Bad Ice Breaker

I just moved out of my dorm and into a new dorm for the summer. Penn undergraduates who take summer classes are all housed in one of the twelve college houses and it just so happens not to be the one that I live in September through May. No worries, though. This one rocks. Instead of my quaint, homely dorm room, I have a modern one-bedroom apartment in a high rise. Anyway, new dorm and new school term means new house staff to meet. Over the past couple of days I have become acquainted with 13 new, experienced residential advisors and no orientation would be complete without a couple of trust falls and icebreakers. I should say that I, for one, LOVE icebreakers. I'm cheesy like cheddar on swiss so any day when I can play two truths/one lie, or human bingo is a good day in my book.

This particular icebreaker entailed picking a card from this deck of conversation starters. All of my peers had really cool questions like, "what was your favorite meal growing up?" or "what was the last thing you downloaded?" I got, "When was the last time you cried?" WHAT?!?! This is not a conversation starter as much as a conversation stopper. Luckily I was able to make a joke out of the question and we've been laughing about it ever since. In fact, I think I'm going to ask that on my next first date just because after this experience I find it so funny. But in all seriousness, what conversation expert thought this would be a good way to start a conversation?

The Giver

I was working with a sixth grade student who was explaining the plot of The Giver to me. She said, "So it's like set in a time period where men are like more important than women. You know, like the 90s or something."

The Skype Interview: A Critical Analysis

Since I am looking internationally for teaching jobs, the interviews have been during all hours of the day. For instance, last night I had a skype interview at 11 PM. This had some advantages. I was able to appear all professional without having to wear uncomfortable shoes. I was all business from the waist up, you know, crisp button down with a sweater vest, and all pajamas from the waist down, complete with slippers. I also didn’t have the stress of finding a strange office and means of transportation. I love Philly Car Share, but I hate commuting. Plus, it always rains on the day of an interview. ALWAYS.

The disadvantage was finding an appropriate backdrop in my room. Finding a wall that didn’t look like a complete cesspool of dirty laundry and used coffee mugs was a bit of a challenge. Also, skype has that little screen in the corner of the video conference that casts your image in real time. Interviewing is hard enough but to see myself in the little “rearview” skype video giving responses is TOTALLY distracting.

Job versus Academics

Job searching during the last couple of weeks of class is just BRUTAL. It’s like the whole point of graduate studies and professional training is to get a job, but there is simply no time to conduct a job search while in school. My options are:

(1) do a kickass job at completing my assignments and earn a respectable GPA BUT be unemployed upon graduation;

(2) do a mediocre job of keeping up with my school work due to spend several hours a day looking for the perfect position; or

(3) try and adjust my sleep schedule to allow for only five or six hours of sleep a night, rid myself of any form of social life (with the exception of fifteen minute spurts of facebook and/or gchat), and attempt to find a job while doing a kickass job of completing my assignments.

I chose the third option which is why I am evolving from a usually upbeat, energetic, positive person, to a constantly whining, anti-social, unhygienic wimp. Well the end is near, with only a couple of classes left. While I am not the flowing fountain of positivity I once was, I can recognize I will probably benefit from these sleepless nights. I’ve found a number of wonderful networking groups and have been going on a number of interviews. Plus the work I’ve submitted to my brilliant and understanding professors hasn’t been all crap. I’ve received a couple of refrigerator worthy grades.

Wish me luck as I POWER THROUGH!

The Bane of my GA Existence

Spring Fling-

Like many a college tradition, Spring Fling is really just another excuse for undergrads (and underagers) to drink excessively. Akon and Guster will perform. Sororities will have dunk tanks. Fraternities will have jousting. And as if Penn paid off Mother Nature, the weather will be perfectly 70 degrees with a light spring breeze.

The only problem is that as a GA, my job will be to take alcohol to already boozed kids who might not be used to hearing "no". And all of the festivities take place in the quad, where I live. Last year there were people peeing off balconies, vandalizing my carefully crafted door signs, just all around debauchery. Ugh.

So, in an effort to prepare, protect, warn, comfort my residents, I wrote a poem and I stuck to a bag full of snack food. A survival kit if you will, complete with whistles with public safety contact information and condoms.

It’s been a long semester and you deserve a chance to let loose!
But, mentors, please be careful not to rely on illegal booze!
Have food in your stomach and love in your heart,
I know you will survive fling, you’re independent spirits, and incredibly smart!

Procrastination Station

Ugh. As much as I love reading about linguistics, it is hard to look forward to a weekend that involves little else. I've already started thinking about about other tasks I could do in order to prolong the hundreds of pages worth of empirical studies I must read.

