Term II: Complete.

My Term II assignment is complete! Submitted on Friday, and got to take a bit of a breather over the weekend. Not going to lie, it was a pretty big haul, and I'm glad to be through it. But, people have been asking me if it was totally overwhelming, and the answer is no. In fact, over the last few weeks, I've found the time to do some pretty awesome things that have NOTHING whatsoever to do with Term II or with GSE.

That's why the alternative title for this blog entry is:

Can You Still Do Wonderful Things in Philly? Yes, You Can Still Do Wonderful Things in Philly.

To name a few, from the last couple weeks:


    1. Arts Festival in Clark Park

Art! (Can't you tell?)

So there's this arts organization called Figment. I actually saw their work a couple years ago, when I went to Governor's Island in New York City, where they have an annual display...although "display" isn't really the right word to describe it. They work with lots of artists, including a lot of local artists, to put together large installations and interactive art displays. This year, they brought their work to West Philly, and featured interactive sculptures, acrobatics and capoeira performances, a fake border crossing, participatory art, food vendors, an air guitar competition, etc. In the above picture, a woman is learning to play bananas like a piano. Science is only as cool as what people are willing to do with it.

This was their first event in Philly, but it looks like it'll be back again. Hope so!

    2. Janelle Monae Concert

Droid Commandment # II: "If you see your neighbor jamming harder than you, covet his or her jam." Yeah, it was that kind of show.

One of my favorite artists, who kicked off her new tour with a show at the Electric Factory. Um, yes. If you haven't listened to her new album, it's pretty great. I already had half the lyrics memorized by the time I got to the concert, and I definitely wasn't the only one.

    3. Amazing Children's Author/Illustrators (being amazing)

You may not recognize the two men in the middle of this picture, but you might recognize their work - especially the art of the gentleman second from the right. That's Jerry Pinkney, a Caldecott winner whose books were certainly in my grubby little hands when I was growing up (and whose work is so well-respected, the Philadelphia Museum of Art just wrapped up a major exhibition devoted entirely to his work). The man with the microphone is Bryan Collier, a more recent but still quite prominent author/illustrator. They are speaking at the National Museum of American Jewish History, at a panel discussion on Children's Literature and Social Justice. Especially in the context of the work that I've gotten to do with picture books in this program, it was a pretty awesome event, and now I'm proud to say that I have officially started my own collection for a future classroom, with signed books from both of them.

    4. And, you know, other things

Look, it's just a paper, right? Okay, maybe it's more like 5 papers.

Or like 4 papers and a whole bunch of weird maps for some reason.

So, also during the two weeks leading up to my paper, I went to see Gravity, went out with friends on various occasions for various reasons, got really excited about a new board game (Dixit), met people at an event for GSE admissions (maybe it was you!), cooked plenty of food, read a book that had nothing to do with school, and, you know, breathed and slept and all that.

But yes...I am very, very glad that my Term II assignment is over.

Onward to Term III!