Home

I love living off-campus. I just realized that today. Today, as I was walking off the train from downown to my West philly neighborhood (in addition to loving living off-campus, I also love SEPTA, our public transportation system). It feels good to feel away at times, you know. Away from school, away from work, away from businesses and computer labs and classmates and educational research and theories and students and case studies and Cereality (great store though, but how often do I go there a week? too often to put on my blog without shame...) and just everything. I so relish in my 15minute train ride from GSE to my apartment in deep West Philly...not the cutesy West Philly that's close to Penn and where most Penn students live, I'm talking the real West Philly...all you native Philadelphians can picture exactly what I'm talking about. I love my neighborhood. It's a little "rough around the edges" but it's safe, and as a city girl that's how I like my neighborhoods anyway. And it's my new home. And it's my new solace. This is gonna make me sound kinda creepy or dorky, but there's like a 5 minute walk from the train station to my block, and when I'm about to turn the corner of my block I always let out a little sigh of joy and relief and feel just little better than I did a few moments ago because I know that I'm home. It's not my natural home, but it's the home I've made to be. And me and my home are two lovers: we can't stand to be apart...
Especially not after crappy days like yesterday. That's when I really miss home. I'll stop being so harsh. Yesterday wasn't crappy, per se, it was just professionally challenging. I do fieldwork at Lea Elementary, a K-8 school in my West Philly neighborhood. I have a tutorial group of 3 6th graders whom I instruct in language arts. I've been struggling to develop good lesson plans, lesson plans that are both engaging and academically valuable...Finally I came up with the perfect lesson plan. We are analyzing poetry. I personally am not a poetry fan, but I do like music and I do recognize songs to be poems. that being said, I thought my boys would appreciate if we analyzed the Jay-Z song "Lost One" as a poem, looking for the main idea of each verse and finding figurative language in the verses (that's what their teacher said they had to do). And I cant take credit for this idea totally, Jamie (another blogger) helped me, so thanks Jamester! But anyway, it was a good lesson, but one of my students was totally giving me attitude all throughout the lesson! It took everything within me to keep my calm. You see, I don't play with ither people's little children and I am dfinitely not in 6th grade so I am not gonna allow a middle schooler to speak to me like I'm of his 6th grade friends. But I had to remain calm. Boy did I wanna be home; if I couldn't give him his justice, I wanted to be home. And I have to go back and teach again tomorrow. Hopefully he's better. I'm giving myself and him a fresh start tomorrow. And let's cross our fingers that this little boy has more sense than to get buck with me again...
Sometimes, though, home is the last place I wanna be. It's kinda like when you've been with your boyfriend for a long time and you don't wanna dump him, but your just bored and you want a break. Sometimes I want a break from home. That's why Spring Break is gonna be my grace this weekend...I still have to work, but I am at least taking a weekend off to vacay in ATL to visit my boyfriend's family with him for his birthday. And for those 4 days, I am going on a strict no work policy. I mean it. I will work every other day of Spring Break, but I believe that EVERY gradate student deserves some days in which they simply do not engge in any scholarly activity. It's healthy and rejuvenating. And March 2nd through March 5th, that's my plan...
til then, it's back to my home. which will suffice for now. I think I'm gona curl up in my bed right now. Tata!