Lisa in the USA

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[lisaintheusa]

A holiday in Colombia

It's Spring Break now and I'm spending the week in Colombia!  Feels very surreal to be here.  Today in Bogota there was bright sunshine during the day and the hostel I'm staying in had a lovely garden where I sat and soaked up all the vitamin D that I have missed from the dark winter days in Boston.  

I'm here with four friends who are graduate students at New York University.  Today we walked a little bit around La Candelaria, a historic neighborhood in downtown Bogota where we're staying.  The buildings are beautiful and colorful.  Then we climbed up the hundreds upon hundreds of stairs to Cerro de Monserrate  to see the church on top of the hill.  The air is much thinner here so it was difficult to breathe, but the view was worth it.  We ate lunch at this beautiful restaurant Casa Santa Clara where it was so infused with light and high ceilings.  

Afterwards, we wandered downtown, did a little bit of shopping and admired the new metro buses which have specific bus lanes and stops that look like subway stations.

Taxi is here for dinner, more updates later!

[lisaintheusa]

Q&A with filmmaker Liu Jian, who creates the first featured length animated Chinese film. Very dark. #china #liujian #animation (at CGIS South Building)

[thesprouts]

We have these brief lives, and our only real choice is how we will fill them. Your attention is precious. Don’t squander it. Don’t throw it away. Don’t let companies and products steal it from you. Don’t let advertisers trick you into lusting after things you don’t need. Don’t let the media convince you to covet the lives of celebrities. Own your attention — it’s all you really have.

Transom » Jonathan Harris (via thesprouts)

[harvardeducation]

Are you watching @Pasi_Sahlberg’s LIVE web series, ‘Educational Change Sauna’ on our YouTube Live channel? | http://bit.ly/1aul6Pg #HGSEa317

[lisaintheusa]

Featured here, looking a bit serious really...

[lisaintheusa]

Greeted by a snowman today (at HGSE Harvard Graduate School of Education)

[lisaintheusa]

at John F. Kennedy School of Government

[lisaintheusa]

at Harvard Square

[lisaintheusa]

Sledding (at Harvard Yard)

[lisaintheusa]

at Harvard Law School

[lisaintheusa]

at Harvard Museum of Natural History

[lisaintheusa]

#HGSEglobal education conference (at HGSE Harvard Graduate School of Education)

[lisaintheusa]

On the nature of work

It's 11.35PM on Sunday night and I've been working/studying the whole day.

Back when I was a lawyer, working long hours until 2/3/4AM/all-nighters was relatively normal.  It was part of the culture, and the bankers who were our clients worked even longer hours.  It was a sign of success that you could work late and work hard, far beyond the allocated number of billable hours assigned to you.  The language of corporate law is framed around being productive and 6 minute increments.  If you didn't have enough work, you would try to find it by telling others you had "capacity".

But it isn't just in a law firm that I worked long hours because it was expected.  When I was a high school teacher, just starting out with Teach For Australia, working long hours was inevitable because at the same time as figuring out how to teach effectively in my classes, I had to develop curriculum, lesson plans, write and mark assessment, and study for my Masters at the same time.  By the end, I was exhausted.  Of course I was.  It's not sustainable.  

And now, I'm working similarly hard and equally long hours.  Why?  Why am I devoting my life so much to work and learning?  I certainly don't need to, do I?  Australia is the lucky country.  I could have a stable 9-5 job in the public service, go for a run at lunch, come home each day and cook dinner with my partner... Enjoy a more balanced lifestyle and go for bush walks on the weekend, paint or play the piano, go on a 2 week overseas holiday each year...

And yet, doing what I'm doing now is a joy.  It doesn't feel stressful, like it did as a lawyer or a teacher.  I'm no longer accountable to my supervising partner/clients, or my students.  There was much more pressure in my previous jobs than in being a graduate student. Even though the work isn't easy, and the hours are long, this is a holiday.   I feel lucky each day that I get to do what I'm doing.  It doesn't really feel like "work".  It feels fun.  It's an incredibly special time to think, ponder, question and reflect on so many ideas.  

--

"The International Education Policy master’s program draws together a community of learners who share a common interest in critically examining issues of equity and education cross-nationally.  

The goal of our program is to develop graduates who will lead innovation in global education. Our program attracts students who are committed to investigating and applying meaningful, informed, sustainable, and innovative approaches to educational reform—whether in government agencies, non-governmental or multilateral agencies, within educational institutions, or through social entrepreneurial organizations."

Read more: http://www.gse.harvard.edu/academics/masters/iep/index.html#ixzz2jeKNASYF

--

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world"- J William Towne, author of America's Best Teachers 

[lisaintheusa]

Lucky

A low inference recount of today's activities.

7.30AM: Read and analyzed the case for my first class today - Marina Lee and the Noumena Education Initiative.  Friend from China called briefly.  Met my study group at 9AM to discuss.  Case study class.  Statistics, then left early to meet Marina and Professor Higgins with a few others in my course.  Discussed the pressure of students to get into competitive high schools and colleges.  Apparently one's SAT scores are not correlated with one's performance in college - at all.  Lunch with two friends.  Discussed politics, psychology of letting go...  Emails and doing research on after school programs.  Interviewed a teacher who is running an after school program on robotics.  Went to a talk about "Assessment: The Silent Killer" by a physics professor at the Science Center.  Flash cards don't work for long term memory.  Came home, ate a snack, had a 20 minute nap, did some reading for class on portfolio managed school systems in the US, posted reflections about deeper learning on the discussion group.  Rode to Davis Square meet friends for dinner.  We talked school/education: inevitable, fun, exciting, engaging.  Home at 11.30PM.  

[lisaintheusa]

People stopped in their tracks to admire this tree, illuminated by the warm afternoon sunlight.  

[lisaintheusa]

Exploring #fall in #NewEngland with apple picking and a walk along the beach with my #HGSE buddies. (at Crane Beach)

[lisaintheusa]

#aussies at the #nhlbruins game!! "When to the fights and the ice hockey broke out"

[lisaintheusa]

#Halloween prep has started. Love visiting #supermarkets in different countries to see what people eat/celebrate. This is how I know I'm definitely in the USA!