First Post from Korea

Hello everyone..

I hope that I will be able to keep up with this blog, but I am starting my student teaching tomorrow and I have an inkling that I will be a tid bit busy. Before I get in to my thoughts and nerves about that I will update on my time thus far in South Korea.

The flight was long, longer then I expected even though I experienced New Zealand it was still rough. We sat on the runway for an hour and the were in the air for 14 and I didn't sleeep at all UGG. By the time I made it to Beijing I wasn't sure I was going to make it the last flight. Luckily I did sleep a bit on the flight from Beijing to Busan. We were all so happy to touch town in Busan. We were able to gather our luggage easily (everyone got all of their bags :) ) and then we met Liane Odom and Ryan Gordon out side of Baggage. Liane is Jess's mentor teacher and the women who will be taking care of all of our needs in the classroom. Her Husband Gary is the housing coordinator. We took a school bus that was tricked out in decor that was a mix between 70's and Arabian Night back to DIS.

The next day we got a tour of DIS and were able to see our classrooms. It was nice to finally see where we are going to be Student Teaching. That night, in order to keep our selves awake we decided to walk down to the strip near our school and get a drink to celebrate finally arriving in Korea. None of us thought it would be necessary to look up any Korean before that which we soon realized was a mistake. Korean store signs are all in Korean characters, luckily for us they often show pictures of what is sold there. So we walked until we found a restaurant with a picture of a beer on it and went in. The waitress was very nice, but did not speak English and like I said we did not prepare ourselves with any Korean. There was a lot of miming on our side and patience on her side. eventually she brought us beer. It was pretty good, light beer. Then I needed to use the bathroom, which led to more miming and then me being led outside and around the corner to what looked like a storage closet. There were two urinals in this closet and a stall, in the stall was what we have since learned is properly called a "squat pot" and yes the name is very fitting.

On Sunday we went to the Muffin tree which is a lovely little cafe that I can get a bagel and cream cheese and mint tee!!

Today was a big adventure day. The girls and I decided that we wanted to be independent and explore the city. We walked to the bus stop that sold bus cards and got one. We then took the bus to the city center. It was a lot to take in. There are so many people and buildings and the language difference is intimidating at times. We are working really hard to get some of the basic words down. SO far we have Hello, yes, no, tea, thank you, and beer! We will hopefully pick up more as we go. During our adventure in the city we found our way to the bank, the underground mall where I bought some earrings( my first fun item bought in Korea) for only 1,900 Won, which is about 2 dollars, Paris Baguette where we had yummy pastries. We were all happy that we got to see some of the city and explored on our own.

Today all of the students are returning to campus form being home for the weekend. The girls and I decided to make some door decs for the girls on our floor. We made origami boxes and put a maple candy in each of the that I brought from Maine. Four of the girls came in and thanked us for them and we got to talk to them for a little bit. I am really looking forward to getting to know all of the student both in my classroom and in the dorm.

Tomorrow I start Student teaching! I am very excited, but also quite nervous. I haven't met my mentor teacher yet because he lives off campus so I am not entirely sure what to expect. This opportunity is such a great chance for me to really understand what it is like to be a teacher and to do that in a different country with students who are so excited to learn and have so much to offer me is so fantastic.

Well I am off to check in on the students during their 8-10 study hall and then to get ready for the morning. More to come soon about my first day as a student teacher!!

Much love <3>

Lacy

Pictures

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2009157&id=1221510091&l=34f63ebfdf

This should be a link to an album of pictuess! If it works il be really excited

Lacy

Hello Strangers

Hey All!

Sorry its been so long since I have posted... in fact no one will probably read this because you've all given up on my posting.

Anyway last time I posted we were anticipating my birthday celebrations. It was a lot of fun, we went to dinner, went to town, all in all a good way to say good bye to my teens forever :)

Ive done a couple of weekend trips.

Corramandel Penninsula: we stayed in a hostle right on the beach in a litle town called Whitianga. Went to a place called cathedral cove and to a hot water beach. You dug a hot in the sand and it was like a hot tub! Pretty Sweet.

Tauranga: Went to a friend for the night had home cooked meal and climbed the mount.

Classes are going well just got my first two test back- got an A and a B- not too bad.

