According to Google's company blog, there will be a forthcoming debate among democratic presidential candidates on July 23 that will features questions exclusively from people uploading their questions from YouTube! Last election season was the first one when blogging truly took off; I think the user-generated content era is simply oozing into the political environment even farther.
In other news, I've been extremely busy this week with school finishing up and assuming leadership roles in several areas (students run and church family ministries, mostly). I'll try to catch up here soon...and I have pictures of events to prove them, too!
Thursday, June 14
Saturday, June 9
Mural arts tour
Philadelpha is known for its murals. The building-sized pieces of art are all over the city, transforming neighborhoods, discouraging grafitti, and raising the quality of living for nearby inhabitants. It's a beautiful way to celebrate each community within the city and its heritage. (article here) There are more than 2700 murals that were officially commissioned by the city Mural Arts program, with hundreds more done as side jobs. What's even crazier is that there are currently over 3500 people on the waiting list for a mural! Each one takes between two weeks and six months to make, costing up to $90,000. The paint has sunscreen in it and is only made by manufacturing facilities in California and Germany. Depending on the color, the paint costs between $25 and $125 a gallon (yellow pigment is the cheapest; blues and purples are the more costly kinds).
I've been wanting to go on a mural tour since I moved here this fall. This past Thursday, I got my chance. My schools participated in a the comic book project through St. Joseph University.
As a celebration of the students' work, the students and a few teachers got to tour West Philly's murals. Normally the tour costs $24/person, so it was a great deal. Unfortunately, the adults liked it more than the kids...for some reason, driving around for over two hours and looking at the neighborhood you've lived in your whole life doesn't always appeal to middle schoolers! I had a great time though; here are some pictures from the event:
This picture below is a memorial to some people who were shot in West Philadelphia. One of my student had an uncle was shot and honored through the mural. Here are two 6th graders standing next to the picture.
Will Smith? Heard the Fresh Prince theme song? "West Philadelphia, born and raised..." Well, this is the playgound where Will Smith spent most of his days.
I've been wanting to go on a mural tour since I moved here this fall. This past Thursday, I got my chance. My schools participated in a the comic book project through St. Joseph University.
As a celebration of the students' work, the students and a few teachers got to tour West Philly's murals. Normally the tour costs $24/person, so it was a great deal. Unfortunately, the adults liked it more than the kids...for some reason, driving around for over two hours and looking at the neighborhood you've lived in your whole life doesn't always appeal to middle schoolers! I had a great time though; here are some pictures from the event:
This picture below is a memorial to some people who were shot in West Philadelphia. One of my student had an uncle was shot and honored through the mural. Here are two 6th graders standing next to the picture.
Will Smith? Heard the Fresh Prince theme song? "West Philadelphia, born and raised..." Well, this is the playgound where Will Smith spent most of his days.
Run the Monk
Last night Sarah and I ran a race called "Run the Monk" with my kids from school. It was only a 5K race, but it seemed like more with the 90+ degree temperatures and hilly course (or was that hell-y?). Most of the kids did quite well; we had several stragglers who simply did NOT want to run in the heat. Fortunately, they were motivated by sprinklers several people were spraying down runners with from their yard. Afterward, there was a band, face painting, a bounce house, and food/drinks. We all got a free t-shirts with our food, too.
Unfortunately, it was Melissa and Stephanie's (7th grade and gym teacher at my school) last event with students run. Melissa is moving to Miami, and Stephanie is moving to the pacific northwest state of Washington this summer. It's a bummer, but fortunately there are a few others who are stepping in for the summer to run with the kids. Any of you are welcome to join us! We'll be practicing Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings.
And here's a video of us dancing to the band before the race. My students are only in middle school while most of the students run kids are in high school. Consequently, they were pretty hyper before the race started...if only they could have saved some of that for the race!!
Unfortunately, it was Melissa and Stephanie's (7th grade and gym teacher at my school) last event with students run. Melissa is moving to Miami, and Stephanie is moving to the pacific northwest state of Washington this summer. It's a bummer, but fortunately there are a few others who are stepping in for the summer to run with the kids. Any of you are welcome to join us! We'll be practicing Tuesday and Thursday evenings and Saturday mornings.
