The Sorely Needed Update

For those of you who enjoy my blogging in list format, here goes... I know that I have been terrible about this, and there really are a few things going on in my life.

1. I journeyed to Sibiu, a Saxon settlement in Transylvania. It was a really lovely weekend, and a good time to get away. The journey there wasn't awful- as is usually the case on a Friday evening, the train gets less and less crowded the closer you come to the destination. I arrived at about 9:00 in the evening and found my way to the hostel quickly, then ventured out a bit for a walk around the three interlocking squares. It was amazing, kind of a pedestrian center and recently renovated, so the streets are clean and the pavement isn't treacherous. Though it rained nearly the entire weekend, it didn't prevent me from walking what felt like a million miles and climbing a ton of stairs and loving the experience.

2. I had an interview the following Wednesday for a position in Connecticut as a Residential Counselor for a summer program. I wasn't nearly as excited about the position going into the interview as I should have been, but 45 minutes later, I was sold. The man I interviewed with sounded like an amazing boss, and the job just seemed incredible. We agreed to speak sometime the following week regarding the position. He sent out reference forms the next morning, and called on Skype later that night to offer me the position. Friends, I'm moving to Middletown, Connecticut at the end of June, and I really couldn't be more excited.

3. I mailed some things at the post office the next day, and nearly 40 minutes later I sent off my two cards. Watch for a follow-up posting on the Romanian Postal Service...

4. I got a package on Tuesday from my amazing parents. It was filled with amazing goodies like onion soup mix and Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and Jolly Ranchers and tea and honey and multivitamins and Crystal Light. Amazing...



5. I am headed to the town of Sighişoara this weekend, and really excited. Providing the money holds out, I will be traveling every other weekend until I leave. This is nuts. Sighişoara is another Saxon settlement in Transylvania, and is said to be the best preserved inhabited citadel in Europe. It is a much smaller town than those I've been to before, but that should mean I can really explore the whole town. I'm not leaving until Saturday morning to save on lodging costs, which makes for a long weekend on the train, but I don't mind. Because there will be mountains, and I like mountains :)

6. There is a lot more to blog about and I promise I will be getting around to it soon...

Happenings

There has been a LOT going on in the past week or so, but I'm going to focus on the future. I have a few things to say.

1. I am traveling to Sibiu this coming weekend and I am incredibly excited. The more I read, I become more and more convinced that I really need a weekend away in a place described as so charming.

2. I am traveling to Sighişoara the first weekend in April, and then I have a long trip planned for spring break (including Maramureş, Cluj-Napoca, and Oradea). The second weekend in May is set aside for a visit to Timişoara, and the last weekend in May is reserved for Constanţa. I will be visiting Iaşi the first weekend in June, and flying home to the States sometime after June 17. Now... the challenge is just to find funds all of these adventures :)

3. My 5A class is working on a project that they will present next week- a travel poster on different major cities in Romania. No joke- what I've seen so far is incredibly impressive. I'm very excited- pictures to come, of course.

4. I'll be featuring some of the best "Social Problems" compositions of my 6A class in the coming days- look out for some amazing writers.

5. I got a package in the mail today from my dear friend Lori. A while ago I mentioned to her that I missed having something to cuddle. Check out what I found at the post office today:




And with that, have a lovely week!

My Job Rocks

There are a lot of reasons to love teaching, and most of them really are internal. I am motivated by connecting with students and watching them learn, assigning projects that get them thinking and growing and sharing, and the intrinsic knowledge that I am making a difference.

But sometimes, I appreciate the external motivation :)

I've already shared about the First of March, but I didn't know anything about the Eighth of March. Just one week later (and coincidentally right as all my fresh flowers from last week were dying), this is International Women's Day.

Check out the pictures of the amazing gifts from my students today:

Update

There are a lot of random things happening in my life, and none of them are coming together to form into a connected web of thoughts with one big great idea... so here is my update.

1. I am STILL getting gifts for Mărţişor. It doesn't pay that well, but teaching in Romania is still pretty great :)

2. I have developed a new obsession with a man. His name is Craig, and he has a list. And everyday, he tells me about jobs that I should apply for. And so my friends, I have been taking his suggestions.

