Map Mashing

Today in class we explored with some map mashing tools provided by Google maps and Google Earth. We also learned about some other online applications all of which have good educational uses as well. I made a map about some places I have been and a few of my favorite things. I could turn this into a lesson with my second grade students as a new spin on the "All About Me" project. I like the theory behind the classic All About Me lessons at the start of the school year as a way to introduce classmates to one another and begin to create our classroom community. I would like to take that project a step further by infusing the map mashing technology as well. My plan would be to have students make a map with some flexible criteria. I would like them to include 1) where they were born 2) where they live now and 3) a place they would love to go one day. Then I would give them the option to be creative and choose three additional locations that can tell the class something about themselves. For example, I included Orlando, Florida's sea world because my favorite animal is the dolphin, London and Paris where I went on vacation, and my hometown's local cold stone because I love to eat ice cream. Here is my example....



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My Final Inquiry 3 Podcast

I'm really happy with how this project has turned out for me. When I first started I was at a brick wall, but then I got an idea and started rolling. I believe I pushed myself beyond my comfort zone with the technology and the content, so with that said here is the final product!

Inquiry 3 Podcast

PLATE Conferences

I really enjoyed attending the PLATE Conferences, and I definitely was able to take something away from them. I attended in a session about how to integrate technology in the classroom, regardless of your resources, so it was interesting to hear other people's ideas on this subject. Next went to the e-portfolio session and was given the chance to work on my own website. The students who put on the session provided lots of support and resources we can draw back on. The last session I attended was about gaming, which I thought was interesting to hear a perspective on how gaming can be educational and used in your classrooms. All in all I felt that this conference was valuable and worthwhile. I look forward to planning my own sessions in the year 2 next summer.

My First Voice Thread

Here is my attempt at this new technology I have learned, voicethread. You can view it and add comments of your if you'd like :)

My London Voicethread

My Second Day in London... Another BUSY ONE!

Well, we couldn't have asked for better weather this weekend. It hasn't rained one drop our entire trip to London, and I am so thankful because that is pretty much a miracle for England. We started our morning off by going to Buckingham Palace and watching the changing of the guard. We got there early enough so we got right up front. This ceremony was very cool to see but kind of long. I got some good pictures and videos. I thought it was really interesting how official this ceremony was in respect for the Queen's protection and her palace. The British really seem to have a devout respect and admiralty for the royalty of England. I also noticed this in walking around the town because there are many streets and roads named after past and present monarchs. We also saw a beautiful gate near the Marble Arch, which was given by the queen to her mother on her 90th birthday. In relation to this idea, I learned during our bus tour yesterday that a new hotel is being built which was supposed to be the tallest hotel in London. When the plans went to the Queen she wanted the height of the planned hotel to be reduced by half because the top floors would be looking into Buckingham Palace. Our tour guide said, "The plans were greatly reduced and although the company would be losing money we wouldn't want to upset the queen."

Next, we took the tube over to Notting Hill to get to the market. It was a quaint little neighborhood, but then the market on Portobello Road was pretty much what you would expect, very diverse and busy with some common bartering going on between market men and customers. When I was looking interested in various items, the salesman would come up to us and try to start making a deal to try and get me to make the buy. When I was looking even more uninterested he would go further down with his price. One man who was selling London hats, told Amy and I that he would give us a deal on two hats, as 2 for 10 pounds. Well, we noticed that the hats were 5 pounds each and we pointed that out to him, and asked if he would give us a better deal since he really wasn't doing anything to help us with his "proposal." He changed his mind then and said, "no deal." At another vendor I was inquiring the man about a dress. When I approached him he was sputtering about people not wanting to pay for anything around here, and EVERYTHING was 15 pounds! I started to ask him about the dress and he cut me off saying, "It's 15 pounds!" I said "No I have a question about the dress itself." He said, "FIFTEEN POUNDS." I got a little firmer and said, "What size it?" He softened up with me a little, and walked me over to the dress. He took it down and said, "One size." He untied it off the hanger, tied it around my neck and held it up to me. He said, "This will fit you." I took another look at it and decided it was worth it so I bought it. I was really shocked though, at how rude this man was to me at first, when I could be a potential customer. I guess I'm very familiar with American customer service (having some experience in retail myself), where the customer gets treated with nothing but kindness and respect.

