I got placed at Vaux High School!
I'll write about that more when I actually know what it means.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Monday, August 17, 2009
I moved into my new apartment. I'm sleeping on an air matress right now, but that's comfortable enough and I will soon get a bed. I went out with Quami and his friends on Friday night. Saturday during the day we all went to the park, and that was also a lot of fun...except when I tripped over a curb. Whatever. I like the location of this apartment much, much more AND it has air conditioning. There is a pizza place across the street and a bar on the corner. The bar is called DIRTY FRANK'S, which is how I know it's awesome. In actual important apartment news: living with Quami is very nice.
Friday, August 7, 2009
I am going to take some time out to write about something that isn't happening in Philly.
So, the guy I have subletting my apartment, Diego, is a giant fucking asshole. He's refusing to pay for August rent. That's a real fucking nice thing to do when your landlord is 10.5 hours away. He will rue the day. RUE IT.
So, the guy I have subletting my apartment, Diego, is a giant fucking asshole. He's refusing to pay for August rent. That's a real fucking nice thing to do when your landlord is 10.5 hours away. He will rue the day. RUE IT.
Monday, August 3, 2009
Snappin' Off
I'm going to write about teaching SuMmA sKeWl now. I'm not going to change any names because I liked all my students and if they happen to somehow stumble upon this blog, I think they should know exactly what I think about them. I'm not going to use last names, though, mostly because I don't know most of those.
So, to give yous (that's how Philly people pluralize a lot of the time) an idea of how my Practice Teaching (PT) worked, it was like this:
Ms. Rami, like many other teachers, agreed to teach English 3 (for juniors) at Vaux High School for the summer session. Like the general summer school model, this happens at a bunch of schools all over the city. Ms. Rami also agreed to have (2) Fellows with her in the class, and agreed to let said Fellows teach sometimes. Kim and I were her "said Fellows."
First, I'd like to note that Ms. Rami was an excellent Cooperative Teacher (CT). She is an excellent teacher, both to me and the class. She gave me awesome advice and ideas, and really good critiques. She was always looking out for me and trying to make sure I was getting the most I could out of teaching summer school. And I did. I couldn't have gotten a better CT.
English 3 is a half boring, half really fun class. It was American Lit, with a focus on the autobiography, from the Revolution until almost now. I got to teach Edgar Allen Poe, Richard Wright, N. Scott Momaday, James Baldwin, Robert Frost, and about Modernism and Transcendentalism v. Romanticism. I didn't really like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, mostly because they're old, dead, white men. I'm not a big fan of reading those, even if they are the Founding Fathers. The students liked Richard Wright the best, which isn't surprising since he grew up in the same situation as a a lot of them.
I think I should take a minute here to talk about Vaux High. It's in a really rough area of North Philly. The other day I was at my new apartment hanging out with Zofia, Quame and Quame's friend whose name I dont' really remember. The friend told me that he works for this Philly non-profit to end homelessness. He told me that they did research and the majority of homeless people in Center City (downtown) are from one neighborhood. And this neighborhood, he said, was about four blocks from Vaux. Then Quame told me a story about how he knew this really burly man that worked for a cable company. One night he was in that neighborhood and had to disconnect someone's cable after dark. He climbed up the pole, shut it off, and by the time he got down there was a man at the bottom holding a gun to his head telling him to fix the cable. Now, if that's what happens to a large black man in that neighborhood, think about what my students have been living through their whole lives. I understand things aren't fair. Really, I get it. But it just hurts so much to understand where my students are living but to not understand how they live.
MORE TO COME BECAUSE ZOFIA IS WAITING FOR ME TO DRIVE HOME.
So, to give yous (that's how Philly people pluralize
Ms. Rami, like many other teachers, agreed to teach English 3 (for juniors) at Vaux High School for the summer session. Like the general summer school model, this happens at a bunch of schools all over the city. Ms. Rami also agreed to have (2) Fellows with her in the class, and agreed to let said Fellows teach sometimes. Kim and I were her "said Fellows."
First, I'd like to note that Ms. Rami was an excellent Cooperative Teacher (CT). She is an excellent teacher, both to me and the class. She gave me awesome advice and ideas, and really good critiques. She was always looking out for me and trying to make sure I was getting the most I could out of teaching summer school. And I did. I couldn't have gotten a better CT.
English 3 is a half boring, half really fun class. It was American Lit, with a focus on the autobiography, from the Revolution until almost now. I got to teach Edgar Allen Poe, Richard Wright, N. Scott Momaday, James Baldwin, Robert Frost, and about Modernism and Transcendentalism v. Romanticism. I didn't really like Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, mostly because they're old, dead, white men. I'm not a big fan of reading those, even if they are the Founding Fathers. The students liked Richard Wright the best, which isn't surprising since he grew up in the same situation as a a lot of them.
