feeling minnesota

we returned from our minnesota trip this afternoon.

we went up to "the land of 10,000 lakes" to attend debbie's (lynn's sister) wedding. we left for minnesota on thursday afternoon, immediately after the kids' violin lesson. so: thursday afternoon to tuesday afternoon, with commutes averaging 12 hours apiece... you can do the math. it was a whirlwind of a stay, with our circadian clocks severely misaligned and "off." add to that the fact that i had to take my praxis exam during the trip (as the praxis is only offered on specific weekends throughout the year, and one of the dates just happened to coincide with my time in minnesota), and the general chaos surrounding weddings in general (particularly this one, in a fascinating new culture), and you may understand why i'm not quite in my skin yet...

one of the reasons things did NOT completely degenerate into chaos was the wonderful planning and hospitality of wayne and jean takeshita. jean is irene's (my mother-in-law) sister. (oddly enough, wayne and jean are well-acquainted with a friend of mine, shari, who attended macalaster college during her undergraduate years- the world is a very small, tightly circumscribed circle). jean and wayne allowed me to borrow their car and their GPS (THANK GOD FOR TECHNOLOGY), and also opened up their home for my children and i. wayne and jean also planned several of the activities for us during our stay, including the wonderful day when our family "split up," with aiden going to a train museum, willow making new friends with wayne's nieces, and lynn and i exploring minneapolis by foot. wayne also gave us one of his famous tours of st. paul, making the place come alive with his unique historical perspective...

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let me try to recount some of my memories... first of all, i recall jean and wayne's beautiful home in roseville (one of the older subdivisions in st. paul), with a spacious backyard (with no fences separating yards! symbolic) opening out into the woods. the trees- they were magnificent. many maples, cypresses, oaks, all in the full spectrum of verdancy, various shades of green, some almost looking blue in the grey light, and others "blushing emeralds." on that first night, with the sky only beginning to darken significantly at 9:30 pm (!!!), i recall studying in the quiet, fueled by jet lag and coke (and a healthy dose of fear), and taking breaks to breathe in the peacefulness of the place and peruse some of the books on the shelf of the room i was staying in. among other things, i found a lot of "island heritage" books i'd read as a child. one of them stood out; it was called "the old man and the astronauts," and it was about the reaction of an old man in papua, new guinea to the news of the first man walking on the moon... never quite understood it as a child, because i couldn't discern what was really happening from imagination ("alligators" on the moon, eating moon rocks...) in any case, i experienced a small surge of nostalgia at that...

i didn't get much sleep. i studied until about 2, and set the alarm for 5:30. i woke up before the alarm, largely because at 4:30, all of the birds began to sing. each individual bird in that freaking forest... no, i'm not complaining. in a way, it was fascinating to hear each voice announcing itself, with its own melody and rhythm. still invisible in that darkness and blue-grey haze, but singing, like the initial tune up of a symphony of hidden jewels... woke up, had some breakfast, received some encouragement from wayne (did he ever sleep?), and drove off...

first time i ever used a gps. it was actually quite easy. maybe it's because i'm used to women telling me what to do (hope lynn doesn't read this!!! :P). every time i made a mistake, the gps would utter (with some annoyance???) "recalculating." i think i will adopt that as a catch phrase whenever my kids do something wrong... "recalculating..."

i got to dunwoody institute of technology, where the test was to be held, at around 6:20. check-in was supposed to start at 7:30, so i had some time to kill. i walked around the area, notably to the basilica (can't recall the specific name, but it was advertised as the first basilica in the united states; will post pics later) and the "sculpture garden." the latter was a beautiful "park" filled with a variety of modern sculptures. at 6:30 am, in the early morning chill, i was almost the only soul in the place. i did spy a guy doing some "ancestral qigong" in some out-of-the-way corner, but all in all, the place was my own to stroll through and appreciate. i think that quiet time alone really grounded me for the ordeal that was to come...

okay. let me just say at the outset that the praxis tests i took were the worst administered tests i have ever experienced. first of all, we were supposed to check-in at 7:30, with the test starting (at the latest) at 8:00. remember that i was perhaps the first person there. i was waiting inside the building, and then at around 7:00, with no one making any announcement, i discover that there is a whole line that i was supposed to get into. so i go out the building, and find this long line going all the way out into the parking lot. i get to the back of the line, and, get this, i end up waiting there for OVER AN HOUR. it was pretty cold, and although i had dressed to be comfortable in an air conditioned room, i did not anticipate having to stand outside beneath semi-rainy weather for hours on end... so, we ended up actually starting the test at about 9:00. a whole hour late. the test administrators, the proctors, whatever, were very unprepared. they didn't have extra pencils, they were uncertain about some of the rules, etc. during the test, they held mini-conferences in our presence, whispering about what they were supposed to do... very disturbing.

the first test, the plt (principles of learning and teaching) was a ridiculously long test. it had 12 "short" answer questions, in which we had to write responses to different case studies, along with about 40 (?) multiple choice questions. the short answer questions were killer, not only because i tend to write lengthy responses, but also because the questions were very open-ended. "name two ways that you would improve this lesson." "name two things that were good about this lesson." etc.

the second test (which i had to wait in ANOTHER line for, for an additional 40 minutes or so) was the SPED core contest test, and that one was relatively easy. 60 multiple choice questions, 1 hour. again, there were administration issues. i was still copying down the "honor statement" ("i certify that i am the person taking this test...") when the proctor (honestly, she seemed a high school student; she couldn't read some of the words in the instructions correctly) said to begin the test...

... so that was the praxis. my feeling is, if i did well, then that's that. if i didn't, then i'm sure i and the 300 or so other test-takers will have sufficient grounds to complain about the invalidity of this so-called standardized test...

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whew! well, i do have a lot of other things to talk about, but jet lag exhaustion is starting to hit me again. i will continue later...