First video:
Saturday 18th February, 2017. Night in Broadway.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=slkEPBzQUy8
Second video:
Sunday 19th February, 2017. Trip from Manhattan to Staten Island.
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1105202126257615&id=100003035148538&fs=4
viernes, 24 de febrero de 2017
miércoles, 22 de febrero de 2017
Westfield High school and oral presentations
Yesterday at Westfield's I observed two classes in which the teachers used "kahoot", a program (in a webpage) that allows the teacher to prepare a quiz and make the student interact with it online. It is excellent to evaluate the students knowledge after a lesson and it's very funny as the students compete among themselves trying to answer correctly...
I saw it applied to an Astronomy class first, and then to a History class...
...And as I will be doing a presentation about Uruguay I'm thinking of including a quiz using Kahoot, after a powerpoint presentation :)...
Here is the Link for this great page:
www.kahoot.it
And to get started and subscribe:
www.getkahoot.com
I saw it applied to an Astronomy class first, and then to a History class...
...And as I will be doing a presentation about Uruguay I'm thinking of including a quiz using Kahoot, after a powerpoint presentation :)...
Here is the Link for this great page:
www.kahoot.it
And to get started and subscribe:
www.getkahoot.com
lunes, 20 de febrero de 2017
Back to GMU :)
These days we returned to our fellow duties, a bit tired but very eager to see and learn new things from our fellows and the teachers at the high schools.
On Monday we spent the whole day at the University... In the morning we, the Tea fellows, shared our experiences and we observed during our fieldwork at highschools. Though everybody agreed in that here the highschools are very well equipped and the teachers usually do a good use of those resources, it's very interesting to notice that we've had quite different impressions about the US classrooms... Indeed, some fellows consider that the students here have too much freedom and that technology, at the same time, makes them lazy, for everything is given and the students put very little from themselves. On the contrary, others argue that it's important for the students to have freedom in order for them not to quit from highschool; the idea is that knowledge is easier to occur when the student feels he is in a comfortable environment.
Onother issue that prompted a rich discussion among us was related to the role of teachers beyond their role of "teachers" and the importance of building reltionships between the students and the teachers. Concerning this aspect, personally I consider that the teachers here are more "distant" to the students than in Uruguay. It's not common to see a teacher asking a student about his/her life or if they have any personal problems. It also called my attention how the teachers avoid and actually don't like the students to call them by their first name (sts refer to teachers as "Mr Fuentes" or "Mrs Robbinson"), however, at the same time, many teachers have pictures of their families and houses on the classrooms' walls or on the desk (remember that here every teacher has his/her classroom and it's the students who move from classroom to classroom).... This really puzzles me !!
Later on, in the afternoon we had the technology class with Dawn and Priscila (teachers seem to not have problems if students call them by their first names at the University :).
We finished listening to our classmates' Podcasts and then we took a look at some games.... reflecting upon which ones would be more appropriate to work with in a classroom.
Certainly there are many games that can be linked to the content of certain subjects, but it requires a lot of research from the teachers in order to find the ideal ones.
The best ones seem to be those that require from the students to look for things in order to accomplish tasks, for they require that the students listen to the characters carefully.. Dr Hathaway also recommended games such as "Civilizations" and "Sim City"....these are strategy games that put the students in situations similar to the ones a ruler has to face.... making them have a different view on how things worked in the past (Civilizations), or what are the decisions a city mayor has to make as part of his duties...
On Monday we spent the whole day at the University... In the morning we, the Tea fellows, shared our experiences and we observed during our fieldwork at highschools. Though everybody agreed in that here the highschools are very well equipped and the teachers usually do a good use of those resources, it's very interesting to notice that we've had quite different impressions about the US classrooms... Indeed, some fellows consider that the students here have too much freedom and that technology, at the same time, makes them lazy, for everything is given and the students put very little from themselves. On the contrary, others argue that it's important for the students to have freedom in order for them not to quit from highschool; the idea is that knowledge is easier to occur when the student feels he is in a comfortable environment.
Onother issue that prompted a rich discussion among us was related to the role of teachers beyond their role of "teachers" and the importance of building reltionships between the students and the teachers. Concerning this aspect, personally I consider that the teachers here are more "distant" to the students than in Uruguay. It's not common to see a teacher asking a student about his/her life or if they have any personal problems. It also called my attention how the teachers avoid and actually don't like the students to call them by their first name (sts refer to teachers as "Mr Fuentes" or "Mrs Robbinson"), however, at the same time, many teachers have pictures of their families and houses on the classrooms' walls or on the desk (remember that here every teacher has his/her classroom and it's the students who move from classroom to classroom).... This really puzzles me !!
Later on, in the afternoon we had the technology class with Dawn and Priscila (teachers seem to not have problems if students call them by their first names at the University :).
We finished listening to our classmates' Podcasts and then we took a look at some games.... reflecting upon which ones would be more appropriate to work with in a classroom.
Certainly there are many games that can be linked to the content of certain subjects, but it requires a lot of research from the teachers in order to find the ideal ones.
