PARIS

Hello Everyone-

We just got to Paris!! It is awsome here!! Today we went and say the Louve, the Eiffel Tower, and Arc de Triumphe!! Of course we did some shopping and eating too !! We have limited access to the internet and my computer has limited battery time... so i will not be able to put up pics as often... but miss ya all and luv you very much :)

(If you click onto my Picasa Web there are some photos under Nicki's name if you want to see)

i heart LONDON!!

London was sooo much fun!! We spent every day trying to do as much as we could and there was still a lot that we did not get to. London is definately a city with much diversity.

*Check out my blog for school to see some of the details about each day*

SATURDAY
-arrived to LONDON
-walked around Euston
-went to Zoo bar

SUNDAY
-took the bus tour around London
-saw St. Pauls
-Big Ben
-walked around Southbank
-Boat trip
-Greenich

-London Eye

-met up with Drew for a drink at the bar

MONDAY

-Changing of the guards/ Buckingham Palace
-Westminster Abby

-Notting Hill/ Portobella Road

-Saw WICKED

-walked along the river at night

-bought a cd from a local musician

Visiting in UK Schools

Today we had our last day in the UK schools. I am so greatful that I got the experience to be able to visit the schools and compare/contrast them from American schools. Some of the things that are differnt about the UK schools include: they have SMART boards in every classrom, every room has a TA, Kindergarten starts at 4, they only have to go to school until they are 16, they offer vocational training after age 16 for students that do not want to take the academic route after secondary school, the students move up in grades regardless of how bad they are doing academically, they hold assembly every day before school, the students all walk to school, they have an hour fr lunch, etc.

Hope all is well at home... miss you all soo much :)

Bath and Stonehedge

Another Rainy Day

Today we got to go visit Bath and Stonehedge. Both of the sights were very interesting and I got to learn a lot of new facts about these historical places. While we were at Bath we took pictures with the pigs that were strategically placed all over the city. Of course our trip had to land on the only day since we have been here in which it has rained continuously all day, but we still enjoyed our trip :)

Our AMAZING trip to Tintagel

Sunday we went to Cornwall to visit the city of Tintagel. This is where King Arthur's castle used to be. On the way there we had to grab a Taxi from the train station to the city. While we were on our way through the narrow winding streets we were suddenly stopped by a herd of cows. There was a herder trying to get a huge group of cows from one place to another. But the funny part was that they would not move. They just sat there starring ahead. We eneded up haivng to turn the car off and wait until the herder finally got them to move. We could not believe what was happening, what a random thing to witness.

At the castle there were only a few remains that are still standing .... but wow what a view. We walked up about a million really steep stairs to the top of this hill that overlooked the ocean. It was a beautiful day out. Then after we hiked all the way up to the top we went down to the bottom by the shore. This is where we climbed up the stones and went into Merlin Cave, well just a little bit. Afterwards we grabbed lunch at a local pub and came back. It was one of the coolest places I have ever been, and the vew was breathtaking.

The weekend begins

Last night we went to the local pub called The Fresher and Profesor to celebrate the fourth of July. We played mixed drink flippy cup and danced the night away. After that we tested out some of the other local pubs while doing "research" for my upcoming project about pubs. Today it has been raining all day and very cold out. I definately did not bring enough warm clothes to wear :( Nicki and I went to the local store to buy umbrellas so that we could still walk around town today. We were not even out of the store 2 minutes and my umbrella flipped inside out and broke. We had a nice lunch at the pub and spent the rest of the day so far working on our projects and napping.

Hope everyone had a great fourth!!

Exploring around town....

Yesterday in class we had a lot of time to work on our projects. Then we went to a seminar about Photostory, which is a neat way to make digital stories. It was the first time that we had good food in the cafe for lunch.

