For my final trip into the city, I was thinking of doing two main things: first, going to a Quaker meeting in the morning, then wandering from there to the Masonic Temple and exploring inside. I believe that both of these would encourage me to deep play and to stop thinking things through too critically, really to open myself up to serendipity. The rest of my trip until we meet up at Anne's I'm hoping to leave almost entirely up to serendipity, and to just let the city take me where it will while I explore.

I'd want to go to North Philly to see the North Philadelphia Beacon Project (Broad & Lehigh), a part of the Mural Arts Programs. The mosaic grids are portraits of people -- residence and participants in the program. I can't see the portraits in the photo, so I want to see the mural by myself. I think the portraits will talk to each other and talk to me.

I've always wanted to go to North Philly, the only direction I haven't been to. People say it's the area that you don't go, that you just don't go. But I believe it's not that scary, although I know the area is dilapidated. The mosaic is bright, eye-catching, and hopeful. I believe art can really change something even in that area.

I intend to go to Rittenhouse square and the Rosenbach Museum and Library.  I'll head into the city around noon on the regional rail and spend the hours leading up to our gathering wandering around the area.  I thought (in the spirit of 'play in the city') I might spend some time playing in the park and watching how other people enjoy their city.  After this, I'll go to the Rosenbach Museum, which is quite close to the park itself.  Much like the Barnes, the Rosenbach is a private collection, but this time it is books and other rare manuscripts.  Knowing what we have learned about the value of private collections and how they no longer hold to their original principles, I want to look at this museum as we have looked at other museum institutions.

For my last trip into Philadelphia I plan on visiting the Philadelphia Museum of Art. I had originally wanted to do something unique for my last trip, but even after two hours of research I still felt that this Philadelphia staple would be the perfect place for my last visit into the city. I wanted to visit the Léger exhibit anyways, so everything fits together perfectly. I am interested in comparing my time at The Philadelphia Museum of Art to the time I spent at the Barnes Foundation, and see how the two different environments change my experience with art.

I’ve put a lot of thought into what I want to do this weekend in Philly, and I’ve come up with one conclusion:

I’ve got nothing.

There are so many amazing things I could do for my last trip, like going to what looks like one of the coolest events ever this Thursday, continuing on my mural adventures, or staring at paintings that make me think deep play might be possible. I could even go to the top of City Hall and survey the city like I’m Mufasa and everything the light touches is my kingdom. But, in the end, I know I would probably be happiest aimlessly wandering around the city, stumbling [serendipitously] across murals, spending an hour on a park bench watching people and eavesdropping on their lives,  and thinking more about what my place in Philadelphia is rather than what the coolest thing I can find to do is.

I'm planning to go to the Love Letter Train Tour on Saturday morning. I've passed so many murals on the train, but I haven't noticed their connections and meanings. Although the tour sounds like a tourist thing, I'm really excited about the new perspective it's about to bring to me. After the tour, I'm going to see  The Dream Garden since it's really close to where I'll be. And I'll stop by the Washington Square around there. I feel like it'll be a deep play experience for me, and I want to be open to all the ideas, feelings and thoughts the city gives me. I'll play the believing game as I see all the love letter murals.

I want to go visit Peter the Mint Eagle and go bird watching in Philadelphia. I became interested in Peter shortly after watch the John Steward clip in which he argues that NY pizza is better than Chicago pizza. Although it seems as if Peter and pizza are not at all connected, they are. Both are/were symbols to a large group of people at one time. As we have discussed, cities encompass vast groups of people that do not always interact and rarely agree on the importance of one thing. However, most people in Chicago are willing to argue that their pizza is pretty damn good. Pizza transcends all of the city's internal boundaries. It is not only a source of pride; it is a source of agreement. I guess what I'm searching for is a better understanding of why Peter the Mint Eagle is important to a city, or pizza is. How are people able to settle differences over a bird or a type of food? I'm essentially curious about the production of meaning in cities.

One thing I have learned from the NGLC blended learning and from working with various edu-tech tools and developers, is that the market is very much in flux. Inspired in part by the success of blended learning and the buzz around MOOCs, many companies are working on many different innovative tools and courseware packages, often in response to real needs identified by teachers and students. This is great news, but for the immediate future it means that most of us at some point will need to teach and learn with a tool that is still "in beta" and lacks the robust customer support or functionality of older, more established software.

I've written before about how difficult, yet ultimately rewarding, it can be to get used to working in a "live beta" mode, in which you publish or publicly try something you know to be half-baked, in order to get feedback on how it works in a real-world setting. A recent EdSurge article also offers some concrete logistical tips for instructors who find themselves in this position, due to the newness of the software tools they are trying to use -- such as workarounds for tools that lack "single sign-on" functionality.

WE HAVE TO READ RADICAL TEACHER AND DISCUSS THOSE ARTICLES!

& we need to start talking about writing together!

Active reading/making connections
give them highlighters to mark the text
emphasize the process…
framing note-taking as a way of putting yourself in the text
things to write in the margins: connections/reflections/

From InClass/OutClassed notes:
A moment here to think-and-talk about interactive reading strategies:
not just highlighting, but marking while you read (what do you mark?),
writing on the text, making connections w/ experiences, other readings;
most importantly: asking questions of the text. You haven't read unless
you've written on/written back to the text.

also to note for further discussion: Sara’s observation that current social science practices
of representation “are not ethical” (or, “to make people anonymous doesn’t empower them”)