Abroad

As I write this, it’s not even ten o’clock yet. Here I find myself having a hard time keeping my eyes open. I worked a ten hour day on my feet today then promptly went to my friend’s house that happens to babysit Cleo during my workdays (my best friend), then sped home and started the last thread connecting me to Winter Term 2013 at OSU! I have literally one more paper and I can say goodbye to this term. AND I AM SO HAPPY ABOUT IT! I can’t stress that enough. The good news is that I’m getting A’s and a B currently. But this last paper may change that… I’m crossing my finger’s that I’m doing it correctly.

Since my enthusiasm is at about a 1.5 on a scale of 100, I’m just going to try my best to write this. However I felt that I didn’t really want to talk about a singular topic in particular. What I really want to talk about is studying abroad… I’m not sure if I mentioned it before but I’m hoping to be attending university in Santander, Spain this time next year! I started the application process last night and I am so very excited/scared/thrilled/bubbly/nervous…. All of the above emotions are included!

The reason I wanted to talk about this is because I know I haven’t had personal experience abroad yet, but I feel that it’s something that everyone should participate in, especially if they are going into the education field. It’s important to be able to go into a classroom with a mixture and blend of ethnicity or cultures and be able to have empathy and relate to all of those individuals. Studying outside of our safe United States can give us that needed edge in the classroom, teach us so many different things, make us a more well-rounded citizen, and overall having that experience can be a great benefit to your students! They want to hear stories in the classroom and personal experiences. Hearing those things gives us teachers personalities so that we don’t just appear to be the tyrant at the front that gives F’s and marks papers up with bright red pen…

Not to mention that I am considering getting an endorsement here soon saying that gives me the ability to work with students that speak other languages. It’s not that I may know that language I am just taught effective learning and instructing techniques that aid to those individuals. If I have experience studying abroad that will only improve my ability to converse and communicate with students of all different backgrounds. Especially being a language teacher as is. Overall it’s just an awesome thing and I am so blessed to have the opportunity to do this. As soon as I get older and am ready to settle down I may never get to do this again. So why not now, right? The time is now!

It’s not a good blog post without a strong emotional suggestion so here it is:

Study abroad! It makes you smarter and benefits your future student’s success! If you have the opportunity to open your eyes to a different culture, take it.

Anyways, wish me luck whilst I apply for this next step in the journey of the life of Carly!

xoxo

P.S I love the first picture. It's a cute giraffe and a bird called an Ox pecker. They are the birds that clean animals such as hippos, zebras, etc. They help by eating bugs out of fir. They are the good Samaritans of the savanna world.