Monday, 9/12 and Wednesday, 9/14 On Monday we had a guest speaker from the College of Education. Mostly he talked about the university's phase program and how it affects students at different levels of their academic careers. This reminded me of a pretty funny story about a typo on my Phase III application, and after class I asked our instructor if I could share the story today. The Phase III application is the ream of paperwork that goes from the College of Education to various school districts in the state as seniors apply for student teaching positions in the state.

Our instructor very graciously allowed me to offer some quick advice at the beginning of class today. It was mostly common sense, but the most important thing to impart to students filling out this application in my mind is to spell-check. When I filled out my application, I had included a sentence that went something like, "A few of my residents attended Local High and enjoyed their English classes because. . . " Or at least, that's what I meant to write. What I actually wrote was ". . . attended Local high and enjoyed. . . "

See the subtle difference? In the first sentence, the students attended Local High School. In the second sentence, the sentence in my official application, those students attended school while high. This, you might guess, could be construed as slightly problematic.

I got it fixed before too many people saw it, but it's a funny enough story that I thought I should share it with the class. I think a few of them got it, but mostly this class is a year away from filling out their application anyway so I think some of them were uninterested and definitely unimpressed.

Which is fine. They didn't enroll in this class to hear a grad student tell funny stories about an application they don't care about. But I think the few people who are about to fill out their Phase III application appreciated the effort; at least one student in the class scribbled furious notes as I taught.

An interesting day, all in all.  ¶ 4:23 PM