Never having enough time

This is the epitome of being in grad school.
never. having. time.

Someone asked me yesterday, "How do you do it?"

Honestly. I don't know.

Find the thing you're passionate about... or at the very least willing to work for.

I may hate my job, but I know it provides numerous things for me.
1. being money to support myself.
2. experience to add in my future.

Time management skills are a must in grad school.. that at the very least.

I'm still working on mine. Hopefully I can keep you updated on how(if) I can do it.

Getting into grad school with a low GPA

So I have been talking about my experience of getting into grad school with a low GPA.

When I finished my bachelors degrees I had a GPA of 2.86

The program I applied for preferred to have students with a 3.0 at least.

However, My director for my program gave me some insight that I think will be helpful to others in my position.

1. The most important thing is your letters of recommendation.

• Ask the professors that not only gave you good grades, but the ones you talked to. Ask the ones who saw how hard you worked and care about you.

2. Work really hard on your Statement. It's the second most important thing.

• You need to focus on your strengths, what you learned as an undergrad (as it relates to your masters program). Be sure to mention any conferences you spoke at or any publications you have. And also mention why you stand out from other students. What is your uniqueness that is an asset to the program.

3. GPA is the third most important thing.

• If your GPA isn't great, don't fret. Just shine on the first two things. And be sure to explain (if you can) about why your GPA might be low. Wether a personal or family emergency happened, or you were lazy your first few years and really got it together the last two years.

4. GRE scores.

• Not all schools require these. If your school does, a good score can make up for low GPA. If they don't just focus more on 1 and 2. Also, if you have a good GPA and a low GRE there's still no need to worry. Unless your school requires a minimum.. most schools don't care about the scores that much.

I hope this can help others out there that are in the same position I was. I did get into my program with a not so great GPA and a terrible GRE score. So there's always hope.

Busy week ahead.

I start my new job at GPTC on Tuesday.
Friday I have a meeting with the Director of Graduate Studies about my application from grad school
and for my documentary I'm working on to submit to Sundance one day.

It doesn't sound like much, but it's got me kinda freaking out.

Wish me luck, hopefully I'm not a lost cause for grad school.

MIA

So I've been a little MIA for the past couple of weeks.

Things have been picking up and are going well!

I'm officially hired with my new job! I just have some paperwork to fill out then orientation and I'm there!

I met my roomie yesterday, and saw my apartment. Everything looks great and pretty perfect.
It's close to campus, there's tons to do, and it's in a nice neighborhood.

I also finished another essay for an assistantship for grad school.

I'm going to start storyboarding my documentary.

I have a GRE practice test today at 4pm.

Now all I have to do is take the GRE, get published (hopefully), and apply to the program!

Right now is the sitting and waiting game

I think this is the worst part of applying to grad school

Waiting....

Once I get the news on the main thing I'm waiting for, I can submit everything else.
The only problem is.. I have no idea when I'm going to get this yes or no... nor if I'll get the "yes" I'm crossing my fingers for.

Life of a grad student: Graduate School Checklist

Life of a grad student: Graduate School Checklist: My life right now.. This has got to be the most stressful part of grad school. 1. not knowing if you're going to get in. 2. having ...

• √ Write my statement of purpose
• √ Ask for letters of recommendation
• 2/3 secure letters of recommendation
• √ write draft letter
• √ apply for assistantships
• √ write essay for GLA
• √ write essay for GRA
• Study for the GRE
• retake the GRE
• Send transcripts to school
• Apply for the program
• 1/2 Publish my paper
• volunteer more (hopefully with the IRC)
• apply for VISA leader job
• √ Find roommate and apartment

So! Since my last checklist update, I have gotten a lot more done!

Just a few more things to do it's so exciting!

Graduate School Checklist

My life right now..

This has got to be the most stressful part of grad school.

1. not knowing if you're going to get in.
2. having to fill out ENDLESS paperwork
3. writing a billion essays on yourself and your expertise

So here's what has to be done:

1/2 Write my statement of purpose
√Ask for letters of recommendation
      1/2 Secure letters of recommendation
      ㅁWrite drafts for the professors that don't actually want to write them for you
ㅁApply for assistantships
      ㅁWrite an essay for GRA assistantship
      1/2 Write an essay for the GLA assistantship
ㅁStudy for and retake the GRE
ㅁSend all of my transcripts to the school
1/2 Try and publish my paper
ㅁTry to volunteer more with teaching/refugees
ㅁApply for VISA leader
ㅁFind a roommate and an apartment

as you can tell I'm doing a great job of getting things done...