I went to the south island a couple weeks ago for my 2 week break. Me and my friend kendall did the first week by our selves and then met up with her parents on easter and did the second week with them. We went alot of places and did a ton of things here are just a few of the highlights:

Christchurch: Easter service in the Cathedral, Gondala up the mountain, great pictures!
Hamner Springs: Horsebackriding..even though i did get thrown off my first horse.
Arthurs pass: hike to a really pretty waterfall
Akaroa: Swimming with Dolphins in the pacific ocean!
Kaikoura: Whale Watching
Dunedin: Stayed in castle, Stalked penguins
Queenstown: Ice bar
Milford Sound: Boat tour, amazing waterfalls, pouring rain so much fun!

Thats my trip in a nutshell :)

I am really excited to go on a vinyard tour next wed.

Me and a few of my girl friends are hoping to do a girls weekend in Tapu.

Other then that I dont have any huge plans coming up . I have a lot of work i need to get done. I am hoping to make it to Wellington( the capital) one weekend but that depends on if I can get some of this work done.

And if im really luck Australia after classes end!

Hope all is well at home! Email me!

I miss everyone and can't wait to see y'all when I get home!

Love you,

Lacy

Classes and such in New Zealand

Hey all!

Sorry I havn't had much of a chance to update..

Classes are finally underway. I wasn't sure if I would make it through O week. It was basically a giant party all week that we had to somehow balence finding and attending classes at the same time.

Classes are really cool I am taking an English class called from literature to film. We basically get to read books and then watch the movies and compare, contrast review and analyize the different adaptations. We are starting with batman which is exciting. I love the Dark NIght.

My other classes I think will be a bit more challenging. One of them is a Poli Sci class on New zealand people and policy... given I dont know much about American policy it should be quite interesting.

The other two classes I am taking go well together one of them is a history course about Maori(the native new zealanders) and Pakeha ( the white new zealanders) encounters through out history and into the present. The other class is a Maori studies anthropolgy type of class. In it we learn a lot about the Maori culture and customs along with some history. These two classes are really humbling because they are compleatly new topic that I have never learned or even heard of most of the things we are learning about. Both of the courses are tought by Maori proff. so the language is hard.. I have to pay much closer attention so I can get all of the lecture. I have found my classes pretty interesting thus far and feel like I am retaining most of it. but we shall see how the semester goes.. I dont have class on Friday so that is going to be awesome and helpful for traveling


I went to Raglan this weekend and stayed in a hostile. Raglan is a famous surf beach here. A friend of mine tried to give me a mini surf lesson but unfortunatly I didn't actually stand up on the board... and they told me that surfing on my knees didn't count. The weekend was fun other then the fact our hostile was in the middle of nowhere and they refused to run shuttles. ONce we got to the beach and the sun was shinning I was happy!

Tonight we are all going out for one of my friends 21st birthdays! so I am looking forward to that, with classes this past week we havn't seen as much of everyone who doesn't live in our buildings! Stupid rules that we can't eat in eachothers dining halls!

My birthday is a week from today and I am thrilled we dont have any plans yet but its Saint Pattys day so I dont really think I have to worry about it.

This weekend we are going up to Auckland to see a band of a friends from Rotorua so that should be real fun. I didn't get to see much of Auckland other then landing there so I am looking forward to exploring the city a bit.

Jesse asked for my email so here it is for anyone who wants to email me....

Lacybelle45@hotmail.com

Aroha :)

Lacy

New Zealand

Hi all!

I'm here!

So I am finally at the University of Waikato. I dont start classses until monday so right now I am just exploring and getting to know Hamilton.

This past week has been really long and packed so I will do my best to tell you what I have done. The flight was really really long but I survived. I arrived in Auckland at 530am. From Auckland we had to get on a bus and drive 4 hours to Rotorua. The bus ride was long but so pretty! New Zealand is very very GREEN! :)

We atayed in Rotorua for 4 days. On the first day we just checked in to our rooms and then had to go to an informational session. The hostile we stayed at was called the KIWI PAKA and it was really cool. There was a heated pool and a bar. It was super fun to be able to buy a drink legally! We all went to bed early that night because we were going caving early the next morning.

Caving was awesome. It was about a 2 hour bus ride from Rotorua to the Waitomo caves. We had to get all dressed up in wet suits which was really unfortunate haha. The walk to the entrance of the caves was beautiful. I was sad I couldnt have brought my camera. Once in the cave we hiked swam tubed and floated though it for about 2 and a half hours. In some parts of the caves we all turned our lights of and navagated with just the light os the glow worms! It was really a sureal experience. Caving was so much fun and also a huge work out. I was soo tired by the end of the day.

