winding down and anticipating graduation

Today I went back to NJ and spent some time with my family! It feels really great to be done with school and finally have some free time where I'm able to do whatever I want. The other day I was trying to go to the Phillies/Mets game but it turned out that the game got rained out. Ive also been going out to try to eat at new places. Center City has so much to offer from Ethiopian to Italian food. I would definitely recommend people go there to enjoy the fresh eats!

Today back in NJ I went golfing which was pretty neat. The course was down south, actually not too far from Philadelphia and it was cheap for students. If you look around online you can see that a lot of places (golf courses in this instance) offer discounts for current students so before I officially graduate I want to get in everything I can.

I also think I got a job in California for the Los Angeles Unified School District. Hopefully things work out. I signed a contract with them but still dont have a placement. Im feeling pretty antsy trying to figure out where I'll be living/working so Im still feeling iffy. Who knows what will happen but Ill be sure to keep you posted! Take care for now and have a Happy Mothers Day.

no more class

Its May 1st and Im all done with classes and work! Woohoo. We graduate on the 17th and have some capstone celebration party sometime next week but beside that there is nothing else to be done. Most of the people in my program are looking for jobs now. Id estimate that about half of them (35 total) found jobs already and the others are still searching. It seems that those who want to stay in Philadelphia are having the most problems finding a job.
Anyway Im pretty excited to go explore the city in the next couple weeks and visit everything I didnt have time for. I hear that this Saturday there are a bunch of street fairs and festivals throughout the city. Look it up, its called SUPER SPRING SATURDAY! Ive never been to it before but I figure before I leave Philadelphia I need to experience some more throughout the city.
This year surely seemed to fly by. There was a ton a work which kept us all busy but it seems like just yesterday it was July and we had our orientation. Im excited and I think well prepared to become a teacher next year. The TEP really helped get me ready to want to go off on my own and become a teacher. I still plan on going to Los Angeles so we'll see what happens. Hopefully in the next couple weeks I'll be able to intensify my search and find out where I'll be teaching next year. Take care for now!

portfolio was due this week

The teacher education program people had our portfolios due this week which means we have no more work to submit this year, woohoo! I still have a couple more classes but no more work! One of the classes is my seminar where I believe a panel of graduates are going to come speak with us about the process of getting jobs and relocating. That should be entertaining and informative, I'm sure I have plenty of questions to ask. In my next class, history methods, we are going to the national constitution center! This is gonna be a blast. They recently put up on exhibit all about Thomas Jefferson and Im pretty excited to go it.
At times I felt like this year was never going to end, but now it seems like it flew right by.I think Im going to move to Los Angeles in a couple months and pursue a job in education there...we'll see what happens. I do still have a few more things I wan to do in Philadelphia that I would recommend to people just coming here.

1st I really want to attend a Phillies game. The tickets are relatively inexpensive and even though their a horrible team I can always cheer for the team theyre playing. Also next week they have a student appreciation night where students get $10 of on their tickets.

2nd I want to use my Penn ID to get into more places for free. I can use it to go to museums and libraries but I haven't used it yet this year. Now is my time to take advantage of these opportunities so I won't miss out.

3rd I want to start going out to dinner more and experiencing all the culture in this city. On average I walk past 5-6 unique looking restaurants  a day, but now since I have all this free time I going to go in and actually try out their food.

Ive got a couple weeks to complete this list and add on to it as well. Ill be sure to keep in touch and update you all along the way. Thanks and take care for now!  

