Without Fanfare or Frippery

I must take some time and extend a grand "Bravo!" to one of my classes this semester. Dramatic Activities in the Elementary School Classroom, taught by the lovely Desiree Hamburger, is unique in many ways and I feel as though it deserves some extra attention (especially in light of some of the other classes I'm taking at the moment...)

The course title explains it all. Dramatic Activities meets once a week and focuses on the development and importance of drama as a tool in the classroom. The reason why I am inspired to write about Desiree's class this week is due to the "Teacher's Resource Day" she's arranged for us this coming Thursday. Instead of our usually agenda of warm ups, insanely creative lessons (thanks to Desiree) and reflections, she has decided to let us spend the class time sharing all of the teaching resources we have collected so far. Perhaps if you are not involved in education in anyway you do not understand the absolute thrill in obtaining new teaching material, but I assure you it's like Christmas come early!

We've been encouraged to send our own lesson plans, useful book titles, activities, warm ups readings etc to Desiree all of which will be copied and available for us to put into our own "Processfolios". Basically we'll walk around, discuss what we've found and pick and choose what we feel would be beneficial to keep in our own records.

Okay, now that I'm in the midst of this post I realize you may think that I am a little over enthused about an opportunity such as this. Please understand that sometimes teacher's get teacher's block! Especially in the Ed. Theater program we're always trying to approach our students in insightful, creative and inspirational ways and in every subject. To be honest, always trying to find that new effective way of presenting material can be really hard to do on a consistent basis. Sometimes, you need is a "spark" to get your creative lesson ideas flowing. Fellow students are always sharing tactics; you love them, hate them, take them, mold them and use them as your own. No, it's not stealing...it's collaboration.

This is why I feel Desiree's class is so vital to our education here at NYU. There are not many classes in which such pure collaboration is encourage, let alone required! In a community of so many talented individuals, why not take advantage and learn from each other? Desiree has certainly gotten this idea right. I only wish more professors would be so insightful.

Looking forward to Thursday...Enjoy!

*bisou, bisous* from Paris! My mother's going to kill me for putting up this picture but what the heck, it was from middle school and we were in Paris!

Okay this picture was taken almost six years ago when I was in City of Lights last. Over the past couple of weeks, I've found myself scouring my memory of that trip trying to anticipate what my life will be like once I finally move to Paris in January. A typical day now consists of...

a. looking at this photo
b. reading my favorite "paris blogs"
c. triple reading the course options on the NYU Study abroad website
d. quadruple checking my icalendar for my visa appointment date and time
e. searching for new favorite dessert blogs in French, so I can practice French and read about baking at the same time
f. rereading the three French magazines I have stashed in my draw for practice (Glamour is so much different in French, I love it!)
g. Exclaim "Oh my god I'm moving to Paris" to at least one person I know

Fantastique! Oui?

Any-hoo...just wanted to let y'all know that I'm still working on this Paris business. In the next couple of days I might be able to tell you about where I'm living (super excited about that), next week I'll register for classes and then more visa nonsense to follow!

Oh! I nearly forgot. Tomorrow there is yet another orientation for Study Abroad Paris. I missed last months but I'm coming for sure this time AND I'm bringing cookies. Yes, I buy my friendships with baked goods but you know what, it's never failed me so I'm sticking to it. If you are a NYU Paris Spring '08 individual and you have no gone to orientation yet I highly encourage you to do so. If for nothing else, your sweet tooth may be satisfied...

Enjoy!

Yeah...be jealous. This treat was created in a dorm kitchen. After running into Sam Talbot of last season's Top Chef this morning on my way to the Palladium gym, lets just say I was inspired to make something oh so tasty. Baby sweet potato cakes with charred marshmallow and candied pecans. I dont know which was more deserving of the "yum" factor...the real candy or the eye candy. Oh my, how I love living in New York.

So, for all of the NYU students out there, I am sure that you are either up to your necks in registration business, celebrating the fact that you've been enrolled in all of the classes you wanted or biting your nails while being strung out on a few waiting lists. For those with registration issues who are currently damning our beloved Albert, you have my greatest sympathy. I know the heartache of an imperfect schedule but rest assured that it usually works out to your advantage.

I registered for my courses Tuesday afternoon. Not to boast, but let me tell you, studying abroad makes life and registration ten thousand times easier! There were no access codes, wait lists or filled classes. It was academic heaven. I was so pleased I could have kissed Albert if he really existed. Although I have no idea when or where my classes meet (well I suppose they'll meet in Paris...obviously) this is the first time that I can honestly say that the registration process was stress free for me.