There are some things that I have partially completed, but nothing is 100%
1/2

All My Friends are Dead: Book Review

I bought this book on a whim because there was a dino on the cover and as a kid I loved dinosaurs!

When I started reading it, it was definitely different from what I expected but it was cute!
This is really a coffee table book and not so much a children's book, though. Depending on the age of your kids they might like it too.

It's very humorous and will give you a ton of giggles, and it doesn't take long to get through.

I got mine from Modcloth for $10, but I think it's available on amazon for much cheaper!

I give it 5/5

Filmy Fridays: Week 4

I love documentaries.
I also love linguistics.

The Linguist List has a list (surprise, surprise!) of films related to the field of linguistics.

You can check the films out here

I think you can also add to the list!

I definitely recommend checking out the list and films if documentaries, linguistics, and films are something you enjoy!

Book review: Cinema Babel

I finished reading Cinema Babel a few weeks ago. This is another book I bought to read for my Directed Reading class I did as an undergraduate.

I love this book in comparison to the "Translating popular film".

This book packs a lot of information and it is all necessary. The author is less worried about how many films he can talk about, but about the culture and complexity behind translating and interpreting.

The book focuses on Japanese more than anything else, but it's still a good read even if you're not interested in Japanese culture or the language.

I felt that this book was very well written. It got kind of boring in some spots.. but overall I loved it and would highly recommend it.

Filmy Fridays: Week 3

I love youtube. It's probably the greatest thing ever invented (in the technology age of course)

But one thing I love about it, is being able to find all sorts of interesting things on it. Public domain items are all on it, and people can upload things from their personal lives to it as well.

While learning Korean, my korean teach posted a youtube channel run by the South Korean government that uploads old korean films. in full. It's wonderful! So you should all check it out if you like foreign films, or even just liking Korean.

Korean Movies YouTube

Enjoy!

Book Review: Reading in the Dark

So for my new years resolution I plan on reading more. I just finished this book last week so I thought I'd share a few points.

As an ESL teacher, I stupidly read English Classroom as ESL classroom.

However, I have no regrets reading this book.

I think for anyone wanting to teach middle school or high school students English should definitely consider reading this book and utilizing it in the class.

Just as well, I think intro film classes would benefit greatly from this as well.

I would have loved to have some of his class activities integrated my intro Film class my first semester of college.

In the beginning of this book he gives great advice on how to teach the films, and what students should look for while watching them.

Then he gives a lot of examples on which films to use and why.

On thing that did bother me is the weird font I ran across on some pages.. For no reason at all the font would change, and that's a little disturbing. Because that's the kind of thing you would see in something plagiarized. But that's just my opinion.

It's a quick read, and has great recourses.

Overall 4/5

Filmy Fridays: Week 2

So as I bring you guys into the filmy side of my life, I want to share some things that I have found while on the hunt for what to do on the film side of things.

90to5 Editing Challenge

If you enjoy old films, you should definitely check this out! People can take old films (that are public domain) and cut them down to 5 minutes. People can be creative or stick to the story. It's neat to see what others do.

I actually entered it last year!

I did the Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. I loved this movie as an undergrad and I had to work with it!

Now, if you are a editor, do yourself a favor and enter this competition. It's fun and you get the chance to work with someone else's work, and give it your own spin.

The time limit makes it hard, because you have to decide what it important information and unimportant. So, it's really a great challenge.

Book Review: Translating Popular Film

I bought this book for a Directed reading class and my University. I created the class about using film to learn your L2. I only used a few chapters from the book for my class so I decided to read it from cover to cover after graduating while working on my research paper I'm going to publish.

I finished the book a few weeks ago and some thoughts I've had

I’m a big fan of the topic since I double majored in Film and Linguistics. However, I’m not a fan of this book.

First, 75% of the book is just examples. While it’s great to have examples of the things you are discussing so your audience can understand it fully.. one or two will suffice.. no need for 10-12 per definition. It got to a point where I would forget what she was talking about after finishing all the examples. Basically, give your point then define it, then give an example. It seems more braggy and a space filler to give 10-12 per point.

another thing that irritated me about this book is chapter referencing. When I’m reading I don’t want to know what you will discuss in chapters to come… I want it to flow nicely (Unless its ABSOLUTELY necessary. like in a textbook) . and I don’t need you to tell me what you wrote about in previous chapters when I’ve already read them. I mean, I understand that she wanted to make this a text book, but it’s far too small and not formatted to even pretend it’s a textbook.

and I also would have preferred to not have so many films and examples from them. sometimes it was really hard to keep straight what character or film she was one. and the fact that she kept putting the real actors names with the character and would switch in and out of use of both of them made my head spin. If you're going to use a film and discuss it talk about and name the characters like you could with literature. I don't know actors, and chances are most people reading it won't know who the actors are either, but we can all keep up with this character is this, etc.

