”) from state Department of Education, which I had applied for on March 19th = took 23 days (3.3 weeks) to get.
April 22 - Received Emergency Substitute Teacher license (valid for 1 year) from state, which I had applied for on March 19th. Began doing substitute teaching work alongside paraeducator work.
May 5 - Submitted 3/5 assignments for “Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment”.
May 7 - 2 assignments need resubmission. Fell into several month hiatus due to medical issues (totally separate from the previous ones!). Improperly prescribed meds which affected serotonin and dopamine, caused extreme memory, motivation and anxiety issues, causing me to fear even looking at the homework or checking my Email plus forget I was even enrolled in WGU. I felt extremely confused and stressed when I even tried to look at the assignment instructions. I ended up skipping work or not caring if I was late, not even showering or brushing my teeth, etc, and got extremely depressed, and started making major mistakes at work. Doc kept changing my dosage but I kept getting worse.
May 16 - Attended Introduction to Preclinical Experience (PCE) WGU webinar, required before you can get an internship placement.
End of May - Mentor notified me that if I wanted to start my internship in autumn, I’d need to get 3 courses plus WEST-B or PRAXIS, plus my ID card etc done before June.
June 3 - Took WEST-B math, reading, writing exams essentially without studying - will find out results on June 28th. Some stuff on the math exam was not on the practice exams nor could I even find any info about the terminology online, but that was only a few questions and might even have been dummy questions. If you pay for the entire exam in one package you have to take it in-person at a testing center, if you pay for each of the 3 exams individually you can take them at home with online proctoring, I messed up and bought the package so had to book a time at the closest test center.
June 16 - Medical issues finally resolved when I quit the "serotonin" meds of my own accord, thus ending my lethargy and lack of motivation. Took a few days to sort out all the stuff I had been putting off for months.
June 20 - Mentor sent me an SMS reminding me that I hadn't done anything at WGU for weeks. Resubmitted 2/2 assignments.
What I learned this section:
- No grade level is safe, and paraeducator work is easier than substitute teacher work. Kindergarteners threw chairs at classmates, 1st graders were cheating on all their assignments or screaming and crying “don’t look at me!!” to their fellow students, 3rd graders were ripping up their own math textbooks, 5th graders were climbing on top of library bookcases. Most kids can barely read, some can’t read at all, because they are only using text to speech and speech to text on the computer. In every grade level, the biggest behavioral issues with the kids suddenly pop up when we switch to math or when we either get the computers out or put the computers away.
- Mental health is largely rooted in biology.
- Don’t let yourself take a break! Do a little WGU every day even if it’s only 5min.
Finished: 2 AAs, 1 BA, 2 trade schools, 3 ENEB MAs, JLPT N1.
In Progress: 1 WGU MA, 2 Mastercurssos, 3 more ENEB MAs, teacher license.
In Progress: 1 WGU MA, 2 Mastercurssos, 3 more ENEB MAs, teacher license.