One Month Down, One to Go

COURSEWORK
Going through the past two weeks of coursework felt like time was standing still. Now, though, it feels like the blink of an eye. I can hardly believe I've been through 2 weeks of science immersion and 2 weeks about adolescent learning. That month was here and gone. To give you a sense of exactly how much coursework that is, it's 8 credits worth of courses in the span of four weeks. That is what made it so intensive.

As a bit of a sidebar, I came across this amazing mind-mapping program for Macs that is incredibly useful and intuitive for making brainstorming webs (or whatever you want to call them).  It is free and the results look quite professional.  The program is called Mind Node.  If you do give it a spin, let me know what you think of it.  I'd be curious to know.

WHAT'S NEXT
Next week, we begin our final course in addition to our fieldwork. I am a bit nervous of the field experience. Thus far, scheduling information has been distributed uncomfortably late. For example, I didn't know where I was to go or what I was to do on this coming Monday until yesterday afternoon. I still don't really know what the reporting instructions are for field work (classroom observation / practice teaching). Apparently the responsibility of field work rests more with our respective field training sites (schools) than it does with the Teaching Fellows office or City College. Understandable, but frustrating and anxiety-inducing. I have contacted my school to find out exactly what they think is supposed to happen, but really, I'm not sure that anyone actually knows for sure.

ALTERED PERSPECTIVE
I have had my perspective of what to expect drastically altered within the past two weeks. I've been told stories about students rolling joints IN class, student's genuinely believing the sun is a living organism, homework assignments being futile, students being drunk in class, openly gay students dancing together at prom (that's a positive one, obviously) and a variety of other anecdotal influences that have altered how I think of my approaching teaching experience.

This experience is giving me the tools to transmit information to students effectively, manage my classroom effectively and problem solve effectively so that the daunting task of my first year's chaos is mitigated. While I might feel more prepared, I will still expect crazier things so that maybe I won't be as surprised with a curve ball (rare is it that I used baseball analogies).

Breaks & Brakes

I am grateful for both.

Following a fast-paced first week of training, I have been very happy enjoying my break from coursework this weekend. It has been a nice 48 hours or so to recuperate. Friday, instead of coursework, we were assigned to visit the neighborhood of where we will be working in the fall or classroom teaching during the summer. While in the area, we were supposed to make some anthropological and ethnographic observations.

Instead of just taking the train, I decided to ride my bike to the area of my high school - midtown Manhattan. What a rush. While 8th avenue may have "bike lanes," they are rarely left unobstructed thanks to stopping cabs and double-parked cars. Most of the time, one must dart in and out of traffic to continue down the avenue. While exciting, it was nice to leave midtown and head to the west side for a leisurely ride down the park along the river.

Yesterday, I went for another biking excursion in the city. Up 6th and 8th aves from 14th st to Central Park I rode. I took the main road all the way through and around Central Park and it was absolutely beautiful. Afterwards, while heading back downtown via 5th avenue, the ride was not as smooth as it had been. While staying to the left on the avenue (there was no bike lane in that area) a car decided to stop short as it turned onto a side street just before the crosswalk. This would normally make perfect sense.

Funny though, that a car would stop for a crosswalk when no pedestrian are in it. So as the car stopped and I continued, I quickly gripped my brakes as hard as I could and skidded right into the rear bumper of a silver Altima. Luckily, I wasn't going fast enough to cause any damage to either party, although I think my few choice words may have caused some emotional damage to the driver. Learn how to drive.

Otherwise, I'm finding that biking is a great leisurely activity. With Sunday here and storm clouds lingering, I'm not sure if I will bike again today or stay in and write my ethnographic paper for tomorrow. Either way, I am fully bracing myself for the busy week ahead.

Unprecedented Speed and Amount of Reading and Writing

No doubt, I am entirely capable of keeping up with the copious readings that come with especially intensive graduate school work. However, it seems the entirety of my commute and "free" time have been utterly and completely relinquished to the tasking of reading custom bound course texts. This is of course, not to mention the moderate amount of writing assignments to accompany these readings in the form of reflections, outlines of the readings, and journal entries. It is not specifically the amount of work that is taxing, but the rate at which it is expected to be executed. In the past two days, I have been expected to create two (thorough and comprehensive - 5 pgs each) outlines based on text, two journal entries, an autobiographical essay in addition to about 100 pages of reading.

