Plymouth 2008

Inquiry #3: Ideas on American Culture

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:44:00 +0000

Well, here is the culminating inquiry project. The time has come to bring together everything I have learned from my study abroad experiences in Plymouth, England. My views on culture and technology have changed drastically while I have been here ... all in a great way, of course! Please enjoy the voicethread I have created for you. I have incorporated some of the new techniques and strategies I have learned these past three weeks into this voicethread. I learned how to embed videos along with images into my voicethread and have added my audio comments to complement the work I have done.

Welcome to Map Mashing!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:02:00 +0000

Today we worked with Google Earth and Google Maps to learn how to map mash. I think map mashing will be a great tool for the classroom. Next year, I will be teaching fourth grade social studies so I chose to focus on using map mashing to teach a lesson on the five regions of the United States. I would introduce the five regions of the United States using Google maps so the students could see where each regions is located. What I usually do when I introduce a new topic to my students is to model to them what I will expect them to do. After the students have a clear understanding of what states belong to what region, I would have them research why they think the regions are grouped the way they are. View Larger Map

Miss Kolinski's London Voice Thread

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:51:00 +0000

I just learned how to create a voice thread. I recorded my voice at the beginning, but then for some reason my computer was acting extremely slow and would not let me move on to the next page. What I did was put my comments into a text format so that if you click on my face you can read what I had to say about a particular picture. I hope you enjoy my newest voice thread!

London Scavenger Hunt

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:45:00 +0000

Royalty: When I first thought about how I could get pictures that would show how British people portray the Queen and royalty, I really was not sure where I could go to find these things. The first thoughts that came to my head were Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London, which of course are tourist attractions. Once I started exploring the London area with the girls, I started to realize that "the Queen" and "royalty" are found everywhere. Some places, it was very evident that these images were present whereas in other places they seemed to be hidden, or almost washed away in the stones. There are many street names and buildings that seem to be influenced by royalty such as Queensway, Kings Way, Kings Cross, the Royal National Theatre, and the Queen's walk. It appears as though many of the pubs and restaurants have royal titles ... Old King's Head, the Duke of Wellington, and the Royal Inn on the Park. From what I've seen, it appears as though royalty has a lot of influence on the city of London.
Non-English Speaking Neighborhood: We decided to take a little trip down to Saigon because Michelle had read that it had great Vietnamese food. We walked around for a bit and I saw that there were actually quite a few different ethnically diverse restaurants around the area. After wandering around for a while, we ended up eating at a little restaurant called Cay Tre. When we walked into the restaurant, a group of Asian people were eating at a larger back table, and did not appear like they spoke much English. Our waiter, on the other hand, spoke English relatively well. What fascinated me was the relaxed, quiet atmosphere, and intricate decorations throughout the restaurant. I had never been to a Vietnamese restaurant before, but soon realized that culturally everyone uses chopsticks to eat their food. This was a slight challenge for me because it is a very rare occasion that I would ever use chopsticks and typically the places I have gone to in the past, have given you silverware as well. After trying a few appetizers, I now have an idea of what I like and what I dislike from what I tried. To me, it was a great opportunity to check out a new culture that I had never really been exposed to at home.
Class and Culture: We decided to jump on a tube and take it to the Elephant and Castle station. Originally, we wanted to find a festival Michelle read about in the paper, but unfortunately we ended up walking around a few blocks. I have chosen this particular picture to represent this specific area because it was one of the first things that caught my eye. As we were walking, I became a little anxious not knowing where we were going and I noticed that some of the windows were boarded up, and/or barred up. The people walking around did not seem to make eye contact with us as we were walking down the road. I felt like we might be in an unsafe area so I suggested that we take a bus to get ourselves to an area that we could navigate better. Compared to other tourist areas, or Zone 1 London stops, I noticed that there were lots of Hispanic people and Black people walking around with small bags of groceries as if they were coming home to feed their families. I saw a few groups of younger teenagers hanging out looking like they were going to be causing some trouble.
Local Children: On Sunday, when we were taking the tube around town, I noticed a group of students in uniforms with a school crest on the jacket. They seemed to be with their instructors and broken up into smaller groups with one chaperone. I was able to observe them on the tube and as I was exiting the tube, one of the instructors was taking a head count to make sure he had all of the students that he needed. Similarly to US and other UK schools, students go on field trips, especially at the end of the year. One difference, that I have noticed periodically is that UK schools tend to go on field trips on the weekends, whereas in the US it is rare that a field trip would overlap with any part of the weekend. The students themselves acted like they were the same age as the students that I saw at the end of the year.
Tourists: When we stopped at the Shakespeare's Globe to see if we could get tickets, I ended up people watching for a little while outside because all of the tickets were sold out and we needed to look at some maps. I noticed that this particular tourist group was actually quite similar to tourist groups from the US and some of the UK. Lots of students were taking pictures of the scenery and with their friends.
Favorite Lunch Spot: When we were in Saigon, we decided to actually try other cuisines besides Vietnamese. We went into a local store and asked the man behind the counter where we should go to eat lunch and if he had any suggestions. He had a heavy accent, but I could understand that he wanted to go to a restaurant named Shish. It sounded good. As we were walking up to the front of the restaurant, we stopped to look at the menu and another man approached us and told us that it would be a great choice for lunch/dinner.
Market: I think this has got to be my favorite part of the entire scavenger hunt. Not because it was all about shopping and looking for bargains, but because this street is in the movie, Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I always wanted to find out what Portobello Road looks like. From the movie, the area looked very dingy and also smary, but from what I saw it was completely different. There were lots of cheap items, and some bargaining, but I had no idea that some of these items were expensive antiques. The market had everything from electronics to clothes, to fruit, and exclusive food stands.

