Teacher Education Program On-Campus Visit

After working as a member of AmeriCorps I realized I wanted to be involved in urban education. I searched for programs throughout the nation and the combination of a top-tier staff/student body, length of the program (10 months), and promotion of social justice for all I decided I wanted to be a part of UPenn's Teacher Education Program. It's a certification program that works for pre-college ages.

Whether you want to teach pre-kindergarteners or 12th graders, our Teacher Education Program (TEP) can get you on track to certification. 

Through a commitment to social justice and urban education, TEP prepares prospective teachers to transform students and schools. You can read more about the program on their extensive website: http://www2.gse.upenn.edu/tep/.

Read through the website and want to learn more in-person?

Join the Urban Teacher Education program for an on-campus information session on Saturday, December 7 from 10am-noon ET. RSVP here. (Please note only the Teacher Education program will be represented and discussed at this event.)

I highly suggest the coming to campus for this visit. It's the selling point for nearly all of my cohort that attended. Not only do they provide valuable information about the Penn campus and program, but you also get a chance to mosey around the city and see if "the feel" of the city is good for you! Hopefully you're able to attend and I'll see you there! Take care for now.

Constitution High School Election

Today was a special day for Constitution High School, the school that I do my fieldwork at. It's the 50th anniversary of JFK being shot and we had a very special tribute to him. On top of the tribute we had the first stage of our schools student government elections. A few people were running for president, vice president, treasurer, and secretary. Each student was allowed to create a 3 minute speech along with a minute or two campaign video. The students that weren't running for office had spent all week creating signs and helping in the preparation for the school-wide debates that took place today. It was a heck of a presentation by all the candidates and the student body that was watching all seemed thoroughly entertained throughout the whole day. We were lucky enough to have a shortened day schedule and then each class commuted to the Drexel (hmmm) campus for the debate. Surprisingly all the students showed up on time and were on the edge of their seats ready to hear what each candidate had to say. We had an imposter president acting and actually sounding just like the real Obama! It was a great show. This Tuesday we plan on having our school-wide elections to see who will run the student government for the rest of this year. I have never been a part of a school that's been so invested into everything they do. I was shocked to see the amount of enthusiasm and effort put forth to make today go as smoothly as it did. Our principal surprised us all by signing off on a student produced bill that allows all Freshman...yeah, FRESHMAN to go out to lunch. This is the most progressive and forward thinking school I have ever been a part of. It's still fascinating to me to see what can get done when High Schoolers come together in order to fight for a common cause. Props to you Constitution High!!

november weather

It's been freeeezing outside the past couple days. For those of you who plan on coming to Penn next year and are moving from warmer areas I'd recommend bringing plenty of layers to bundle up! I moved here to Philly from Los Angeles about 5 months ago and I still don't think my body has gotten use to the cold weather. BURRR!
Luckily there has been a little bit of a break in the amount of work due for classes and I've finally had a chance to have a social life again and see some friends. In 10 days we'll have Thanksgiving break and a lot of assignments are going to be due then so I can imagine I'll be having a bunch of work to do next week. After Thanksgiving there is only a month until Winter Break which is the end of the first semester. This is when all of our final papers are due so that's definitely going to be a bit crazy and hectic but it should all work out.
It snowed here to other day which was neat to see and there's nothing really like spending Christmas time in the northeast. Stores and dorm windows are already "decked" out with Christmas lights and the "holiday cheer" is beginning to float throughout the city. I don't know if it's just me but everyone also seems a little happier. Who knows? For now though I have no complaints and I'm really excited to get this little Thanksgiving break before the end of the semester. It'll be nice to go home for a bit and then only have another month left before our school has a larger break for the holiday season. Hope you're all staying warm wherever you are. Take care for now!

REMINDER!

The deadline to apply for all Ph.D. programs for Fall 2014 enrollment is SUNDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2013!

This means ALL materials must be received by the admissions office by that date.

All applications received by that date are guaranteed a faculty review of all materials.

If you have not yet taken the GRE, you must do so no later than NOVEMBER 22, 2013 or your test scores will not make it to us in time.

We always recommend that you submit your application and materials earlier rather than waiting until the absolute last day!

Any questions? Please email admissions@gse.upenn.eduor give us a call at (215)898-6415.

week 8 professional development

Things have been going well and I've been consistently lesson planning but it was nice this week to have a couple days without students for professional development. It's always a pleasure to share common practices with teachers who also work with the same students as you. I still don't have much of a presence with the rest of the faculty, but I enjoyed listening to the things they had to say to try to understand what I'll be dealing with next year when I'm a full time teacher. We mainly discussed a new rating system for the teachers. Some teachers voiced an initial disapproval and others didn't look like they wanted to learn something new, but ultimately all the teachers agreed on the best way they could implement new teaching strategies to fit in line with the new teacher-rating system.
One of the neat things I took away from the workshop was a new creative way to write objectives. I was familiar with SWBAT (Students Will Be Able To) but in addition to that the "Danielson Model" encourages us to include IOT (In Order To). An example would be...Student will be able identify the major characteristics necessary for a civilization to survive in order to better understand the fall of Rome. I think this is a useful (IOT) because if it's projected or written on the board it will remind students of their overall goal AND how they are going to apply this new learned material.
It's been a shortened week so tomorrow is only my 3rd day with the students but I'm excited to get back in the classroom with them and try to implement these new strategies. We'll see how it goes but I'll be sure to keep you posted!

week 7

This past week was Halloween and the students were definitely wound up a little extra. Instead of doing too much class work, my high school was able to attend a play at the Wilma Theater and have the actors come to class to speak with them. It was really neat week and the students remained engaged in discussion for the whole week.
We learned about Great Zimbabwe as well as European colonization in Africa, and then saw the play The Convert. It was a story of a African tribal woman and her self-removal from her family and culture in order to be a Christian. When the actors came in to speak with our class they were able to have the students share stories of immigration or anytime they felt out of place. It was amazing the see students fully involved in discussion and learning the material very well.
My teacher told me of a teaching strategy/style called foxfire where students relate what they learn in class to out of class experiences. Us being allowed to attend a play, only a few blocks from our school was inline with this new teaching method. I was impressed with its success.
I've been really lucky being in the Philadelphia area and being able to see all of the history around me every day. Not every school gets to pick up and go on a class trip to famous playhouses so I must say I'm really enjoying my time here at the University of Pennsylvania AND in Philadelphia.