To And Through (Philadelphia)

Wheels on the bus go round and round

2012-01-17T05:26:00.000-08:00

Jessica

I was fortunate enough tovisit KIPP Elementary Academy during my winter break from College and I was inawe just to see how intelligent and mature the little KIPPsters were. ChrisJohnson - another KIPP alumnus - and I talked to a first grade class about college-life, and we were ableto share with them the benefits of living both on-campus and off-campus. Thekids were very intrigued and enthusiastic during the discussion; they were veryrespectful and well behaved. The KIPPsters asked insightful questions and I wasjust so amazed to see how they understood the importance of doing well inschool so that they can go to college and one day become successful. They knewand believed that they can do anything that they set there little minds to do,this inspired and encouraged me as a future teacher to work hard and do my bestso that I can be useful for generations coming up after me. After Chris and Ifinished talking to the KIPPsters, they were instructed to go back to theirdesks and complete a class work assignment. On the worksheet they had toexplain two reasons about why they were excited about going to college and drawtwo pictures to go along with their paragraphs. I COULD NOT BELIEVE WHAT I WASSEEING! These babies can write a full sentence about why they want to go tocollege this was unbelievable! When I was six years old I do not think the wordCollege was even in my vocabulary and for these children to be able to be awareof just how important college is and sit down and write about it was just abeautiful sight to see. I had a good time working with the little KIPPsters andI am still pursuing a degree in Secondary Education but I am consideringvisiting the little KIPPsters every so often and hopefully when they become highschool students I will have the pleasure of teaching them and make it possiblefor them to see the day when they go off to college a day in which they earnestlymake preparation for today!

Workshops

2011-12-01T09:07:00.001-08:00

Jessica

SinceI last blogged, I have added another weekly event to my schedule! TheRussell Conwell Center hosts student workshops every day. I try to attend at least one a week so that Ican mingle and become familiar with other Temple faces besides the ones inmy classes.

Somy first workshop was the "In it to win it" workshop. I had the besttime because it was CANDY GALORE! I had so much fun eating candy and playinggames with new people. Another workshop that I attended that was suggestedby my counselor was the Resident Assistant workshop. The workshop is for those who are interestedin becoming an RA or a campus leader to get training on how to work and leadothers successfully. I am not necessarily interested in becoming an RA but Ilearned a lot of life nuggets that I can definitely apply when I become ateacher, like how to support a situation where your student is havingproblems at home or with other adults. I also learned some resume and interviewtips for the future.

The mostrecent workshop that I went to was Cram Jam! By far this was the mostenjoyable workshop for me! Cram Jam was a big study party. It lasted three days- Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday - from 5:00pm to 8:00pm. We were spilt up intogroups based on which subjects we were weakest in. We had a tutor who was most likely a sophomore,and we went over review packets and ate pizza and drank soda. In my group, welaughed and giggled the entire time! (We were productive in between jokes).

I enjoyed Cram Jam because I learned differentmethods and easier strategies to solve math problems that I originally countedas out of my league. I would not even try some of them, but once a classmatebroke the problem down, I was able to solve others like it. I also offered thefew math skills that I had to my peers to help them with their work.

My Weekly Schedule

2011-11-11T09:13:00.001-08:00

Jessica

Schoolhas been in session for a little over than a month, and I am getting used to myschedule. On Mondays I make it to my 8:00 AM. English Class in Gladfelter Hallby the skin of my teeth. I am not a big fan of Monday mornings at all. Nextsemester I am going to definitely schedule my classes later on Mondays.

ThenI go to tutoring for math from 10:00 am. to 11:00 am. at the Russell ConwellCenter. I love going to the RCC building to do my work because I get to see allof my classmates and friends from the summer program. We all meet there to hangout, get extra help when needed and, most of all, utilize the free printingprivileges given to us for completing the summer program. The RCC building isnever quiet. There is always laughing and talking between students and staff ora debate about which organization is better. Nevertheless, the Russell Conwell Center is a productive place becausewhen it is time to get down to business, the games stop and we complete ourwork then immediately go back to joking and playing tricks on one another. Itis truly a fun environment to be in!