That night we went to the LAVA bar which is the local bad in Rotorua. It was interesting... because it was techno night.

The next day we went to the Agrodome which was a huge touristy sheep show. It was silly. After that we got to pick wether we wanted to go zorbing or louging. I picked zorbing! For those of you who dont know what that is, it is a big rubber ball with a smaller ball inside of it. YOu get in the small ball with someone else and some water and you roll down a hill. Hopfully I will be able to get some pictures of that up.

After Zorbing we went to a Maori village for dinner and entertainment. It was really a beautiful place. and the dancing and singing was really really neat.

The next morning we packed our stuff and left Rotorua. t was really kinda sad becasue we had made friends with a lot of the people there, but we had to get to school unfortunatly : P

So I got to school on Sunday and unpacked and such. Yesterday we went in to the city and had a couple drinks at the student bar and then went out for sushi ( I got Teriaki chicken and avacado, because fish is gross hehe) After dinner we walked around town and got to know it alittle bit.

The weather has been great. I got burnt yesterday..OPPS but I cant even be a little mad. I love the sun!

I am all registered for classes but they dont start until Monday... ug I havn't gone to class in more then 2 months.. this should be interesting.

Well thats all for now!

Pictures to come as soon as I figure it out!
But they are up on facebook!

Love you all

Kia Ora

Lacy

New Zealand Blog

Hi all!

With just over 2 weeks left until I fly out I decided I would get my blog all set up and ready to post on.

I am so excited to leave and excited to have a way to share my trip with everyone at home.

Hopfully I will figure out how to post pictures here but no gaurentees im not even sure if that is a possiblity.

I hope you all enjoy the blog.

<3 Lacy

Final Blog- Teaching and Technology in the 21st Century

I believe that as a teacher in the 21st century it is necessary to be actively thinking about how you can use the various forms of technology in a classroom. I think that it can be an extremely interesting and exciting thing for both students and teachers to use and see the outcome of different technologies.
There are a lot of different ways to use technology that I didn’t even know about at the beginning of the semester. The first two projects that we did in our technology class; the Metamorphosis and the Monster exchange could be used for various different grades and ability levels depending on how you present the information. I think that that is a really awesome thing about technology- most activities you do can be modified or advanced to fit multiple different age groups. The metamorphosis project was made in image blender. Image blender is a very simple tool to use, and I believe students would really get in to the project. I think that metamorphosis could be used in teaching students how to create or recognize a theme. The monster exchange project we did was a great way to get students to use adjectives and descriptions in their writing. I especially liked it because it was a built in assessment. The student’s partner who didn’t use enough description wouldn’t be able to create the monster accurately. This clearly showed the students what they needed to work on. I think that this project is fun and students and some wouldn’t even realize that they were learning about adjectives. I think it is important to try and use technology as a fun part of learning. If computers are just used for research and typing papers, I fear students will start to dislike it. I also think that as a teacher it is my job to use technology often, therefore when it is used it isn’t a scary or difficult thing to use. If technology is used often then students will be more comfortable and enjoy working with it. The Monster exchange was created in Pixie-which is a great program. Pixie is a user friendly version of paint that has more special affects. A newer version of the product Pixie 2 (watch the introduction video) provides more curriculum based activities that students could use. In my placement classroom my teacher takes her kindergarteners to the computer lab to use pixie. In one lesson they had to write their names in the middle of the page and then use the pictures provided and placed what they liked around their name. The students really enjoyed playing with the program and exploring all the different pictures they had to choose from. I think that if a kindergarten teacher can figure out how to use a computer with five and six year olds then teachers of all grades should be able to find use for technology somewhere in their day to day teaching. I understand that sometimes technology is hard, and unpredictable. It took 3 hours for my student’s pictures to print. I think that if you are patient enough to be a teacher then you should be patient enough to deal with the ups and downs of technology use. And like I said before, the more technology is used the easier it will become to work with.
I still believe that starting a class with a game or video is a great way to get students in the mid set of what they will be learning about. There are a ton of different word games such as “story man.” Story man is like a hang man type of game, but you can pick different topics that the words will be about. With my unit on Greek mythology I could have used the Greek mythology version of this game as a review or introduction.
I think that it is important to think big and push to get exciting technology, like smart boards in your classroom. Talk to principals; write a proposal to get the money. It is important to show people how technology can be used in order to get them excited and on board with you. That being said, most schools have computer labs and there is plenty you can do in a lab, if you can’t get the resources to your class.