first week off

so this has been my first week off since like Christmas. I'm all done with class but still have my thesis due in a little over a week. It's only Wednesday and I already find myself amazingly bored during the day. I continue to apply for any jobs that I can find on the internet but Im still waiting to hear back....hopefully that happens soon. Ive been able to listen to a lot of music in the last few days so thats always nice. Too bad the Phillies (and their fans) suck or maybe I'd try to go to one of their games.
The entire year has been so busy that once I'm done with it, I seemingly have nothing to do. I think I'm gonna go back home to NJ tonight to spend some time with family which is always nice. I get to be back for Easter and then come back here to Penn to finish my thesis.
Speaking of my thesis this year is one of the first years at Penn where our entire final submission (portfolio, thesis...whatever you want to call it) is due in the form of a website. If youre familiar with web design we use this site called WEEBLY. If youre not familiar with it and plan on joining the TEP program, I suggest you make yourself comfortable with it. Im a little upset because I have no web design skills and Id imagine those who have better design on their webpage (combined with the depth of their research) may receive better grade. Who knows, maybe Im just whining because I have nothing else to do?
Anyway, the year sure has passed by quickly. Im thinking once I get back to Penn after Easter that Ill go to the high school I was working at just to do something with my time. I dont know if I mentioned it but last week I played basketball with a few of my students and I think today is the first day Im not sore. Theyre quick and athletic little kids. Sure was nice being able to build a relationship with em outside of school though. Too bad it had to be so late into the year. Take care for now, fools!

last week at school

This was the last week of student teaching for me and it went really well. On the last few days the students and me got to reflect on the year and give feedback to one another for the future. It was a good learning process for me as well as a chance to reflect on my pedagogical approach this year. On my second to last day I actually went to a local park and played basketball with some of the students. I wish I could have done this earlier in the year but it was a neat chance to see the students outside of the classroom and interact with them.
On the final day of school we had a mini farewell party and played games throughout the day. The whole year seemed to pass by in a flash but I'm happy that it's finally over. Now my life is consisting of working on my inquiry thesis and looking for a job. I've scheduled some interviews so I hope something hits soon. It's going to be great to have the next week off from class and try to gather all of my thoughts for the final project. Our final paper is due on the 24th of April so as of right now I'm trying to put a little work in each day so I don't overwhelm myself.
I also get the chance to go home to NJ this week so I'm pretty excited to see my family. It'll be good to catch up with them and spend Easter at home for once. I'll be sure to write again next week explaining how my inquiry is going along with the job search. Take care for now!

This past week at school was extremely productive! I thought the snow day on Monday might foul up our schedule but we started off the week midway into our unit plan on identity and we were actually able to all but finish it too. The only day we have left in going to be Monday in which the students and I will have a chance to reflect on the unit together. I have an article that discusses “The American Identity” which will be given to the student immediately upon walking into the room. After they work on it for about 15 minutes we’ll go over it as a class and have a larger discussion framed around our identity timelines. The final step in our ID unit plan was to create our own personal identity timelines. The students were given an option to create a power point timeline, a standard linear drawn timeline, or write an autobiographical timeline. I figured that given them 3 options would appeal to the majority of the students being that most of them like to either work with computers, draw, or write. Every student was able to complete and hand-in their timeline by the due date which really impressed me.
One thing I tried out this unit was asking the students how they want to present their timeline. We had the option of doing whole class presentations or to break the class into groups and have smaller presentations. The class overwhelmingly voted to present to a smaller group of people so that’s what we did. As I walked around the room I noticed that students were very open with the things they included on their timeline and were willing to share to the groups they were in. Allowing student voice is a big thing in our school so it was nice for me to get a chance to see how it played out in the classroom!!

This past week in school was a bit crazy because we had a lot of guests come into our class for special lessons. My favorite guest speakers were these two undergrads from Penn who were trying to recruit for a Model UN team from Constitution High. They spoke to us on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday about issues going on throughout the world. It was an enthusiastic presentation and then we all participated in a simulation...very similar to the structure of Model UN. The two presenters broke the class up into 8 separate groups and had them each represent a country. The entire class was given an issue to deal with and had to come to some sort of compromise. Each country had a unique fact sheet about how passionate their country viewed certain issues and how much they were willing to budge from their current sticking point.   Simulations, if ran correctly, are one of the greatest methods for informing high schoolers. It was great to see most of the students working together with people they didn't normally converse with in class. The simulation also provided the space for students to negotiate with one another from neutral standpoints. Even though ultimately no compromise was reached in our class time I still believe that the students learned a lot from this exercise. Some of them were taken out of their comfort zone and showed the ability to thrive in a position they weren't use to performing in. Overall, it was a very impressive few days in class and I'm sure the students were able to come away from this lesson understanding a little more about international relations.