What an awesome week!

I love this week. It was a completely fabulous experience. I know I was there for work but I had such a great time it was like vacation. I wish all work could be like that!

As I said before, I worked at a high school journalism camp as an intern. I worked with kids who are appointed section editors of their school papers. Kids came from all over the US and they were awesome, fun and smart. I loved how their brains processed information and I loved that they shared their creativity.

I learned quite a bit myself. I have some great ideas for a school publication if I ever have a chance to be a sponsor or journalism teacher. I'm going to take some of these ideas back to my current school and see if I can convince the principal to let me do a student publication. We shall see!

In addition to working with kids on story packaging, grading, student instruction, facilitating leadership activities, and news/ feature/ op-ed writing, I helped my friend Photographer, who got me this gig, prep for her fall semester. I developed 50 research writing topics on Native American Indians for her to use with her advanced juniors, and an additional 30 research topics on the 1920s/ Gatsby for her AP juniors.

I met some cool people and made a few contacts (which I don't think will really turn into anything for a teaching job BUT will be very helpful in the future if I want to teach for this program!). I also met neat kids, of course. And people in the community were wonderful.

Obviously I loved the food* and the culture. I wish with all my heart that I had gone to a huge school. It's such a cool town and the school offers so much that I love and couldn't experience except in that sort of setting. It's such a historic university, rich in so much. I felt so at home in that setting.

All in all it was wonderful and I so was NOT ready to come home. Especially since I had to come home and go straight to work at my part time weekend job!!! Ugh! (I really need to get rid of that! If only I could get a raise....)

Mags

*I did real Turkish food, after trying to decide after I wrote about all my good eats here. The food was plentiful and excellent. The staff was good, and really helpful since I had never eaten Turkish and had no idea what to order. And the price was right! I had wonderfully seasoned lamb kebabs on a bed of rice with a red lentil soup drizzle with a salad with a funky dressing, warm homemade bread, a white bean soup, and hot Turk Tea.I chose to eat a table with a chair rather than on the floor with huge cushions because I was alone and all I could have visions of was myself on the floor, with a full belly, and unable to stand up! Excellent meal and I want to go back!