I think I should take a minute here to talk about Vaux High. It's in a really rough area of North Philly. The other day I was at my new apartment hanging out with Zofia, Quame and Quame's friend whose name I dont' really remember. The friend told me that he works for this Philly non-profit to end homelessness. He told me that they did research and the majority of homeless people in Center City (downtown) are from one neighborhood. And this neighborhood, he said, was about four blocks from Vaux. Then Quame told me a story about how he knew this really burly man that worked for a cable company. One night he was in that neighborhood and had to disconnect someone's cable after dark. He climbed up the pole, shut it off, and by the time he got down there was a man at the bottom holding a gun to his head telling him to fix the cable. Now, if that's what happens to a large black man in that neighborhood, think about what my students have been living through their whole lives. I understand things aren't fair. Really, I get it. But it just hurts so much to understand where my students are living but to not understand how they live.
MORE TO COME BECAUSE ZOFIA IS WAITING FOR ME TO DRIVE HOME.
Catching Up
Oh God. I haven't updated in so long. It's because so much was happening and because I didn't really have internet. I will start at the beginning of July, and the beginning of Institute, now. I plan to go by topic and not chronologically because I don't remember time details.
HOUSING
Zofia and I are having a great time living together. She's a wonderful roommate and a good and fun friend. I think I moved into the best possible living situation I could have. It has been really nice to have someone to go through training with and someone to go through the boring days with as well. We watch a lot of movies / tv on dvd and chat. It's a lot like living with Chelsie and Val, except without all the awesome memories. HOWEVER, we are not living together this fall. Now, don't jump to conclusions and think that's a bad thing. It's not.
TANGENT: I told a girl at institute that Zofia and I aren't living together and she looked like she was going to cry. I had to calm her down and tell her that we didn't get in a fight or anything. Talk about too invested in people she hardly knows.
ANYWAY, Zofia's boyfriend Alex got into grad school in Philly, so they are moving together to an apartment in Bella Vista. That left me looking for an apartment, and since I don't have any furniture or crap like that I started looking for a house with a room for rent. I emailed a million billion people and the second place I went to IS MY NEW HOME. It's on Pine and Broad, which means if I walk the 30 seconds to the corner and look to my right I can see CITY HALL. PRICE: $325/mo + utilities...which is the cheapest apartment I've ever heard of (except the one I paid $310/mo for in Ann Arbor...).
My roommate is this dude man named Quame. Quame works for Philly Car Share and writes books. Quame is very nice, has a great book collection, likes to share wine, and is, in general, the kind of person I instantly feel comfortable around. We've even hung out a couple of times since I signed the lease, so I think we're going to be good roommates and good friends too. I'm really excited about my new home.
OH, it's on the fourth floor. Whatever.
THE JERSEY SHORE
One weekend Zofia's boyfriend Alex came to visit because, as I said, he's moving to Philly and he was interviewing for a job. We all decided we needed to go to the Jersey Shore because, well, because I love the idea of Jersey.
TANGENT: I had previously been to Jersey only once, and that was on accident. I was trying to drive back from downtown to Penn Treaty where I had Institute and I realized I was going south on 95 instead of north. So, obviously, I got off the freeway to turn around. That seems simple, right? WRONG. Nothing about the Walt Whitman Bridge is simple. NOTHING. I got off without knowing that there is no exit before Jersey on that particular road, and there is also no sign telling me that until I'm on the freakin' bridge heading into a different state. So, I'm in Jersey and I have 15 minutes before class begins and I'm heading down this road because just like on the bridge, there's NO FREAKING PLACE IN JERSEY TO TURN AROUND. And then I realize my gas light is on, so I go to a gas station. Do you know what happens in gas stations in Jersey? DO YOU?! They pump your gas. I was really confused and I may or may not have frightened the gas pumper. He shouldn't have asked me how I was doing when I was very anxious about being late. THEN, I had to keep driving until I made it to this godforsaken round about thing that lead me back the other direction. So I'm heading to the bridge and I see that you have to pay a toll, so I take the direction to the Ben Franklin Bridge instead because that sign didn't say I had to pay a toll. That sign lied. So, I'm in line for the bridge but, oh wait!, I don't have any dollars and it costs four to get back to Philly. So I tell the fare man that I don't have money and he tells me that he can't write me a thing to pay later and that I have to go talk to someone in the bridge office even though I told him that I was running late for class. (I'm typing how I was speaking, FYI.) So, I go to the bridge official and talk quickly to him and then quickly to another man and they tell me that I can just go for free. No toll. And, for an instant, Jersey ruled. Anyway, I got to institute 15-25 minutes late and it was no big deal.