For instance, I could hand write thank you notes to all of my residents. Maybe instead of simple thank you notes, I could express my gratitude for their service through couplet poems or a good ole quatrain. I could attach the card to a cellophane wrapped bag of freshly baked cookies. I should start researching recipes right now!

Why stop there? I have a lot of other correspondence to catch up on. At that top of that list, I am lucky to have two healthy grandmothers that have probably forgotten about my existence since I communicate so infrequent.

Or when I was younger, I used to like to write letters to politicians. Maybe I could to do that this weekend. President Obama needs to know how I really feel about forcing English language learners to take standardized, culturally biased tests.

Instead of writing letters, I could write my goals or even just positive thoughts on scraps of fabric and then weave them into a rug. Then, every time I come home, I'd be motivated/inspired to do my work and become a fearless and thoughtful teacher dedicated to urban education and inequality.

Or, I could just stop procrastinating through this blog and get to work. That way, I might actually finish before sunset on Sunday evening. Then, I could relax for like five minutes before Monday strikes again.

Philly Girls Roller Derby

Last weekend, I crawled out of my bulkpack and into the real world once again. I met a couple of friends at the Philly Girls Roller Derby. I guess I thought the scene would resemble a speed skating competition. You know, lots of shiny lycra outfits with fans that brought their own stop watch. I was dead wrong. There were two teams of really tough looking, yet sassy and stylish, women who were wearing roller blades with fishnet stockings. They basically attacked one another at rapid speeds for 90 mins. It was brutal! There were grunts, bruises, stocking rips, and blood. I left the roller derby feeling like a wimpy, nerdy grad student. I play kickball on the weekdays with people under four feet tall. Does that make me tough?

A fifth grader called you a what?

Ok, I thought I had the best job in the world, and then a fifth grader called me a “bitch”. Maybe he missed the memo, but my job is to ensure recess is fun and safe. That’s the opposite of a bitch. I’m like the literal interpretation of the fun police. (Side note, when I have to tell residents at the dorm to be quiet or I have to break up a party, they often make snotty comments like, “What are you, like the Fun Police?” This always confuses me because if I were in fact the Fun Police, wouldn’t I be mandating fun? Forcing it upon them? Stupid college freshmen…). Anyway, how did this fifth grader misunderstand? Ugh. Perhaps organizing games isn’t going to be as easy as I thought. This particular school doesn’t have the funds for Physical Education so these recess games are the student’s first taste of team centered, organize sports. I think we (the volunteers and me) have to really consider that we are in essence teaching Physical Education. I am truly understanding the meaning of socialized cooperative play.

Strappy sandals or pointy slingbacks?

Ugh, after being woken up twice at 4 in the morning (I swear, the kid across from me must be one popular frat kid….he has visitors at all sorts of hours), I slid out of bed and into the shower at 7 AM. I looked over my lesson plans on my way to the Nationalities Services Center. I grabbed an overly priced skinny, vanilla late and got to class a little before 9 AM. Using handpicked props from my wardrobe, we practiced using the singular and plural modifiers “this”, “that”, “these”, and “those”. “Shall I wear these strappy sandals or those pointy slingbacks?” Truly mind blowing.

At about 12 noon, I scrambled to meet my volunteers at second lunch for recess support. Here, I headed up a game of kickball. Man, is it hard to play kickball without pinnies! I cannot keep track of which kid is on what team and there is a solid group of five or six kids who seem to always be in the kicking line-up and never in the outfield.

After breaking up a fight between two fourth graders where I did endure one surprising hard punch in the stomach, I hopped on a bus to head to another elementary school. Twice a week, I mentor a sixth grade ESOL student. Lucy is amazing. I really enjoy working with her one-on-one. I coordinate mentoring placements for my 26 undergrads so being able to mentor too and establish a relationship that encourages academics as well as emotional support is really important to me. We worked on her project on African geography and climates.

I swung by the cafeteria on my way to the trolley and scarfed down a barely edible station served falafel. The trolley dropped me off right in front of the Graduate School of Education just in time for my 3 PM class. I love Dr. Rymes. I’m not sure if it’s wise to declare my love for a professor on my public blog, but Betsy Rymes embodies all that is right in Teacher Education. She teaches EDUC 517 Classroom Discourse which studies how teachers frame opportunities (or fail to frame opportunities) for student participation.