London - Living it Up!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 07:08:00 +0000

Today was an awesome day!! We decided to soak up as much British culture as possible. Our first stop of the day was the 1/2 off ticket booth ... we got tickets to one of London's longest running shows, Blood Brothers. After we picked up our tickets, we were off to the Capital Hotel for tea! We had no idea how NICE it was going to be!!! The head waiter showed us to a little table in the sitting room. Each table was decorated with roses. They were beautiful. We each chose a tea and cake of our choice. I chose the Earl Grey tea since I knew I would like that flavor. Once we were settled with our tea, the waiter brought us a lovely arrangement of tea sandwiches ... they were salmon with cucumber, tuna with lime, egg crest, and chicken. YUMMY!!! We found out that high tea is typically between 2:00 pm and 4:00 pm so now the next time we want to get high tea we will know what time to come. Since we were feeling pretty classy, we decided to go to Harrod's. Michelle had the BEST comparison for this store ... she called it the Meijer's for Multi-Millionaire's. This store seriously had everything you could think of ... it even had a whole pet store, groomer's, and specialty bakery for pets! After Harrod's we had our multicultural dinner in Little Saigon - we went to Shish for the first part of our dinner, then we went to Cay Tre for the second part of our dinner. It was so good!! Check out my voicethread if you want to see what foods we ate and the descriptions of each one. Finally, we got to see Blood Brothers. It was a great show. The story is about two twin brothers who are separated at birth. Their mother is extremely poor so she gives one of her babies to a very affluent family who cannot have children. The boys grow up as best friends not knowing that they are actually brothers. The end is the clincher! You will have to come to London to check it out!!

London: Yo! Sushi.

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 02:19:00 +0000

Since we have become quite adventuresome with the bus system and where to go to eat, we decided to try a place all of us had read about called Yo! Sushi. As we walked into the restaurant, we were greeted and seated promptly ... this is what we saw ...

I've eaten sushi and have been to a couple of sushi restaurants in East Lansing, but have never seen anything like this ... the sushi continuously moved along on a conveyor belt surrounding the entire preparation area. We were handed a menu that had a list of all the types of sushi they offered - it was broken up into an ordering list and a belt list ... the items found in the menu were broken up into colored categories for a specific price range. All you need to do as a customer is to choose whatever you would like to eat off of the conveyor belt. As you take a new plate, you make a stack of the plates you have used. At the end of the meal, the waiter or waitress tallies up how many plates you have used and which priced color category the choice was in order to figure out the total bill. Let me tell you, sushi is VERY expensive, so I see this experience being the last for a while, or at least until I can afford to eat it again. Everything I had was superb.

