— arrive early, find parking -easy-, look for signs of Sandy few at first then many, smell the ocean, feel the quiet morning streets, watch as the reality replaces preconceptions  —

remember the impact of going to a real place

— anticipation plus first-time-nerves “can we actually do this, how will it work, what will it be like, will it be worthwhile, what are we forgetting” —

think of what your students will be thinking

— our morning meeting place is closed – ack!  my word it’s cold here on the sidewalk, where will we go to the bathroom? rescued by community partner + local business,  (is Best Western ‘local’?) and who is supposed to be helping whom here —

logistics are key, have a backup plan, be ready to think on your feet

— who are these new people, ‘field guides’, nobody told me!  roll with it, rearrange groups, reconfigure plans, off we go —

 be flexible, be open, build a good relationship with your community partner

— these teeny tiny alley entrances!  a different world, a forgotten, sunken world.  first house, deep breath, knock knock nobody home, second house mean dog + haze of smoke + ‘no thanks’, third house nobody home, is this it? —

stepping out of your comfort zone is disturbing…

— fourth house, friend of our guide, doors open, mouths open, eyes and minds open, the survey gets done but the story is the real thing, images so strong, the water pouring over the mouth of the alley, the shouts of neighbors, the uselessness of hip waders in neck-high water, rescuing people, rescuing dogs, gathering in the tall building at the far end of the alley, the aftermath, the rebuilding, the bureaucracy, where is the aid?, opportunistic politicians,  heroism from the department of sanitation —

…which can open you up to powerful experiences

— one more house, no english, limping half-remembered-spanish through the questions, kids laughing show off english skills when we get stuck, leave with survey data and a smile —

your life skills might turn out to be essential – what a message

— lunch, reflection, pretty windows & water, stories, a shared understanding —

can we give our students this?

In preparation for our seminar meeting this Friday, March 15, please review the attached documents:

• Handout 03/15/13 – ASL project with BWRC and BIG.  Contains  information on Friday’s activity, meeting location (in Sheepshead Bay), readings, and more.
• Agenda 03/15/13.
• Survey (draft) for 03/15/13 – EMERGENCY RESPONSE PREPAREDNESS.  Draft of survey that will be used in our work on Friday.

I wanted to let everyone know about this event coming up on Friday, March 8th — if you have the opportunity to attend I think you’ll find it aligns perfectly with the work you are doing in the Living Lab.

Interdisciplinary Mixer Poster

Interdisciplinary teaching creates connections among traditionally discrete academic disciplines and develops students’ abilities to think critically, integrate knowledge, collaborate, recognize bias, and many other competencies. Hear from your colleagues who have successfully integrated interdisciplinary approaches into their teaching. Share ideas with colleagues and brainstorm ways to collaborate on interdisciplinary teaching and learning.

Friday March 8, 2013
9:30 to 11:30 am
Faculty & Staff Lounge, A632

Please create a new post for your group, and upload the photos from your scavenger hunt.

NOTE: Photo files tend to be large, and eat up space quickly! Please resize your photos as you upload them. Instructions for image resizing can be found here:

https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/openroad/2012/02/20/image-resizing/

Welcome! This is the blog for the Second Year Faculty Fellows participating in the General Education Seminar, part of the City Tech Title V grant-funded initiative A Living Laboratory.

You can use the blog to post comments about the work we’re doing in the seminar, about General Education at CityTech, or about anything else you think might be of interest to the group. To add a new post, you can click the grey “+” symbol in the menu bar at the top of the page and select “Post“.  You can also leave a comment in response to an existing post (like this one) by clicking the “Leave a Reply” link below.

You can also pose questions in the seminar’s discussion forum, or create documents that all fellows can contribute to and edit collaboratively.