I felt like some of the things she said were opinions and not backed up with resources/facts.

I’m also not a huge fan of the UK dialect/spelling but that’s something I can get over, easily. The spelling is weird and sometimes the grammar is too compared to the US but once you get into the swing of things it’s not too hard to understand.

On an up-note there is some good information, she references a lot of scholars where (if you are interested in this topic) you can get some inspiration/knowledge. And a great list of movies to put on your list if you haven’t seen. Also tons of definitions on the world of subbing/dubbing that (unless you really love this like me) you probably didn’t know about.

overall I give it a 2.5/5

It’s worth a read if your interested in the field like me, but not worth it if you’re not.

ITTT

Being an Applied Linguistics major focuses a lot on teaching. As an undergraduate I hated the idea of teaching. It didn't sound fun, and I'm quite introverted so being in front of a crowd of people having to explain things to them scared the living daylights out of me!

However, things change, and one day I decided I wanted to go to Korea one day to teach. But by the time I had this figured out I was almost done with my Bachelor's degree and it was going to cost more time and money to get my TEFL at my university.

So I went on the hunt. Doing my usual blogging on Tumblr I ran across Tiffany who was teaching in Korea at the time, and received her TEFL through this company. So I decided to do some research and look into it too!

I decided this would be the best company for me as well. They were the only company where I could see actual teachers teaching after getting their TEFL there. While I'm sure getting a TEFL or TESOL from your university would be the BEST option. If you don't have that option, this one is a close second!

So I personally signed up for the 120 hour program with a tutor. I never actually used the tutor. While it was nice having it just in case, I don't personally recommend spending the extra money for something unless you have a learning disorder (like, dyslexia, or test anxiety, etc)

I did really well. There are a series of lessons you read, then you take a quiz (which you must keep a 75% grade with all the quizzes or you don't pass) after you finish the lessons/quizzes you work on a lesson plan that you send to someone to review. Which you get 3 tries on that.

It's straightforward and easy enough. I highly recommend it to everyone interested in teaching abroad or teaching ESL, where they are.

ITTT contacted me an offered me a discount code for anyone who is interested. When you use my code you can get 15% off of any class you choose to go through.

Their courses start as low as $190

All you need to do is visit www.teflmate.com/apply/ and be sure to enter the code MELINDAC15 in the coupon box towards the bottom of the application for. This will give you the 15% off!

One quick note! It's a British company, so spellings and phrasings are a bit off for those of us in the US. but nothing too crazy, but some sentences might give you a giggle or catch you off guard.

Filmy Fridays: Week 1

So as a filmmaker, I want to share my films with the world as well

In this series, I will share my videos that I have personally made, or I will share filmy things with you guys! (competitions, movies, movie reviews, what I'm loving lately, etc.)

Here is a film I did with some girls in my Experimental film class in 2012. I changed it up a bit and renamed it.

I also entered it into a film festival called TOFF.
Which you can check out here.

One thing I like about abstract film is that you don't have to have some sort of storyline to it. I mean in this film I started throwing things together and the story came together on its own. But, the story I see and hear, might not be what you as the viewer see and hear.

It's a lovely concept, really.

New day, new year, new blog, new goals

So this is my new blog, and my new journey.

I will be applying for grad school in August at GSU in Applied Linguistics, and I wanted to document my journey of traveling studying and accomplishing my career goals!

Before June 1st, I need to:

• Retake the GRE
• Apply to the School
• Get 3 letters of recommendation
• Write my Statement Letter
• Write letters for the assistantships at the school
• Apply with TigerFish

I'm also hoping to:

• Get my article published
• Volunteer with the IRC
• Teach another ESL class (whether paid or volunteer)

I'm also apartment hunting and trying to save up as much money as possible!

Wish me Luck! 

I'm aiming to be more consistent with this blog than the others, so be prepared to hear from me often!

But of course, I should list my new years resolutions, because that's what we do right?

1. Lose weight
2. exercise at least 5 times a week
3. go paleo
4. read everyday
5. be all around healthier!
6. publish my paper
7. write more
8. go out more
9. get another job
10. enjoy life more
11. wake up earlier

Feel free to connect with me!