Ysette

Post mortem

Here’s the thing about last Thursday: If I had harbored any doubts about the impact of the first workshop and whether or not I was too ambitious about what could be accomplished in the span of one mentoring session (I certainly was), everything came together beautifully during the follow-up session. After everyone arrived and had a bit of dinner, we went over all the concepts I planned on reviewing in the allotted time of fifteen minutes. I didn’t get to the bonus questions, but then again, I didn’t show the final two videos attached to those questions during group. I think in a different context (with a group of older teenagers or in a situation where we didn’t have to put aside time for dinner or evaluations) we could hew closer to my original lesson plan for the first session. The second session, however, ran longer. (more…)

By Ysette, ago

Indexes of engagement

I don’t yet have the evaluations in hand from the last workshop, but based on the energy in the room and the output of the young people, I could safely say that the Tribal Rites of Passage activity was a success. Even though some people could not make it back for the second session due to personal and work issues, several things indicated that the participants were in fact engaged by the last session. (more…)

By Ysette, ago

Pumped!

Last night’s workshop went really well and I miss the group already. Have a few posts up my sleeve, but I need to send out some emails and write a few evaluations today. Stay tuned.

By Ysette, ago

The importance of signposting

Talking about reviews in the previous post brought to mind how important it is to give constant signposts to your students. From personal experience, I know what it’s like to get so preoccupied keeping up with weekly lessons at the expense of losing sight of the larger arc of a course. A well-written syllabus will guide students through a course and show how each week contributes toward a larger lesson. But another way of reminding students where we’re at and where we’re headed is by writing down a daily class agenda and doing regular reviews at the beginning of class. (more…)

By Ysette, ago

Prep work

In prepping for the workshop tonight I’ve: gone over a mental picture of everyone and their names; written out a handful of review questions covering the biggest conceptual lessons we learned in the last session; settled on a schedule with the group facilitator to accommodate a short dinner, birthday celebrations Read more…

By Ysette, ago

More on Big Ideas

Phew! Now that that‘s out of the way, I can get around to some other things that I wanted to write about. The brouhaha surrounding teacher evaluations here in NYC depresses me, so I wanted to pick out a nice little nugget from an opinion piece submitted to the Times Read more…

By Ysette, ago

The writing part of blogging

I spent all of yesterday with a deep feeling of being unsettled and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it till this morning, and this post will be my attempt at getting a better grasp on it. The vagueness of that last sentence already betrays a bit of the source of my anxiety. It is this: writing. Or rather, the writing part of blogging. (This will likely be a long, meandering post, but if I don’t try to hammer it out, I won’t be able to focus on much else.) (more…)

By Ysette, ago

In theory, in practice

Let’s talk about pilot programs! As I mentioned in an earlier post, I’m piloting bits of my Coming of Age program at New Alternatives for Children (NAC). I’m especially excited about the upcoming workshop, which will allow participants to take what we discussed in our last meeting—coming of age rituals—and synthesize it for themselves by designing rites of passage that resonate with their personal definitions of adulthood. As opposed to the last session, where I needed to hit several conceptual points in a presentation and discussion, this is the part of the program where I have no agenda and no expectations. I’m not familiar with this group, but even the facilitator who knows them well is curious to see what the youths come up with. After the presentations, we will have everyone fill out another survey that will hopefully give us a measure the impact of the workshop and allow them to evaluate my role as an educator.

The group facilitator and I debated whether or not we should have participants fill out post-workshop evaluations so soon. (more…)

By Ysette, ago

Why and how

I just came back from a week visiting family, which meant I spent a bit of time explaining what I’m doing with myself these days. I was quite used to fielding these sorts of inquiries as a graduate student, but now that I’m “out in the world” I find I’m having to answer another volley of questions altogether. Namely, family members want to know how I spend my time and what any of this has to do with my degree. I’ll answer the first question of how I spend my time by way of tackling the more difficult question of what a PhD in Spanish is “doing” for my career. (more…)

By Ysette, ago