Welcome to London: Portobello Road

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:52:00 +0000

Once we settled down at Connaught Hall in London, where we would be staying for a couple of days, we were ready to explore the city! Since it was Saturday, we headed out to Portobello Road to check out the market!! Just recently I had watched Bedknobs and Broomsticks and really wanted to see what Portobello Road was all about and if it was anything like the movie. The idea was similar, but unlike how the movie portrays the area as dark and dingy ... Portobello Road is actually located within Nottinghill, which is an extremely exclusive area. As we walked around, I noticed a diverse group of people ... some tourists, some people that looked extremely wealthy, some people that appeared homeless wandering around, and others that worked for part of the day, but were checking out the other vendors. We walked the market from end to end ... we found a great deal on pashmina scarves so each of us (Kristin, Michelle, and I) bought one! There were many places to eat, lots of fresh fruit, and specialty foods on both sides of the road so Kristin bought some yummy raspberries for only one pound and we split a bowl of seafood paella.

We Love the 80's!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:40:00 +0000

Who would have thought the 80's would come back in style, ever?!!? Well, we were lucky enough to have an 80's night with all of the MSU Educational Technology students. Where did we actually find our lovely 80's apparel you ask?! PRIMARK, of course. Thank goodness for crazy leggings, leg warmers, and gaudy jewelry. How do we look?

Inquiry #2

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 17:28:00 +0000

Here is my Inquiry 2. inquiry2.mp3

My first trial P-O-D-C-A-S-T

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 05:50:00 +0000

Yesterday, we learned how to use a program called Audacity. You can use this program to record your voice and create audio files. We learned how to create podcasts using this program. Check out my first podcast.

Tamarside Community College

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 05:49:00 +0000

Today we went to Tamarside Community College, which is like no school I've ever seen before. This school has students from year seven to year thirteen, which would be equivalent to an American 11 year old - 18 year old. I was shocked to find out that all of these students were on the same "campus" together, but they are actually separated into different parts of the body. What I was really impressed with was that they have a vocational option for students 16 and up ... so they can choose to go down an academic route, or a vocational route depending on their interests. Since the school draws from many lower middle class families, some of the students don't have as much parental support, or encouragement to have a "professional" career. I like the idea of supporting students in what they feel most comfortable so that they are getting the training they need for their future career, whether it be as an engineer, construction worker, or hair dresser. We had a tour of the school and I had the opportunity to see their technology (ITC) rooms which were incredible. The school is funded as a technological school so each year they get money towards improving the technology in the school. From what I saw they had three large computer labs, fully equiped with flat screen computers and printers. It was a treat to have what we would consider middle school and high school all wrapped up in the same setting. I will have to research more into some of the schools in the US to see if there are any states that have a system similar to the system that the British have for their older students. I was told that each community college has a speciality ... music, art, technology, etc.

Stonehenge and Bath

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:59:00 +0000

Stonehenge Yesterday, it rained the ENTIRE time we were at Stonehenge, but it was totally worth it. I guess I didn't realize how cool Stonehenge was until I was standing right in front of the stones and listening to the history and myths about the stones. One of my favorite myths about Stonehenge is the story of King Arthur and the Sword in the Stone. It is funny how I never really made the connection with this story having anything to do with Stonehenge, even though it is just a myth. If you want to read more about Stonehenge, click here. Below you will see a slideshow I created for Stonehenge. Since Stonehenge is in the shape of a circle, it is hard to get one picture that captures the whole thing unless you have a bird's eye view. What I have done is taken pictures at each of the stopping points as I walked around Stonehenge. Check it out!

Bath After spending some time at Stonehenge, we headed towards Bath, another place that I knew little about before doing some research. We visited the Roman Baths in the city of Bath. Bath has the only natural hot springs in Britain. A long time ago, people used to come to the baths and find healing powers in the water. We walked through the Roman Bath Museum and went through many "chambers" and different areas that had once been used by the people in Bath.