After class, I hit the library to get some reading done before my house meeting.
About every two weeks, all of the Residential Advisors and Graduate Associates get together for dinner to discuss house activities. I love these meetings because there are some RAs/GAs that I NEVER see despite living fifteen feet from them. Living with people from all of the twelve schools (well, actually, I don’t live with medical, dental, or veterinary students) that comprise the University of Pennsylvania, connects me to campus in a way simply attending classes never could. They are such creative and socially inviting individuals. I am very blessed. Plus, since we are RAs/GAs, there is never a shortage of freshly baked cookies.

I finally headed back to my room around 9 PM to finish some reading. This of course was interrupted numerous times by my loving, yet completely self-involved freshmen who need guidance on all sorts of important topics such as, “Should I wear these strappy sandals or those point slingbacks?" And it all came full circle.

Best New Job EVER

There is totally something to be said for reading those GSE wide email newsletters because I just got the best new job on the face of the planet. So I am working on a joint grant project between the department of public health and GSE to study/implement socialized recess in urban, underfunded Philadelphia elementary schools. Basically, the program uses volunteers to organize cooperative play through sports and games during recess time to increase physical activity and reduce fight related injuries. The schools involved in this project typically have two or three aids per 120 students therefore there is little opportunity to organize a game. Generally the aids aren’t paid very well and they have to spend most of their time surveying the crowded lunchroom room or play yard rather than engaging with the students. This program hopes to provide the support needed in order to make recess and lunch an enjoyable, productive, and healthy experience.

So basically, I will be working with incredible leaders in child development to develop positive behavior incentives, and brilliant public health officials who hope to evaluate student experience, while my job will be to play with the students. I am getting paid to go to recess. It is the best job in the world! Who doesn’t want to play dodgeball and kickball and mash?

They merely freshmen....

My freshmen are going a little nuts. Rush week just ended and now some of them are pledging. As the coordinator of a residential community service program, part of my job is to encourage/maintain their commitment to the elementary school where they tutor. This encouragement usually comes in the form of study breaks and other hall events, basically any situation with baked goods and company. I haven’t had anyone become delinquent in their commitment to the program, which has less to do with any event and more to do with the quality of people in the program. But now(!), I am fighting for my life in a battle against the GREEKS.

The Greeks are wooing them with shiny gifts and trendy hipster parties. They come armed with the fake small talk from upper classman and the glitzy networking opportunities. How can I compete? I’m ninety-nine percent positive that I can’t offer them the same caliber (or any caliber) of alcoholic beverages or themed exotic dancers. There aren’t enough brownies in the world to make me cooler than the Greeks.

It’s hard being a freshman at a big university like the University of Pennsylvania. Most of my adorably brilliant and charming residents are coming from the top of their game in their respective hometowns. They are used to be student leaders, la crème de la crème, but now found themselves struggling to find identity among a slew of equally talented co-eds. This complex struggle is fueled by the regular garden-variety of 18 year old hormones.

In short, they are under some serious stress. And now, on top of competitive academics and all of their other clubs on campus, they are forced to buddy up and perform for a group of upperclassman. I have residents that are only allowed to wear a certain color, every day for the next 3 weeks. I have residents that have dressed up in random animal costumes and had to parade around campus. I was even mooned by three of my boys as some sort of pledge dare.

Anyway, as busy and exciting as my life is, I come home to a group of equally busy, albeit with bizarre, and self-inflicted, tasks pressurized undergrads. I’m fortunate to have my freshman posse to complain to, and stress-eat with. Tonight, I dined with five of them, who for some reason had to wear colored feather boas and tiaras, at our favorite guilty eating joint, good ole Taco Bell. And despite the cholesterol, saturated fat, and sodium, I feel better that I ate it with them.

From 2nd Grade to Adults: a new semester

So much has changed this semester; I hardly know where to begin. First of all, I have a new teaching site. I am a volunteer instructor at a nonprofit that supports immigrants and refugees in Philadelphia. This is my first experience teaching English as a second or other language to adults and so far I am loving it! The center is amazing. It provides social, educational and legal support to over 4,000 immigrants in the Philadelphia area. I am instantly inspired and energized when I walk in the building. There are so many people walking around speaking all sorts of languages interacting with instructors, lawyers, social workers or other students. There’s always a food, clothing or furniture drive going on so the goods are constantly coming in and out of the building. There is just such a sense of community, responsibility and synergy. I’m co-teaching with three other teachers. Two are from Taiwan and the other is from China. They are amazing! Since English is their second language, they have an invaluable perspective on how to teach it. I am so lucky to work with such talented teachers.