The Glory of Books

I think I have mentioned in the past that I have an obsession with books, especially crisp, new books with smooth, uncreased spines. When it's time for me to hit up the bookstore to get textbooks for a new term, I am always excited to get my hands on some great, intellectually stimulating reading materials. Living in Germany makes it a little more difficult to saunter into the bookstore at Portland State and select my books, so I have been placing numerous orders from amazon.com, borders.com, and half.com in order to get all the books I need. I began by having the books shipped directly to me in Germany, but discovered that they are going to take a long time to get here, even with expedited international shipping.

My next idea actually came from my husband whose colleague will be traveling to Portland in a few weeks and returning right before my classes start. I was able to order some more of the books I need and have them shipped to the office in Portland where he used to work. His friend is going to receive them and pass them to his colleague so that he can bring them back on the plane. This way, I was able to take advantage of some shipping deals. I am trying out Amazon Prime for three months (for free). If I cancel before the three months is up, I will avoid paying the $79.00 fee. In the meantime, I can take advantage of free upgraded two day shipping. I have a feeling I may be ordering lots of books in the not so distant future, so I might as well take advantage of this offer.

My teacher still has not posted the texts for one class, but so far I have quite a few textbooks coming. I have not yet finalized my course selections for Fall term, but these are the options:

• Global Literature (completely online course). I will need access to lots of children's books in addition to the class "text," but I got an advanced copy of the reading list from the teacher and fortunately, the library at my school has many of the options, so I don't have to buy them all. Woo hoo! I am also thinking of posting the weekly book lists like I did below with my textbooks so you all can see some of these great "global" options.
• Multicultural & Urban Education
• Issues in Education
• Leadership Seminar (which is a requirement for the doctoral program and I may be Skyping into parts of this on the weekends)
• Multiple Ways of Knowing Your Learners (also an online course). This course is part of a 5 course certification series for differentiated instruction. I am still debating if I should take this course now or wait until next year to begin this series. Only one class is offered per term, so I have to take them across a whole school year.

Here are some of the textbooks that my teachers selected. I sure hope they are good because I certainly spent a lot of money on them!

If I take all of these courese, that is 16 credits, which I mentioned in a past post might be borderline crazy considering I am applying for different positions at my school which would increase my hours. I am optimistic and hopeful that I can pull it off, but I may end up dropping that one differentiated instruction course and saving it for next year. Even though I already ordered the books, I am sure the textbooks will be the same next year so I can just hold onto them for later use.

I am really excited to get started on the classes because I can't believe after all my organizing, list making, emailing, planning, and hoping that I am actually really beginning my doctoral work. I have no idea how long the whole process will take, but I know that if I start it, I will finish it and it is really exciting to think about the possibilities that the future holds!