And here's a video of us dancing to the band before the race. My students are only in middle school while most of the students run kids are in high school. Consequently, they were pretty hyper before the race started...if only they could have saved some of that for the race!!
Thursday, June 7
Mistaken identity
Tuesday night I returned to my house after visiting Sarah. As I approached my door, I noticed a pair of underwear on the sidewalk. I took a minute and scoffed, thinking why on earth a person would leave underwear next to the street. Talk about gross! What kind of neighborhood is this, anyway? Then I took a closer look and realized that the underwear was MINE. It had fallen out of my laundry bag on the way to Sarah's. Guess I should be more careful before I go thinking things like that. =)
As for my job process update, I taught a demo lesson for Spruce Hill to their current 5th graders. Since I had never taught a lesson in a situation like that before, I was pretty nervous! Combine that with a 90-degree + humidity day, coming immediately from my school during my planning period, and a suit/tie, and you've got a tough cookie to eat. To make matters worse, the headmaster, principal, current 5th grade teacher, board member, and a few parents sat in on my class. Now, the 5th grade room is pretty small at Spruce Hill, so the limit the number of students to 18 or so. Almost a third of the people in the room were adults! That was intimidating. I think the students were intimidated too; their responses were pretty dull.
The lesson must have gone better than I had thought, 'cause the principal asked me back for an interview with their education committee. That'll happen this coming Tuesday evening. We'll see how things go!
As for my job process update, I taught a demo lesson for Spruce Hill to their current 5th graders. Since I had never taught a lesson in a situation like that before, I was pretty nervous! Combine that with a 90-degree + humidity day, coming immediately from my school during my planning period, and a suit/tie, and you've got a tough cookie to eat. To make matters worse, the headmaster, principal, current 5th grade teacher, board member, and a few parents sat in on my class. Now, the 5th grade room is pretty small at Spruce Hill, so the limit the number of students to 18 or so. Almost a third of the people in the room were adults! That was intimidating. I think the students were intimidated too; their responses were pretty dull.
The lesson must have gone better than I had thought, 'cause the principal asked me back for an interview with their education committee. That'll happen this coming Tuesday evening. We'll see how things go!
Wednesday, June 6
Crazy times
I hope to post later today or tomorrow with an update regarding my week thus far. Alas, there are final projects to collect, power point presentations to grade, and e-mails to send!
But take heart! I do have some fun reading (well, for me...maybe not necessarily for you):
Google humor.
A rare inside look at how Google works.
More info on how Google searches.
But take heart! I do have some fun reading (well, for me...maybe not necessarily for you):
Google humor.
A rare inside look at how Google works.
More info on how Google searches.
Saturday, June 2
How you can tell I live in the city
How do you know that I live in the city?
I cut my lawn with a weedwacker.
Our backyard has been pretty shoddy in the past. When I moved in last fall, weeds were everywhere. Seth took all of them out before winter, and we just had boring dirt at the start of spring. We wanted to make our backyard more hospitable, so we tilled the soil, planted grass, and have faithfully been watering it. The grass grew slowly but surely, and I noticed a huge difference from when I went home for Maria's graduation to when I returned. Our grass had grown! But so had a bunch of weeds with it. (Biblical parallels, anyone?!?)
This afternoon I went to work on it, ripping out as many weeds as I could grab, then weedwacking the rest down to a managable size. Here are some pictures for a better picture of the progress.
This is a picture my dad took when I moved in at the end of August:
Here's a picture of the view out my bedroom window (Sarah took it; you can see me watering the grass and talking with Dan Carter on my cell phone). This was about a month ago
This is the backyard after I finished it today:
Isn't it great to see progress?!? I was pretty excited about it today. Seth was too, even though he left before he could see the finished product. His excuse was pretty good: he had to drive to New York City to be the main photographer at a wedding in Manhatton in the Four Seasons!
In other news today, Seth bought us a new trash can, as pictured below. We came home and immediately celebrated by picking up some trash on the street and using it! Also, some helpful people had cleaverly disguised some garbage as an advertisement at a local pizza place and put it in our door. This marketing happens several times a week, unfortunately, but this time we joyfully threw it away in our new can.
