The Adventure of Every Day

Since September, I have had a great job.  I have been a teacher of four-year-olds.  We have done some wonderful things.

We built cities out of blocks.

We used paper bags to make some really cool scarecrows.

We decorated turkey feathers and talked about what we're thankful for.

We decorated gingerbread man cookies and delivered them to all the teachers.

We recycled toilet paper tubes to make Native American and 

Pilgrim puppets for Thanksgiving and a menorah for Hanukkah.

We used cardboard boxes to make a train and a fire engine and a gingerbread house.  We pretended to be aliens and pumpkins and dinosaurs.  We read and read and read.  We sang songs and played instruments and danced The Tooty Ta and the Hokey Pokey.  We learned to play together, and played to learn together.

Here are a few reasons that I know they're learning:

After we made Pilgrim bonnets out of paper, one little girl wanted to dress up like a Pilgrim the rest of the way.  So she walked over to the bookshelf and pulled out a book with illustrations of Pilgrims so she could see what they wear.  That's research.

In their journals, the kids draw pictures and dictate a description of their drawings.  Together, we stretch out words to hear the sounds, and then write the letters.  A few of them can do it without help.  That's reading and writing readiness.

One of my girls told me that something was "irritating."  That's vocabulary (although maybe not the kind I should hope that they pick up on.)

When someone is the plate helper, he or she counts the number of students in the class and puts out the corresponding number of plates.  And if we need eight plates and the child has put out five so far, I can ask how many more we need, and the child can figure it out.  That's math.

Last Friday we made Jello in Christmas shapes.  The Jello needed to be refrigerated for three hours before we could eat it.  That was the day I told the kids that I am moving after Christmas.  I told them I am moving   to be closer to my family, who live three and a half hours away.  I told them that I am happy to be moving closer to my family, but also sad because it means I can't be their teacher anymore. They processed this, and one of my girls said, "Like the Jello."  It took me a second to realize that she was making a connection between the Jello needing to be refrigerated for three hours, and me moving three hours away.  That's knowledge of time.  

It's also kind of heartbreaking.

I didn't explain all of this to the kids, because it wouldn't mean anything to them, but I am also moving back home so that I can finish grad school.  I have six classes to go to complete my Master's degree in Reading.  The plan is that I can finish this summer, and then apply for reading specialist and regular elementary teacher positions next fall.  That is the plan.  Of course, nothing in my life since college has gone as planned.  And I couldn't be more grateful for that, because if I had landed an elementary school teacher position in central PA right out of college, I would have missed out on a lot.  I wouldn't have discovered what a rockin' preschool teacher I am (confidence bordering on arrogance, I know), and I wouldn't have had any Adventures in Philly.  I wouldn't have discovered an awesome church or learned how to interact with city school-agers or deepened a friendship.  For all of these things and many more, I am grateful.

So yes, I am going to go back to school and get the degree and watch my brother tear up the basketball court, and after that, I will see what happens.

One thing is for sure: It's bound to be another adventure.

  

Welcome to China(town)!

We went a couple of places today after church.  First, we went to Macy's and watched the light show. It was cool! If I had grown up in Phildelphia, I think my parents would have taken me to see it every year and it would have been a holiday tradition.  These pictures are not great because they were taken on my phone, but here they are:

 

Then we went to Chinatown.

 

 

We ate lunch in Chinatown.  It was the first Chinese restaurant I've ever been to that wasn't a Chinese buffet place.  But there were literally 362 choices on the menu!  They were numbered.  We got General Tso's chicken and Lo Mein with pork and duck.  Yum!

 

 

 



Life is Short and the World is Wide

I had a pretty cool experience on Saturday. Becky invited me to a South Philly Group gathering.  An Indonesian family from the church that most of them attend, the Philadelphia Praise Center, recently opened up a new restaurant in Center City.  They invited us to come for an opening party.  So, as I said, they are an Indonesian family, and they make Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and American food.  There were nine of us there, and we represented at least four different countries.  First, there was the professor and his wife who head up the group.  They spent years as missionaries in Indonesia.  There are also two women from Peru; Becky, who grew up as a missionary kid in Egypt; a girl who spent five or six years as a missionary in Ethiopia, and her Ethiopian friend who just happened to be visiting the US for the first time.  It was really interesting to hear his take on Philadelphia.  He wondered where all the people were!  I guess in Ethiopia, there are more people who spend time outside.  He thought there was something wrong because everyone was in their houses.  He asked if there was a war!