If you're interested, in Paris I will be studying
1. INTENSIVE ELEM FRENCH
2. WORKSHOP IN FRENCH LANG & CULTURE
3. TPCS IN FREN CULT: MYTH OF PARIS,1830-PRES
4. TPCS FRCH CULT: EUROPEAN SOCIETY & CINEMA
5. TPCS IN FRENCH LIT: THEATER WORKSHOP

Okay, so perhaps I lied about the perfection of my schedule. Yes, as it is right now my course load is completely acceptable but I'm frustrated by my decision to do Program I (the English speaking program). I was an IB diploma student in High School so I continued to take IB French right up until my senior year. Unfortunately, we did not take the AP exam that is required for Program II and other French courses in Paris such as Intermediate French. We were IB students. We took the standard level IB French examination we were offered. As I said, my schedule is fine (and probably easy) as it is now. I just worry that I'll get to Paris and be frustrated by the fact that I'm taking elementary French classes when I already know the language. I desperately wanted to take Program II's Acting French class...we'll see what I can do. I'll keep you posted on any improvement. Enjoy!
xox
-Erin

Thursday, November 15th 2007

As much as I was confused about why College Group at the Met would chose to host a Venetian Ball to honor their African Mask exhibit, sometimes all a city girl needs is a dress, a mask and a little night music to unwind from a stressful week (it was much appreciated).

We were running late as usual. I met my dear friends Emily and Lisha from Ed. Theater in Palladium along with a big group of masked girls...and Max, Emily's patient boyfriend. We hopped on the 6 train and barreled up towards 86th street. We were not at a loss for strange looks. As much as Manhattan is home to all sorts of unique sites, I suppose a large group of masked females is not something you often see on public transportation.

The line at the Met was gigantic! So much larger than last year which was a great surprise. Lisha had never been to the Met before (!!!!) so it was our mission to get her in for the experience! Luckily there were people leaving the party and in interesting costumes nonetheless. We spent most of our time outside people watching and not thinking about how cold we were in our party dresses.

The beauty of the College Group at the Met events is that they are FREE. You cannot say that about many things in New York. All you need to do to attend an event like the Masquerade is show up with a smile and your student ID. Easy as pie...well in this case easy as churros. (Are they even Venetian?) If you'd like more information about College Group's events visit their website! Not only do they host events for college students in NYC, but they're a great resource for projects and papers. Use their site for research on art history or use the information online as a guide for a Met visit in person.

Now back to the party! The event was held in the main entrance area. Although I preferred having the party in the Egyptian Temple last spring, they illuminated the ceiling of the entrance hall to look like the waters of Venice. The image was striking on the tall marble archways. Quite impressive. The main staircase was blanketed with votive candles which sparkled around the entire room (all of the little college couples took their picture in front of the twinkly site...it was precious)

Of course we got there and the first thing we looked for was food. We were met with flat bread pizzas (pizza margarita and mushroom), grapes and churros with chocolate sauce. Again, I'm not entirely sold on churros being a Venetian food. Oh, another random party finding, Whale Rider was being projected on the western wall. A little odd in my opinion.

Regardless, we had a great time looking through the exhibits. There is something so magical about being granted access to these beautiful artifacts in the deep of night. There is definitely a certain mystique that surrounds it.

Ladies showing off our masks in front of the darkened sculpture garden.

Sometimes I think we all take for granted the fact that we go to school in such an incredible city, especially during these times of extreme stress and schoolwork. During the night, I had to keep telling myself "You are at a Masquerade ball at THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART!! There are some people in this country who will never ever see this place in their life time and here I am roaming around in my Zorro mask, munching on a churro and contemplating the patterns on ancient artwork" It is truly amazing.

Overall, we had a fantastic evening! We look forward to College Group at the Met's next event. Although our mask will take their rightful place strung up on our walls or shoved in draws, I think this was a night we'll remember for quite some time.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

I'd imagine many of you are still scattered all over the country at this point, spending time with (or avoiding) family members and probably still working on digesting your turkey day meal.

I'm currently propped up on my huge green couch in Northport loving the feeling of being home. However instead of sitting next to my mom or girl friends watching a movie...I've covered the couch and myself with text books, plays and various syllabi, all of which need to be dealt with before I go back to the city monday morning. There is so much work to be done over this break! Yesterday, I couldn't quite tell if the pain in my chest was heartburn from the inhuman amount of stuffing I ate the day before or pure anxiety of not finishing all of this work in time. The good news is, final papers will start being handed in pretty much the week we get back meaning that this semester (however lovely) is coming to an end and christmas break/peru/paris/amazingness will be soon to follow. The bad news is, final papers will start being handed in pretty much the week we get back and I actually have to write them.