3. To that end, I am looking for two types of employment. The first is a summer position. I have a four important factors to consider at this point: location, salary, time-frame, and what effect THIS position will have on number 4. To that end, I have been applying at a lot of places on the East Coast, and I have an interview later this week for a Resident Counselor position in Conneticut. However, there is another opportunity that could be pretty fantastic, with programs available in Madison WI, Boston MA, and... um... LONDON.
Location: Job One... Conneticut. Good for multiple reasons that the world will someday know. Job Two... possibility of LONDON, and the other two would be great as well.
Salary: Job One... room and board included, no idea about salary. Job Two... all expense paid trip to LONDON (maybe), room and board in Madison and Boston, plus something extra.
Time-Frame: Job One... starts after I get home from Romania, which is a plus. However, lasts longer into the summer. Job Two... only about a month in July, which allows for job searching possibilities relating to number 4, which may or may not be necessary.
So that is where I'm at with THAT.

4. The second type of employment I am seeking is a full time job in the fall. I'm looking more and more at charter networks all over the United States, but this of course has me pointed towards the East Coast. In the last two weeks I have submitted my resume or application at 8 individual charter schools, and one huge network in NYC. Last week I heard back from an IDEAL position in Boston, MA and was asked to submit responses to some questions about education. I'm hoping to hear back from them at some point, or anywhere else really. If you don't mind, please do for me whatever you believe in. Pray, send all your good vibes, or just keep your fingers crossed. I would really love to have this figured out before coming home from Romania.

5. For a period of time last week, every member of my family (plus my darling Jane) was out of the country. I am here in Romania, Ean and my father were in Honduras, and my mom was in the Bahamas along with Jane and Christian. I'm struck by a few things, namely how lucky we all are to have these opportunities to see the world. I really do believe that we are shaped by travel experiences, and to experience this growth along with my family is really cool. Secondly, I am so proud of the men my brothers have become. I won't comment on the cruise activities undertaken by Brother #1, but Brother #2 has spent the last 10 days in Honduras, giving his time and strength and energy to those who were dealt a life hand that did not include being born into privilege. He is also taking a year off of traditional school to spend time in Croatia, and I am just immensely proud of him. Plus, it means that if I get a real job and can afford it, I will be going to Croatia for Christmas :)


6. I got together with a very random lunch date last Friday: my old babysitter! M~ is here in Bucharest along with her husband and two youngest children, and we got connected through a very odd meeting she had at a shipping facility back in the States. She used to babysit my brothers and I when I was just a toddler. Regardless, we had a fantastic time at Chocolat, a cafe in Lipscani. I got to meet her boys and they were fantastic (made me miss my brothers even more), and it was so lovely to connect with someone.

7. I am planning a trip in two weeks to a town called Sibiu. It is located in the Transylvania region, and was named a European Union Capital of Culture in 2007. It is about 7 hours from here by train, but I'm looking forward to a weekend away somewhere beautiful. I have other travel plans for the spring: a return trip to Cluj-Napoca, Oradea, Sighişoara, Constanţa, and Iasi if at all possible. I would LOVE to travel to Maramureş, and there is a possibility of doing a weekend with a Roma family near Târgu Mureş. There just isn't enough time!


8. I have had some interesting teaching moments in the last few weeks, but this has to be one of the happiest. Please note the refusal to believe the way I spell my name (written on the board in EVERY class), as well as the devil horns and pitchfork. I still have no idea what I did to this little friend.





9. I saw a movie this past weekend: "The King's Speech." I am so happy that movies here are not dubbed, but subtitled in Romanian. It was a really excellent movie, and my Colin Firth obsession grew a bit stronger. I got all dressed up and went out... it is nice to be on a date every once in a while, even if it is only with myself.

10. Thoughts, comments, ideas, and suggestions are all very much appreciated. Have a wonderful week :)

Job Frustrations

It is getting to be the time of year that I begin to panic about summer employment. I KNOW that it is the first day of March, but spring is the fastest season in my opinion and then summer descends with all of it's sticky heat and money making opportunities. And as much as I love daycamp, I think that this summer might be calling for something different.

I really don't have too many concerns about finding a summer job that will be both appropriate and enjoyable. I am over 21 years of age, I have reliable transportation, and... oh wait... a college degree. That's right.

So it isn't summer I'm worried about this year. It is fall.

My current frustrations include the fact that the political choices of people who know nothing about education are slowly but surely whittling away my chances of finding a job.

Additionally, I'm really tired of being taunted by the recruiting strategies of all these fantastic residency programs in cities and states all over the country. Most major cities have a residency program that leads to a Master's Degree in education... but you are automatically disqualified if you graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in education, or hold a teaching certificate. I understand that these programs are designed to get people to teach in cities with a failing public system, and encourage the committment of mid-career professionals to a field of giving back. I really do understand this. But when these programs are NOT filled year after year and when they are begging for applicants, it makes me want to scream a little inside. I'm well trained! I'm experienced! I'm a perfect applicant for your teaching job... except for my teaching degree.

