It's interesting how our attitudes towards social media change over time. I often pride myself on being an "early adopter" of technology. Even if I don't own an item (due to my ever-so-humble means as a teacher fresh out of college) I often like to read up on the latest gadgets and gizmos - 2 of my favorite sites include Digg and TechCrunch. It therefore comes as a little bit of a surprise, at least to me, that I haven't ever really experimented with blogging before. Aside from the work I did for Prendismo while a freshman at Cornell, I have never spent much time taking any of the Blogging Web 2.0 toolkits for a spin. But as they say "there's a first for everything." This will be my first time blogging in my first year of teaching during my first year of living in NYC.
Before we get started, first a little bit about myself. I was born in Baltimore and raised in Los Angeles, California. I attended Cornell University where I majored in Economics and Government and minored in Information Science. While at Cornell I was involved with Greek Life as the IFC President, research in Applied Economics and Government, mentor programs with local youth and relations with Cornell's campus in Qatar. My senior year I was accepted into Teach For America, and I am going to be teaching Special Education while attending Fordham University for a Masters in Teaching. I enjoy surfing, body-boarding, learning about technology, playing basketball and, of course, interacting with kids.
Right now, I am training at TFA's regional site located at St. John's University in Queens. Last week during induction, the entire NYC corp was introduced to TFA at a sort-of broad visionary level. The week was a blur of meeting people, sitting through presentations and discussing the achievement gap via numerous angles and measures. It was sort of similar to freshman year of college with a more professional twist. Though fun and exciting, it was a little on the repetitive end as many of my fellow corp members agreed. I also had the misfortune of having my car towed today which led to a rough start to the week. Nonetheless, I'm excited for the rest of this week and the beginning of classes next Tuesday.
One of the things all the staff and alumni have said is that teachers always have the best stories. Having been here for a week, I can't help but agree with them on that point. In fact, the inspiration for this blog in large part comes from my desire to be able to share stories with anyone who happens to stumble upon this blog whether a teacher like myself or not. These stories will probably be mostly fun, perhaps revealing at times and maybe, just maybe, occasionally inspiring. Regardless of the outcome, my goal is simply this: to share my story.
So here we go. I hope you can bear with me as I tell the tale of a 1st year teacher in the Big Apple. I don't know when or how often I will blog and I'm not sure if there will be any consistency or theme to my posts. But I would definitely love to hear from anyone out there who has feedback or advice, so definitely leave me a comment or shoot me an email. Later days.
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St. John's University
Before we get started, first a little bit about myself. I was born in Baltimore and raised in Los Angeles, California. I attended Cornell University where I majored in Economics and Government and minored in Information Science. While at Cornell I was involved with Greek Life as the IFC President, research in Applied Economics and Government, mentor programs with local youth and relations with Cornell's campus in Qatar. My senior year I was accepted into Teach For America, and I am going to be teaching Special Education while attending Fordham University for a Masters in Teaching. I enjoy surfing, body-boarding, learning about technology, playing basketball and, of course, interacting with kids.
Right now, I am training at TFA's regional site located at St. John's University in Queens. Last week during induction, the entire NYC corp was introduced to TFA at a sort-of broad visionary level. The week was a blur of meeting people, sitting through presentations and discussing the achievement gap via numerous angles and measures. It was sort of similar to freshman year of college with a more professional twist. Though fun and exciting, it was a little on the repetitive end as many of my fellow corp members agreed. I also had the misfortune of having my car towed today which led to a rough start to the week. Nonetheless, I'm excited for the rest of this week and the beginning of classes next Tuesday.
One of the things all the staff and alumni have said is that teachers always have the best stories. Having been here for a week, I can't help but agree with them on that point. In fact, the inspiration for this blog in large part comes from my desire to be able to share stories with anyone who happens to stumble upon this blog whether a teacher like myself or not. These stories will probably be mostly fun, perhaps revealing at times and maybe, just maybe, occasionally inspiring. Regardless of the outcome, my goal is simply this: to share my story.
So here we go. I hope you can bear with me as I tell the tale of a 1st year teacher in the Big Apple. I don't know when or how often I will blog and I'm not sure if there will be any consistency or theme to my posts. But I would definitely love to hear from anyone out there who has feedback or advice, so definitely leave me a comment or shoot me an email. Later days.
--
St. John's University
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