We ate cole slaw, ginger cookies, tuna salad sandwiches, tofu, and lemon grass soup.  Near the end of the party, our jovial host broke out his guitar and sang an original song.  We did our best to sing along with the chorus.

There probably isn't enough time to go everywhere in the world in a lifetime (although it seems some people get close.)  If you spend time in a city, though, a lot of the world comes to you.  And you are a part of it. :)

Halloween, Art, and a Hurricane (#22-24)

Hello people!  I apologize that you had to wait so long for a new post! For everyone who was wondering and asking, Hurricane Sandy pretty much left me alone.  The city was closed down for two days, which equaled me sitting on the couch all day Monday watching TV and snacking.  On Tuesday, Becky and I, along with the two kids she watches, went for a walk to go see how high the river was:

Wednesday was Halloween.  Fortunately, the storm was over by then, and so my Life Group was able to meet.  Life Group is the small group from Epic Church that I meet with once a week.  It's actually not that small - I think there are around 18 twenty/thirtysomethings in our group.  Usually we talk, snack, and have a Bible study, but on that night we had a party.  We dressed up as "your childhood dream job" and had a scavenger hunt in Center City!  There were two teams, and the items on the list had different point values.  You had to take a picture of everyone in your team with the item, or doing the task.  These things included: finding a jack-o-lantern, pumpkin, black cat (bonus points for green eyes), "haunted house," and the Mutter Museum; trick-or-treating at a random stranger's house; taking a picture with strangers who were dressed up (bonus points if they were superheroes); posing with a statue; re-enacting a scene from a horror movie; and inviting strangers to church (bonus points if they actually showed up.) A few pics (hopefully no one from Life Group will mind):

 

This is our horror scene re-enactment. Apparently, there is a horror movie called The Devil about a haunted elevator.  So this is us being scared in an elevator. 

 

Posing with the Jack-o-lantern that we found.

 

 

The first weekend of November was artsy.  Becky and I, along with two other friends, went to First Friday.  You may recall my epic First Friday fail from last month - I never found any galleries, and I got lost in North Philly trying to find my way home.  This time was much better.  We went to several galleries and saw lots of people selling their art on the sidewalks.  One of the galleries was in a building where The Real World, a reality TV show, was once filmed.  It was two stories and had a really pretty chandelier.  After leaving First Friday, we got Mexican food and played Settlers of Catan.

 

On Sunday, Becky and I went to the Art Museum.  We learned that when they say admittance to the museum on the first Sunday of the month is "by donation," they expect you to donate something.  My generous contribution was $2.  I think my favorite part of the museum was actually seeing the building itself from the outside.  We got some good pictures:

 



There is some really old stuff at the Art Museum.  We saw one sculpture that was made in the year 1000.  I think it was made of bronze, and it wasn't too impressive-looking, until you noticed the date!  I liked the paintings better than most of the other stuff - the dishes and tapestries and all that.  I want to learn how to paint!  Do you think this is something that can be learned, or do you have to be born with some kind of innate talent?

This past weekend I went home, so there were no adventures in Philly.  Congrats to Julie, who is now a Mrs.; and to my "little" brother, who is now an adult in the eyes of the law.  Lots of love to all of you faithful readers!  Have a great rest of the week, and hopefully you won't have to wait almost a month for another post!



Adventure #21: There's a Famous Person at the End of this Post

Disclaimer: To anyone who is already intimately aquainted with Philadelphia, this post might prove boring.  But to anyone who, like me, is new, I hope you will enjoy my adventure!  Today I took myself on a mini field trip. I was trying to get to Uhuru flea market in West Philly, but I got confused about how to get to the trolleys after getting off the Broad Street line at City Hall, so I just decided to wander around Center City for the afternoon.  It was gorgeous today - upper 60s and sunny.  What wonderful things might I behold?