Chaucer Primary School - Day 2

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 22:50:00 +0000

Today I was back at Chaucer Primary School, but I actually had the opportunity to visit in a Year 6 classroom. I was really excited because I have never been into a classroom that has been higher than fifth grade. I have always wanted to teach middle school aged students, so this was my chance!! When I walked into the room, I found that there was a guest teacher from their "rival" school. She explained to me that this was the first time she had taught in a classroom without a T.A (teaching assistant) so this would be a new experience for her. The students were very curious about America and find out the similarities and differences between the schools in England and the schools in America. Since I had students who were older than the year 2 and 4 classes I saw the day before, they had different types of questions that they wanted answered. For example, they wanted to know about television shows and whether or not we (Americans) got any of their British shows ... many of which I had never heard of before. They had questions about the coin increments, as well as American dollars. They had very thoughtful questions. While I was there, they were working on building their own "theme" parks. They had to draw out their roller coasters on graph paper. I was impressed with their work ethic. Many of the students stayed on task and were engaged with their work. There were a couple of students who were avoiding their work, very typical for their age. I also explained to them that students in America are very similar to students in Britain. There are differences in some aspects of school and every day life, but there are many many similarities. Maturity wise, they are all pretty much the same.

Great Music and Amazing Food!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:46:00 +0000

So we (Michelle, Stephanie, Kristin, and I) have started soaking up some of the local Plymouth culture in a couple of ways ... eating our way through the city, trying new dishes and restaurants, and listening to some great music. Lucky for us, we have made some great culinary choices ... we tried a restaurant called Wetherspoon's, which is actually a chain in the UK. As we have been bopping around to different restaurants and pubs, we have found that many of the places have a 2 for 1 dinner special which is great for our group. We always order different things so that we can try a little bit of everything. Many of the specials include a drink as well. Besides the great food, they are also known for their "Groovy Loos." Who would have thought that they would have a website for their snazzy bathrooms! After our nice quiet, Wetherspoon dinner, we decided it was time to watch our new favorite local jazz band play ... the Half-Quartet, remember?! We headed to the Watering Hole for the music. Little did we know, they had an AWESOME menu ... so even though we had just finished dinner, we thought it may be a great idea to try a couple of their delicacies ... mussels, chocolate mousse, and something that intrigued us ... panacotta. We asked the waiter if he could describe the dessert to us and he didn't know what it was so it was the perfect opportunity to order somethign new and exotic! It was AMAZING!! I think it may have been one of the best dessert I've ever had, believe it or not?! Now, it was time to listen to some JAZZ ... this one's for you Grandad. Let me introduce, the Half-Quartet featuring a saxophone player and drummer for tonight's performance. Thank you to Alex and Matt for inviting us to their Wednesday gig!!

Welcome to Chaucer Primary School!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 23:45:00 +0000

Yesterday, Tara, Nicki, and I went to Chaucer Primary School. The experience was fantastic. We had a liaison take us on a tour of the school before school started. She introduced us to many people throughout the building including the head deputy; a person who takes care of any behavioral issues that arise in the school. The liaison told us that she had taught 4 and 5 year old students for about 13 years. In England, they have different names for each grade level, for example, kindergarten is called reception, first grade is called year one and second grade is called year two. Tara and I were in a year two classroom during the first part of the morning. The class was going through their morning routine which was very similar to what I did this past year except instead of taking attendance, they call it register ... basically signing up for lunch. I was excited that we had the opportunity to experience their Monday morning assembly as well. All of the students did a morning greeting. The principal of the school is called the head master, or head teacher just like Miss Trunchbull in the movie and book, Matilda. I was so impressed by the behavior of the students in the school. All of them were extremely polite and addressed adults as "Miss." After the assembly, the teacher had the students come up with lots of questions for Tara and me. Once the students had written down a list of questions, we played hot seat. It was interesting to see how curious they were about American schools, teachers, and students. One student asked me if I have ever taken a horse to get to school. It was fun answering all of their questions, especially since they were so interesting in hearing about America as a whole, something that I personally don't think about that often. It made me really think about how to answer the questions in the best way possible. I found that the classroom management was very similar to the classroom management philosophies we learn in school. After our break in the morning, I went into a year four room. The students were creating a trailer for the movie, Madagascar. It was interesting because the class had a guest teacher, who was an older gentleman, who knew nothing about that particular movie. I actually felt quite knowledgeable because I had seem that movie. The year four students were very respectful towards their guest teacher and seemed extremely engaged in the assignment. What an awesome idea for creative writing!!