The best ones seem to be those that require from the students to look for things in order to accomplish tasks, for they require that the students listen to the characters carefully.. Dr Hathaway also recommended games such as "Civilizations" and "Sim City"....these are strategy games that put the students in situations similar to the ones a ruler has to face.... making them have a different view on how things worked in the past (Civilizations), or what are the decisions a city mayor has to make as part of his duties...
domingo, 19 de febrero de 2017
New York with Martina, Rabba and Vasily
On Sunday morning we got up at 8am, had breakfast in Dunkin Donuts and went to Manhattan. What to do?... Take the ferry to Staten Island, visit the WTC memorial, buy some souvenirs and walk A LOT !!...taking photos of everything 😉.
Picture of the ferry that drove us to Staten Island, and back to Manhattan
Leaving the ferry station, towards the World Trade Center memorial.
The next 5 pictures are about the memorial. In the memorial there are two deep wells with water flowing down into them. Each well is located in the same place where the Twin Towers used to be before they were destroyed in September 11th, 2001. The names of the people who died there are written all along the boarders of such wells...
And in the end...As the the time for me to take the bus was approaching, we had to say goodbye. In fact, I was the only one leaving. 😕
Arriving at the World Trade Center area by subway
Outside the station... This is the new World Trade Center
After a 10" walk we reached Wall Street. The building behind me is the Stock Exchange.
A symbol of the Stock Exchange, the bull. It is said that if we touch what Vasily and me are touching in the photo, we will go back to NY in the future... And as we would love to come back to such a great city, here is the outcome 😂
Rabba and I about to take the ferry to Staten Island
The following photos were taken during the trip on the ferry...
Manhattan
New Jersey
The Statue of Liberty
A small aquarium inside the ferry station
Approaching Manhattan
Picture of the ferry that drove us to Staten Island, and back to Manhattan
Leaving the ferry station, towards the World Trade Center memorial.The next 5 pictures are about the memorial. In the memorial there are two deep wells with water flowing down into them. Each well is located in the same place where the Twin Towers used to be before they were destroyed in September 11th, 2001. The names of the people who died there are written all along the boarders of such wells...
Very original building, resembling a jenga tower (board game)
After so much walking, we ate in a Chinese restaurant in China Town... to be honest, it was the worst Chinese food I tried in my life 😛. Then we bought some souvenirs .
After a while we arrived at Washington Square. It was full of people (and squirrels). There were some street shows going on there; all at the same time.
A man making huge bubbles for children
Three men and a little boy showing their abilities, and making some jokes to make the display more appealing...
Acrobats around the trees.
Some musicians playing great music with a variety of instruments.
And in the end...As the the time for me to take the bus was approaching, we had to say goodbye. In fact, I was the only one leaving. 😕
The photo was originally meant to depict sadness, but I guess that Rabba was the only one who succeeded... The rest of us... terrible actors, especially Martina 😂😂.
And in this precise moment I am in the bus, close to Baltimore, one hour from Washington DC
New York for the very first time...🙌
On the other hand, I don't have my days off this weekend, they will be in March :(. BUT, as I miss the Ohio fellows so much, I took a bus at midday (from Washington dc to NY) in order to meet them again. I will spend there only one day... I have to return to the Hotel in Fairfax, VA on Sunday and attend to classes at GMUniversity by Monday morning...
Lots of pics of the trip and of New York below.... and coming soon... 2 video links 😁.
THE TRIP...
It took 4:30 hours from DC to NY...
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| At Union station I met a Uruguayan couple, I was able to identify them very easily because of the way they speak Spanish. We spent about an hour talking while waiting for the bus :). Then we took the same bus... |
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| Behind me is the bus. It's logo is very similar to the logo of the former Uruguayan bus company "ONDA"... In fact, when the Onda began working in Uruguay, it had some legal problems with the American Company... and for that reason, they changed the logo a bit: the difference is that the Onda's logo is a male dog, while the American company's a female dog... The following 3 pics are of the Delaware river and the bridge on highway 95. This river separates the states of Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey. |
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| Arriving in New York |
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| This gentleman was sitting next to me the whole trip. He's Greek and works in the U.S. as well as in Greece... he travels a lot, indeed. We spent half the journey talking about immigration, Uruguay, Greece, politics, China, the European Union, etc etc. NEW YORK AT NIGHT 🙆 I arrived at 4:30pm and spent the following 6 hours alone, really having a great time on my own...
Broadway and 47th street... this is where you can feel New York !!
 
Saying that I was completely alone would be unfair... the mate is always an unconditional friend
And after 6 hours... guess who appeared ... Yeah, the Ohio fellows. It was not easy in fact to find each other... we were intermittently connected, as far as we were able to locate free WiFi hot spots 😂. The adventure was about to begin...
This is the Path way, it's a subway that would take us to Jersey city, where we rented a house.
A funny picture inside the subway.
And this is my one-night-home... in fact this picture was taken on Sunday morning... the following blog entrance will be about our adventures during day time (Sunday 19th)
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