First, I found a frozen yogurt place called Yogurt City - the kind of place where you choose what kind(s) of froyo you want and then add all the toppings you want and then get charged based on how much it weighs.  I got the original tart, cheesecake, pomegranate, and cookie dough, and for my toppings chose strawberries, mango, juice balls, cookie dough, and some crunchy chocolate stuff.  Deeeelicious.   

Next I walked over to City Hall and explored.  That building is so cool.  I didn't realize that when you go through the entrance you end up in an outdoor courtyard area.  I'm not an architecture person, but being there, in this historical place with all its unexpected surprises, made me feel very calm and happy.  Here are a few pictures of the building from the courtyard:

 

 

Here are some surprising architectural details and sculptures in the archways:

 



 

There were also two plaques of William Penn's prayer for Philadelphia, written in 1684, which I copied down because I really liked it. 

 

"And thou Philadelphia, the virgin settlement of this province, named before thou wert born, What love, what care, what service and what travail have there been to bring thee forth and preserve thee from such as would abuse and defile thee.  O that thou mayest be kept from the evil that would overwhelm thee, that faithful to the God of thy mercies in the life of righteousness thou mayest be preserved to the end.  My soul prays to God for thee, that thou mayest stand in the day of trial, that thy children may be blest of the Lord, and thy people saved by His power."

I think that maybe we need to start praying this prayer again!

I came out of City Hall and took pictures of the Man on a Horse statue, and of this building across the street:

 

General George B. McClellan

What is this building?

Moving on...I walked across the street and studied this sculpture, called Government of the People.

It had something to do with the family, and government by the people, for the people.  Then I realized that behind it were sculptures of giant game pieces.  You can see them here, along with City Hall from the outside:

 

And here is a statue of a previous mayor of Philadelphia, Frank L. Rizzo.  He was mayor from 1972-1980.

 

I realized then that I was near Love Park.  There was something going on there with lots of young people, but I didn't investigate it much, mostly because I was scared of the shirtless muscular guy in the little pink shorts.  I took these lovely pictures, saw that the Art Museum was nearby, and decided to walk in that direction.

 

 

I think where I was now is called the Parkway.  It is the area where all the museums are.  They are sort of in a circle with a big beautiful fountain in the middle.  The ground around the fountain is loose gravel/dirt/sand, so I felt nostalgic for the beach.

 

 

 







I continued to walk around the circle and realized the the first large building was not a museum, but was the main branch of the Free Library of Philadelphia.

Of course I had to check that out!

I walked over to the library and read the sign out front: today Justin Cronin (who I'd never heard of ) and R.L. Stine were going to be there for a talk, Q&A session, and book signing!  At 2:00! And it was 1:15ish now!

For those of you who did not grow up in the 90s and/or are not as obsessive about children's literature as I am, R.L. Stine is a VERY famous children's book author.  He wrote the Goosebumps series, which has over 40 books and is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Now, I would have been more excited about his being there if I had ever actually read Goosebumps.  However, I was completely terrified to read them as a child, and I believe that still to this day I haven't read any.  I may have to now, though.

So I explored the library for awhile.  It is huge.  When I walked up the stairs, I felt like Belle in Beauty and the Beast.  The children's section was not as impressive - I prefer the children's library in Bloomsburg - but it was still quite nice. 

I went into the auditorium (an auditorium in a library!) just before 2.  It turns out that both Justin Cronin (author of The Passage and The Twelve) and R.L. Stine are hilarious. R.L. Stine read a short story he'd written for children and then talked about his new novel, Red Rain, which is his first attempt at writing for adults.  He decided to write a story for adults because the members of his original fan base are all in their 20s and 30s now and asked, via Twitter, for him to write something for them!  I also found it interesting that he tried writing joke books for children before writing scary stories, and that the reason he started writing scary stories is because a publisher told him she needed a scary story for teenagers.  So he read a bunch of scary stories for teenagers and decided to do something "younger and cuter."  And Goosebumps was born.

My one regret for this day is that I didn't stick around to get my picture taken with R.L. Stine.  Also, I didn't have anything for him to sign.  So I left after the Q&A because I had to get back to my library in South Philly before it closed at 5 (I needed dinosaur books for this week.)  So here is the one terrible, blurry picture I have of R.L. Stine:

 Ah, well.  It was still a great day!