After that we went home to get ready for our Broadway dinner. We bought our Broadway tickets to include dinner, so we went to a pretty fancy restaurant, and then went to the show. We saw "Wicked" and the show was AMAZING! I have fallen in love with Broadway... I was getting chills as I sat in my seat and watched. We had really good seats, only about 10-15 rows away from the orchestra, dead center. Our original tickets were a few more rows back and to the side, but when we got to our seats other people were sitting there... they over booked my seat. So the usher hooked Amy and I up with even better seats. So although, we were split up from the other three girls it ended up working out even better for us. I really enjoyed the musical and can't wait to go see another one!! (I don't know when but I will).

After the show, we went down to South Bank to walk along the river and see the city lit up at night. It was really pretty and relaxing. There were a lot of couples around at this time and one musician woman who played some pretty good music that really set the tone for our last night in London sitting on a bench watching the river and the city. We bought her CD as a memento to take home and remember the night.

Now, I've just finished packing to go back to Plymouth, and going to bed because we have to leave on our train at 11:00. I think we are going to try and go to one more site in the morning before we have to be ready to go. i can't believe my weekend in London is already over, it went by way to fast. I didn't get to do everything I wanted, it was pretty much impossible, but I guess now I have an excuse to come back :)

My 1st Tourist Day of London

So we headed out to London town this morning at about 10 am. We have pretty much figured out how to use the Tube (the underground railway) here. It's kinda fun and exciting, but it is known for it's pickpockets so we always have to be aware of ourselves and our belongings. We went and bought tickets to The Original London Bus Tour and took the almost two hour tour around London on top of the double decker bus... it was AWESOME!!! I got some great pictures and video. That was the best way for us to see everything for the first time. Then we walked through a pretty park and grabbed lunch in a little cafe. After lunch, we walked down by the London Eye, bought our tickets, then took a ferry boat down the Thames river. The boat took us right by Parliament and Big Ben, under the Tower Bridge, and down to Greenwich Square. Greenwich is on the Prime Meridian, where time starts! We meant to go to the market here, but realized once we got there the market was closing down. So we walked around a little bit, and found out that this was an extremely diverse part of the city. There were people and restaurants from just about every ethnicity I can think of. The area was also a little more run down and semi-sketchy. We didn't stay long, and found a bus back to the London Eye. Next we took our ride on the London Eye which was really pretty and had an awesome view. Parliament and Big Ben are really amazing sights, it just felt unbelievable that I was actually there. After the London Eye, we got dinner at a nice restaurant then took the Tube home. The plan for tomorrow is to start at Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard, then tour Westminster Abbey, and after that head over to the Notting Hill market. Then tomorrow night we have tickets to go see the Broadway show WICKED! We have seats near the orchestra and will get dinner before the show.

Inquiry #2 Podcast

Kristen, Stephanie, and I did our podcast on community building in the British schools. Have a listen!

Inquiry 2 Podcast

My First Podcast!

This is a practice run podcast about our field trip to Stonehenge and Bath, England. Click on the link below and enjoy!

My First Podcast!

My Day at Chaucer Primary School

I was placed in another fifth year classroom today at Chaucer. Mrs. Norman, my host teacher, had the students writing questions down in order to prepare for an upcoming question and answer session with me. The students had great questions prepared for me, and as our conversation went on they thought of even more to spiral off of the previous questions. My favorite question was when I was asked if I had ever been on America's Got Talent. I was also asked about what types of holiday's we celebrate in the U.S. When I got to Thanksgiving none of the students knew what it was. I knew that they wouldn't celebrate the holiday but I was very surprised they were unaware even of its existence. I explained that the holiday has a lot to do with their own hometown of Plymouth, when the pilgrims left on the Mayflower and made their voyage to America, the Native Americans greeted them with a huge feast. I then told them that for our holiday of Thanksgiving in November, we have huge feasts with our families to remember this special time. The students thought it was very neat that our country celebrated a national holiday which had so much to do with Plymouth, England. The students were also interested in the weather in America, what types of animals we have, the school systems, our TV programs, and our food including sweets and chocolate. The students then broke into writing groups to work on writing letters to smokers in an effort to get them to quite smoking. During this time I was able to walk around and take photos of the students and answer some more of their questions.