Mynext class does not begin until 2:00 PM so I hang out until about 1:30pm. ThenI walk over to Ritter Hall for my Education class called Tweens and Teens. In my Tweens and Teens class we talk aboutteenagers and development for fifty minutes. This class is very much focused onthe media and its effect on teens and their identity so we are required to watchteen shows from today as well as the 90s and compare the times. We have watched shows ranging from Dawson’sCreek, My-So-Called-Life, and Degrassi to today’s shows like Teen Mom and TheSecret Life of an American Teenager. We discuss and often time get into heateddebates about the portrayal of teens in the media. After fifty minutes ofarguing about what shows influence teens and their behavior, I go home and tryto get myself ready to get up before dawn again so that I can make it to workon time the next morning.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I do not have classuntil 2:00 PM so I decided to complete my Work Study hours on those days. Fortunately, KIPP DuBois Collegiate Academyhired me so I work for four hours 8:00am. until 12:00pm. Now that the kids are familiar with m, when Iget to the school, they speak and wave at me as I come in. At the high school, I work with Ms. Freemanand a small group of students on reading skills and the students are sorespectful and receptive. I enjoy andappreciate working with them because even though we are pretty much the sameage, they treat me like a teacher. After I leave KIPP, I go directly to school.

My first class on Tuesdays and Thursdays is DramaticImagination and it begins at 2pm in Tuttleman. Every class session I sit next to a girl named Christina, and we havebecome friendly with each other so we talk and laugh throughout the class whenit is appropriate ( especially at our professor because he is so comical). Wesit in the very front row so whenever he makes jokes he interacts with us.

SinceChristina and I get along so well, we decided to do our class project togetherwith four other class members. The project requires us to create our owntheater company and advertise a season worth of productions for that theatercompany. After my Dramatic Imaginationclass, I go to Math Class from 3pm to 5pm. Normally on a Thursday night, I will go see the theater production assignedfor the week by my teacher. Onceeveryone sees the production in the amount of time that the instructor gives us,we take a quiz and have a class discussion about the play.

OnWednesdays I go back to English class. Ibarely make it and then I have class again at 2pm. I love my Friday schedulebecause I only have one class and that starts at 2pm. So I go to Study Hall at1pm and bi-weekly I have to see my Academic Counselor. After class on Fridays, which ends at 2:50PM, I go home and prepare to complete the same cycle again the next week.

Routines

2011-10-30T13:55:00.001-07:00

Kentrell

Almost2 full months of college has past. It seems like I've been here for about a yearalready. But in this two month time period, I developed a lot of routines.

Oneof my favorite routines is hitting the snooze button about 5 times before Iactually get up for class because an extra 20 minutes of sleep always good. =)
Another thing that has become normal to me is being in my dorm and studying. I’mconstantly reading one of my books for class or writing a 2,3, or 4 page paperfor English. I check my grades online also, not all of them are good though,but it’s nothing a little hard work won't change.

After my classes are over, I go eat with some friends and we go to the gym andplay ball or go to the fields for some flag football games. We play about 4 or5 games of basketball sometimes and we meet new people every time we play.

Thesegames are really intense even though they are just for fun. They start off as 3on 3 half court games, but these are just like warm ups. When more people come,we play 5 on 5 full court.

The5 on 5 games are very competitive and tiring. Winning requires non stop running up and downthe court, playing hard defense and good offense. Sometimes I'll make a shot asthe defender runs up to try and block it, but my shot is soooo good, it goesin..nothin’ but net!

Everyone- even the opposing team - compliments me on the shot. It feels good wheneveryone is having a good time in a competitive situation. The games getintense, but everyone is a good sport even if they lose. At the end of everygame, everyone shakes hands until next time.

College is a lot of fun and requires a lot of hard work as well. Developingroutines is a good way to manage your time so you can stay focused and have fun.

Sleepy Monday

2011-10-18T10:34:00.001-07:00

Brittany

Thisweekend I had a little extra time on my hands, and wasn’t worried so much aboutthe books and studying, so I spent the whole weekend out with my friends! “Wootwoot!”

Iwould go home, grab clothes and leave out again for another place. But,in that midst of all that, I was throwing clothes, shoes, belts, andaccessories all over the place trying to find things and rush out of the houseto go party some more!! So, I finally came home Sunday to rest my body from thebusy weekend and noticed that my room was a wreck! Ugh! I had a lot of cleaningto do and it was 10:00 pm at night AND I had class in the morning at 9 am!!

So Icalled my boyfriend and talked to him for a little while and realized it wasnow 11:30pm and I still had not cleaned my room, got my books and notestogether, and I hadn’t picked out what I was wearing. I slowly stopped talkingto my boyfriend, put the phone on speaker, sat the phone on the bed and quicklystarted cleaning my room. Shoes were flying in the boxes, clothes were flyingin the hamper, and books were getting thrown into my book bag!

Thistook about an hour and a half because I was going back and forth with talkingto my boyfriend and cleaning my room. And now it’s 1:30 am inthe morning and I have bags under my eyes as I struggle to pick an outfit outfor school. I quickly threw something together and got in bed! Finally!!I set my alarm, and totally forgot my boyfriend was on the phone ( ohwell =p ).