After class we took it upon ourselves to explore around town. First we walked around the town shops and then following that walked down to the bay area, the hoe. It was an amazing view from the bay out on the water, very picturesque. We walked down to the water which was freezing. We got to witness a bunch of teenage boys jumping off diving boards at various heights. As we walked alongside the bay and more toward town we witnessed abunch of the boys "tombstoning" which is jumping off the cliffs. Tombstoning is something that is warned against wthmany signs saying that it can cause death.

On our walk home we decided to stop at the Navy Inn a pub in the Barbican. We all treated ourselves to a Strongbow and hung out chatting for a bit. We ended up meeting some locals who informed us a lot about the british culture.

Midweek.... and still jetlagged

Today was quite busy. We had a long day of class in which we talked more about culture and watched a movie called 49 & up which is about following up on the lives of 14 brits starting at age 7 and catching up with them every seven years.


*After lunch we got to watch and learn about some amazing differnt topics from the masters students:
--> One of the sessions that I chose to watch was about student-led conferences in kindergarten. I chose to learn more about this topic given the fact that I am placed in a kindergarten classroom next year and thought it might be something that I could incorporate next year while interning. In this session I learned how to use portfolios with five year olds as part of a station. The students worked all year to build up their work and come up with reasons as to why they would like to put it in their portfolio. There was a lot of prep work with the students, but it all payed off in the end when the students shared them with the teacher and their families. She had the parents come in one day for a day of centers, one of them being a station in which the students would show off their work. The parents found the experiences to be very beneficial in that they could get a feeling for where their students were at academically and socially as well as gage where they were in relation to their peers. The center idea also gave the parents an opportunity to see what the kids do on an every day basis. The student-led conferences were a great esteem builder for the students as well as an effective way to incorporate the students' families within the school and specifically the classroom. Each week there was differnt criteria on how to pick out a piece from the students' work. One week the students would be asked to pick out their favorite piece of work, another week a piece that they learned something, etc.


--> Antoher session that I chose to sit in on was on eportfolios and how to assimilate them within the classroom. This particular teacher had each of his students create and manage their own eportfolio on a wikispace. Each student had their own personal account in which they would upload their own work either by a scanner or online documents. The students would then upload reflection pages in which they would comment about their work, write about what they liked, what they would change, what tey would do next time. The students were then able to constructively comment on their peers' work. Before this was all put into use there was a lot of prep discussion/ instruction that had to take place in order for everything to run smoothly: issues about trust, differentiating between what is and what is not appropriate to be posting or commenting, ways to upload images/ comment, etc. The students then were able to inform their famililes about what they were doing in class by sharing the username and password with their parents at student-led conferences. The parents were encouraged to comment on their student's work; a great way to check the progress of their students on a regular basis. This was this particular teachers first year piloting this project. One thing that he did say that he would change was informing the parents better. He said that next year he would like to hold an informational night in order to better familiarize the parents with the program and how to access the wiki. At the end of the year he passed out surveys to his students in which he concluded that the students not only enjoyed the experience they also felt at they end that they had learned something new. I think that this is a great resource that I could definately see myself assimilating into my own classroom some day :)

Day Two of Classes

Tuesday July 1st, 2008

Note to self: clocks in the UK are on military time... definately got up late because my clock was not set correctly.

Today we did a lot of really neat things in the classroom. I learned how to set up my blog to make it a little more interesting and creative. We also learned about our projects that we will be working on each week. We attended seminars today and I went to one on WEB 2.0... there was some great stuff that I learned there and many new resources that I will take with me.

After class we went to the train station to try to book our tickets to London for when we are heading to Paris.... unsuccessful... what a confusin thing to plan....

We went out to dinner at a pasta and pizza place tonight with the girls it was very nice... on the way home we witnessed boys in wet suits tombstoning... which means that they jump off cliffs into the water...

After that we walked around town a bit to take pictures for an assignment. As we were taking a picture of a pub sign this lady walked out and asked if we were trying to get them in trouble... she thought we were reporters... definately made for an ackward situation.

spirits=different types of liquor
white spirits = light/well liquors ex) vodka, gin, tequila

Long day tomorrow... better get some rest... luv ya'all