When we got picked up in the cab, I was given a small gift from Kailey. She had a ruler and a note from Widey Court, the school I had been placed in the last two days. One student, Cody gave me her dolphin ruler because she learned that dolphins were my favorite animal. I also received a letter from my host teacher, Mr. Bower. I was unable to say goodbye to him on my last day because he was out of the room when I had to leave. He thanked me for helping in the classroom and offered to email pictures of his class. He also wished me good luck in my future teaching career. I was really touched by these two gestures, feeling like I had made a difference in this small British school in even just two days... Another reminder why I love children and teaching!

Inquiry Project #1: Speaking of British Culture

The purpose of this project was to find an aspect of British culture and tell a narrative through a digital story about our own experience with that specific aspect. I chose to focus on language and communication in my own inquiry. My story begins with my initial thoughts about the British language and accent, and then takes you through some of my own experiences that changed and sculpted my initial views.

I would like to take the time here in my blog to thank and site my sources, which helped me to make this project happen:

http://www.effingpot.com
woodlands-junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/behavior.html
www.europe-map.org/england.htm
geology.com/world/the-united-states-of-america-satellite-image.shtml
mostlymedia.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/gone-baby-gone-love-is-gone-away
Photos by Amy Hopper

Bath and Stonehenge

Today we took a class field trip from Plymouth to Stonehenge to Bath. It was quite the journey considering the shortest point A to point B was an hour and a half and the longest was four hours, but well worth it. Despite the constant pouring down rain we got to see two amazing sites of England, both of which I hope I get another chance to visit.

It's amazing to think about those stones at Stonehenge being erected by people so long ago, and how did they do it? Just standing there on the ground where so much history has occurred felt really brilliant as the English would put it. Then, the city of Bath is very historical as well. The buildings were so old and fascinating. The Bath Abbey was beautiful and we also toured the Roman Baths. I learned a lot about the history of the Roman Baths and their conquer over Britain. I was able to buy some children's books which provide more information on the history and will be a good resource for my future classroom. According to the history, the Romans channeled the natural hot spring water into the huge lead lined bath. People came from all over Europe to this Roman "spa" for cures and healing. You can still go to the spa today of the Roman Baths in Bath, England.

This is me in the pouring rain at Stonehenge!

The Roman Baths

A Roman altar in the museum of the Roman Baths.

The Bath Abbey (Church)

The most beautiful roses for sale on the streets of Bath.

My Experience in the British Schools

So the past two days I have been placed in a British fifth year classroom at Widey Court Primary School in Plymouth. I found out that Plymouth has 62 primary schools and even more secondary schools. All children are required to wear uniforms to school whether it is private or public. The school systems here are very different and all little more complicated than in the U.S. BUT students never get held back or skip ahead grades (or years as they say), they always stay with their own age group. While I was there on my first day, I had something strange happen in my classroom. Well, it was strange to me but quite normal for the U.K. The children were getting ready to go to their P.E. class and are required to wear proper gym attire in order to participate in the P.E. activities. So the teacher I was observing, Mr. Bower, dismissed the children to get changed. To my surprise all the children grabbed the gym clothes, brought them back into the classroom, and began to undress and change all together in the classroom. Now, imagine me an American visitor, feeling awkward with nine and ten-year-old's down to their underwear with myself and the male teacher in the room. I was absolutely stunned that these kids were able to change in front of each other and with us teachers present as well. This would never happen in the U.S. with such an old classroom. But, in England and other European countries, this is actually quite normal. One the children move on to secondary school in their 6th year, then they separate for changing and P.E. class as well.

The next thing that struck me odd was the curriculum for the children's sex education course. The class is finishing up their unit on sex education in their science classes right now. I remember going through a similar class when I was in fifth grade, but what surprised me, was how much further the students learning goes past the basics we are teaching to fifth grade students in the United States. On my first day in the classroom Mr. Bower told me that in the afternoon the students would be watching a video of a live birth! I was astonished!! I thought that was something I might not of seen until high school, and here these nine and ten-year-old's are watching a video of a baby coming out of a woman. I guarantee such a video would never be shown in any American elementary classroom. When I went back to the same class today, I was able to talk to a few students about what they thought of the video. Most of them thought it was incredibly gross, and made a noises to show me their disgust. One girl told me, "As soon as I saw the woman with her legs open I had to close my eyes!"

