Been a Minute Now I'm Back...

So it has certianly been a while since my last post. I haven't forgetton about my blog; life (and GSE) has just been keeping me so busy!
Diversity Weekend was great! Me and Jamie planned so much for it; we are both so excited and happy and relieved that it went so well! All fo the students were better than anything that I dreamed of. They really made the most out of this weekend, advocating for themselves, smoozing with the professors, getting tips on the application process, asking questions (tons of questions) about the programs and faculty and research and just plain ol' life here at GSE! I think at least two of the students, maybe thre, had already applied to GSE. In their evaluations of the weekend, they said that they had a fantastic time and that they had made up their minds on GSE. Is that a success or what!
There were some slough and rough points of Diversity Weekend too. For starters, due to some miscommunications (not on GSE's behalf, though) some of the students didn't even know what Diversity Weekend was all about! We also ate a a restaurant and received less-than-friendly service. But overall it was fun, informative, and heck, I got to see the King Tut exhibit at the Franklin Institute! I can't complain!
That was last weekend. This week has been me focusing almost entirely on school. Well, school and accepted international students, but more on that later. It is nearing the end of the semester, and it's about that time when cumulative and/or reflective projects are due! Luckily, I've been a studious enough student to have been somewhat prepared for these projects, and I'm clever enough to think on my feet with the ones I forgot about. This time of year can be stressful for some, but I sort of like it. I kind of like the busy-ness of having all of these assignments due. I like that I don't have "finals" per se, but reflective papers and projects. I've really latched on the my reflective paper for EDU 635, a course where we learned all about assessment (a major portion of the reading specialist's job. Yup, getting my certification to be a reading specialist). Most of the information I learned in this course was new, so I asked if Icould do my reflective piece in a slightly different manner. I am reviewing in depth and systematically everything I learned abotu assessment and reading specialists through this course, and doing a write up of this information, how I have used it in practice (during my field experiences), and new questions for inquiry I now have as a result of having gone through this course. May sound dorky, but I'm really into this paper. Its forcing me to organize and re-learn what I learned in this course, which is helping me to feel more prepared to be a reading specialist. This is one of the most personally and profesionally fulfilling projects I've done thus far at Penn.
School and international students. Yes. I contacted a few international students who were accepted into master's programs in my Division at Penn, LLE...I never realized all the things these students have to consider! I've been pleasantly bombarded with emails (I contacted them via email) asking me question after question about financial aide and housing and cost of living and campus safety and program specific questions and scholarships and jobs and shopping an EVERYTHING YOU COULD POSSIBLY THINK OF! I just never realized how big and all-emcompassing of decision it is to take a year or two of your life and go to school. I kind of take itfor granted at times, but I put that all on the fact that I'm young and freash from undergrad. In any event, I've been trying to answer all the questions. If any of you out there have any questions, feel free to send them my way. I've become a mini-expert...