Three Strikes, I'm Out

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You know it's serious business when you find yourself emailing back and forth with the Associate Dean of the College of Education. Ya, that's what I've been doing the past few days.

Undergraduate education majors at my university spend their last three semesters in an on-site program involving two semesters of classes and one of student teaching. Students must apply and be accepted to the Teacher Education Program, or TEP, the semester before beginning the three-semester sequence. I was planning to apply this fall, start next spring, and graduate in May 2015.

The requirements to apply are pretty simple: Applicants have to have taken or be currently enrolled in about seven specific classes and have passed the first of a series of state competency exams required for licensure. The test is offered every three months.

I thought about taking the test in January, but it fell on my 21st birthday, so I decided to wait.

I was planning to sign up for the April test but didn't get around to registering until the day after the first deadline which would have added a late fee to the cost. I decided to sign up for June instead.

I was all set to take the test in June, but because of living at my parents' house for the summer and generally being in non-school mode, I forgot to attend. It wasn't until that night that I realized my mistake.

So there you have it: three perfectly good opportunities to take this test and still I have not taken it. Course-wise I am eligible to apply this fall but rules are rules and this test is required for application to the TEP. My next opportunity to apply would be in the spring which would put me in the less awesome three-semester sequence (the same courses but the program is run by a different professor) and cause me to graduate a semester later. Now I just have to see what, if anything, the Associate Dean can do to help. Like I said, you've probably dug yourself into a pretty darn deep hole if you are emailing the Associate Dean.