Back to The SHORE. So, anyway, we wanted to go to Atlantic City to go to The Shore because we all imagined there'd be a lot of kitschy things there. However, we didn't make it to AC (BABY) because we ended up in Sea Isle City. SIC was nice, though, so I didn't mind. Except, at SIC you have to pay to go to the beach. That's weird. But I did get to go into the ocean, and I did get a lot of salt in my mouth, and I did see a crab, and I did jump in waves, and I did get a sunburn. Most importantly, I saw a lot of things that could only happen in Jersey:
1. There were guys playing frisbee and whenever they caught it they would yell "JERSEY!"
2. There was a woman in a confederate flag bathing suit. I'm guessing she had a tramp stamp that said "Starz and Barz."
3. There was this man wearing the world's smallest bathing suit in the world, which had day glow splotches of color all over it. Plus, he had a very large beer belly. Plus, he had a visor. Plus, he had a bleach blonde ponytail cascading down his back. Plus, he had bluetooth. Zofia and I took pictures as he swaggered past us.
4. I saw multiple people with wife beater tan lines.
It was awesome.
INSTITUTE
Institute is where I "learned" how to be a teacher. It was, overall, boring and I was forced to change groups a whole lot. I also had to make a lot of graphic organizers and justify how we used High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS) in class. It was really hot in the classes, a lot of people were annoying, and I had to dress up even though it was all Fellows there. Whatever. It wasn't that bad, because there were some great people too. It was about half and half. The main thing I didn't like is that I felt like a lot of the "administration" treated us like we aren't that smart. I don't get that because they hired us, so if we're not smart why do we have jobs? If 1700+ people applied for the job, you'd think the ~160 they hired would be smart. Whatever. Also, a lot of the people in my section thought they were really freaking smart when they were just smart asses. Whatever pt II with a side of What a Bunch of Phonies.
I did like Kim, though. I mean, I liked other people a lot, but I only really became friends with Kim. I'm not very good at making friends in classes for two reasons: (1) that's not why I'm there; (2) I've never really done it. Whenever I make friends it's because people talk to me. Wah Wah. Anyway, Kim was the Fellow I co-taught with, so I got to know her pretty well. Kim's from the Bronx and is Puerto Rican, so she knows a lot of really interesting stuff about being Latino that I don't know since I'm not Latino. I like learning about being Latino and being Puerto Rican from her. She taught me how to salsa dance once and that was really fun. I also like that she seems like the nicest person ever, and she kind of is, except that she says things like "So, sometimes I get into fights..."
Oh Dear Jesus, I'm going to end this post and start a new one. The next one is on SUMMER SCHOOL TEACHING, and I want to talk about it all on its own because of how much I liked it.
HOUSING
Zofia and I are having a great time living together. She's a wonderful roommate and a good and fun friend. I think I moved into the best possible living situation I could have. It has been really nice to have someone to go through training with and someone to go through the boring days with as well. We watch a lot of movies / tv on dvd and chat. It's a lot like living with Chelsie and Val, except without all the awesome memories. HOWEVER, we are not living together this fall. Now, don't jump to conclusions and think that's a bad thing. It's not.
TANGENT: I told a girl at institute that Zofia and I aren't living together and she looked like she was going to cry. I had to calm her down and tell her that we didn't get in a fight or anything. Talk about too invested in people she hardly knows.
ANYWAY, Zofia's boyfriend Alex got into grad school in Philly, so they are moving together to an apartment in Bella Vista. That left me looking for an apartment, and since I don't have any furniture or crap like that I started looking for a house with a room for rent. I emailed a million billion people and the second place I went to IS MY NEW HOME. It's on Pine and Broad, which means if I walk the 30 seconds to the corner and look to my right I can see CITY HALL. PRICE: $325/mo + utilities...which is the cheapest apartment I've ever heard of (except the one I paid $310/mo for in Ann Arbor...).
My roommate is this dude man named Quame. Quame works for Philly Car Share and writes books. Quame is very nice, has a great book collection, likes to share wine, and is, in general, the kind of person I instantly feel comfortable around. We've even hung out a couple of times since I signed the lease, so I think we're going to be good roommates and good friends too. I'm really excited about my new home.
OH, it's on the fourth floor. Whatever.
