Human Voices Wake Us

I thought it was time to visit the poem that influenced my blog’s title.  Not all of it is included.

Go ahead and read all of it.  You’ll thank me.

My husband and I are going to start working on our Ed.D.s (???) next February.  I have to finish my principal certification first.  I’m hoping to take the test in December, but I might be pushed back to February.    Anywho, hubby went to a meeting from Walden University.  We have 3 kids, so traveling is out of the question.  Online is good.  But, the big question is…what will people think when they see “Ed.D. – Walden University” on a resume?  One side of me thinks that online education is growing tremendously, so it probably won’t be a problem.  The other side thinks that people will think that I didn’t work hard for my degree.  But there’s really no other option.  I will only do a doctorate if I can work with my husband.  (not thinking of the money, just ignoring how much it will cost, don’t think of how in debt we’ll be)  Does having a doctorate outweigh it coming from Walden? (Did I mention that we don’t have to take a GRE and there’s no dissertation?)

After reading a post on The Principal’s Page regarding hiring teachers with online degrees, I thought I’d add to this post.  I received my master’s from Texas Wesleyan University via online.  I learned more in one class there than I did in my whole entire bachelor’s degree from University of North Texas.  Don’t get me wrong, I love UNT, but it was a typical read-the-book-written-by-the-professor-then-sit-in-class-and-listen-to-the-professor-tell-you-what’s-in-the-book.  After several years teaching, I learned that I had learned nothing practical to help me actually teach.  My master’s made me a much better teacher.  I had to be disciplined to get the work done on time and regularly met with a study group. (And I was pregnant and a cheerleader sponsor at the time.)  Now I am doing my principal certification online.  Because I work with administators, I can speak with them often about my coursework.  I don’t feel I’m missing sitting in a class.  So does going to a class and sitting there make a degree more valuable?  Or having to schedule your time wisely to get your work done?  I think the latter.

My husband (elementary principal) and I attended a workshop on blogging where we received a video ipod. My husband went to a conference not too much later and interviewed Phil Schlechty and several others, which he posted on his blog, Out of My League. I started to get intrigued, but didn’t know what I might want to write in my own blog. I started looking at other educational blogs, including a district high school principal’s, Shannon Learning Center. I followed his blogroll to others. One was named Do I Dare Disturb the Universe? I immediately recognized the line from T.S. Eliot’s poem The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock. Being a true educator, I decided to steal the idea and modify it for my own purposes, hence “Human Voices Wake Us.” I’ve also decided to let this be a way to explore my journey to become certified as a principal (while working as an administator) and my personal beliefs as an educator. Here we go!