Let me be clear. I am not complaining. However taxing of tasks these may be, I signed up for this and fully intend to see it through. These assignments are for my benefit and I am acutely aware of this. While I will not vocalize my venting to the instructor in class, others choose to do so, as they very well may. However, yesterday, the instruction gave us the snide comment, "welcome to grad school." Overall, I am gleaning a lot from her instruction, but I can see how a comment like that might come across and ridiculous and condescending to my peers, some of whom have advanced degrees and have completed post-doctorate work. To the post-docs especially, it's almost humorous. In actuality, I'm not really concerned about it, but just found it funny that someone of significantly lower formal academic accomplishment would venture such a snide remark to such a diverse group.

Aside from any negative aspects, training is interesting. Day by day, I feel like I'm getting a tool here for classroom management, a tool there for instructional design. I am also somewhat sleep deprived and mentally taxed, so any typos or grammatical errrors are purely an artifact of those facts.

As I have been so busy, I am not able to fully articulate my thoughts just yet, but I figured it would be best to post something within the first few days of training. Needless to say, I look forward to the weekend, but am definitely learning useful information during training.

Cohort 16 Welcoming Event at Lincoln Center

I had no idea that cohort 16 would fill Avery Fischer Hall at Lincoln Center. I was totally astounded and how large we all looked together. That's probably good considering the number of kids who need a higher quality education in NYC. Part of the point of the event was to further inspire us and I say job well done.

Students from different schools performed. I was very glad to see that our welcoming event was utilized to give students a chance to showcase their work in such a grand venue. I really needed no further reason to attend. I was especially happy to see the audience give a standing ovation to the students from District 75 following their performance of Hard Knock Life from "Annie." District 75 is the city-wide district for special education students. I can only hope that our warm ovation helped seal that experience of performing at Lincoln Center into their memories for the rest of their lives. After all, we are here to make a change for the better.

Aside from more sentimental thoughts, I was also glad to Chancellor Joel Klein for the DOE speak. He was very eloquent, passionate and articulate. Although he is a cog in the machine of NYC administration, I truly believe his heart lies with NYC's students. If not, he did a very good job making me believe it.

I think the Welcoming Event is a great way to begin training, to inspire new fellows and create a sense of camaraderie amongst fellows. We are all here (or should be) for the same reason of improving kids' lives through teaching. The Welcoming Event did a good job of conveying that message and further inspiring us to be great teachers.

Immersion Training, Stipend Checks & Bikes

Contrary to the title, finishing immersion training and my bicycle purchase are entirely unrelated.

In training yesterday, we gave small group presentations on our evaluation of a sort of packaged lesson plan kit for various subjects. My groups subject and kit was a SEPUP (Science Education for Public Understanding Program) kit intended to be used to teach major concepts about evolution. The kit is supposed to come with everything a teacher needs to teach a lesson on different subjects including workbooks, teacher's manual and supplies. Overall, I found the kits to be rather contrived and poor quality to actually teach such subjects in an engaging way. Unfortunately, these kits are already being implemented in NYC's public schools. Maybe these work overall to improve student achievement when implemented, but real life science is not a kit, so why on earth would we teach it like that? - Just my opinion.

On Thursday, all of the science and math immersion fellows were delighted to receive the first portion of the summer stipend of $1,000. Needless to say, I was happy to have an income again. Also, a small extra perk is that the checks were from Chase, which happens to be my bank, so I did not have to wait for the check to clear.

Lastly, I've been considering purchasing a bike to either commute (probably not) or just go around town on. While it's a nice idea to be active in my self-transportation, the potential disastrous accidents while biking absolutely terrifies me. However, this fear was not enough to stop me from purchasing a bike. I went to a bike shop on 14th st near 1st ave and test rode a three of the same brand - Dahon. Dahon typically does not sell standard bikes; most of them are foldable. As dorky as it may seem to have a bike with 20" wheels being folded up at the train station, I really don't mind losing a small amount of dignity for a large amount of convenience. The bike is actually quite comfortable and convenient. There's even a tired pump IN the seat! It's about 23 pounds also, so I can carry it without breaking my back, although not much further than a few blocks. Ideally I would ride this to work, but somehow I think I would be far too sweaty by the end of my ride, which itself would be far too long for a daily commute. Maybe I'll start riding in my down time and then see if I want to step it up a bit later. If all goes well, my new bike will come with a more active and healthy lifestyle (hopefully!).

Turning up the heat...

Okay, this isn't so much teaching related, but it is definitely part of the experience. The weather for the past four days in NYC has been consistently above 95 degrees. Walking to the train in the morning and evening, the heat is stifling. Waiting for the train in suffocating. I am so glad I purchased an AC two weeks ago before the heat became unbearable. Besides that, I've pretty much kept inside to prevent heat stroke.

Otherwise, I had a midterm yesterday. It took the methods and concepts we learned in the past week and asked us to apply them to novel situations. Also, a sign of effective instruction and a good assessment: an open note exam that is still challenging. I hope that I will be able to challenge my students in the same way.

