Monday, February 28, 2011

Like, woah!

Ben and I got to spend some time hanging out with his extended family over the weekend. The highlight was definitely bonding with his 10 year old cousin, whose first statement to me was "you learn all kinds of cool things when you're trying to fall asleep!" I asked her to elaborate, and she described how she had figured out a whole variety of things, like if you look at the same object with only your left eye versus your right eye it looks different, but one eye makes it look more different than the other - so, basically, ocular dominance. I was impressed, but not half as much as when she revealed her most recent discovery: you can't hum when you pinch your nose!

Now, maybe everyone reading already knew that and thinks I am an idiot, but I had no idea, so when I hummed and pinched my nose and couldn't hum anymore it blew my mind. Also, I spent all day at work sharing this discovery with people, and none of them knew about it either (or maybe they were all humoring me). Anyway, the moral of the story is that Ben's little cousin is a genius, and I should stop wasting my "trying to fall asleep time."

Thursday, February 24, 2011

My Latest Creation

I made another movie! Apparently there was a rumor going around our corps members that we only want them to collect and turn in data on how their students are doing because we get bonuses if they do (?), not because student performance data can actually be useful.

So, behold my mythbusting:



Note the special effect, and the blooper reel. I'm turning into a real professional!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Philadelphia Magic Gardens

Yesterday Ben and I went to Philadelphia Magic Gardens. Basically, this artist guy spent fourteen years covering every square inch of a South Philly row house and adjoining lot with crazy mosaics, so now it is three full city lots of magical, sparkly labyrinth.


It's hard to capture how impressive the place is with a camera - in person, with the sunlight glinting off of the thousands of mirrors and glass bottles, it looks utterly transporting, but on film it looks less glittery and more like a pile of trash in some places.



I think you could devote your entire life to exploring the place and pouring over all the details, and still find new things every time. There are so many tiny little touches that are easy to miss, but are so charming when you notice them.


It's only a couple of bucks to get in, so I think this will be our new sightseeing destination whenever people visit us!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

My Directorial Debut

I have been tasked with creating a series of videos to "demystify" TFA for our corps members. Here is my first one:



Bet you didn't see that coming!

Monday, February 14, 2011

20th Anniversary Summit

This past weekend was Teach For America's 20th Anniversary Summit, so I (along with 11,000 of my fellow corps members, alumni, staff and supporters) headed to DC! I was very curious what type of building could even fit 11,000 people in it, and it turns out the Walter E. Washington Convention Center can. It is also the type of building that is for fancy business people, who are so fancy they have to wear ties and bring briefcases into the bathroom:

I am not sure what the second picture means.
In case you were curious, this is what 11,000 people eating breakfast looks like:


And this is what (part of) 11,000 people listening to a speaker looks like:


It was extremely awesome to see people I taught with in NYC, including my very favorite teacher ever, Ms. L! She caught me up on all my students from last year (they are now her eighth graders!), as well as all the gossip from our school, which actually may be shut down at the end of this year if its ELA scores don't stop their nosedive (although apparently our science scores are good, which I think we can take some credit for).

There were a lot of cool things over the course of the weekend, like a YouTube upload booth (in the Google-sponsored lounge, which had a bunch of power outlets and free WiFi):

Because sometimes uploading your thoughts to YouTube is an emergency.
A mobile made out of bicycles:

Its neighbors are made out of kayaks and tennis rackets.
A piano island in our hotel lobby:

I never saw anyone play the piano, so I don't know how they get on the island.
And even customized, TFA 20th anniversary drink tickets for the evening receptions:


But really, the best part of all was being in a place that was practically vibrating with the energy of 11,000 people all working on the same enormous problem. I sometimes lose sight of the magnitude and moral reprehensibility of the achievement gap now that I am not confronted with it in the classroom every day, but this weekend really re-inspired me about my work and the movement I am a part of.

The above and beyond best part was an amazing short speech given by Kaya Henderson (TFA alumna and interim chancellor of DC public schools), but so far I've been unable to find a copy of it online. I know there were cameras there so I'm optimistic that one will surface, and as soon as it does I am going to transcribe it and post it in my cube so I can read it every day.

In the meantime, if you have some free time and are curious about what I do and why, the opening and closing sessions are already up (the closing one is probably better if you only have time for one, it includes President Obama addressing us and John Legend - one of our national board members - performing). And until I can find Kaya Henderson's amazing speech, I highly recommend what was probably the second most inspiring moment of the summit, Michael Johnston (alum and now CO senator) speaking about his pioneering ed reform law:



I have watched it five times already, and I still tear up at the end every time: "We do, Tiffany. We do."

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Skirt!

I had my final sewing class today, and look what I made:


You can totally tell what it is just by looking at it! Here is a list of its exciting features:
  • You can totally tell what it is just by looking at it!
  • It is made of a pretty fabric (which I had nothing to do with creating, but I did pick out).
  • I had to use a pattern to make it, and an iron and something called a seam gauge. I felt like I was on Project Runway.
  • It has a zipper! And it opens and closes!
  • As you can also see in the above picture, it is lined. Just like real clothes!
  • Best of all... it fits me!
Yay!

Friday, February 4, 2011

Robots!

Ben volunteered to be the head referee for this year's Philadelphia FIRST Lego League robotics competition.

He also volunteered me to be a referee. The competition was this past Saturday, and I wasn't sure which part I was more nervous about: once more being up to my ears in middle schoolers, or having Ben be my "boss." Fortunately, both things turned out fine. Just look how well we worked together:

Ben looks like I'm trying to convince him that robots aren't actually cool.
I didn't anticipate how fun it would be to hang out with a bunch of nerdy kids all day; they were all just so excited to be there it was hard not to want to squeeze them. Multiple kids were so excited/nervous that their hands were literally shaking as they set up their robots at the beginning of their round. It was the first time since I left teaching that I had a tiny yearning to be back in a classroom.


If only there was a school where I could just teach nerds. I was so impressed with these kids, they came up with all kinds of ingenious methods of getting their robots to complete the challenges - I would think a particular challenge could only be solved one way, only to see five different and extremely clever approaches. It never ceases to impress me how creative and smart kids can be when given the chance.

Like everything at the competition, the trophies were made of Legos.
I wonder if my job would give me the summer off so I could go work at CTY* again...



* Middle school nerd camp