Most of my current applications are going out to charter schools, because these guys are the ones currently posting jobs. However, I did apply tonight for a new network forming in the 5 burroughs of New York City. Let's hope some of these answers get me somewhere:

Why do you want to teach in a high-need school in New York? What challenges do you think you might face in New York schools that you might not face in other schools, and what experiences have equipped you for these challenges?
For a very long time, I knew that I wanted to work with students. I was passionate even as an adolescent about the growth and development of children, and I found teenagers to be fascinating. This desire eventually manifested itself into a career as a teacher, but it was not until a sociology class I took in college that I realized exactly what kind of teacher I wanted to become. The course was an Honors seminar with a focus on poverty, and we spent hours reading and discussing different elements of poverty in the United States. The more I learned and developed in my understanding, I began to come to the opinion that education is the only viable answer for so many of the social problems faced by the United States, poverty included. I am educated as an educator, and I have skills, techniques and resources that allow me to teach and train students in a variety of disciplines and life skills. I could do this anywhere, but I feel that teaching in a high-need school is the absolute best use of my training and talents. I understand the challenges that urban education systems face, from problems with motivation for to language issues, transient students and sometimes overwhelmingly difficult struggles in the home. However, I feel that my research into the subject, desire to learn more, and my experience student teaching in a Chicago public school have equipped me to face these challenges. I believe in the ability of every student to learn and to succeed, and I believe that I have a responsibility to help facilitate the growth of every student in my care. What better way to give back, to honor the opportunities and experiences I have had, than to serve as a teacher in some of the most difficult circumstances?

Briefly describe a time when you achieved a goal in the face of challenges (or while balancing multiple responsibilities). What specific steps did you take to ensure you would meet your goal, and how did you know you were successful? How will you apply that experience to set goals and measure success in your classroom?
In the summer of 2010, I decided that I was too young to start my “real life” and career, and spent some time pursuing teaching opportunities abroad. I knew that I was equipped with the necessary skills to teach abroad, and I wanted an international living experience. Thinking back to past travel experience, I eventually settled on a teaching job in Romania. I had traveled to Romania before and encountered a people and a culture that fascinated me, so I soon had a contracted position to teach English at a public primary school in the capital city of Bucharest. This experience has been filled with more challenges than I could have imagined, and it soon became clear that my very basic goal of teaching my students well would be difficult to accomplish. I was faced with a language barrier and a lack of contact that can be incredible isolating and makes everything difficult, from basic classroom management to simply going to the grocery store. I have over 640 students to teach, with grade levels ranging from first to eighth. I plan lessons, assessments, and projects for twenty-one different classes a week, and develop my own curriculum for the first and second grade students. The school does not have a printer or copy machine, and many of my students do not have textbooks. Regardless, I was determined to succeed. Pouring all of my energy into creating lessons and teaching in a manner to maximize education, I began to accommodate my strategies and techniques. In some instances it required modification of planned activities, and in others it requires personal sacrifice and commitment on a level I could not have imagined. I have realized many things about myself and grown tremendously as a teacher in the last year, but the thing I am most proud of is the way my students want to come to class. They are excited about learning, and I think that if I can create such an environment in such difficult circumstances such as these, I will be able to apply such success in any classroom.

Mărţişor

Here is a great article on the history of Mărţişor in Romania, for those who are interested.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/2824/

For those who are not, here is what I can tell you.

It happens on the first of March, which seems to be because of the Roman Calandar, which used to begin in March. It is a really old tradition and you give a Mărţişor to people to wish them strength and health in the coming year. Traditionally, men give the talisman to women, and it is a twisted string of red and white thread to symbolize the passage of winter to spring.

Here is what else I can tell you.

My apartment is once again filled with flowers, and I have some really lovely Mărţişor(s?) from many of my students. It was a good day :)

More Silliness

Here are some silly sentences from class 6A:

“The green cat can play karate and enjoy the math and is from U.S.A.”

“A blue cat was scuba-diving in Kazakhstan after the English class.”

“The blue chameleon loves football and became my biology project while I was in Canada.”

“A green chameleon played football with the map of Afghanistan. In this time, a red lion painted it for art class.”

“A blue chameleon is cycling to Romania and it likes history.”

“A red chameleon when cycling in Egypt and quit biology, where he was helping the young students to study ‘The Body of a Chameleon”.”

“A blue snake was scuba-diving in Egypt and thinking at history.”