The Eden Project

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:46:00 +0000

While we were in England, we actually got to go through a rain forest biome and a Mediterranean biome at the Eden Project. What an awesome place to take students, or science geeks like me for a field trip!! I could not believe how realistic both of the biome domes were - I actually felt like I was in the rain forest. It was extremely humid and warm. The vegetatation was growing up to the ceiling and it took about 45 minutes to walk up and over hills and stairs. From the outside looking in, it looks like the domes are large clear soccer balls clumped on top of each other. Until you walk up, you have no idea how large they actually are. The complex gets its energy from local wind turbines in order to promote the "Go Green" environmentally friendly ideas. One of my favorite exhibits was the RSA WEEE Man because he was made from old ELECTRONICS!! I saw old computer mice used as his teeth, old cell phones connected to his leg, and old vaccuums used for one of his arms. From far away, he looks like he is made from different metals pieces, but when you walk up close, you can tell how intricately he was formed. Through the Eden Project, many people have found ways to recycle and reuse materials that would otherwise be thrown in the garbage. I even saw old circuit breakers being pounded down and used as clipboards. Also, they had melted colored plastic and old yogurt containers to create coasters for a table.

Inquiry #1 Project: Digital Story Telling

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:46:00 +0000

INQUIRY 1 ASSIGNMENT

For our first inquiry assignment we were to choose a cultural aspect that we wanted to research and learn more about. I choose to focus on why so many shops, cafes, and small restaurants close so early in Plymouth. Unlike at home, many places that would be equivalent to a Jimmy John's, or a Caribou Coffee close around 5:30 p.m. The big kicker is that the only mall they have in Plymouth closes at 6:00! Can you believe it?! Needless to say, we were really shocked since we are accustomed to malls staying open until 9:00 during the week. As a class we needed to create a digital story using pictures to describe our experience with this particular cultural aspect and explain our story in a narrative form. I was lucky enough to have used photo story before, but never had I used Windows Movie Maker. It is actually quite simple and straight forward. What I chose to do was to create a dialogue first then add pictures and videos that would correlate with my story. Kristin, (fashion) Michelle (water use), Stephanie (gun control), and I made many trips to the local mall to talk with Plymothians about their experiences with our topics. While we were at the mall, Kristin and I were approached by a security guard who told us that we are not supposed to be taking photos, or video coverage due to the fact that they have had problems in the past with people trying to secretly take footage in order to figure out the structural makeup of the mall. So, that was our closest encounter of doing something "against the law." He was actually quite nice about it, just informing us of "the rules." Too bad, we should have told him that it was all for our college class. When you are watching the movie, look for the Primark photos and video footage. That is what we "got caught" taking! Kristin actually had footage of the security guard at the front of the store turning customers away before the store was actually closed. Since my video had to be less than 5 minutes, I chose to just use the footage of the gate coming down ... for effect obviously! It would have been better with the Semisonic song, "Closing Time."

Our Pod: The Virtual Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:23:00 +0000

Welcome to Our Pod. We are located in Radner Hall Building #1. Just walk up the stairs and here were are ... on our floor we have Nicki, Patty, Kristin, Michelle, and Stephanie. Each pod has their own room including a bathroom and a kitchenette! We have learned to use our "spoons" ... just turn the spoon upside-down and stick it underneath the door to prop it open. We like to do this to create a "home-like" feel! Check out the virtual tour ... I've used my room as a model so you can get a glimpse of the size of the rooms.

You'll notice that I have chosen to take pictures going clockwise around my room. First, you can see my bed and the lovely view of an apartment building across the way. Moving to your right, you can see my desk and part of my closet space. Our desk is actually quite large ... lots of space above and below the desk! Our closet is relatively large, but then there is our ... bathroom! It is true that you can sit on the toilet, wash your hands, and take a shower at the same time ... whether you would want to do that, or not ... that is up to you! Finally, you get a glimpse of our kitchenette which is very spacious. We have a frig, a freezer, a microwave, a toaster, an oven, some eating utensils, pots, and pans. Basically, we have everything, but S-O-A-P. We actually used our bathroom soap one day to try to clean up a couple dishes, but then realized that the cleaning ladies wash our dishes for us - how NICE!

Tombstoning

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:51:00 +0000

"I could not pass up this opportunity to share this experience with all of you!! This was a lovely sign we saw near Plymouth Sound. As we were walking along The Hoe, we stumbled across this sign and were curious to find out what tomb-stoning was all about. As we continued down the road, we saw a whole bunch of teenagers in wet suits. Check out this video to get a glimpse at what we saw ...

