A Day in the City

For the first time in my life I traveled alone to one of the biggest cities - New York City. There I was standing in the middle of busy NY Penn Station.  People surrounded me on every angle.  Everyone seemed to be in such  a rush.  I walked at my normal pace trying to catch eyes with a friendly face.  I wanted to stop someone, anyone, and ask for directions.  But I was too afraid to ask for help.  Crazy as it seems, I didn't want to let others in on my secret, which was, I had no idea where I was going.  LOL!  So I blended in with everyone else and pretended like I knew where I was going.  I already knew that once I arrived at Penn Station, I had to take the #1 subway to 125th street and walk a few blocks.  Sounds easy enough right?  Well, there were two #1 trains and I wasn't quite sure which one to take - uptown or downtown.  I remembered that Harlem was located uptown but I needed confirmation.  So I gathered up the nerve to ask a passerby if the #1 uptown was the correct train I needed and she confirmed that it was.  Everything was smooth sailing from there, that is, until I reached my stop at 125th street.

I stepped off the train and walked down the stairs to the street level.  Which way do I go?  I looked left, then right and decided to walk left.  I must have walked about 20 blocks, all in the wrong direction.  I was pissed!  Before I left school and was given my ticket, I was promised that the route was fairly easy and the train would take me straight there.  What was the problem?  How come I can not find 120th street?  I'll tell you why, I'm directionally challenged.  LOL!  To make a long story short, I did make it to my destination albeit hot, frustrated, tired, and late.  The workshop was entitled "Rally Third Graders for This Year's New Challenges".  I've heard that the workshops could be quite boring so I walked in with the mindset that I was going to be bored to tears.  But I actually enjoyed it!  I walked away with a wealth of information and I plan to implement most of what I learned into my classroom.  The workshop was mostly geared to reader's workshop which is excellent, because that's what I want to try in my classroom.  All in all it was good day, even my hike through uptown.  LOL!  Oh and by the way, at the conclusion of the workshop I made it to the subway in no time.  And my co-worker was right, all I had to do was walk a straight path from the college to the subway.  I'll remember this for my next workshop which is scheduled in February.

Until next time.........