Life is good. It's been a busy but AMAZING past few days, and I wanted to share the excitement with you!
As I mentioned in my last post, school has officially started, and I'm very lucky to be doing four independent studies this semester that are 100% in line with what I want to do with my life! Next semester, however, I will be cramming in my last few gen-ed requirements that I THOUGHT I had already taken care of. Sigh... But until then, school is great!
I've also begun my new job at the YWCA-NYC's after-school program at PS 209, where I serve as the dance specialist and a 5th grade counselor. The kids are AWESOME.
And new since last we spoke, I've been accepted into the Teaching Artist Training and Internship Program at the Community Word Project of NYC! YAAAAAY! I applied for this back in early August, and just heard the news this AM. CWP's TATIP (abbreviations totally necessary) will give me even more insight into effective integration of arts in education, along with practical experience in NYC classrooms! AWESOME!
This doesn't mean I'll be shirking on my Miss Brooklyn responsibilities, however! Saturday night, I attended the first Miss Black Manhattan Scholarship Pageant, directed by Christina Joseph, who has previously competed in the Miss New York Program, and who choreographed the opening number for Miss Brooklyn this year! I also got a chance to catch up with my friends, Inga (Miss Manhattan) and LaMonica Falkquay, who was one of my Miss NY 2008 sisters! Here's a photo of Melanie and I with Pamela, the newly crowned Miss Black Manhattan 2009!
WARNING- My inner geek is about to surface. I wanted to share an awesome video of Sir Ken Robinson speaking at the 2006 TED Conference, which I WILL ATTEND one day- perhaps as a speaker (seriously, it is without a doubt within my top 3 life goals). For those of you unfamiliar with TED , it can most simply be described as a community and annual conference celebrating ideas and innovations in a variety of fields that will change the way we live and think. Is that a gross over-simplification and incredibly vague definition? Yes, but TED is sort of hard to explain. The spectrum on which the speakers and presentations at TED each year span is tremendous. And for those of you who are unfamiliar with Sir Ken Robinson, let it suffice to say he's a saucy Brit with a brilliant mind who is revolutionizing the way we think about the arts in education (and he's been knighted- so there!). Some of his most popular quotes came from this very presentation, and trust me- it's 18 minutes well spent! (Fun fact- all TED presentations are 18 minutes long).
As I mentioned in my last post, school has officially started, and I'm very lucky to be doing four independent studies this semester that are 100% in line with what I want to do with my life! Next semester, however, I will be cramming in my last few gen-ed requirements that I THOUGHT I had already taken care of. Sigh... But until then, school is great!
I've also begun my new job at the YWCA-NYC's after-school program at PS 209, where I serve as the dance specialist and a 5th grade counselor. The kids are AWESOME.
And new since last we spoke, I've been accepted into the Teaching Artist Training and Internship Program at the Community Word Project of NYC! YAAAAAY! I applied for this back in early August, and just heard the news this AM. CWP's TATIP (abbreviations totally necessary) will give me even more insight into effective integration of arts in education, along with practical experience in NYC classrooms! AWESOME!
This doesn't mean I'll be shirking on my Miss Brooklyn responsibilities, however! Saturday night, I attended the first Miss Black Manhattan Scholarship Pageant, directed by Christina Joseph, who has previously competed in the Miss New York Program, and who choreographed the opening number for Miss Brooklyn this year! I also got a chance to catch up with my friends, Inga (Miss Manhattan) and LaMonica Falkquay, who was one of my Miss NY 2008 sisters! Here's a photo of Melanie and I with Pamela, the newly crowned Miss Black Manhattan 2009!
WARNING- My inner geek is about to surface. I wanted to share an awesome video of Sir Ken Robinson speaking at the 2006 TED Conference, which I WILL ATTEND one day- perhaps as a speaker (seriously, it is without a doubt within my top 3 life goals). For those of you unfamiliar with TED , it can most simply be described as a community and annual conference celebrating ideas and innovations in a variety of fields that will change the way we live and think. Is that a gross over-simplification and incredibly vague definition? Yes, but TED is sort of hard to explain. The spectrum on which the speakers and presentations at TED each year span is tremendous. And for those of you who are unfamiliar with Sir Ken Robinson, let it suffice to say he's a saucy Brit with a brilliant mind who is revolutionizing the way we think about the arts in education (and he's been knighted- so there!). Some of his most popular quotes came from this very presentation, and trust me- it's 18 minutes well spent! (Fun fact- all TED presentations are 18 minutes long).