Adventure #20: In Which Debbie Gets Lost (Again)

Yesterday I decided to try being independent.  On the first Friday of every month, there are art galleries in Old City that are open for free from like 5-9.   I worked until 6:30, but decided to go check it out afterwards.  I Google Mapped the directions, decided on which bus to take, and made my way to Old City.

Mistake number one was getting off the bus at the wrong stop.  I realized later that I'd gone one stop too far from my Google directions, but even if I had gotten off at the right stop, I still wouldn't have known where I was.  Where I got off, there were not many people, or shops, or really anything that looked good.  I did what I always do in these situations - texted Becky.  She told me what streets I wanted to get to.  I also saw where the tall buildings were, which helped get me oriented.  They were beautiful, lit up at night.  I tried to take a picture...this is the best I could do:

While walking towards 5th and Market Street, I also ran into Franklin Square by accident.  What a neat place!  This park was decorated for Halloween.  There was a fountain that had purple lights shining on it, a carousel, a concession stand, and what I think was mini golf.

This is supposed to be the purple fountain. I can't figure out how to make it bigger. :-/

After leaving Franklin Square, I kept heading towards 5th and Market.  Finally, I came upon what was probably First Friday.  There were a lot of people and restaurants.  I went into a cool art supply store that had everything under the sun.  I needed to use the bathroom, and was pleasantly surprised to find artwork on the walls.  This, however, would be the closest I would come to finding a gallery.  I went up and down Market Street between 5th and 3rd, but apparently the art galleries are elsewhere.  I saw a couple stands where artists were showing their work and stopped at those, and I saw a souvenier shop and stopped there for postcards, and that was about it.

Now came the getting home part.  I wasn't sure how to do that, so I texted Becky.  She said to take the 47 bus.  It took me a long time to find a bus stop with a 47 on it, but I finally did.  And here is where I made my biggest error of the night.

If you are ever in Philadelphia, you should be aware that, generally speaking, bus stops located on odd numbered streets go north, and bus stops on even numbered streets go south.  I picked up the 47 bus on 7th Street.  And I live in South Philly.  Here's the other thing about riding buses at night: if you don't know exactly where you're going, you're already in trouble because you can barely see out the windows to see the street signs, and they don't announce every stop, or even stop at every stop. 

I rode that bus for, oh, twenty minutes or so before I started really getting concerned.  None of the street signs that I could see looked very familiar, and it just felt wrong.  And then, there were a few familiar streets in a row - and I realized that the reason they sounded familiar was because they were the streets near the Brightside Academy headquarters, waaaaaay in North Philly.  So I (say it with me) texted Becky.  I also asked the gentleman sitting beside me where exactly we were, and he said the bus went way north and named some places I'd never heard of.  He also, bless his heart, tried to help me figure out how to go south again.  He was very kind and is probably wondering right now if that poor girl from the bus ever made it home.

So I got off the bus and started walking back the way I'd come.  I tried to find 8th Street, since Becky had texted me back and said that's what I wanted to do.  I was on 5th Street when I got off the bus, and didn't know which way to go to get to 8th, so I just picked a direction and started walking.  I ended up near some street that looked like a highway, with no street signs in sight, almost cried, turned around, and started walking down 5th Street again (at least I think it was 5th.  I'm still not sure.)  All of a sudden, I saw a bus sign with a 47 on it, and I said to the gentleman standing there, "Excuse me.  If I want to take the 47 bus south..."
"This is it," he confirmed.  I noticed that this sign said 5th and Oregon, remembered Oregon was in South Philly, and was reasonably certain that I was now in the right place.

An hour later, I was home and vowing never to leave my house again.

                                     *                                                  *                                          *

Speaking of my house, I would like to share a few pictures of my room:

The rug, quilt, comforter, and the fan on the wall were all Grandma's.

 



 

The papers on the wall are drawings and messages from the K-2nd graders at my home church...I used to teach them in Sunday School. :)

 

 

Pictures on my wall.

 

 

 

The scarecrow was Grandma's too.

