How do you eat a chocolate elephant?

Before I start with the four classes I attended these past two days, I want to recap the few days of "freedom" before the semester officially started.

Andrea (an IEDP buddy) had also arrived a bit early from break to get organized before classes started so we actually had a chance to hang out! We even *gasp* went into Center City on Sunday which isn't really  THAT far but it just feels far because we can't just say "hey, let's get a coffee in Center City." Anyway, off we went to explore Reading Terminal Market, which has a lot of specialty shops, all of which were out of our budget. Oh well, we still enjoyed it and went to find noodles. On a cold day, there is nothing like a big soup of vegetable and egg noodles for $5.75 from Hand-drawn Noodle House.

After, we walked the my old stomping grounds---Van Pelt Library. It had been so long, yet it felt just like yesterday...The clocks still weren't fixed and the guards still insisted on everyone opening their bags to see if you had stolen books. People fail to mention that grad school doesn't start on the first day of classes--it starts when you get your readings for the first day of classes. However, you must be careful and make sure the readings you diligently start on don't end up being reassigned for another week or *another gasp* eliminated. After we welcomed another IEDPer back by picking her up at the bus stop in Center City (twice in one day!) and then "helping" her settle-in aka drink wine and chat about our breaks/classes/life.

Monday and Tuesday I was at the admissions desk processing applications aka filing. Wednesday was my last first day of grad school with Indigenous Education and Language Revitalization with Dr. Nancy Hornberger. She was recommended to me, but I was not sure since I wanted to shop a bit before settling on classes. It was a small class (11 students I believe) with a lot of variation among departments. She takes a very flexible approach, focusing class purely on discussions with just two sorta small assignments.

After, I had Curriculum and Pedagogy in International Contexts with Dr. GK from IEDP. I had been really looking forward to this class because I have already done a lot of my own curriculum design and we actually work with organizations abroad to design curriculum/teacher resources/teacher development for them. Exactly what I would love to be doing in the future (among my many loves!). However, it will be quite different because I'm used to planning for my kids and not for teachers, and also used to seeing how it works and tweeking depending on what works/doesn't work. Still, I decided I would stick to the class even though it will be quite demanding.

Today I had my required-for-IEDP course, Fieldwork/Proseminar with all my cohort members. It was so great to see everyone and to hear about what they are presenting at the Comparative and International Educational Society (CIES) conference in March. I had too much going on at the time and anticipated that this would be an extra busy semester, so I did not submit a proposal back in early December. I will hopefully be attending, but we'll see. We did a fun exercise with these (gross) gummy cubes and tooth-picks and had ten minutes to build the largest tower possible. Let's just say, it was all about the lesson, not the product. Our cohort of 23 ended up in 3 groups, two small and one large. The lesson connected to our future group-work, with the main takeaways being: communicate, have a plan, listen, think outside of the box, be aware of everyone's strengths and weaknesses, designate roles, etc. This semester is ALL about group work! Seriously, all of my classes so far have group or pair-work for the semester. I enjoy it, but sometimes it can get frustrating and also time-consuming.

A few of us rushed from the education building to another one to attend Program Evaluation. I had heard good things about it from someone in last year's cohort, but it definitely is catered to Social Work students who are already placed in internships. The professor, Kim Nieves, was super energetic and great, but it is not ideal for those without a placement. I'm going to keep an open mind and wait until I attend all the classes I'm interested in before I commit, which is quite hard because already there are group projects starting! Craziness. I left feeling overwhelmed, but there's a long weekend to look forward to and other classes to shop.

SO, back to the title: How do you eat a chocolate elephant? One piece at a time! I must remember that this semester, although I kind of feel like I'm choking on the whole thing at the moment.