It is funny that I have a midterm and a final in the same week. I guess that's why it's called *intensive* training. I genuinely believe it is rigorous training for teachers, not just going through the motions to get a certification. This stuff is challenging, stimulating and inspiring!

This coming Friday concludes our Science Immersion training. Next Monday is the Welcoming Event for all ~1500 fellows at Lincoln Center. The two-hour welcoming ceremony will be a nice break from this 6 hours of daily coursework. Plus we get a free monthly metrocard, an $81 value! Woohoo!

End of the First Week of Immersion Training

I have to say, training has not been as taxing as I expected it to be.  While they activities require constant and undivided attention, the days are relatively short compared to a typical 8 hour work day.

Fortunately, I am somewhat familiar with some of the pedagogical methods being presented such as Bloom's taxonomy, inquiry based learning and the 5E/6E model.  While I have learned about those methods themselves before, for the majority of my undergraduate education, my professors have utilized those methods more often than not.  I can personally vouch for their efficacy in my own experiences.  The real trick will be implementing them with my own students.

On the more social side of things, there are a few fellows in Science Immersion who are trying to get a group together to head to a local bar or pub after the week concludes this evening.  During the day, we are in the same small group, which limits our ability to socialize with many of our peers.  I think a nice post-first-week-of-training-pub-expedition may remedy that.

The week has gone very fast.  I imagine that means I am either working very hard or having fun, or I might hope, both.  I look forward to the Welcoming Event on the 16th where ALL fellows (not just math and science immersion) gather at Lincoln Center for a formal welcoming to the program, all 1,600 of us.  Until then I will continue soaking up all the useful information I can about teaching science.

Being Taught How to Teach

As I become more adjusted to my new schedule and commute, I am beginning to realize the value of what I am learning in the immersion training.  However, it is not what I expected, even by a long shot.

The way I understood Immersion Training to be was to essentially be content review.  I expected to be going through basic and in depth biological concepts.  In reality, Immersion Training is more oriented towards teaching larger concepts in science such as critical thinking, observation, analysis, etc.  While in some regard, this material is content, it is certainly not specifically biology content.  In fact, for one portion of the training, earth science is being used as content to teach us pedagogical methods.  I've never had a deep interest in earth science, but the instructor is extremely well-versed in what he does and knows his stuff upside down and inside out.

I also expected an 8 hour schedule, just as any typical work day would be.  Instead, I report at 12:15 and am dismissed at about 5:45, with maybe a 20 minute break half way through.  I am glad it is not 8 hours, because learning the pedagogy can be taxing mentally and emotionally.  I can only imagine how the instructor feels.

I am glad to see that what we're learning is useful.  In slight retrospect, I think reviewing biology content would have been much less useful than what we are actually doing.  While I highly value the content of the course and even enjoy it, I will still say that I look forward to the weekend.

11 Hours of Sleep

Yesterday was the first full day of training.  I woke up at about 5:30 to ensure that I could commute from Ridgewood Queens to 137th St in Manhattan by 9AM.  I expected a very long commute.  Turns out, it took about an hour instead of closer to two.

Training was interesting.  At about 9:15 after some complimentary breakfast danishes and orange juice, administrative people from City College and NYCTF were introduced.  After some logistics, science immersion fellows (including me) left to go get our City College IDs.

After waiting in a long line with only one person operating one computer to create the IDs, I left to the college cafeteria to enjoy a tasty but quick lunch.  I was pretty impressed by the selection in the cafeteria compared to my college!  Well, I guess at this point, my alma mater.

In the latter half of the day was the real nuts and bolts of training.  Two gentlemen lead science immersion fellows in an activity where we all discusses and presented descriptives of effective teachers then reflected on the process of the activity.  We also received a short assignment to write a reflection about two articles given to us by Isaac Asimov and Brian Greene.

During the second session of training, the guy was kind of over the top.  He was good, great in fact, at teaching.  He totally blew our preconceptions about a heliocentric solar system out of the water.  I watched at people used poor logic to prove to him that our universe is heliocentric and not geocentric.  To you, the reader, this may sound confusing.  But think about it... How do you KNOW the earth revolves around the sun and not vice versa?  That was his point.

From then on, we worked in small groups to complete activities dealing with the idea of how the sun casts a shadow throughout the day and how that reflects the location of the sun in the sky etc.  The point is that we focused on content and pedagogy simultaneously.  The man was intimidating, but effective.

Anyway, I went to bed last night at about 9PM and woke up about half an hour ago at 8AM.  Some quick math tells you that's about 11 hours of sleep.  It was much needed rest.  I better go and prepare for my second day of training now.