At the moment I think I'm on top of it, however the anticipation of having to craft "the perfect first sentence" (not to mention the rest of the text) for all of these different assignments is getting me worked up. Anyway, enough gloominess... it is post thanksgiving weekend for goodness sake! I'd like to share some positive things that are going on in the Ed Theater/Drama Lit academic world these past two weeks.

1. Brain + Behavior is amazing. Although there was only a sprinkling of us in lecture on Wednesday, Glimcher videotaped his lesson and posted it on the internet for those who left NY early. His already animated persona reached new heights as our TA's recorded his every zany move with a video camera.

2. We had our Resource Roundup a few weeks back in Dramatic Activities in the Elementary School Classroom. I walked out with about 25 different lessons, lists upon lists of great books to use with students and for my own reference, a packet of Cultural Institutions in and around NYC to use, not to mention a packet on classroom management (heaven)! Desiree uses Processfolios as an assessment piece for our class and mine at the moment is looking a bit like my self actually... stuffed to the brim.

3. Education as a Social Institution has wrapped up our countries projects. We spent a few weeks presenting lessons on the educational systems of different places around the world. Unfortunately that section came to an end and we're back to normal lectures again. The readings have been really interesting now that I'm focusing in on the effectiveness of private schools. Most of us are terrified about our final paper though as we don't really get much guidance when it comes to assignments. I hate "winging" it on my own.

4. Human Development. We're past our second exam and on the home stretch. For a class that follows the development of humans from conception to death, we're on young adulthood so I guess it's all down hill from here (ha).

5. Beginner's Playwriting is really moving along at this point. Our next class meets tuesday night and the first group will present their final 10 minute plays. Equity actors are coming in to do a staged reading of our work. The class has a large number of grad. students in it so the level of professionalism as well as sheer talent in the group is immeasurable. I cannot wait to see what genius they're able to sew together. I love listening to their pieces simply because it gives me hope that my work will sound like that once I'm in their position as well.

6. Scholars is in full swing as well. We're still getting ready for our trip to Peru, which is one of the major thoughts getting me through this hellish finals period. The Health & Wellness group is interviewing our contact at God's Love We Deliver early next week and thankfully we'll be able to complete our protocol and papers before the due date. Yeah scholars!

Anyway, that's life in a nutshell pretty much. Any questions, comments or rants...you know how to reach me :)

Enjoy!

We had another NYU Paris meeting this week. That fact that I'm studying abroad is finally starting to feel 'real', ya know? An advisor from NYU Paris (I apologize for forgetting his name) was in NY for the week and it was nice to actually get information straight from the source!

The first thing that struck me about his presentation was the size of the staff in Paris. He explained that there are only about 11-12 people in the NYU Paris building who serve as our professors, advisors, bursar contacts and the like. He equated the experience with "actually going to a small liberal arts college". After a hectic semester, that sounded completely enticing. I was excited to learn that our professors are various college professors and high school teachers from around Paris who choose to lead a few classes for NYU. You can read the professors bios online if you go to NYU Study Abroad Paris and search under the academics tab.

Just some quick stats... there will be approximately 125 students at NYU Paris next semester. 75% will be NYU students and the rest will be our new friends from universities around the country. In case you were curious.

In terms of classes, when we arrive we will be taking a placement exam to determine whether or not our preliminary schedules are adequate. We were told that depending on your score, a Program I student may wish to take a few Program II classes to spice things up a bit.

Speaking of programs, since we are a relatively small group, apparently there are about 12-15 students in every class. I'm sure far too many NYU students out there have experienced the horrors of the large lecture class, so the intimacy of the courses abroad will be a nice change. (Unless you hate participating, being called on or not napping in class... then small class sizes might be an issue)

Let's see... other than that we briefly discussed setting up a bank account, getting a French cellphone, cultural activities, the NYU facilities and transportation.

I think it's fantastic that I've been getting quite a few e-mails from people asking me about Paris and NYU Study Abroad. Please, if you have any questions feel free to post them as comments on the blog so that other people might see them and find them useful as well. I promise I will respond swiftly as usual!

Anyway... soak in this lovely Saturday afternoon. If you're working on finals, stay caffeinated...If you're not working on finals, keep it to yourself or I'm enormously jealous of you.

Enjoy!