THE JERSEY SHORE
One weekend Zofia's boyfriend Alex came to visit because, as I said, he's moving to Philly and he was interviewing for a job. We all decided we needed to go to the Jersey Shore because, well, because I love the idea of Jersey.
TANGENT: I had previously been to Jersey only once, and that was on accident. I was trying to drive back from downtown to Penn Treaty where I had Institute and I realized I was going south on 95 instead of north. So, obviously, I got off the freeway to turn around. That seems simple, right? WRONG. Nothing about the Walt Whitman Bridge is simple. NOTHING. I got off without knowing that there is no exit before Jersey on that particular road, and there is also no sign telling me that until I'm on the freakin' bridge heading into a different state. So, I'm in Jersey and I have 15 minutes before class begins and I'm heading down this road because just like on the bridge, there's NO FREAKING PLACE IN JERSEY TO TURN AROUND. And then I realize my gas light is on, so I go to a gas station. Do you know what happens in gas stations in Jersey? DO YOU?! They pump your gas. I was really confused and I may or may not have frightened the gas pumper. He shouldn't have asked me how I was doing when I was very anxious about being late. THEN, I had to keep driving until I made it to this godforsaken round about thing that lead me back the other direction. So I'm heading to the bridge and I see that you have to pay a toll, so I take the direction to the Ben Franklin Bridge instead because that sign didn't say I had to pay a toll. That sign lied. So, I'm in line for the bridge but, oh wait!, I don't have any dollars and it costs four to get back to Philly. So I tell the fare man that I don't have money and he tells me that he can't write me a thing to pay later and that I have to go talk to someone in the bridge office even though I told him that I was running late for class. (I'm typing how I was speaking, FYI.) So, I go to the bridge official and talk quickly to him and then quickly to another man and they tell me that I can just go for free. No toll. And, for an instant, Jersey ruled. Anyway, I got to institute 15-25 minutes late and it was no big deal.
Back to The SHORE. So, anyway, we wanted to go to Atlantic City to go to The Shore because we all imagined there'd be a lot of kitschy things there. However, we didn't make it to AC (BABY) because we ended up in Sea Isle City. SIC was nice, though, so I didn't mind. Except, at SIC you have to pay to go to the beach. That's weird. But I did get to go into the ocean, and I did get a lot of salt in my mouth, and I did see a crab, and I did jump in waves, and I did get a sunburn. Most importantly, I saw a lot of things that could only happen in Jersey:
1. There were guys playing frisbee and whenever they caught it they would yell "JERSEY!"
2. There was a woman in a confederate flag bathing suit. I'm guessing she had a tramp stamp that said "Starz and Barz."
3. There was this man wearing the world's smallest bathing suit in the world, which had day glow splotches of color all over it. Plus, he had a very large beer belly. Plus, he had a visor. Plus, he had a bleach blonde ponytail cascading down his back. Plus, he had bluetooth. Zofia and I took pictures as he swaggered past us.
4. I saw multiple people with wife beater tan lines.
It was awesome.
INSTITUTE
Institute is where I "learned" how to be a teacher. It was, overall, boring and I was forced to change groups a whole lot. I also had to make a lot of graphic organizers and justify how we used High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS) in class. It was really hot in the classes, a lot of people were annoying, and I had to dress up even though it was all Fellows there. Whatever. It wasn't that bad, because there were some great people too. It was about half and half. The main thing I didn't like is that I felt like a lot of the "administration" treated us like we aren't that smart. I don't get that because they hired us, so if we're not smart why do we have jobs? If 1700+ people applied for the job, you'd think the ~160 they hired would be smart. Whatever. Also, a lot of the people in my section thought they were really freaking smart when they were just smart asses. Whatever pt II with a side of What a Bunch of Phonies.
I did like Kim, though. I mean, I liked other people a lot, but I only really became friends with Kim. I'm not very good at making friends in classes for two reasons: (1) that's not why I'm there; (2) I've never really done it. Whenever I make friends it's because people talk to me. Wah Wah. Anyway, Kim was the Fellow I co-taught with, so I got to know her pretty well. Kim's from the Bronx and is Puerto Rican, so she knows a lot of really interesting stuff about being Latino that I don't know since I'm not Latino. I like learning about being Latino and being Puerto Rican from her. She taught me how to salsa dance once and that was really fun. I also like that she seems like the nicest person ever, and she kind of is, except that she says things like "So, sometimes I get into fights..."
Oh Dear Jesus, I'm going to end this post and start a new one. The next one is on SUMMER SCHOOL TEACHING, and I want to talk about it all on its own because of how much I liked it.
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