I'm in the money

So I received notification this week that I was officially accepted into WGU's master's program, and then today I received even better news: they're giving me a $5,000 scholarship ($1,000 per semester). It won't cover everything, of course, but it sure puts a dent in it. Assuming I can get financial aid for the rest of it, I'm good to go. And I'm SO EXCITED.

Here's the program:
Master of Arts- English Language Learning/English as a Second Language (PK-12)
Earn your master's and qualify for a high-demand English Language Learning (ELL) or English as a Second Language (ESL) teaching endorsement. The M.A. in English Language Learning/English as a Second Language prepares PK-12 educators to teach effectively in ELL or ESL settings and provide curricular leadership in their schools and school systems. In many states, the degree leads to an endorsement in ELL or ESL, which are in high-demand. (<----- especially here in southern Florida)

See, due to FL state law, if you have any ESL kids in your classes at all (which, since we're so far south, is pretty much all of us), you HAVE to earn the ESL endorsement for your teaching license. So, starting this summer, I've been taking a series of courses towards this certification. That's what got me thinking about going back to school NOW for my master's. Hell, I'm taking classes anyway. I might as well be putting them towards something. Which is when I started doing research into schools with ESL-type masters' and found WGU. And it runs a little differently, because it's competency-based. They have classes, of course, and I'll have to take most of them. But I'll essentially be able to "test out" of the WGU classes that I'm taking now, for free, through my district. In other words, if I'm taking ESL Methods for Elementary Students now for school, and WGU offers the same basic class in their master's program, then all I have to do is pass the test and prove that I know the stuff, and I don't have to take it again. Saves me time AND money. And since it's online, I can work at my own pace. I'm hoping to be done in a year, year and a half. (Remember, I can work on it full time this summer.)

Anyway.....like I said, this all depends on financial aid. Keep your fingers crossed!!

Grad school and my daughter

(No, my daughter isn't old enough for grad school yet. =-) Those are just the two topics in this post.)

First, my daughter: I talked to her late last night on the phone for like an hour. It was really, really cool. Seriously, this is about as good as I could have hoped for things to turn out, as far as our relationship goes. She cracks me up, too. For example:

Her: "I'm gonna marry a Jamaican midget."
Me (understandably): "HUH?"
Her: "Well, I love Jamaican guys because of their accents, and midgets--well, midgets are just freakin' AWESOME--so what's the obvious solution? Marry a Jamaican midget!"

LOL. (She's 14, almost 15.)

Second: I'm going to be going to graduate school for my master's soon. I'm doing this for 3 reasons:
1) I already owe so much in student loans that really, what's another 10K or so? I'll be paying on them the rest of my life anyway.
2) Getting my master's will allow me to boost my paltry teacher's salary to a slightly LESS paltry one. This, in turn, will actually HELP me to pay back my loans more quickly. Either that, or buy new clothes.
3) From the time I was old enough to understand what a master's WAS, I always promised myself that someday I would get one, too. It's my personal goal to achieve at least the same level of education that both my parents did.

I've been researching (I am, after all, the queen of research) both area schools as well as online universities, and I've applied to one of each--Florida Gulf Coast U. here in Ft. Myers and Western Governors U., based out of Salt Lake City. Price, program and reputation were the three main factors that narrowed down my original 6 or so selections.

Both of these schools will cost about the same amount (although I've already applied for a scholarship at the online one and I'm in the process of applying for a grad school tuition waver at FGCU--they're very competitive, though, and with my luck I'll make "too much" to qualify, since I don't have to eat twigs and leaves or whatever the requirements are to qualify for "need-based" scholarships these days. Hell, even with I was making $25K and decided to return to school to be a teacher, I didn't even qualify for need-based LOANS. However, if I could start THIS year, before the new FAFSAs are filed--which means I'd have to go with WGU--I might qualify for slightly more that first term. My 1040 LAST year was even lower than $25K because I had been working at Tutor Time for the first part of the year, until I moved down here and started teaching. My new FAFSA, while still far from Daddy Warbucks-territory, will still be higher than my current one, thereby cutting down AGAIN on any aid I'm qualified for. I can still get loans, of course, but I was hoping for some "free money", too.

I like FGCU because it's a "real" school and it's very well known here in the area; however, I like WGU because you can work at your own pace, however fast or slow that may be, and--best of all--IT'S ALL ONLINE. As many of you know, I keep weird hours, so if I'm up at like 3 am on the weekend, I can "go to class," rather than having to sit in a classroom for 3 hours twice a week or whatever. So I'm actually kind of leaning towards WGU, assuming I can get that scholarship out of them ($1000 a term but it would make a big difference).

So we'll see.