“Beep beep beep!!”, my alarm was ringing ridiculously in my ear, so I put it onsnooze like 5 times. When I finally woke up it was 8:30am, which meant I wasgoing to be late! I was so tired and had to listen to my teacher’slecture in front of the class without falling asleep. Never again will I spendall weekend out with my friends and not be prepared for school because it canmake your mornings very irritable and crazy!

Text Books

2011-09-28T07:14:00.000-07:00

Brittany
Well, my first time for something in college was buying text books! Yes,buying books is the worst part because you have to use your own money! Thesebooks cost me over 300 dollars!! And then the worst part about getting thebooks is that you have to wait in a line that's miles long because everyone isrushing to get their books because it's the beginning of the semester.

Please make sure you save your money too or else you are going to haveto save up while classes are going on, so therefore that means you are missingassignments! This is where I learned that those wonderful seven jeans couldhave waited... and those beautiful shoes with the really cool platform couldhave waited :(

I was so used to getting my books for free in high school, and justsigning off a piece of paper to return it at the end of the year.. Well, I suredid get my wake up call, and it woke me up good! College will charge you forevery ounce of your education, but I realized that it will be all worth it inthe end! So I had to tell H&M, Forever21, The Shoe Factory and all theother places I shopped at that I will only be seeing them maybe once every twomonths, instead of once every week :)

Roommate-less

2011-09-27T07:05:00.000-07:00

Kentrell

My firstday on campus was bittersweet. It was really the start of me living on my ownand I knew no one up here. I was happy and scared at the same time....and yes Icried a little. So to get my mind off things, I unpacked while I waited for myroommate so he could be the first person I met...and I waited...and I waited. .he never showed up.

So Istarted my first year of college with no roommate.

Theweekend goes by (no partying for me) and my first day of classes is here. PoliticalTheory was my first official class and my professor had no problem with jumpingright in to the lesson. She talked on and on about John Locke and his views ongovernment. Of course, I was listening while taking notes at the same timebecause she wasn’t writing a lot on the board. I felt prepared though because Iwas taught college was going to be exactly like this in middle school.

Thefirst person I met was a girl named Tone (Tony) who is in my political theory class.She’s a sophomore and is one of the nicest people I've met. From gaining thatone friend, I gained more confidence to meet and talk to new people. Now I walkaround campus shaking hands with familiar faces and say 'wassup' to anyone Iwalk past. My first year is going good so far. . . I just can’t wait for thefirst time I get to go home!!!!

Printer Saga

2011-09-27T07:02:00.000-07:00

Jessica

Monday August 29th at 8:00a.m. I stepped onto Temple'sCampus and began my first week as an official college student.

Iturned the corner, and I was overwhelmed to see the sidewalk infested withso many students. I attended a summer program at Temple for six weeks beforethe semester actually started and I was fooled into thinking that the fewstudents that I saw during the summer actually represented Temple's studentbody.

I was spoiled coming from a small middle school and small high school Iwas use to utilizing the school resources without having to wait in long linesor share. So after I pushed my way through the crowd to get to my classes (Ialready knew where they were located because I spent six weeks getting familiarwith the campus) the day seemed to be a calm one, until I had to go to thecomputer lab to print out my syllabus for my next class later thatday. The computer lab that I used all summer was packed! The line for thecomputers were out the door. I went to another computer lab it was standingroom only.I could not believe it, HOW IN THE WORLD WAS I GOING TO GET MY SYLLABUSPRINTED OUT!

Ii did not want to be unprepared, especially not on my first day ofclass. So I asked the librarian if there was anywhere else on campus that Icould print. She sent me to the TECH Center, and when I got there I found freecomputers. I was like." Thank God"! So after pushing print on the computer Iwent to the printer and I swiped my ID card, but there was no money on it. Ialmost died!

So I put money in the machine and I was panickingbecause I was running late for class and nothing came out of theprinter. So I ran to get help and the technician had to call someonefrom downstairs. They did not want me to pay a second fee so the guy looked onthe computer system to try to push my print job through for free and he couldnot find it. So I had to go back to the original computer that I had logged offof and someone else was on it. So the technician and I had to kindly ask her toswitch computers and she did (she was very nice) and I reprinted the document.OK. things seemed to look up until we went to printer 1, and the paper still didnot come out. So the technician said go to printer 2 and it did not come out. Then he said go to Printer 3 and it was there.

After that i thanked everyonefor their help and I flew out of the Tech Center to Ritter Hall to get to myEducation class and I was on time