Tara is the "real" expert on this teenage pastime, so if you want to see the full impact version, check out her blog! From watching these boys jumping off of cliffs for a while, it seems like the kids try to find high points to jump off of into the water ... there are some areas that appear much less dangerous than others, but from watching these teenagers, I would say this location is one of the more dangerous places. It might be hard to tell in this video, but there were a TON of large boulders in the water, so the kids had to make sure they jumped far enough away from the rocks so they would not get injured!! Yikes, I'll stick with softball!!

Stars and Stripes!!

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:01:00 +0000

Happy 4th of July! Well, who knew that we would be celebrating this holiday while in England! Since there are so many Michigan State students here over 4th of July weekend, the local pub called The Fresher and Professor has collaborated with a couple of the Year 3 students to have a special American celebration. At 7:00, they served pizzas and chips (french fries) for everyone in the pub. They had lots of drink specials ... 2 drinks for 5 pounds, which is still about $5 for a drink, but for England that type of deal is hard to come by!! My new favorite drink is Lynchburg Lemonade. Mom, check out the recipe!! YUMMY! The pub was decorated with American flags and the bartender even dressed up as Abraham Lincoln!! Thank goodness Michelle is an amazing photographer because the pub was super busy and he stepped over just for a second to take this picture!! After a while, they started playing American music. It was interesting to see what musical selections they chose ... mostly 80's. We knew almost all of the songs. There was a DJ that actually played some "current" stuff ... hip-hop. We had an awesome night ... dancing and talking with everyone!! So for this next photo, there is a lovely story that goes along with it... first, just take a look at the lady in the photo ... with her mouth OPEN and with her hand showing off Kristin! Basically to make a long story short, this woman thought Kristin was the "most beautiful maiden in the land." Kristin was playing flip cup and this woman literally just walked up to her and couldn't believe how beautiful she was ... she was so excited she went to get her husband to show her off. After realizing how obsessed she was with Kristin's beauty, I thought it would only be proper to take a photo of this woman with Kristin. Little did I know, the picture would really be worth a thousand words ... the woman was in awe of Kristin!! Then, after quite a few games of flip cup, this woman kept hugging Kristin and kissing her on the cheeks ... poor girl couldn't get away.

Tech Session - Microblogging

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:49:00 +0000

Last week, I went to a technology session and learned about microblogging. This might be a new word to many of you, but it is actually quite a simple concept. If you are reading this blog entry right now, you are already half way there! Microblogging can be a way to communicate with friends and family in almost an indirect way. The three programs that we checked out were Twitter, Jaiju, and Pownce. Check out this video that describes Twitter. From what I have gathered, these programs are basically like status updaters. It is the concept of just having away messages posted throughout the day, but a log of them is kept so that you can look back for the past 24 hours to see what someone has been up to. As a member, it is up to you to keep your "twits" updated. Many people like the idea of these programs, but I also found that in order to keep the status updates current, one must have A LOT of time on their hands, or a job that allows them the time to be checking these programs constantly. I have a feeling that just like AIM, MySpace, and Facebook, these programs will become really popular. I don't think many people actually know too much about these programs yet because they are relatively new, but within the next couple of years, I think it will take off. During our tech session, we had a quick debriefing about how educators could utilize these types of programs in their classrooms. Here are some of the ideas that were discussed ...

Teachers can use these programs for study guides.
Teachers can get to know their students quickly at the beginning of the term.
Librarians can quickly post new books for students to view.
Parents can use these programs as a communication tool, especially for snow days.
Politically, students could track Obama (he actually has a long list of followers!)
All students can participate on a "class only" space so they can communicate with their classmates about assignments and ask their teachers questions to get quick responses.

There are obviously pros and cons to programs such as these, but as educators it might be a great tool to use in the classroom ... it's your choice!

