I started teaching English two years ago. After four years of teaching social studies. It took me a full year to realize that I really am an English teacher. I tried to deny this, but it is official now. (To be fair, I am teaching Humanities, which is a mix of social studies and English/language arts).
The most surprising thing about teaching this new subject for two years is that I had no specific training before or during that time. It was a lot of professional reading and trial and error...and plenty of frustration. Fortunately, that changed a couple of weeks ago. Our new school sent me to Teachers College at Columbia University in New York for a week of training in writers workshop. What an awesome experience! I won't bore you, blog reader, with the details of teaching pedagogy, but I feel much more prepared to be a quality writing teacher now.
The other cool thing about a trip to NYC was that Becky tagged along to play. She made herself busy during the day, and then we had awesome fun-tivities each night.
We arrived on Sunday and our friends Kate and Jason picked us up for LaGuardia and drove us back to Kate's parents house in Long Island for a lobster and steak dinner! What great hosts. On the way, we made sure to stop at a garage sale in Everybody Loves Raymond's neighborhood.
*Becky's Update!: Another amazing thing that happened on Monday was I got to hang out with my favorite Puerto Rican: Juj! Unfortunately, I do not have the photography skill that my husband does, so I did not capture any of our adventures on film but I had a great time seeing Juj's apt in Brooklyn and walking around her hood. You can imagine how great we looked together. I can't wait to see her again!
On Tuesday, we used Justin Strickland's Yankee season tickets to watch the Bronx Bombers destroy the Brewers.
Columbia is right on the edge of Harlem on the Upper West side, so we decided to check our Amateur Night at The Apollo.
The idea of Amateur Night is that the audience picks the winner...and loser by cheers and boos. The audience can be pretty harsh. I realized the power of group think when I caught myself lustily booing one performer. Actually, that was the power of bad singing!
My advice to any future performers: if you are singing, no long instrumental intros!
A trip to NYC wouldn't be complete without a Broadway show. We decided to go highbrow and see Avenue Q, a puppet musical with full on puppet nudity. It was right up our alley.
Becky had to leave on Friday afternoon to go to Jenny Chen's (college roommate) wedding. Luckily, I didn't have to brave the city alone as Justin Strickland made the trip up from D.C. With my week of training complete, I was ready hit the town. We caught the Staten Island Ferry to watch the Staten Island Yankees, the single A baseball team.
Justin's girlfriend Nikki joined us on Saturday. We started our night early with a trip to the oldest bar in America, MrSorley's Old Ale House. This is easily my favorite establishment in NYC; I am three for three on visits.
After McSorley's, we met up with a college friend, Ronethea, and headed to PDT (Please Don't Tell). This is a secret bar that you have to enter through a phone booth!
We said goodbye to Ro and ran to Broadway to catch Robin Williams in Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo. I wish I could tell you how awesome it was, but...well, seeing Robin Williams was cool.
The most surprising thing about teaching this new subject for two years is that I had no specific training before or during that time. It was a lot of professional reading and trial and error...and plenty of frustration. Fortunately, that changed a couple of weeks ago. Our new school sent me to Teachers College at Columbia University in New York for a week of training in writers workshop. What an awesome experience! I won't bore you, blog reader, with the details of teaching pedagogy, but I feel much more prepared to be a quality writing teacher now.
The other cool thing about a trip to NYC was that Becky tagged along to play. She made herself busy during the day, and then we had awesome fun-tivities each night.
We arrived on Sunday and our friends Kate and Jason picked us up for LaGuardia and drove us back to Kate's parents house in Long Island for a lobster and steak dinner! What great hosts. On the way, we made sure to stop at a garage sale in Everybody Loves Raymond's neighborhood.
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| Kate and Jason are in the background in the black and blue shirts. Sadly, this is the only picture evidence of our Long Island excursion. |
Monday night was our two year anniversary. Becky got me a Dirk Nowitzki jersey (ordered pre playoff run, no bandwagon fans here). We went to a family style Italian restaurant, Carmines, and got a weeks worth of spagetti and meatballs.
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| Resisting the urge to make a non-family friendly caption...ahhhhhhhhhhh. |
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| Two years of bliss. |
On Tuesday, we used Justin Strickland's Yankee season tickets to watch the Bronx Bombers destroy the Brewers.
Columbia is right on the edge of Harlem on the Upper West side, so we decided to check our Amateur Night at The Apollo.
The idea of Amateur Night is that the audience picks the winner...and loser by cheers and boos. The audience can be pretty harsh. I realized the power of group think when I caught myself lustily booing one performer. Actually, that was the power of bad singing!
My advice to any future performers: if you are singing, no long instrumental intros!
 |
| Becky's cousin, Kara, joined us. |
A trip to NYC wouldn't be complete without a Broadway show. We decided to go highbrow and see Avenue Q, a puppet musical with full on puppet nudity. It was right up our alley.
Becky had to leave on Friday afternoon to go to Jenny Chen's (college roommate) wedding. Luckily, I didn't have to brave the city alone as Justin Strickland made the trip up from D.C. With my week of training complete, I was ready hit the town. We caught the Staten Island Ferry to watch the Staten Island Yankees, the single A baseball team.
Justin's girlfriend Nikki joined us on Saturday. We started our night early with a trip to the oldest bar in America, MrSorley's Old Ale House. This is easily my favorite establishment in NYC; I am three for three on visits.
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| Justin, Nikki, and Me |
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| $17 drinks. What a deal! |
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| Gig 'em Aggies! |
I told Justin and Nikki bye and grabbed a few hours of sleep before I got on an early flight to the Great State of Texas. Being the the USA for a full month before getting to the Lone Star State is like torture. The next blog will chronicle our Texas travels.
Love,
iBeck
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