I went to this particular school with two other girls in my program, and we were invited by the school liaison, to give a presentation to the school in their daily assembly. We agreed and put together a short power point slide show to introduce ourselves to the school. The schools normally have daily assembly's where the school gets together to sing a song, give out various, awards, and have a prayer. Then we were kind of thrown into that mix as well. The school liaison introduced us and then we were given the chance to talk about ourselves, and where we come from. Then, the students were given the chance to ask us questions they had about us or America. Some of them had pretty cute questions for us. Many of the kids have the misconception that if you are from the U.S. then you know lots of celebrities, I think some were disappointed to find out that none of us had ever met or seen Hannah Montana. We were also asked why our food is so salty, if we like to watch the Simpsons, if our American students have to wear uniforms to school, what type of teachers we would like to be, how hot does it get in Michigan, if our portion sizes are really big, and so on. A lot of students have dreams of being able to visit America one day. They asked me if I have seen Shamu and been to Disney World too.

I almost forgot to add about my gift. We brought our host teachers small gifts from Michigan State as a token of our appreciation for having us come visit. I gave my teacher Mr. Bower a Michigan State tee-shirt and an MSU pen. He was so excited and grateful for what I had given him he scooped me up in a great big hug and kissed me on the cheek! :) I thought it was very nice and it made me feel good to make him so happy!

Tintagel an King Arthur's Castle

On Sunday a small group of us girls learned on our own how to use the trains here in England and found our way to Bodmin Parkway. We then had to take a taxi cab from there into Tintagel. Our cab ride was actually quite funny because we were stopped by a herd of cows. As our cab approached the herd in the road. The herder or farmer halted us to stop so he could lead the cows on around our car and out through the road. The ride was also quite the experience because the roads were so narrow, it made us nervous to pass other cars alongside. Once we reached Tintagel, we took the footpath down to the castle remains. The steps up and down the hills were SUPER steep but very exciting too. I would say that this was my paradise, the most beautiful place I have ever seen with my own eyes. We learned a little about Arthurian legend and Merlon's cave of mystery. Supposedly this was the site of King Arthur's birth and the Knight's of the Round Table. After our extreme hike we found lunch at a little cafe and tea inside a cozy pub.

Our Night at the Navy Inn

Some of the girls and I decided to stop in at the Navy Inn to see if we could find some locals to talk to. The group of guys we met ha some very interesting insights to our questions. When we asked them about their own culture, one young man responded that, "culture is based on the mindset of the people and it can change based on the individuals experiences and opinions." The basic consensus about British culture from the men, was that they were sure they had a British culture, they just didn't notice it, so they couldn't pinpoint specific things about their own culture. Although, one of the guys said that in comparison to Americans, British people were more generous. He said that Americans were more stingy with their money and self-centered. However, this is just a generalization from one person. When questioned about history, the guys said that America didn't have any history, in fact, the man said, "Basically the pilgrims left from here to go to America, the twin towers blew up and that's it." I was baffled that this man thought he could wrap up my entire country's history in that one sentence. I said what about the American Revolution or the Civil War? He said, well the American was you fighting us and the Civil War was you fighting each other, where is the history in that? I then asked him about the first man to land on the moon because he was an American. The man said yes but what language did he speak? I said English. And the man said, "See his ancestors were British." Basically he thought that all American history had direct ties back to England, and it wasn't really our own. The same man also said that he would rather follow U.S. politics than British.

During this same day I also made a discovery on my own about the meaning of another British greeting. I walked into the train station area to ask someone for help in getting some information. When I walked in the man said to me, "Are you alright?" I was a little confused and said yes I just have a couple questions. I left and told the girls what he said to me, and I laughed thinking I must have looked really confused or distraught to him, for him to ask me if I was alright. Then, when I was at the Navy Inn, I walked by a person and they asked me if I was okay. This started to get to me, because my interpretation was that I looked like something was wrong with me for these people to keep asking me if I was okay. Then it occurred to me, this must be the equivalent greeting for our American way of saying, "How are you?" When I made this connection, everything made better sense to me. In the States, I think if someone were to ask me, "Are you alright?" they would be inquiring if something appeared wrong. But here in the U.K. they are just simply saying hello and greeting me.