 

 

Have a great week everyone....hopefully next time I blog, it won't be another story about me getting lost!



 

How to Become a Preschool Teacher Without Really Trying

Since I last blogged, pretty much everything has changed again.  First of all, I moved from my temporary residence with Becky to a new house with two roommates that I found on Craigslist.  It's in a great location right near Passyunk Ave.  We have a living room, kitchen, dining room, three bedrooms, one full bathroom and two toilet-only rooms that nobody uses, a finished basement that smells like our cabin used to smell, a laundry room and a back porch area.  At first it was a bit discouraging because I guess I was expecting to just walk into a house that was already set up and not have to do any of the work myself, but it wasn't like that.  The girl who moved out apparently owned the microwave, all the eating utensils, and the Internet.  Well, it was in her name and she cancelled it when she moved.  So I went out and bought some cheap things to eat food with, decided to use the oven to heat up leftovers, and called Comcast.  I've now had the Internet and cable for four days and hardly know what to do with myself.

My job changed again also.  I'm back on a 9:30-6:30 schedule, which has its pros and cons.  I don't  have to get up super early, but the things I can do after work are limited (especially if there's something on TV that I want to watch. :-P)  I'm not working directly with the school agers anymore, either.  I think the last time I wrote, I said I was going to have to choose between school age and toddlers. But guess what!  I got what I wanted instead!  I have the older preschoolers (4-5 year olds).  There are only 5 kids enrolled in my class.  This also has its pros and cons.  I can do more things with them, but it's a whole different feel from what I'm used to.  My five kids are really smart, too.  I have at least one who I believe is ready to read.  Time to start working on word families! 

I see other kids throughout the day, too.  When we have to move around due to ratio, the younger preschoolers come over with my class.  There aren't many of them, either.  And the school agers come to visit.  Also, since I'm now there until closing, any older kids who are left after 6 come with me.  It's like a little community.

It's funny.  I often feel that I became a preschool teacher by accident.  When I first applied to Bloomsburg, I was undeclared.  Then I realized how many scholarships I could get if I did education, and since that was an area of interest anyway, I decided on Elementary Education.  Then it turned out that in order to be certified in Early Childhood, which at the time was birth - third grade, you only had to take four extra classes and pass the Early Childhood Praxis.  So I did that.  The summer after graduating, I started subbing for the CSIU because my mom works there.  When I didn't land the permanent teaching job everyone thinks they'll get, I was available to long-term sub for Head Start.  I spent five months teaching preschool in the same building as my mom, in this safe and nurturing place when I felt like everyone was on my side and I had the opportunity to learn and grow.  This experience prepared me for another long-term sub position with Pre-K Counts.  And then this summer, in the middle of my frantic annual applying-to-everywhere spree, I got an out-of-the-blue email from my current employer saying they were accepting applications.  So I applied, and interviewed - and here I am.

Teaching preschool in Philadelphia.

I believe there's a loving God who orchestrates the events in our lives to get us to the places where we need to be.  Sometimes we look like we're floating through our circumstances, but maybe it's really the hand of God gently guiding us.  Except when we need a shove.  Ready to hear something cool?

I received the job offer from Philly while I was actually on the way to Philly, for my Grandma's funeral.  When I received this job offer in Philly, it was not an easy decision to come.  I wrestled with the idea of leaving home, family, church, and everything I know.  In the middle of all this, I continued reading a daily devotional that I had, for some reason, pulled off the shelf where it had sat for years.  On July 18, three days after hearing that I was going to be offered a job, I read this in that devotion book:

"Who are you, Lord?" Saul asked.
"Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do."
-Acts 9:5-6

Wham.

Would you believe I still struggled to make the decision even after reading that?  The joys of being human.  I am thankful that God is patient and kind.

I guess that's the story of my career in a nutshell.  To anyone out there who's struggling to make a major life decision, hang in there.  God is perfectly capable of giving you the strength to do the thing you think you cannot do.

In closing, here are some pics of stuff around my classroom.  Sorry, no pictures of kids; it's against policy.  Just trust me when I say that they are cute. :)

 

P.S. Thank you, everyone, for the cards you've been sending.  I came home to three cards from church family today, and that just makes you feel awesome!