I also bought a new air conditioner. I had purchased on in the bitter cold of January this year for $40. The 7amps it requires to run blew our circuits, so I had to find a smaller one. As it turns out, the one I had was way too powerful for my room's size. I put it up for sale on Craigslist if any of you are interested! The cheapest retail price I could find online is $240 new. We'll see if I can turn a profit on the whole deal.
I cut my lawn with a weedwacker.
Our backyard has been pretty shoddy in the past. When I moved in last fall, weeds were everywhere. Seth took all of them out before winter, and we just had boring dirt at the start of spring. We wanted to make our backyard more hospitable, so we tilled the soil, planted grass, and have faithfully been watering it. The grass grew slowly but surely, and I noticed a huge difference from when I went home for Maria's graduation to when I returned. Our grass had grown! But so had a bunch of weeds with it. (Biblical parallels, anyone?!?)
This afternoon I went to work on it, ripping out as many weeds as I could grab, then weedwacking the rest down to a managable size. Here are some pictures for a better picture of the progress.
This is a picture my dad took when I moved in at the end of August:
Here's a picture of the view out my bedroom window (Sarah took it; you can see me watering the grass and talking with Dan Carter on my cell phone). This was about a month ago
This is the backyard after I finished it today:
Isn't it great to see progress?!? I was pretty excited about it today. Seth was too, even though he left before he could see the finished product. His excuse was pretty good: he had to drive to New York City to be the main photographer at a wedding in Manhatton in the Four Seasons!
In other news today, Seth bought us a new trash can, as pictured below. We came home and immediately celebrated by picking up some trash on the street and using it! Also, some helpful people had cleaverly disguised some garbage as an advertisement at a local pizza place and put it in our door. This marketing happens several times a week, unfortunately, but this time we joyfully threw it away in our new can.
I also bought a new air conditioner. I had purchased on in the bitter cold of January this year for $40. The 7amps it requires to run blew our circuits, so I had to find a smaller one. As it turns out, the one I had was way too powerful for my room's size. I put it up for sale on Craigslist if any of you are interested! The cheapest retail price I could find online is $240 new. We'll see if I can turn a profit on the whole deal.
Friday, June 1
And I got paid for this
Today was the last full Friday of school (we finish on June 15, but the last week and a half are half days). To celebrate, both schools I teach went to Clementon Park for the day! Despite some teachers with grumpy attitudes, we had a blast!! No, it wasn't Disney World, but it was perfect for our purposes. The kids had fun, teachers were relaxed, and the food was DELICIOUS! If you want to eat well, come to one of our teachers potlucks. I've developed quite the reputation for consuming massive amounts of food. True to form, I managed to time my eating in order to snag three lunches (11:30, 2:00, and 4:30). We had teachers who got up at 4AM to make fried chicken, salmon salad, potato salad, pasta salad with shrimp and crab, ribs, and many more delicious items.
The rides and water park were decent. Our kids jumped right in, but I had a hard time getting teachers to experience more than a walk around the park. Several of the young teachers joined me for a few rides and water park fun. I felt so laid back walking around the park. It was neat to see kids from both schools and have them greet me. I forget that teachers at one school don't have that blessing! I quickly learned that while it's cool to yell teachers names as they walk by, it isn't as cool to hang out with them, so we teachers just hung out together.
One weird thing about the park is all the clown head covers for the trash cans. I didn't like it, and I can't imagine how people who hate clowns felt! Here's a picture of what happens every now and then:
So all in all, a very low stress day where I had to pinch myself that I was paid for this. I like days like that. =)
The rides and water park were decent. Our kids jumped right in, but I had a hard time getting teachers to experience more than a walk around the park. Several of the young teachers joined me for a few rides and water park fun. I felt so laid back walking around the park. It was neat to see kids from both schools and have them greet me. I forget that teachers at one school don't have that blessing! I quickly learned that while it's cool to yell teachers names as they walk by, it isn't as cool to hang out with them, so we teachers just hung out together.
One weird thing about the park is all the clown head covers for the trash cans. I didn't like it, and I can't imagine how people who hate clowns felt! Here's a picture of what happens every now and then:
So all in all, a very low stress day where I had to pinch myself that I was paid for this. I like days like that. =)
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