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!

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.

 

Looks Like I'll Be Moving

After I emailed NYCTF inquiring about the possibility of being reassigned to Pace for my master's degree, I received a prompt and informative response.

While Pace supports biology fellows, it does not support biology immersion fellows.  City College is the only institution for fellows assigned to Manhattan that offers a master's program for biology / general science immersion fellows.  For those who do not know what immersion is, here is an explanation:

NYCTF offers two "immersion" programs for fellows that have taken significant coursework in either math or science, but do not have a degree in the field.  In practice, the difference is two more weeks of training in science or math content with an extra $1k tacked onto the stipend for the summer (and apparently a narrowed pool of universities).  

I know last time I said I felt somewhat disappointed, but I've reconsidered.  Now I am excited.  As I am not bound to Queens for any reason, I will look into apartments near City College to minimize my commute.  It would be nice to learn a new neighborhood and just feel some change.  Sure there will be some obstacles like figuring out if/when I can break my lease, searching for an apartment, etc., but I welcome the challenge.  Thankfully I will be able to afford a one bedroom instead of a studio - living in a bread box gets old.