Whew, it has been a long week with many moments to reflect on. As I said before, this semester is significantly harder than last semester. I was lulled into a false sense of security last semester and now I am getting my butt kicked. However, I am getting so much more from this semester because of my great classes with hands-on experience.
For my "Developmental Theories and Applications with Children" class with Dr. Fantuzzo, we have a placement in an elementary school in the area and tutor/help out in a class for two hours a week. I was looking forward to the placement and it finally happened! I'm with a Kindergarten class and I very excitedly biked to the school on Thursday morning. Kids are entertaining and I knew it would not be dull. A great moment was during music class. A girl had a headache and didn't sleep well so she had her head on my lap while we were sitting in chairs. The conversation went as followed:
It was such a great moment and I was grinning from her responses. I was reminded once again of the wonderfulness of working with children and having a child-like sense of the world. There is also the magic of the classroom that I have missed. In a reading from last semester's "Forming and Reforming the Reading/Writing/Literacy Curriculum" class, I read:
Another moment that was great this week was during my "Curriculum and Pedagogy in International Contexts" class. We had an all-day session on Friday from 9:30-4:30pm (ugh) but it went really quickly as we worked through the "Understanding by Design" book, discussing backwards design, essential questions, understandings, etc. At the beginning, we all drew/wrote on a piece of a puzzle that showed who we were and what we could bring to our class and groups. We put it together after we went around and explained our drawings. We all have something unique to bring to the class, and to life in general, and we are all interconnected. Here is the result (mine is in the upper-left corner..upside down).
The rest of the weekend was spent helping with the PhD visitor's weekend, which involved free food, carrying things between GSE and the Sheraton hotel, and putting up posters. Today we had a loooooong tour of campus, but it was great to talk with the prospective candidates. Everyone was really relaxed and it seemed quite a few were won over with Penn and our wonderful community at GSE. I kind of see GSE as a "dark horse" that is secretly amazing, but it isn't as "brand name" as Teacher's College. We really are a community and family. There are great peer and faculty relationships and interacting with other faculty outside of my division just reminded me how lucky I am to be part of the community. Someone said to me that grad school is when you lose all sense of self because so much of your previous experiences and knowledge is challenged. Yes, I would agree that classes and professors sometimes do make you feel uncomfortable, but that is where the magic happens--when you're outside of your comfort zone. Time is flying and I have nightmares about losing my planner and forgetting assignments/meetings, but it really has been a transformative process that has been taking place this year.
And now...back to the many assignments!
Also----
Interested in learning more about the International Educational Development Program (IEDP) at PennGSE? Three of our current students will be hosting an informal info session via Google Hangout this Tuesday, Feb the 10th from 12-1pm Eastern Time (EST). Please RSVP at iedp_penngse@gmail.com
We look forward to engaging with you!
To join the hangout, click on this link- https://plus.google.com/hango…/_/g6duym76du2m2ozni23b2i6tgaa
For my "Developmental Theories and Applications with Children" class with Dr. Fantuzzo, we have a placement in an elementary school in the area and tutor/help out in a class for two hours a week. I was looking forward to the placement and it finally happened! I'm with a Kindergarten class and I very excitedly biked to the school on Thursday morning. Kids are entertaining and I knew it would not be dull. A great moment was during music class. A girl had a headache and didn't sleep well so she had her head on my lap while we were sitting in chairs. The conversation went as followed:
Me: Don't put your feet on the chair. It will get dirty.
Her: Yeah, but we sit on our butts.
Me: Yes, that is true, but we don't sit on our butts outside and walk around getting our butts dirty.
Her: My teacher does.
It was such a great moment and I was grinning from her responses. I was reminded once again of the wonderfulness of working with children and having a child-like sense of the world. There is also the magic of the classroom that I have missed. In a reading from last semester's "Forming and Reforming the Reading/Writing/Literacy Curriculum" class, I read:
After I left, I was in the Grad Center doing some reading and just kept thinking of the kids and different activities that would be fun to do with them. I felt excited again! Not that Penn isn't exciting, it just is also stressful and busy. There is magic in our classes here also, but sometimes it is hard to see because we are all too busy being critical of the theories/definitions/etc.
“These classrooms, teachers, and students are mostly magic—the magic of imagining and creating a world that does not yet exist, a world in which difference is lifted and complicated” (Fine, Weis, Powell, 1997, p. 275) (Sleeter, 2005)
Another moment that was great this week was during my "Curriculum and Pedagogy in International Contexts" class. We had an all-day session on Friday from 9:30-4:30pm (ugh) but it went really quickly as we worked through the "Understanding by Design" book, discussing backwards design, essential questions, understandings, etc. At the beginning, we all drew/wrote on a piece of a puzzle that showed who we were and what we could bring to our class and groups. We put it together after we went around and explained our drawings. We all have something unique to bring to the class, and to life in general, and we are all interconnected. Here is the result (mine is in the upper-left corner..upside down).
 |
| Note the pile of snacks to the left. We were in the collaborative classroom in Van Pelt Library. |
 |
| Miss Ruju and her glasses. Note how they are Gryffindor's colors. ;) |
The rest of the weekend was spent helping with the PhD visitor's weekend, which involved free food, carrying things between GSE and the Sheraton hotel, and putting up posters. Today we had a loooooong tour of campus, but it was great to talk with the prospective candidates. Everyone was really relaxed and it seemed quite a few were won over with Penn and our wonderful community at GSE. I kind of see GSE as a "dark horse" that is secretly amazing, but it isn't as "brand name" as Teacher's College. We really are a community and family. There are great peer and faculty relationships and interacting with other faculty outside of my division just reminded me how lucky I am to be part of the community. Someone said to me that grad school is when you lose all sense of self because so much of your previous experiences and knowledge is challenged. Yes, I would agree that classes and professors sometimes do make you feel uncomfortable, but that is where the magic happens--when you're outside of your comfort zone. Time is flying and I have nightmares about losing my planner and forgetting assignments/meetings, but it really has been a transformative process that has been taking place this year.
And now...back to the many assignments!
Also----
Interested in learning more about the International Educational Development Program (IEDP) at PennGSE? Three of our current students will be hosting an informal info session via Google Hangout this Tuesday, Feb the 10th from 12-1pm Eastern Time (EST). Please RSVP at iedp_penngse@gmail.com
We look forward to engaging with you!
To join the hangout, click on this link- https://plus.google.com/hango…/_/g6duym76du2m2ozni23b2i6tgaa
For more information on how to set up your computer in preparation for the hangout, please check- https://support.google.com/hangouts/answer/1216376?hl=en
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