My Digital Story

MEAD Presentations

I really enjoyed the presentations we went to today because I was able to meet and talk with some interesting teachers from across the world and hear about what they are doing in their classrooms. I spent most of my time talking with Darik Williams from Mark Twain Elementary School in Centennial, Colorado. He created e-portfolios with his fifth grade students using wikispaces. The students in his classroom had never heard of wiki's but from the sounds of it, they were very enthusiastic about the 8 month long project. He started it at the beginning of the school year. The introduction to the project was a week long lesson on trust and responsibility. Because working on the Internet with students can be risky at times, Darik stressed the importance of making appropriate choices with the material they chose to put up and look at. He told his students whatever they put up could potentially be seen by billions of people across the world and to always keep that in mind. He decided to focus his portfolio items on writing and math. He gave ownership to the students to choose what they wanted to include as their best work. As part of school policy, the wiki was closed from the public and was password protected. Darik explained that he introduced the project to parents through a newsletter and permission slip to allow students to post, but he actually showed them the content in April conferences. When he does it again, he thought about doing an "Into to the Technology Night" with the parents to show them what the kids are doing, how to do it themselves, an ways they can participate as well and help their children. The wiki turned out to be a great classroom community builder because the students could look at each other's work, comment, provide constructive criticism, and motivate each other to do well. Since I have begun to learn about these technologies I have been thinking about how I could incorporate them into my own classroom, and this conference was an excellent opportunity to see how other teachers are putting it into practice.

My Photos

Slideshow!

What is culture? Why is it significant?

This is a photo of the street. The traffic lines that zig-zagged mean that a car cannot pass, similar to the American double yellow line. The street signs are also different in how they give direction.

Recycling seems to be much more prominent here in England. Sometimes it is difficult to find a garbage can for awhile because they aren't everywhere like they are on every street corner in the U.S.


We had a class discussion for the last two days on this topic. The ideas are very interesting on how they can correlate and differ. In my own definition, I believe that culture can be found everywhere. In fashion, education, technology, entertainment, food, language, and the list goes on. Culture also varies upon the perspective of the person. In many cases, there are aspects of your own culture that you do not even notice until you experience that same action/concept somewhere else and it is different. For example, in the U.S. we drive on the right side of the road. It has become instinctive for me to look left first before crossing a road, but this can be dangerous in the U.K. where traffic is coming from the opposite direction, so you become very aware of this cultural aspect. Another example, is that in the U.K. most people eat their french fries, which are called "chips" with a fork. In the U.S. we eat french fries with our fingers. I wonder if this would seem barbaric and impolite to do in the U.K. There is also this notion of the relationship between policy and culture. For example, in the States waiters are extremely dependent on their tips. It is considered rude if a customer tips less that 15-20% at a restaurant. If you go to an American bar, you probably won't get served drinks unless you are tipping the bartender. This is because waiters, etc. in the United States get paid low hourly rates and depend highly on the tips. In England, we were not expected to tip the bartender or waiter. It is assumed that they make a higher hourly wage in the U.K. which is why they are not dependent on those tips.

It is important to consider culture for my own personal growth and expansion, but also it can help us as teachers in more ways than one. It can define how a person learns, and can help you to define yourself. In other words, culture SHAPES knowledge and influences how and what you learn. This means it will also shape what you teach. It is very interesting to me how much I have noticed about American culture just in comparison to British culture. Some may find this shocking because they view England as a more "Americanized" country but there are great and vast differences, that are worth exploring and learning.

New Terms of British Language

- chips: french fries
- crisps: potato chips
- coach: bus
- lift: elevator
- cheers!: standard greeting
- invitation for tea: invitation for tea and dinner
- invitation for cream tea: lunch
- litter: trash/garbage
- VAT: value added tax (already included in price)
- The Hoe in Plymouth: seafront bay area
- tombstoning: cliff diving... running off the side of a cliff into ocean (this is prohibited)
- pizza slice: a wedge
- line of taxis: taxi queue
- check (form of payment): cheques
- bathroom: must ask for the "toilet"

Welcome!

Welcome to my blog which is exploring my cultural experiences while studying abroad with Michigan State in the United Kingdom. We are studying at the University of Plymouth in Plymouth, England. The purpose of the course is to learn and dive into culture while also incorporating educational technology. I am in the first year of my Master's program with Michigan State with a major in Educational Technology. I will be journaling in this blog about my daily experiences while studying here and I will also be posting my multimedia assignments as they come into development. We have been asked by our instructors to take notice of any cultural differences, or points of interest and emotion that has become evoked during some experience here.