MAT Purgatory

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So quickly all these events happened. Turning in of papers was followed by last days of classes. Working on my project presentation board to hang up in the fourth floor gallery room turned into the two day event of Columbia College’s Manifest. And then, I blinked and graduation commenced.

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What a great event for a Sunday. I was so excited and happy that our graduation ceremony would take place at the Chicago Theatre. The building is such a historical, well known landmark so I was extra proud to hand out my tickets to my family members and expected them to be there. It was such a rush to be celebrating this event with the people in my cohort I have gotten know for the last two years from 5:30 to 8:30 pm every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
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It felt so good to feel accomplished and having finished something. BUT…we’re actually not done! Although the Art Ed and Elementary Ed MAT graduate students robed, walked and turned their tassel from right to left, we’re actually not done with school. This summer, we have to finish our thesis, which in our department is called the Capstone Project. This project will be bound into a book and be stored on the education floor as an artifact of our time and experience as well as documenting our knowledge as teachers. It will contain our own teaching philosophy, lesson plans, unit plans, photos, etc. and demonstrate how we as teachers would conduct research in the classroom to make our teaching practice better.
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It’s double messing with my head that we symbolically graduated and that it’s finally summertime in the city. I’m trying to enjoy the weather that all of us Chicagoans earned for such the hard six month winter we had (little bit of an exaggeration) but also remember that I’ve got lots of work to do. We only meet for three weeks as a class for the course, and the rest of the time is one-on-one with our instructor to hone in on personal editing with the teacher. I’m trying to keep a healthy balance of enjoying the weather and time off, but not falling into the typical artist trap of procrastinating and being doomed in the end to get it all done. It’s hard with all these fun events coming up. Wish me luck. 
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