Using the words run, holiday, animal, desk, place, house, excited, tiny, swim, and school, I had my 5A class write stories. Here is some of their work:

“It was a sunny day. I went home from school. On my desk I saw two tickets to a holiday in Greece. I was so excited because that place is great. I took a tiny present for my parents to thanks them. I ran in the house because I was very happy. When I went to Greece I swimmed in the sea all day. I took with me a cute animal. It was a great summer.”

“Dear Iulia, I’m having a great time in Barcelona. Today it’s very hot and warm. Right now I’m running. In the sea it’s a tiny animal. It’s a sunny holiday. We’re very excited to be here. I’m swilling in a small place of the beach. I don’t want to go home to stay in the house and start school again. I don’t want to sit at the desk to do my homework. I love this city very much. Love, Ilinca”

“I went in a summer camp with my parents. Suddenly I heard a strange noise coming from the forest. I ran to see what happened. I saw a tiny animal writing his homework at a desk. It was a snake. Can snakes write? I didn’t know that… Everyday we learn something new! Then I saw some flies swimming in the milk. Okay, that’s weird. I woke up. It was a dream. It wasn’t holiday and I had to go at school. While I was walking I saw again the snake. Was it a dream?” –Ana On.

“I was at the English class! It was boring! The phone rings! It was my dad calls me he has a surprise for me! I was at the desk when at the door was my dad with a Labrador for me!!! A real animal! I run at the door to dump to have my pretty dog girl! The Labrador loves to swim like me! It was tiny and lovely. My mum says she can stay in the house for 3 months. I was excited. I go with she in my room. She put in a place to sleep but I can’t live it to sleep. I was staying in Bucharest in the week for school and in the weekends I go to the house in the backiard.”

“Dear Toby, I am on holiday in Mamaia. It is a wonderful place. Now, I am swimming at the seaside. My brothers is running on the beach with his favorite animal: a dog. His name is Bob and he is very tiny. Tomorrow I go to school here in Mamaia. I am so excited! The school is far from my hotel, so I go by car. I’m very happy! Write soon, Dora”

“It was a nice summer day. The school was over and I really enjoyed this. I went to a nice holiday. I was excited because my parents told me that we will go to the mountain. A hotel with a pool, where I can swim. But my parents wanted to go out for a walk. I wasn’t so excited. We walked a long time, and we arrived on the peak. I was scared. I saw a big bear near a tiny baby. I wanted to save him. I ran very soft but the creature saw me. He bit me but it didn’t hurt, then I thought that it was a nightmare. At the moment I woke up and I realized I am at my house, and it was another boring school day. I went to my desk and I started to learn the text.”

“It was a sunny day of summer. I was at the ‘Summer Camp.’ The place was great. I stayed in a beautiful house. One day I went to the lake to swim. I saw two tiny yellow eyes. It was a hungry animal. I ran and I went to the house. I set at my desk and wrote to my mother. She was excited that I wrote her. It was a beautiful holiday.”

“I’m running to hope to see if my mother wants to go on holiday. I’m so excited. Right now I’m in my house. My mother telled me that we are going to go on a holiday. I’m so excited. When I walked through my room I saw on my desk a paper. On it was the place where we are going to go. We are going to go to swim and… to SCHOOL. What??? I don’t want to go on holiday anymore.”

“Dear Clare, I am running here in my hotel. The house is tiny and sticky. I am having an animal who is sooo excited! He is only three year and he goes to school! Near his place is an old desk who is screaming: ‘Please! I want to swim! Why I can not swim? Is unusual! Please!!!’ Isn’t it great? Love, Anastasia”

“I was on a holiday trip. I went home and I saw a tiny elephant. The elephants should be big animals not tiny! Suddenly I started to swim. Then, I heard: ‘Wake up! I’ll give you a NINE if you don’t wake up.’ A NINE? No way. I woke up on my desk at school. What is the…? ‘Thanks! So to your place. I can give you a ten…’ I was so excited! ‘But unfortunately I’ll give you a FOUR because you slept.’ A FOUR? It was only a dream. I woke up but I was at school. I didn’t have a FOUR I had only a THREE!!” –Andrei Alexandru

“It’s Monday. I run to school every day because I can’t catch the bus. Every Monday think at holiday because I don’t want to go school, sometimes school is boring or interesting. This Monday is very good. Our teacher make a move for us about animals, how can they swim in water and what they eat. I was excited because a tiny bug can eat very much. When I arrive at home I go at my desk and do my homework. The homework was about a wonderful place: North America.” –Morosanu Dracoş