Local Musicians

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:27:00 +0000

On Monday night, Michelle and I decided to explore "downtown" Plymouth. There are lots of pubs and places to see so we figured we would check out the scenery and take in some of the local British culture. We tried a couple of new beers ... Carling and Tribute, both which were quite tasty. By the way, pretty much any time Michelle and I take off on our own there is some kind of adventure in store. First, we were trying to figure out the "change" to give the bartender because the British currency is similar yet different than American currency. Just like us they have coins for different increments of money such as 5, 10, 20, and 50, as well as what we would call bills; they call them notes. Although what stumped us was that the coins that looked like quarters and dimes were in fact 20pence and 5pence. Needless to say, the bartender quickly asked if we were from America ... After we enjoyed our drinks, we decided we would check out the bathrooms, or shall I say toilets. First of all every toilet I have seen so far in England is T-I-N-Y. You just get used to it, but this one in particular you literally had to squeeze through the door sideways to get in and then maneuver your body in order to close the door. As I was doing this, I heard a very LARGE crashing sound coming from Michelle's stall. The whole towel paper container had fallen off the wall so I tried to help her put it back up and it fell down again making an even louder noise. We figured all the people at the bar could probably here this ruckus going on in the bathroom since it was pretty much right next to the bathroom. In the mean time, we read an advertisement on a door in the bathroom that stated a jazz group playing at the bar that evening so we figured we would check it out. We ended up talking to the musicians and decided to stay to watch them play one set. After their set finished they came to sit down and talk with us. They introduced themselves as the Half Quartet - featuring Alex Christaki and Matt Brooks. Both of them were very nice and were interested in hearing about our study abroad experience. We learned quickly that our language has many similarities, but also many differences. We were trying to tell them where we had walked earlier during the day, a place called "Armada Way" and they explained to us that people don't even refer to that area as that ... they just call that section "town." They also explained the concept of "The Hoe" which is actually just a large area of large in Plymouth. Many people that are a part of the masters program have been going to play tennis at The Hoe. This picture I actually took with my back to the water looking at The Hoe. We can actually see this lighthouse from our classroom. As you can see this is a very large piece of public land. Actually, while I was researching I found an article and a picture with the Beatles on the hoe in 1967. Dad, that article is for you ... just click on Beatles:)

Photo Challenge

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:15:00 +0000

On Monday, our assignment for the day was to try to use different settings on our cameras instead of doing the typical tourist "point and shoot." Our challenge was to find photographs that would describe an adjective of our choice. Since it was a rainy day, we were a little worried about the lighting for our pictures, but lucky for us some of the pictures turned out great. I learned how to use a free photo editing program called Picnik. The first picture I took, I chose to shoot at an angle and bent down to get the view looking up towards the two men because it would create better lines visually in the photo. Thanks to Michelle's expertise in photography, I have become more creative with my picture taking. Once I had my shot, I started editing ... first playing with the color then cropping my picture. After talking with Michelle, I realized that I could actually rotate the picture in small increments to really emphasize the lines in the photo so I use that feature then played around with the shadowing in the photo to help light up areas of the photo and darkening other parts of the photo. Finally, I checked out the extra features which included something called a vignette which darkened the edges of the photo. If you look below you will see my final product.

My First Video

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 10:35:00 +0000

On Monday, we were asked to do a photo challenge with the girls in our class. Each of us chose a "secretive" adjective. We went out in the pouring rain to find pictures that could be used to describe the adjective. Below you will find my first official photo story for my study abroad program. Check it out!!

Day 2: Bus Ride and BBQ (June 29th)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:22:00 +0000

Soon the sun was rising and it was time to stretch our legs and begin our "real" journey to Plymouth, England ... but wait how would we find our three missing friends?! We had everyone but Kristin, Alison, and Stephanie ... they were in a foreign country and without cell phones! Yikes! We even had their names called out at the airport ... but they were still no where to be found. Luckily, just as we were about to get on the car they found David and Robin! Now, we had everyone and were ready to head off to Plymouth!! We were pretty tired, but tried to get through our jet lag by staying awake on the bus!! We made a little pit stop on the way to Plymouth to get some food which was MUCH better than the plane food, although we weren't really sure what the "brown" sauce was until we finally tried it! It was actually pretty good! Our first "real" cultural experience! Everyone tried to take a little snooze for the remainder of our trip so that we would be ready to meet the other MSU Ed Tech students at their weekly Sunday barbecue. Once we arrived in Plymouth, we quickly found our rooms and joined the rest of the group in the courtyard. We met people in their first, second, and third years of the Ed Tech program. All of them were so friendly and I found out that many of them taught at international school including places such as Dubai and Hong Kong. It was great hearing their stories. I met one woman who actually moved to Germany because her husband's job had been transferred and she told me how great the experience was working in her new school. It was fascinating meeting so many people originally from the States who have chosen to teach over seas. Who knows maybe I'll give it a try?!