You know, there is been SO MUCH that has gone on since I last posted in my blog here. I knew I wouldn't be too good at this. But anywho, I'm going to try to sum up my last 8 days in a fun and engaging way. Soooo....let's get to it!
1) I LIVE SOMEWHERE! Yes, that's right, we FINALLY have an apartment! And due for safety reasons, I won't be posting the address on here, but feel free to message me and ask for it! First I'll explain the "we" I mentioned. I am living with 2 other participants from the MAT program, their names are Drew and Zack. They hail from Minnesota and Ohio, respectively, and an addition to the "we" will be Zack's girlfriend in July. So there's that.
We live in a cute little 4 bedroom apartment in upper Manhattan (and I don't just mean "upper" Manhattan...I mean UPPER upper Manhattan, as in practically the Bronx.) It's only a 30 minute commute on the train, which happens to be RIGHT outside our apartment. It's pretty swell!
(ummm...pictures are to come? Because I'm still not *fully* unpacked. Or else preliminary pix are up on my Facebook!)
2) On the first day of the MAT Program Orientation, I KNEW I made the right decision. Not only is it about me becoming a teacher of the earth sciences, but being able to have one of the BEST resources available--the American Museum of Natural History--just makes me itch to use it as a teaching tool. The people in the program are just as incredible--we come from all walks of life: some have just graduated undergrad, others grad school, some have families and were non-traditional students, and a couple are full-out switching careers. It's amazing to be acquainted with these people.
3) During the MAT program, we will have 2 teaching residencies (like being a student teacher)--I'll be at one school during first semester and a different school during second semester. To get a feel of what the MAT partner schools are like, we took some field-trips to visit a few of the 6 schools that agreed to partner with the MAT program and have us students in their schools during our residencies.
The school system in NYC is VERY very different from anything I have been exposed to. In my home district, if we were in a certain area of the city, we were "sent" to a specific school--you know, the invisible "school zone" lines were drawn throughout the city. That is NOT how they do in New York. When students reach 8th grade, they write down a list of 12 high schools they would like to go to within the city (I don't even know how many total high schools they have in the NYC district!) The reason for this system is because many (I think almost all) of the high schools have a certain kind of "specialty" about them. An example is, I went with a group of MAT participants to tour Queens Vocational and Technical High School. This high school is set up in a way so that students not only receive your typical high school diploma (algebra, pre-calc, chemistry, physics, language arts, social studies, etc), but *also* gives its students the opportunity to prepare for a job right out of high school. Queens Voc has 8 tracks of vocations, (some of which are cosmetology, plumbing, robotics, and graphic arts), and students who attend Queens Voc must follow one of those 8 tracks from grades 10-12, in which they may receive an Associate's degree or other certification in their vocation. This way, they can go on to college (and perhaps work at a salon to pay their way through college) or can head straight across the street to the Plumber's Union and become a plumber, right out of high school. Interesting, huh?
4) As a pre-requisite to obtaining my Master's degree, I needed to take a class that satisfies "Artistic Expression". The class I chose to satisfy this pre-req was "Fundamentals of Music."....WHAT. A. JOKE. Having been a musician for, uh, ELEVEN YEARS, some of the things I am "learning" in this class are just wayyyyyy too simple and easy. I'm almost halfway done with the coursework I need to accomplish, but I can't even sit down and do a lot at one time because of how simple it is!!! Anyway, I think that's my only gripe...for now. ;)
5) Oh goodness, I don't even know what else to write!! How about I take some questions? PEOPLE, GIVE ME YOUR QUESTIONS. I want to know what YOU want to know!!! Please please please leave a comment!!!
Sorry if this post is so...dry, I guess. I never said I was the most creative writer.
